Developing your film at home is both rewarding and frustrating at the same time and to add on an extra layer of complexity there is a lot of developers out there that you can use, especially in the black & white field. While certainly not as much as there used to be, there is still an excellent selection of developers to suit almost every person’s need, without having to dive deep into building your developers from base chemicals. Ultimately every photographer has a different taste but if you’re starting out with home development the choices may seem a little overwhelming so I’ll be breaking downRead More →

November 2024 marked a special birthday, that being Kodak Tri-X! Tri-X is one of those iconic films from Eastman-Kodak that has made a mark on both photography and photographers with a classic black & white look, contrast and versatility. Ever since I first shot Tri-X, I loved the results. While I don’t use it that often, primarily due to the cost of a roll of the film, I got a roll with my AM/FM membership re-subscription and decided to take it out to the historic town of Dundas, Ontario, with my Maxxum 9 and the 20mm f/2.8 lens I rated the film slightly over atRead More →

I love doing fall vacations; it’s often outside the peak tourist season, and the weather is manageable. This year, my family and I decided to go back to Montreal. The city holds a special spot in my heart because it was one of the first paid vacation I took solo and where I finally figured out how I like to take photos and compose images. As a family vacation, my primary reason was for something other than photography. But there is always room to bring a camera (or three) for the ride. The modern city of Montreal sits on the largest island in an archipelagoRead More →

If you have ever listened to me talk about my photographic journey you will have learned about how much my first trip to Montreal changed my photography. I can always tell my work from before to after my trip in my style, composition, love of black & white and of course square format. So when I brought my family back to the city earlier this month I wanted to make sure I not only explored the city with my digital camera but also with a pair of square format cameras. The first being the same camera I brought on that first trip, my Rolleiflex 2.8FRead More →

The third in the Elan series of semi-professional cameras released by Canon and the direct successors to the original EOS 650, but why not call it the Elan III? Well, that’s because Canon makes weird choices with their camera names. In the case of the Elan 7, the number seven has nothing to do with the number of models but rather the seven focus points in the new AF module installed in the camera. Unlike my previous Elan camera, the IIe, the Elan 7 I’ll feature in the review is the model without eye control. But the difference between the IIe and the 7 isRead More →

While every type of review I write comes with unique problems, nothing is more challenging than writing a film review. Film reviews have been done for years, mostly in dusty photographic journals and magazines and reviewed under exact conditions and in large quantities. If I tried to follow these methods, it would take me years to complete and require a large volume of films, cameras, lenses, and equipment I need more room for. Like all my reviews, I set out my method to work within the realms of what I wanted these reviews to cover: the basics. I’ve aimed these at beginner and intermediate photographersRead More →

Have you ever wanted to see outside of our visual spectrum? Well then maybe infrared photography is for you! While true Infrared films are long gone, these days we have a tonne of films that can, when properly filtered expose the infrared light. Among these films sits FPP Infrared B&W, the original film stock is unknown, but it does do exactly what it says on the tin, it is a film that can be shot both filtered and unfiltered and produces images that can only be described as magic! For this review, I went with a mixed approach to filtration, shooting the first roll withoutRead More →

Ha Ha, this is a pry from my dead hands camera…😀 There’s one fun part about being connected to so many amazing photographers and bloggers over the world because of the Internet. Often you come up with ideas like this, a whole series of posts on the same subject with a coordinated release. This idea comes from Jim Grey (Down the Road), from a conversation where Theo (PhotoThinking) was looking for links for his review of the Voigtlander Superb. Peggy (Camera Go Camera) suggested he give her the camera, and Theo replyed “this is a pry this from my dead hands camera.” Jim jumped onRead More →

It has been some time since I wrote a verse post, so it’s time I tried this again. But rather than pitting cameras against each other, I will be pitting developers against each other. The idea behind this came from my good friend James Lee, who loves to show off the power of the Fuji Acros 100 when it is slightly overexposed and developed in Ilford Perceptol. I’ve worked with this combination, and it is impressive. Recently, James has also been working with 510-Pyro. I asked myself which is better, namely when put head-to-head, Perceptol and 510-Pyro? The setup is a simple one, I haveRead More →

If you’re going to start the year off with a bang, you should go all in! Despite this year starting almost the same way as last year, I decided not to let that stop me. Visiting Niagara-On-The-Lake was initially planned for December 2023. Rain stopped that, so we moved it to January to start the new year. Niagara-On-The-Lake is much larger today, but I spend most of my time in the historic old town where we’re visiting today! The charming historic old town of Niagara-On-The-Lake owes its current existence to two key points in local history: the American occupation and destruction of 1813 and aRead More →