My experience with pancake lenses is fairly limited, having only used a couple of this classification of lenses, and in both cases, with excellent results. I’m talking about the Nikon 50mm f/1.8 and Minolta 45mm f/2. So when I started to build up an EOS lens system, the EF 40/2.8 was at the top of my list of lenses to get. And the best part is that you can get them either new or used to save a few bucks. And don’t let the small size fool you; this lens packs a big punch, proving that size matters not. Size matters not. Look at me.Read More →

Located in the historic village of Campbellville, St. David’s Presbyterian Church is unique in that its design takes from several different architectural styles and is named (after a fashion) for the person who donated the land it sits upon. Presbyterian worship in the village of Campbellville started in 1864 when members of the Nassagaweya Congregation could not make the trek to the Nassagaweya Church in Haltonville. At this time, such a journey was a bit of an undertaking, and the area had an unsavoury reputation. The Campbellville congregation was formally recognised as a mission station of the Nassagaweya congregation in 1869 and made a two-pointRead More →

Of all the Vision3 films, 250D is the one I have the most experience with, having shot a couple of rolls and processed them at home. The problem was that when I processed them before, I did them cross-processed in C-41 chemistry. And they looked a little on the green side, but they looked good. And then, when I returned to this film stock with proper ECN-2 (home) chemistry, I was blown away. Under dull conditions, a snowstorm and bright light 250D produced amazing clean images. And it certainly was a significant shift from what I got from last month’s review of Vision3 500T! FilmRead More →

I’ll admit, I love a good exotic film developer that can develop any film to their ideal conditions. But lets be honest here, some of these developers are expensive, hard to acquire and require rigorous attention to detail to make them work perfectly. And often are so fine tuned they will only work on a handful of film stocks that a also difficult to come by. Sometimes you want a developer that will do its job and nothing more than that. It doesn’t have to be fancy, compensate for over or under exposure. Produce ultra-fine grain, or enhance tonality and edge sharpness. Rather than presentRead More →

The Parish of the Sacred Heart, or properly Sacré-Coeur, is a unique one in the project. Like all Roman Catholic Parishes, this parish can trace itself back to St. Peter’s Mission Church. But this parish is relatively new, one of several French language parishes established in the 1960s. But the building itself traces itself to the first Roman Catholic Parish in Georgetown. The early Roman Catholics in Georgetown would be forced to travel to St. Peter’s Church to attend mass; At the same time, these services were a bit irregular; the faithful would make the long journey to receive communion, give confession, and celebrate mass.Read More →

I’m not a rangefinder person, or shall I say I’m not a 35mm rangefinder person. But I will make an exception for a well-designed and made medium format kit. Meet the New Mamiya 6. While it was built during the age of premium medium format cameras and premium 35mm compacts, the New 6 is a camera that takes a lot from the historic camera that launched Mamiya as a company back in the 1940s. But takes things into the modern age with a light meter, electronics, interchangeable lenses and modern materials. This is a medium-format camera that I could see myself using if it didn’tRead More →

The city of Toronto offers many photographic opportunities, and doing a general Toronto post would be incredibly difficult. So instead, I will try to break it down into bite-sized pieces of history. So having to go into the city for an appointment at Sick Kids and being close to my birthday, we all headed out for a lovely walk over to one of the best examples of Victorian-era industries that survived in the city, the Distillery District. The history of the creation of alcohol dates back to the earliest parts of human history, but distilling spirit alcohol is something a little newer. First recorded inRead More →

Suppose this particular entry seems a little longer and more detailed. In that case, it is because, as a member of Knox Milton, I have far more accessible access to my congregation, plus the history has been well documented and easily accessed. This is the congregation that I grew up in and continue to serve with today! The construction of churches within the village of Milton did not start until the 1840s, when several large plots of land were subdivided and sold off into parcels. The first church to be planted within Milton’s downtown was St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in 1848, which was connected toRead More →

If there is one Door Open event in Ontario that has been consistent in my attendance is Hamilton’s. The Hamilton Doors Open event occurred over my birthday (40th) weekend. While I attended the event last year, it was a much shorter trip around the city. This year would be no different, with only three locations visited, armed with my D750 and 14-24mm lens and my trusty Mamiya m645 loaded with the 35mm lens and CineStill BwXX. My father-in-law and I went to three churches. Two familiar but not having visited in several years and one new location. St. Luke’s is a new addition to theRead More →

Despite being Ontario’s fastest-growing town, Milton was once a rural backwater, a milling town with a notable agricultural background. This made it the ideal spot for many of the Methodist tradition to find themselves. St. Paul’s reminds me of that connection to the past and a church I have my connection to, attending the Milton Community Nursery School before elementary school. The first Methodist circuit riders came into Milton in 1827, Rev Anson Greene holding services at the farm of Elizabeth Harrison. The Harrisons were among the earliest settlers of Milton, arriving even before Jasper Martin. The Milton congregation remained at the Harrison farm andRead More →