She is the stuff of legends, a hero in her own right, a hull of iron, and undefeated in battle. A mighty sailing ship that spans three centuries and is still able to move under her power, she’s called Old Ironsides, but her real name is the US Frigate Constitution (44). And while the history of the Constution extends both before and long after the Anglo-American War of 1812. And while the ship is not a fort, person, battle, or location, it played a major role in the war and added to the overall mythos surrounding the war in these past 200 years. By 1793Read More →

The key to photostock was not the location, or the trips, the food, the road…but rather…the people. No one looked down on anyone, everyone helped out eachother, talk, shoot the breeze, drink. It just felt comfortable, especally for me, a first time participant in the event, I knew…one other person who was going, Mat. But in hte end it didn’t really matter I was welcomed be open arms. The People of Photostock 2012 If you want to see all the Photostock Images, head on over to Flickr!. How many days until Photostock again?Read More →

Ontario is beautiful, there’s no changing that, but sometimes you leave and go someplace else and only find that the same beauty you so like in the north can be found elsewhere, that’s exactly how I felt when I drove through Northern Michigan. I feel the state gets a bad rap because of places like Detroit and Flint (New Jersey is the same way), but there is incredable beauty to be found in the northern part of the state. You will be treated to miles of wooded areas, quant villages, friendly people, and sunsets…well sunsets. The beach and port at Cross Village. A quick stop,Read More →

Agh, I’ve been remiss in posting more from the Photostock Event back in June of this year, and for that, I apologize, but things went straight down the tubes after Photostock, and I’ve been running at a million kilometres per hour since, and still haven’t stopped. But anyways, I’ll get some more Photostock up here this week. Anyways onto the actual content. The M119 is a unique road; it’s classified as a state highway but is far from it; a national historic scenic route runs from just outside the village of Harbor Springs to Cross Village, at Photostock I took the opportunity to drive theRead More →

The first of many posts about the amazing mid-summer meetup I attended in northern Michigan. The event is called Photostock and hosted/organized by world renowned photographer Bill Schwab, who despite his world renownedness is a really cool down to earth humble guy who just wants to get other photographers inspired. And inspire me it did, to get back into the chemicals and restart developing my own black and white film, and to print…printing will come later, but I did find a place nearby that has rentable darkrooms so I will be printing again soon! But anyways, first, more Photostock. The event is held in theRead More →

So what do tractors and a never completed nuclear power station have in common? Well nothing really…except in the case of a small station somewhere in the volunteer state, better known as Tennessee. The power station was one of many that were planned by the TVA through the 1970s to bring clean, efficiant power to the southern United States. Of course as a student of history there were several accidents in the 1980s that really turned the world view on nuclear power in a negitive light. Chernobyl in the former USSR and the Three Mile Island incident in the United States. Then there was theRead More →

This one is for my friends at Kodak! Despite Ektachrome being cancelled in 120 and 35mm formats, I happened to find a decent sized stash in the back of my stores, mostly E100VS. Over the Easter weekend I had a chance to go south to Tennessee, and one of my stops was the towns of Bristol. Why towns? Simple there are two Bristols, one in Virginia and one in Tennessee, and they share a common downtown along State Street, as the name implies is the State line. When I stopped in on the town on my way down I was quickly rained out, but MondayRead More →

Some may think I’m crazy, especially with my love of long distance driving. But I had never before undertaken a twelve-hour drive, the drive would take me from my hometown of Milton to Johnston City. I had been invited back in December to an event called MAMU, the Mid-Atlantic Meetup, so I booked the time off. With my route mapped, gas stations, rest areas and areas of interest noted in my notebook. With an iPhone full of episodes of the Film Photography Podcast and a CD Wallet filled with music as my Microsoft Zune kicked the bucket, and most importantly, my trusty Nikon F3 loadedRead More →

Major-General Sir Isaac Brock is a rather impressive figure in the mythos of Canada. The unwilling lieutenant governor of the armpit of the British Empire, a man who longed for battle against the French and general thorn in the side of the Governor General. Brock would find himself elevated to the level of Folk Hero after he lied his way to victory against a demoralized and drunk American General. And despite nearly losing Upper Canada at Queenston still to this day wears the mantle of the Saviour of Upper Canada. A bust of Sir Isaac Brock in downtown Brockville, Ontario. The town changed its nameRead More →

Fort York, Toronto’s taste of the 19th-Century. Against all the odds this little haven of Toronto’s colonial history has survived multiple attempts to sweep it away with the Gardner Expressway and even a Streetcar line. And while it seems a little odd to find a fort this far back from the lakeshore, you have to remember that over 200 years ago the lakeshore and the area we know as Toronto was a far different place. When Sir John Graves Simcoe received his appointment as the colonial governor of Upper Canada one of his early actions saw the colonial capital, the capital at the time, Newark,Read More →