The Bridge

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Alex

Hidden behind a hospital and a massive shopping mall a tiny road dead ends at a park. You can still see the old light standards continuing down. I had some time to kill on a Saturday afternoon so I decided to stop and check it out, having a camera with me I naturally brought it along for the hike.

Down at the base of the road I was drawn out onto one the side trails that ran along a river bank, following it around I noticed something in the distance, it looked like a bridge, but not a bridge one would expect, it looked like an old road bridge.

I moved in closer to said bridge, sticking to the river, it looked old, concret with stone pilings on either bank.

The bridge was only a single lane, and happened to continue the road that I had followed initally, this was a bowstring truss (I remembered that from the Bridge project I had in Grade 5), and it was old, that much was clear, such details are not put onto most modern bridges, functionality before form eh? At least there was a plaque to date the bridge, 1909.

Some research on The King’s Highway website pulls up the following. The bridge was part indeed built as a bowstring truss bridge in 1909, the first such bridge in Ontario, and the road I was walking on…was the Middle Road, yes, the road that in the 1930s was converted into Ontario’s first limited access freeway. The bridge however only served one year on the Middle road before the highway was realigned and a bigger (and less attractive) bridge was constructed.

Nikon F3 – AI-S Nikkor 50mm 1:1.4 – Fuji Provia 100F (RDPIII)

Railed

Posted on December 20, 2011 by Alex

The year was 1994, March. An electrical failure causes one of hte trains on Toronto Zoo’s Domain Ride to roll backwards hitting a second vehicle injuring thirty people, and forcing the Zoo to shut down the Domain Ride, ending 30 years of the ride giving tours through some of the more remote areas of the Toronto Zoo which streached well out and along the Rouge River, which visitors could not walk to. But on this cold December Saturday we were forced to. The six of us crept down the steep grade to the river banks and made our way along looking for the concrete guideway. The Domain Zoo ride, although called a monorail (probably because of hte electrified rail) was actually closer to the Montreal Subway (Metro) with rubber tyred trams that passangers sat in during the trip. We eventually were able to get access to the abandoned guideway and move along it. Mostly over grown (and terminating where the zoo-mobile now runs) with long streaches through areas that could easily be found in Northern Ontario, even abandoned animal shelters for the exhibits that once roamed ‘free’.

It’s a Polaroid Party!

Posted on December 14, 2011 by Alex

This past Sunday at the University of Findlay there was something different going on party wise for a university. It was a party to celebrate instant photography and it’s continued life in the photographic world. Organized by Mat (From the Film Photography Project, and Alumni of UoF), and UoF professor Jeff, the idea was the allow anyone to get out and make use of a wide variaty of Polaroid Cameras and films. From Automatic Land Cameras, to Instant Integral ‘roids from the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Films all over the board, Fuji FP-100c, 3000b, even some old Polaroid Stock was out ot play and new Impossible Films.

But you’re probably thinking….Alex, you’re nowhere near Ohio…what were you doing in Findlay, OH? I was lucky, and happened to be in the area on the date of the party so I hauled myself up to Findlay to participate.

It was an awesome day, getting to meet new people new contacts, share my own polaroids, and of course hang with friends!

The rest can be found in my Polaroid Party set on Flickr!

Milton Help-Portrait – Event 2

Posted on December 5, 2011 by Alex

This was my second year at the Darling House for Kids in Milton for Help-Portrait. This home in the rural areas of Milton is designed for families with children who have medical conditions as a space for them to be a family. This year I wanted to try something different (in addition to doing the portraits), I wanted to give them something but without using a computer and printer. Something unique, one of a kind, something that they may not have even seen before, or if they had, hadn’t seen in years.

Yep, that’s a Polaroid, an Automatic Land camera from the late 1960s. I loaded it up with some new Fuji FP-100c film and went to town. It was a gimmic, something that would draw their attention and give them that print. Working outside made using it much easier to work with the people and the camera. I would pose the family, shoot the polaroid and give the pack to some of the members to keep warm while we did the digital images, and then I’d ask for it back and peel off the freshly cooked print. Their smiles kept me warm working outside in the slightly chilly air.

Brent (above) put together an awesome video of the event which you can find on Facebook.

Help-Portrait – 2011

Posted on November 24, 2011 by Alex

We don’t want to take your photo
We want to give it to you.

I was really looking forward to participating in Help-Portrait again, and to make things for 2011 more awesome we were running two events in Milton for the year. There were actually two last year but the groups remained seperate, so to increase the number of volunteers the two groups combined to make one awesome group. The first event was lead by George (who ran last year’s second group), at Milton Bible Church, and what a day it was, we were pretty much go-go-go from seven thirty in the morning until five that night. I don’t think my laptop or camera ever saw so much constant action.

How many volunteers does it take to run a computer?

With an awesome team of photographers, computer operators, makeup/hair, and volunteers from the host church the event rocked, it was, as I’m so fond of saying, Brilliant.

Hair, Makeup, and other Volunteers

The Refreshment team

I also didn’t realize that I could take a wicked family portrait, and being able to hand over a print, framed, and a disc of the rest of the photos right to the person the very same day, really was what it was all about. I could say I took away some boosting of my talents as a photographer, but really I took away more a sense that I just helped out a bunch of people. The woman who lost everything in a fire, the young couple, the newly single mom, the soon to be mom. And many others.

Oh Hai, it’s me!

