Coming off the last bicentennial reenactment in Canada and a trip to Texas looming next week, I figured I needed something quick and dirty for Week 43, so I decided to give a little bit of still life a try with two of jewels of my working collection. A 1950 Leica IIIc and a 1969 Rolleiflex 2.8F all nicely posed with some APX25 and Ilford Delta 400; the film is for my Texas trip, the cameras will be staying home (As I have my Pentax 645 and Nikon F4 packed up for the trip). But it was the first time I worked with my strobistRead More →

You don’t see a big battle, you hear it. A 4×5 camera isn’t exactly the best camera to capture a military reenactment, but I figured what the heck! Usually, at an event like this, I’m out on the field shooting a musket rather than a camera. I woke up on Sunday at the Mississinawa 2014 War of 1812 event and put weight on my ankle; it wasn’t up to any heavy activity that often accompanies such an event. So I ended up taking photos instead. I set up the camera, focused, metered, loaded the film and waited. And Sunday morning was fantastic for photos asRead More →

Keeping it nice and simple for this week, a simple white clapboard church along my way to and from work. The Church of Christ in Omagh, Ontario is one of the oldest churches in the area and has always caught my eye, mainly for its simplicity. If you go into the town of Milton proper along the main street are three rather ornate churches, including my home church, but this one made a great subject to shoot right from the hip, yep, sporting the Crown Graphic as it was designed to be shot…handheld. Pacemaker Crown Graphic – Fuji Fujinon-W 1:5.6/125 – Kodak Tri-X Pan (320TXP)Read More →

The Iron Curtain, The Red Scare, Nuclear War, Ruskies, Commies, Berlin Wall, Spies…Sounding Familiar? Even Canada was affected, so much so that our Prime Minister at the time, John Diefenbaker, ordered the construction of a series of bunkers that would house the civilian government in the event of Nuclear War; they were collectively known as Diefenbunkers. Only one got completed, and in 1962 Canadian Forces Station Carp went online. The other 49 were either not finished or partially completed. When the cold war ended in 1994 with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the station was decommissioned; it reopened in 1998 as a Museum andRead More →

Parliament Hill stands tall above the rush of the Ottawa River. While many a photographer would choose to shoot this building head-on from the front, it took me a bit to find a different vantage point from my favourite angle, the one that faces the Ottawa River primarily so that you can get a glimpse of the Library of Parliament, that round conical structure. My first choice was from across the River in the park surrounding the Museum of Canadian History (Museum of Civilization), but that wasn’t it, okay well, how about in the heights on Nepean Point…so I lugged the gear across the bridge,Read More →

The Cold War was an exciting period of history and one of my favourites. Cloak and Dagger affairs, Nuclear Weapons, Spies, Jets, and the such. The CF-104 Starfighter is my second favourite jet of the era, the first being the doomed Avro CF-105 Arrow. But the Starfighter was unique, wildly different from jets of the day and had some rather unique nicknames, such as the Aluminium Death Tube, The Lawn Dart, and The Flying Phallus. But it certainly cuts a unique figure. Like the CF-86 Sabre before, the CF-104 was built by Canadair under licence using the Lockheed F-104G template. These would make up Canada’sRead More →

The weather at the beginning of Week 37 wasn’t too bad, but as the week progressed, it slowly worsened. And I kept on putting off loading up a film holder to get a shot. One of the joys of having a proper press camera is the ability to shoot it handheld. So here is yet another rural farmhouse from the area surrounding Milton. Another one that has always caught my eye is simple and elegant. Pacemaker Crown Graphic – Fuji Fujinon-W 1:5.6/125 – Kodak Tri-X Pan (320TXP) Meter: Pentax Spotmeter V 1/125 – f/16 – ASA-400 Kodak TMax Developer (1+9) 10:30 @ 20CRead More →

Well, it’s not a castle, but this 1726 building in Old Fort Niagara has earned the moniker “The French Castle.” Constructed as part of the second fortifications at the mouth of the Niagara, the French first came to the region in 1678. However, the site was abandoned due to illness and a lack of supplies. The current fortifications on the site date to 1726 and have remained occupied. The British took the fort in a siege in 1759 during the French-Indian War (Seven Years War); it remained a British stronghold through the American Revolution but was turned over to the Americans in 1796. Captured againRead More →

We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields. While I continue to push my War of 1812 project, another significant milestone is happening right now, the Centennial Celebrations of the First World War. So I wasn’t going to let it slide in the sheet-a-week project, so when I attended a timeline event (where a bunch of reenactors from various periods gather to show their stuff to the public) at Fort George National Historic Site in Niagara-On-The-Lake, Ontario I made a point to find a group of reenactors fromRead More →

Located well above the tourist trap Clifton Hill by Niagara Falls sits a lovely spiritual retreat named after a relatively well-known mountain in Israel. It features prominently in the story of the prophet Elijah, namely the contest he challenges the prophets of Ba’al to in the Book of Kings. I came across the retreat while looking for a spot to park my car as I was planning on a bit of light trespassing at a historic transformer station just down the road. Also, this was the first sheet of film I shot with my new-to-me Pacemaker Crown Graphic; I know, taking a risk, but theRead More →