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Oddly enough this is not the first Praktica SLR that I’ve had in my collection, one of my earliest SLRs that I never actually got around to using was a Praktica Super TL that ended up going into one of the early giveaways for the Film Photography Podcast in their first season along with a LOMO Lubitel 2. So when the LTL showed up at my doorstep, I decided to give the cameras another go. The LTL is, given its age, a bit of an anachronism. By the 1970s, most camera makers west of the iron curtain and Japan used open aperture TTL metering. Yet,Read More →

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One of the area’s biggest geological features in the Niagara Escarpment, covered in ancient Carolinian forests, is instantly recognisable and helps new arrivals navigate the area always looming over Milton. Hidden deep in this forest is a lake that holds many secrets, distant voices from the past that allows us to see into the times before my ancestors arrived on this content. This week I went for another hike in my second favourite Halton park, Crawford Lake. The Niagara Escarpment was formed at the end of the last ice age, a massive limestone cliff that runs from the Niagara Penisula to the Bruce Penisula. AlongRead More →

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When you’re tied up in shooting film for reviews and a fifty-two roll project, things tend to fall through the cracks. It also doesn’t help that there’s been zero publicity from the folks behind Expired Film Day. Sadly, the reality last year was that expired film day fell as the thing started to fall apart globally. I did remember to shoot a roll of Tri-X last year for Expired film day. But it very nearly passed me by this year. Thankfully the good folks at Burlington Camera were on the job and posted something on their Instagram on the Saturday before the actual day. ThisRead More →

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When it comes to fine-grain developing, the developer that most people reach for today is Kodak Xtol. But Xtol is one of the newest developers to come out of Kodak, before Xtol if you wanted to tame that grain, you reached for Microdol-X. While I’m unsure as to when Microdol-X was first released by Kodak, I’ve found images online of the powder coming in cans rather than pouches. The logo style is that of 1935, so I’m guessing it was released at some point in the mid-1930s at the earliest. I stumbled across Microdol-X while visiting Pittsburg back in 2015, while my main goal wasRead More →

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This week we’re going a bit cliche when it comes to images. And actually, this week is partly inspired by my good friend James Lee. While I didn’t get to all the places I wanted this week because of a few days worth of snow blocking off driveways, I decided to head into a pair of local cemeteries. And the snow was deep. In some cases, especially on my first stop (Bronte Pioneer), I ended up in knee-deep snow. I know the cliche of photographing cemeteries in black & white. But hey, when it comes to a weekly project, you’re going to hit a lotRead More →

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Winter has finally come in force to Southern Ontario. And the original plan had been to shoot this week’s roll in Burlington, Ontario. But after fighting our way down to Burlington to pick up Valentine’s Day doughnuts from Sunshine Doughnuts. We got the doughnuts but ended up turning around and headed home right afterwards. And here we are, so instead of Burlington, we’re back in Milton, but in the new part of town, mostly in the Clarke Neighborhood, which a farm recently occupied. I’m not going to go into great detail on the history of Milton, as I already expanded on that in my originalRead More →

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While these days the old standbys are still excellent choices to develop your film and offer up a great deal of variety there’s something to be said about having a universal one-size-fits-all developer. I first discovered this last year with Adox FX-39 II. But I quickly fell a rabbit hole of similar developers. And I’m not talking about Diafine, but rather Rollei Supergrain. Supergrain is an updated version of Amaloco AM 74. Supergrain offers up a series of dilutions and times that will develop most films at the same associated times. Perfect if you’re shooting a whole bunch of different films but have limited timeRead More →

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There’s nothing better than a hike in the wood during the winter, especially when there is a decent snow cover, good sunlight and blue skies. The prior week saw fresh dumping of the white stuff on the ground, which resulted in several days worth of awesome photographic opportunities. And while I took out my new digital camera more than a film camera (because new gear). But Saturday provided Heather and me a chance to head out to one of our favourite parks. And I’m not talking about Niagara Falls, but rather Hilton Falls. One of the many parks around Milton that provides an escape fromRead More →

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Consumer film, often film photographers of a certain type will turn their nose up at them, but as someone who started their film journey on consumer film processed in the local 1-hour lab, going back to review these films is a bit of a throwback. Like all modern consumer films from Kodak, Ultramax traces its heritage back to the original Kodacolor film. The original Kodacolor saw production from 1924 to 1963. In 1963, the updated Kodacolor-X increased the film speed from ASA-25 to ASA-64, both these early offerings using the C-22 process, Kodak discontinued Kodacolor-X in 1974. In 1972 Kodak released a new version, KodacolorRead More →

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Before you start rage commenting, hear me out. We’re still in the grips of a major health crisis that keeps everyone apart, especially if you don’t live in the same house. So any actual photo meetups were out of the question. It has been just under a year since the last official Toronto Film Shooters meetup. And then nothing, because well the time of plague arrived that next month. I got to thinking over the Christmas holidays how to run a photo meet up when we couldn’t use our regular model. The original plan had some serious logistical support. Of course, the stay at homeRead More →