I wasn’t planning to visit yet another historic community in Halton Hills, but like everything, even the best-laid plans are often hampered by Mother Nature. A major storm that whipped through southern Ontario at the start of September flooded out my original plans for the day. I needed to go somewhere else, so after a bit of hunting around my original spot and not liking the locations based on my camera choice, I stuck to something a little more local: Acton. If you grew up in the Halton region, you’ll know that there’s a bit of a feud between the communities in Halton, with ActonRead More →

I have visited plenty of small blink-and-you-miss-it communities across Canada and the United States. Some have a draw, while others make you think: is it even worth stopping? The funny thing is that I didn’t even consider going to the historic hamlet of Norval; it’s one of those places that I have heard of, driven through, but never fully considered stopping to get out and take photos. But here I am, willingly going to Norval, parking the car, getting out, cameras in hand, fully committed to capturing this historic hamlet and writing about it, which is saying something. For this trip, I took along myRead More →

The last time I had attended this event was back in 2009, it was then known as Canada Youth, and it was the second time I had attended the event, but the third Presbyterian Youth Conference I had ever attended. The first one I attended was in 2001 as the Presbyterian Youth Triennium at Purdue University in Indiana. The event was interesting. Looking back at my vague memories of the event, I was happy that I never went back. The event began to clamp down on the number of Canadians who could attend, and the Canada Youth events focused on Canadian Presbyterians and lacked someRead More →

It’s been a bit of time since I had the chance to do a solo photo walk through Toronto. I had a week off from work and decided to make the most of it. I had to come into the city to do a run at Downtown Camera to get film and chemistry for later in the summer, and decided to make the most of it by doing a bit of a walk through some of my favourite parts of the old town. But it wasn’t my usual route, so I decided to do something a little different in getting around. Despite the heat thisRead More →

Despite the group’s name, “Toronto Film Shooters Meetup,” we tend to host events beyond Toronto’s borders. There have been walks in Hamilton, Dundas, Niagara-On-The-Lake, Elora, Guelph, and Unionville. But this summer I decided to host one in my hometown of Milton, Ontario. And why? Well, it comes down to one major world event, the FIFA World Cup. Rather than make our plucky band of photographers figure out where a quiet spot in the city is to do a walk with coffee and beer, why not host something on a quiet Sunday afternoon in Milton’s historic downtown? For the event, I went with my Minolta MaxxumRead More →

A few weeks ago, an event that I first attended in 2012 had its final form. Back on the 20th and 21st of June, a group gathered to celebrate the life of Bill Schwab, who had passed away in 2025 while doing what he did best: leading a group of keen photographers to explore the world. Bill was the brains behind an event called Photostock. It started as a small gathering in the woods on his property in Michigan, far from the dirty industrial south, but in the far more beautiful northern parts of the state. And while I’m a fan of an event becomingRead More →

Sometimes you need an easy spot to take photos. And while for many years that spot has been my own downtown in Milton, Ontario. Another option would be Guelph, Ontario, but downtown has been getting a bit rough with folks living on the streets. Plus, the last time I was there, I found drug paraphernalia in the open. So I wanted to get out in early June and settled on another favourite, Dundas, Ontario. I first learned about Dundas during a Doors Open event, and then it fell away from my mind until the pandemic. Dundas presented something different: it was also close to homeRead More →

The main reason behind this epic road trip was to fill in a bunch of gaps in my War of 1812 project. I was on the tail end of the project and wanted to fill in a bunch of gaps before I got married in 2017. And there were two areas that I had not yet explored and wanted to because they offered up parts of the conflict that are often forgotten or not even presented here in Ontario. While the majority of the war took place here in Ontario, there were also a series of battles along the East Coast. So I plotted theRead More →

It’s always fun to revisit trips on anniversaries. Last year, I posted about the ten-year anniversary of my epic three-week trip to Europe to participate in the 200th Anniversary Reenactment of the Battle of Waterloo. And I was recently thinking about the last time I did a big trip, and after someone favourited an old image from my NOPEX trip back in 2011, I realised that this year marked the 15th anniversary of that trip. So, for a bit of context, NOPEX, or “Northern Ontario Products Exposition,” was a week-long car-camping trip through Northern Ontario with my good friend James. The groundwork had been laidRead More →

One of my long time favourite events to attend is Doors Open Hamilton. If you’ve been following my writing for a while you’ll know that the Hamilton Doors Open event was my first taste of these architectural tours. Where buildings open their doors to the public, even those places that are often closed off. Of course, the group that introduced me to the event was the Urban Exploration community. Which shouldn’t surprise you, a group dedicated to taking a look behind closed doors, suddenly had open access without too much chance of getting in trouble. That being said, there were several events where explorers tookRead More →