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It’s been a minute since I ran a Toronto Film Shooters Meetup, let alone getting one outside the city. My good friends Bill and John have been killing it with the meetups, especially those inside Toronto. I love getting the group out beyond the GTA. While Hamilton is close, the TFS group has representation across North America. I also love exploring Hamilton with its stunning heritage architecture, so I organised a walk through Jamesville and into the historic downtown core at the start of June. For the walk, I went with a couple of cameras; first up is my beautiful Minolta Dynax 600si with theRead More →

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In: Between Darkness & Light
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Urban explorers always have a grail location or a favourite type of location. For many in the northeast of the United States, these locations are related to the treatment of mental illness. Now, I use the term ‘treatment’ loosely because of the long and rather cruel methods used in the past. While many were seen as humane compared to earlier treatments, in our modern context, they are rather terrible. Here in Ontario, we don’t have many abandoned mental hospitals. Most have been torn down and replaced with modern facilities or reverted back to their historical form. I had never explored many mental hospitals, and allRead More →

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Established in 2013 by MainStreetHost and taken on by Alex Luyckx Photography in 2015, #photochat is a community of photography professionals and enthusiasts who congregate to talk shop and discuss anything and everything photography. After a brief pause through 2023 Photochat is back with a monthly chat model. To participate in our monthly chat (every Second Thursday at 1:00 pm), search the #photochat hashtag on Twitter, Mastodon, and BlueSky Social to see the conversation, or find me at @AlexLuyckxPhoto on Twitter, Mastodon & BlueSky. Include the hashtag in your tweets to answer the questions and talk with the other participants. If there’s a topic you’dRead More →

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In: Classic Camera Revival
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There’s a whole lot of nerding out happening in this episode; join Bill and special guest Dan Tamarkin of Tamarkin Camera. Dan is the second-generation owner of Tamarkin Camera. America’s premiere Leica Specialist. Started by his father with a roll-top desk, the shop is now in Windy City, Chicago, Illinois. Dan is the go-to guy in the Midwest if you want an honest and real experience buying Leica. But that’s not all; Dan also buys and sells a tonne of other camera gear. Find Tamarkin Camera Online At: Web: tamarkin.com Instagram: instagram.com/tamarkin_camera Facebook: facebook.com/tamarkin.camera YouTube: youtube.com/channel/UCt657edYjtaKtvtOQazmA8g Looking for a good spot to get your gearRead More →

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While I teased the city of Hamilton at the end of last year, I never went into detail about the city’s history as a whole, mainly because I only sometimes visit the historic centre of Hamilton regularly. But having some time off, I headed back into the downtown to capture the rich architecture of the city centre that has seen a great deal of change throughout recent history and has gone from a city with a lot of blight to something restored and looking far better than when I was visiting regularly. The one thing that makes Hamilton unique is that its success and positionRead More →

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It should only be fair that my fiftieth lens review be of a 50mm lens, these are often the first lens that a budding photographer will pick up when getting into the wild world of film photography. And often it is the only lens that they continue to use long after. With my first two SLRs (SR-T 102 and X-7a) the 50mm lens was my go-to choice for most of the time shooting with them. I have since moved on and now am more likely to reach for a 35mm lens, the 50mms still hold a place for my work and I still grab oneRead More →

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May is always a fun month, besides being my birthday month, the weather is starting to get a lot better and I’m able to get out more. And this month presented a bunch of excellent pieces that crossed my desk including a whole pile of entries on the same topic that had a moment at the start of the month. Dead Hands Cameras This isn’t just one entry, this is a bunch of entries. At the beginning of the month, I joined a group of my fellow bloggers in writing about the five cameras that you would need to pry from our cold dead hands.Read More →

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In: Classic Camera Revival
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The topic of box cameras hasn’t been discussed in a great deal since our first season, so Alex is back with a solo episode about his box camera collection, both his historic cameras and a few modern cameras that may not look like those simple box cameras but are in the same theme. Cameras include several Agfa cameras (Box 50, Click II, Clack and Isoly Jr), a 1915 Kodak Hawk-Eye Model C and modern options like Holga, RETO, and Lomography cameras, from the cameras themselves to having fun and choosing films. Looking for a good spot to get your gear and material fix check outRead More →

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Suppose you look back at my catalogue of images. In that case, you’ll see a lot of repetition regarding the historic communities I’ve visited and continue to visit, especially if they’re a short drive away. I count a short drive as anything I can get to in an hour or under. I have hundreds of photos of downtown Milton, Oakville, Stratford, Hamilton, Dundas, Elora, Guelph and many others. But when I look at these images, one thing is clear: there are changes, sometimes significant and other times small, but changes are all the same. I’m reminded of the Midsomer Murders episode, Picture of Innocence, whichRead More →

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In: Film Review Blogs
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Like the legend of the phoenix, huh All ends with beginnings What keeps the planet spinning, ah The force from the beginning, hm, look Get Lucky – Daft Punk ft. Pharrell Williams, Nile Rodgers If there was one thing I did not have on my 2023 Bingo card was the release of a brand new colour film, at least not from Harman Photo. Harman Photo is under the same umbrella of Ilford Photo, but is colour film side of Harman Technologies. Now, you’re probably wondering why I waited until the spring of 2024 to review the film? The reason is simple, the first several monthsRead More →