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Here I am back in the half-frame saddle. I have a couple of people to thank for this. First, there is a student at the college where I work who has a Pentax 17. It was the first time I had seen one of those cameras in the wild, and I was more than happy to let me hold it and fiddle with it. It felt good, far heavier and well-built than I was expecting. Then there was an article by fellow blogger and all-around awesome guy, Johnny Martyr, about his experience with the Canon Demi EE28. Now, in all fairness, I had been lookingRead More →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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So here’s the thing: faster films are better known for their latitude, but mid-speed films are often overlooked for it. And I’ll have to say I’ve done some wild things with FP4+ in the past, and it responds well to over- and underexposure when developed right. But can FP4+ stand up to its faster brother, HP5+, in terms of quality and performance? Well, the answer is yes! While it can’t go as far as faster films, it can still do a lot more than people give it credit. Film Specs Manufacturer: Ilford Photo Name: Ilford FP4+ Type: Panchromatic B&W Film Base: Acetate Film Speed: ASA-125Read More →

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Many photographers of a certain age started with the Pentax K1000. I went a different route, and it’s different from even my preferred camera type today. I went with the Minolta Hi-Matic 7s, a fixed lens rangefinder from the 1960s. The Hi-Matic made things real; it was the first camera that was mine and the first good camera that I used. Before this, I used disposable cameras, like the point-and-shoot my parents had, and I still remember the 110 plastic camera I got at a McDonald’s event (at least, that’s what I think in my head-canon). While I would end up with a lot ofRead More →

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By 1814, both sides were starting to tire of the war. For the Americans, they had been facing no actual movement. The Royal Navy was causing havoc on the east coast. The British held Mackinac Island, Fort Niagara, the District of Maine, and Prarie Du Chien. The Americans only held Fort Erie, having been turned back in their Niagara invasion. They were under siege and had some control of the western edge of Upper Canada but nothing beyond the settlements of Sandwich and Amherstburg. The possibility of peace negotiations had started in 1813 but were soon shut down. However, with long lines of communication betweenRead More →

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Well we made it through another year. Like every years things did not always go to plan and that’s okay. Because it’s important to be flexible, especially when this blog and other channels is not a full time job. The year was a lot of fun despite being a little chaotic. I always have hope that things will eventually calm down, but they do in fact always calm up. There was a rather unfortunate bump through the fall with a five week support staff strike that did reduce some capacity for creation, but I had the chance to play catch up through October and NovemberRead More →

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The war had ground to an unceremonious stalemate; it had not gone to plan for both the British and Americans. The Americans continued believing that the Canadians would welcome them as liberators rather than invaders and join them in an easy campaign to free them all from the shackles of the Crown and a distant parliament. The British believed that once Napoleon was safely taken care of, a series of campaigns on the eastern seaboard would help the Americans sue for peace on British terms. None of that happened. Instead, the Americans were left to command a small sliver along the Detroit River of UpperRead More →

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You don’t often hear professional system camera in the same sentence as Pentax. But Pentax cameras have had their place in professional photography since the ESII, it is only that Pentax hasn’t always marketed cameras towards the professional market demographic. The Pentax MZ-S would be the last 35mm SLR to fit into that marketing segment and be the last camera to be developed under the original Asahi Optical Co. name (it was officially changed to Pentax in 2002). My review of the Pentax MZ-S is a long time coming, it was first promised in 2022 but the timely CCR 10th Anniversary and the visit ofRead More →