Like last year, I had a few extra days free to myself at the end of the year. So I rounded up the CCR team and headed into the city. The goal was to shoot some film and record an episode of the Classic Camera Revival for the start of our new season. I grabbed a train out from Oakville and into Union Station to meet up with the gang. I packed my Minolta Maxxum 7 and the 20mm lens, along with a roll of Kodak Tri-X 400 (rated at ASA-320 and developed in 510-Pyro). Since we were also doing the Mystery Camera Challenge, I got to use Bill’s Nikon F90x with a 35-70mm f/2.8D (a beast of a lens) loaded up with a roll of Bergger Pancro 400, which I rated at ASA-200 and developed again in 510-Pyro.
The gang met up at Union Station, where the station still bustled with activity. I had arrived early, so I quickly recorded the episode introduction while enjoying a coffee. When the rest of the group arrived, we traded cameras and films around. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that we all brought Nikons, Nikon SLRs, all of them autofocus (F65, F90x, and F6). From there, we headed out into the cold. Now it wasn’t too cold back on the 22nd, so it wasn’t going to be a terrible walk. Now I had a big route planned, but we quickly decided against that. Walking east from Union, we swung north along Yonge Street. The sun was finally starting to appear, making life a lot easier.
We continued north on Yonge Street until we got to Dundas. The corridor has many beautiful buildings and is far more photogenic than my originally planned route. Plus, we didn’t have to go too far north. It was fun to get out and enjoy a walk, chats, and photography with friends. We then swung back west along Dundas, which for the first little bit is pretty boring, to be honest. But once we got to the university, there was plenty of surviving historic architecture, and even more in Chinatown. After getting to Spadina, we headed south again, reaching Graination. After picking up some film and having some coffee, it was back into the cold.
It was a quick one-block walk back to Queen Street and swinging east again to University to wrap up our rolls of film. After making it back, we went underground and navigated the PATH back to Union Station. Which when you’re with a couple of folks who know the lay of the land makes it a lot easier than when you’re trying to do it solo without any idea other than the vague maps that dot the area. After getting lunch at Union, we found a small area and quickly recorded the episode live and in the middle of the station, which made for some interesting background audio.
It was a lot of fun to get out for a small photo walk with the CCR team, even if it was only the three of us. The episode was also interesting to mix, as I combined the three separate channels into a single mix. Which proved difficult in some areas, so the audio isn’t the best, but once we get back into a proper studio, it will improve. You can find all the photos from the day over on Flickr. And listen to the episode we recorded for the Mystery Camera Challenge here!
I have stood at the corner of Yonge and Dundas! I don’t remember what anything looked like; it was about 1990 and memories do grow dim.
It has changed so much since the 1990s!