When you use Leica, Nikon, Carl Zeiss optics the idea of plastic lenses and “toy” cameras will often scare a photographer, you really don’t know what you’re going to be getting out of your image. It certainly won’t be the sharpest image on the block, vignetting is going to be there, soft focus, light leaks, all very possible. Add Expired film into the mix and things just start getting dicy. Something that many photographers won’t even touch, and I used to be like that…until I picked up, on a whim, a Holga from The Film Photography Project. And instantly was dragged into the wonderful worldRead More →

When it comes to iconic locations in the city of Hamilton within the exploration community, there is none more wildly known as the Lister Block. A steadfast icon of the decline and decay within downtown Hamilton. From my first trip in 2006 to my last trip in 2010 and into 2012 and beyond as a restored building, this post will explore three different scenes from the first trips (2006 and 2007) a chance to see the stripped-down interior in 2010 and the re-opening in 2012 at a Doors Open event we are checking out Lister Block between the Darkness and the Light. When Joseph ListerRead 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 →

Fort George, once the primary defensive structure for Upper Canada at the mouth of the Niagara River located on the edge of the quaint tourist town of Niagara-On-The-Lake, Ontario. Built apparently to provide the British Army in the center a headquarters following the surrender of Fort Niagara to the Americans at the close of the 18th Century, today sits as it would have during the height of it’s use in 1813 as a National Historic Site. Three blockhouses provided shelter and defense for the troops garrisoned at the fort. Today they’re setup to show how soldiers lived. Hasselblad 500c – Carl Zeiss Distagon 50mm 1:4Read 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 Monday asRead More →

This entry I’m writing specifically for my dear friend Erin, who like me, has a love for the War of 1812. In one of her recent blog posts, she mentioned her new job at an independent children’s book publisher, Pajama Press. The book, Acts of Courage, covers the story of Laura Secord. My entry today is not on Mrs. Secord, but rather the British officer she interacted with, James FitzGibbon. FitzGibbon, not one of the first heroes of the war that one would think about, his contributions overshadowed by Laura Secord and Issac Brock. Fitzgibbon’s story blends with them both. An Irishman raised from theRead More →