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Having a photo walk in the winter is not always the best idea. But we live in Canada, and I love getting out in the snow and taking pictures. But here in Southern Ontario Winter can be a trying time, with bitter cold, slate-grey skies, and generally not exactly lovely to be outside. Sometimes you have to roll the dice and see what you get. Last year we got treated to a snowstorm which produced some excellent images. This year, due to a busy January, I pushed the event up to February. It was worth the wait for a few reasons. We were treated toRead More →

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Here we are, there is always a certain bittersweetness about completing a project. And for me, this one was an eye-opener. It challenged not only my world view but my view of my own country and our history. But that is what history is supposed to do, challenge us to learn from the past and see how we can change the future. And here is the trouble with history, we can only see it through the eyes of those who wrote it and our personal bias. And trust me, it is hard to overcome your own bias. But the biggest problem with history that isRead More →

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If you follow the film photography community and there’s a chance you do if you follow this blog, then you will have some idea of the rocky road that is the modern version of Film Ferrania. When they burst on the scene, they had the grand dream of bringing a new colour slide film to market using one of the few remaining buildings from the OG Ferrania plant in northern Italy along with a tonne of equipment, materials, and notes. You probably also realise that this dream has not yet been achieved. That doesn’t mean they’ve been sitting around doing nothing all that time. AndRead More →

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The year was 1865, the American Civil War had ended, and four British Provinces in British North America decided to unite under what is called Canadian Confederation. And a large group of Irish Americans were wondering what their next step would be, and John O’Mahoney found himself at a crossroads. The Fenian Brotherhood hit its stride during the Civil War and now had money and manpower to spare. Plus all their members who served in both armies during the war had either kept or purchased their own equipment, the Fenians had an army that could easily stand up to the American Army of the day.Read More →

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If you ever get the chance to visit Quebec City, take the opportunity. Not only is it one of the most beautiful cities in Canada, but it also intersects with many of the significant events that would go one to shape Canada throughout history. From the establishment of the first French settlement in what would become Canada, to the fall of French Rule on the Plains of Abraham in 1759. The Quebec Conference of 1866 to the other Quebec Conferences at the climax of the Second World War that planned out the invasion of fortress Europe. While often overlooked or merged with the Charlottetown Conference,Read More →

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It should come as no surprise that at the mention of Sir John A MacDonald, you get a lot of negative feedback. He managed to in his time attract a lot of controversies. Like his law career, he drew as much positive attention as he does negative today. Born the 11th of January 1815 in Glasgow, Scotland, the son of a somewhat successful business owner by age five he and his family had immigrated to Canada settling in Kingston, Upper Canada. While his father continued to see moderate success in running various mills and businesses, most of the family income would go towards John’s education.Read More →

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Before we get into all this, let me start by staying Ortho Plus is not a new film, it’s just now available in different formats. Originally I shot a box of the stuff in 4×5 when it was only available in sheet format, and it was the first film that I shot that had no real rating set. In fact, most entries for developing times on the massive dev chart simply had a question mark for the ISO rating. I found that this gave me a lot more latitude when working with the film. I could rate it higher or lower depending on the situationRead More →

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When you compare the age of Canada’s army to that of other nations, our military is relatively young. As a nation of just over 150 years old, we depended almost entirely on our defence from the home government, France first and then England. And while a bulk of the soldiers in what would become modern-day Canada were regular professional soldiers and sailors, several locally raised regiments came to the defence of the territory should the need arise. The Canadian militia and Provincial ‘feasible’ troops fought in the War of 1812 and again during the Upper Canada Rebellion and Patriot Wars with varying degrees of success.Read More →

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One of my favourite things to do in both new and familiar cities is to simply wander, get lost even. In fact, this tactic has yielded some amazing photos on my previous trips. And while my wife does not share this same affinity to simply ‘get lost’ in a city she does enjoy the wandering parts. As long as we can stop for coffee or pop into some of the stores along the way. But out of all the cities, I’ve visited my favourite to simply wander around in is Chicago. To be more specific, the loop and the museum campus. These two areas areRead More →

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It seems these days the hottest craze among the hipsters and celebrities is using the premium compact 35mm cameras of the 1980s through early 2000s. And while some cameras carry a steep price-tag, others just don’t have the same street cred. What I mean by that is that you don’t see those cameras your childhood (if you’re of a particular vintage) being hoisted on the Instagram feeds of celebrities during their seemingly perfect lives. I’m not one to drop 500$ on a point-and-shoot, so when I was offered up a Pentax Espio 115M I figured what the heck! After speaking about these cheap and cheerfulRead More →