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
Using old film is fun, and a little scary also because you truly don’t know what you’re going to end up with. A couple years back I had acquired a roll of Kodak Verichrome Pan that had expired in the mid 1960s, and I got zero results from it, so when I found another two rolls of Verichrome Pan that expired in 1975 I figured what the hell and gave them a shot, but instead of letting a lab develop them I would do them myself.
So with the old film loaded into my trusty Rolleiflex I headed down to the lake in Oakville to the posh Bronte Village to wander the boardwalk catching attention of many who saw me using this old camera. Often I use them simply for the conversation pieces that they are. Once the roll was shot it was into the lab for some developing fun. I used the same technique I had on the first roll of the pair that I had shot back at the Muskoka Regional Centre. Using the last of my Agfa Rodinal (The world’s oldest still produced developer (developed in 1891)), I used a method called stand developing, or souping the film in a 1:200 Rodinal solution for an hour.
Rolleiflex 2.8F – Carl Zeiss Planar 80mm 1:2.8 – Kodak Verichrome Pan
Hitting the streets of my hometown of Milton for Week 34, specifically the farmer’s market which runs from May to October, I figured it would be a great place to try out some street photography. The market provided me with a lot of subjects to photograph, making it a very successful Saturday morning for me.
A smile is a great way to start the day
I’ll take one of those…
Contemplation
Discussions
Oh Hai there
Oh those were the days.
The Man
Nikon F4 – AF DC-Nikkor 105mm 1:2D – Ilford FP4+
It was back out to Ontario’s west cost for the 33rd week of the project, taking a weekend and going camping at Point Farms Provincial Park. The Park itself is a former Victorian era resort. These days sadly all of the old buildings are long gone, only fences and a few foundations remain lost in the woods that have grown up over the years. The weather could have been better, the skies stayed fairly cloudy the whole weekend and it rained several times on Saturday, but we still were able to catch a bit of a sunset on Saturday evening.
Contax G2 – Carl Zeiss Biogon 2,8/28 – Kodak Portra 400
This was my fourth time attending the annual reenactment of the Siege of Fort Erie, it was probably one of the best I have been to yet! All the forces both Crown and US were in top shape this year, plus the sheer number of people watching and those marching was spectacular. Historically the events that lead up to the siege started on July 3rd 1814 when American Forces captured the fort from British Defenders. But it wasn’t until August 13th, 1814 that British forces under General Drummond opened fire. However it was his night attempt at taking back the fort that forced a failure. British Troops were able to make it into the Fort but when the powder magazine exploded they were forced to retreat. The Siege was lifted on September 16th, 1814 and American forces retreated from Fort Erie in November after demolishing most of the Fort. British forces returned but never rebuilt the fort abandoning it in 1821.
One of two blockhouses in the Fort.
The British Camp. For once I’d like to go to one of these events and get proper barrack space inside the fort.
My wonderful host unit, 7th/60th Regiment of Foot.
Some downtime.
The British Lines open up
The Americans!
I see what you did there.
Pentax 645 – SMC Pentax A 645 80-160mm 1:4.5 – Kodak Tri-X Pan (TXP)
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.
Going a little crazy for week 31….
In a recent trip to Toronto’s Lomography store I came across their Fisheye camera, a cheap plastic fisheye lens camera, and compared to other cameras they have so I picked it up, having caught the toy camera bug from my Holga (c/o the FPP). The results were well interesting to say the least, I was literally just shooting from the hip, not bothering with any rules or that nonsense, just going out and photographing for the sake of photographing.
Lomography Fisheye (Version 1) – Fuji Superia X-Tra 400
After the adventures in Week 29 through Northern Ontario, Week 30 saw me still up in Northern Ontario on Manitoulin Island, rather than take the northern route and Highway 69 I chose to take the MS Chi-Cheemaun from South Baymouth across Georgian Bay to Tobermory on the Bruce Peninsula. The Chi-Cheemaun is the current ferry operating between the mainland and the island, one in a long line of ships that have taken the route.
The Chi-Cheemaun sailing into the South Baymouth Port.
The joys of driving a compact car, is that we’re often one of the first loaded, giving us a view of the last of the vehicles to be loaded into the ship’s hold.
Thankfully these alarms never sounded on our sailing.
A last view of the docks as we depart. You can already see the next round of cars lining up. They have about a four hour wait.
Looking astern.
Of course there are lighthouses along the way.
With a two hour sailing, much of it in open water, your best bet is to pick some shade and enjoy the journey, a book (or in my case cameras) would also help.
Nikon F3 – AI-S Nikkor 50mm 1:1.4 – Kodak Plus-X (125PX)
Spending a Week up in Northern Ontario makes it hard to choose just seven photos to convey the entire week. There’s so much beauty up there. My trip took me up through North Bay, Temagami, Cobalt, Kirkland Lake, Timmins, Sudbury, and South Baymouth before returning home. So without further words on my part, let’s see here.
North Bay, and the gateway to the North. From here on out the distances between towns become longer, and the roads lonelier.
The Little town of Temagami as viewed from the top of an old MNR Fire watch tower, now open to the public as a great viewing platform.
Cobalt, the most historical towns in the province, home to a massive silver rush in the early twentith century, now home to hundreds of rusting and many preserved Head Frames. Their tag line “Come for a Day, Discover a Century” rings very true.
The Temiskaming & Northern Ontario Railroad Locomotive 701 sits in Englehart, the last steam engine to prowl the rail lines of Northern Ontairo.
The Miner’s Memorial in Kirkland Lake, a nearby Carin lists the names of all those who lost their lives in mining accidents in local mines.
One of my favourite locations in Northern Ontario remains the old Ross Mine. Opened in the 1930s, this gold mine continued to operate until it’s closure in 1988.
As much as I love Highway 11, Highway 144 between Timmins and Sudbury was a really fun drive!
For the rest of the photos from the week visit Flickr
Contax G2 – Carl Zeiss Planar 2/45 T* – Lomography X-Pro 100 (E-6 Processed)
Again, off next week and since I already have the photos posted, how about a double bill! (I’ll probably be dead tired when I get back from the camping trip next week so rather than posting something half-assed, do it now when I still am in good form.
Week 28…Sanitariums and Chocolate…film that is. Yes, I took one of my awesome Polaroids on an exploration trip to the Muskoka Regional Centre up in Gravenhurst, first time taking a pack film camera out exploring but when you get a complete kit including a release cable…it was just begging to. I was torn between taking the wonderful Type 644 along or Chocolate Film.
Polaroid Automatic 250 Land Camera – Polaroid Chocolate (ISO-80)