That’s really what it’s all about. Not about portfolios, getting my name out there, or anything else for me. It’s about them.

George and his Wife Tammy – Event heads

Tom and Savanah – Events Heads – Darling House

Next up, Event Number 2 which hits the Darling House for Kids on Saturday! And thanks to my wonderful friend Wu, who gave us use of her Instax Mini 7s, and a bunch of film which all these were taken on.

If you want to get involved, start here: Help-Portrait | Dec 10th, 2011

How to Record a Podcast and Enjoy Doing So!

Posted on November 16, 2011 by Alex

Last month while I was on my usual fall vacation at the end of October I once again found myself in New Jersey. I have always been an avid fan of the Film Photography Podcast and have been listening to it since it’s third episode, and have been no stranger to the flickr group, organized a Toronto FPP meetup…the list continues.

So before I left I was sure to email Michael Rasso, the founder of the podcast/project to see about meeting up. The email I got in reply surprised me. I was offered to help guest host the podcast. Nervous could not even begin to describe how I felt, but I accepted the offer anyways.

Marthon session was right, 9am to about 5pm we recorded, I took a break for one of the episodes but still managed to get in at least three maybe four. The first was released yesterday (Nov 15th) with the rest being released over the next couple months. It was a riot, litterally just five guys sitting around a table shooting the breeze about film, cameras, techniques, and other such topics, all while surrounded by a great number of cameras (I personally had my Rolleiflex, Leica, Horizon, and Polaroid 600 CloseUp). And in typical form, at the end of hte day we all went to Mac’s Diner for a great dinner! A very full day, and of course special thanks to Michael Raso, Mat, Dan, and Hunter!

Sarah & Derrick’s Wedding

Posted on October 3, 2011 by Alex

September 10th dawned bright and clear, not too cold either. I found myself out in Clarrington, ON at the beautiful 4 Season’s Golf & Country club to photograph Sarah & Derrick’s Wedding, a couple I had photographed for their engagement photos last year. The back drop was beautiful, the sky a deep blue, the greens bright with life, the fall colours not yet starting to come in.

It was such a day that I wish I had access to Kodachrome to shoot, and the colour processing to match.

Sarah & Derrick were a wonderful couple to work with, both naturals in front of the cameras and very easy to photograph.

Sometimes some of the strongest photos are the ones that catch a moment of peace between the couple amidst the chaos of hte day

Cross Processing

Posted on September 28, 2011 by Alex

Cross Processing or XPro the act of developing film specifically colour in the wrong chemicals.

Yes, you just read that right, I purposefully got some film developed wrong.

It sounds weird I know, putting your slide film in chemicals made for colour negative film, or colour negative in slide film chemicals. But as of late I’ve been getting into a bit of a lo-fi vibe, so I figured it was about time to try out some cross processing. The Lomographic Society markets film that is designed for cross processing, called aptly XPro. Just between us, it is actually old Agfa slide film stock just re-branded on the canister. Developing the film as slide film (which it is natively) brings out wonderful colour and resolution, so it was the film I was going to try out.

Lomography XPro 100 developed as Slide Film

So I loaded in a roll of Lomography’s XPro 100 film into my trusty Nikon FM2 and the 50mm 1.4 lens and hit the streets of Toronto.

Now I had seen XPro photos in the past, and wasn’t really that keen on the look, but I went into the project knowing that the results might be a bit…weird, but I was ready for that. Of course there was a call from the lab making sure that I wasn’t being an idiot for requesting that the slide film be processed in colour negative chemistry, and me reassuring them that yes, I really wanted it done this way and that I wasn’t an idiot.

The results were…much better than I expected, of course there were several shots that really didn’t turn out that well, cross processing is not good when you’re shooting in very low light, but in the bright sun earlier in the day, the results were actually pretty fantastic.

See for yourself!

Most of these were shot straight from the hip, very little attention was paid to the settings (Sunny-16 metering). Would I do it again…most definitely.

Connie & Ewan

Posted on September 16, 2011 by Alex

At the end of August I had the privilege of photographing the wedding of two amazing friends of mine, Connie & Ewan. Plus they introduced me to a great spot in the city to do portrait work at, the Todmorden Mills. I’ll defiantly be using them again should the need arise. The wedding also gave me a chance to test out the new Kodak Portra 160.

For More Visit: Connie & Ewan on Flickr

Fort Erie 2011

Posted on August 17, 2011 by Alex

It’s that time of year again to reenact the battle and camp out at Canada’s Bloodiest battlefield. Both US and Crown Forces were in top shape this year! Featured this post is the Fighting 60th, or rather 7th Battalion 60th Royal American Regiment of Foot, No. 6 Company. The 7th Battalion was formed of mostly German POWs who had been forced to fight for Napoleon over in Europe, but rather than languish in jail the British formed them into a unit specializing in light infantry tactics. The 7th Battalion No. 6 Company wore the rifle green of a rifle unit, however they were armed with smooth bore musket (New Land Pattern Light Infantry Muskets), in the 7th Battalion only the No 1 and No 10 flank companies were armed with the Baker Rifle.

Historically the 7th/60th never fought at Fort Erie, they served mostly in Nova Scotia and in Maine during the War of 1812. But Erie is always a big event. And green is much sexier than red.

Celer et Audax

alex luyckx | blog

Explorer, Photographer, Wanderer

Category Archives: Photography