By:
On:
In: Musings
With: 2 Comments

One of the most rewarding and frustrating parts of working with traditional film mediums is developing the film yourself. This often allows for faster turnaround and greater control. However, when things go sideways, you can only blame yourself. I started developing black & white film myself over ten years ago now for two reasons. First, I was inspired after attending my first Photostock event, where I saw all the fantastic work people were doing and had the opportunity to chat with my good friend Matt Marrash. Second, my local lab had reduced its processing to a single day of C-41. The owner (Joan) took meRead More →

By:
On:
In: Camera Review Blogs
With: 0 Comments

There are small cameras; then there are small ones; the Pentax MX is one of the latter. Released as Asahi’s response to the Olympus OM-1, the Pentax MX took things to the next level with the size. The M-Series of Pentax SLRs are strangers to me; I’ve used the ME, ME Super and even an MG, but never an MX. Save for a brief encounter with an MX in Bill Smith’s collection for a CCR Episode (Ep. 36 – Last But Not Least) So when I started to look for one a few years back I found that they were rare on the used marketRead More →

By:
On:
In: Photography
With: 0 Comments

I went into the city with a grand plan; in fact, I had this entire post already written and was ready to commit. But then the day came when I was going to execute the plan, and everything didn’t seem right. By the time I got to the train station and stood in the mass of people all waiting for the next train, it all didn’t feel right. I knew what I wanted to do, but there was that looming threat of rain and even thunderstorms. I did not want to get caught in a sudden downpour and have no place to shelter. I alsoRead More →

By:
On:
In: Camera Review Blogs
With: 5 Comments

When I hear the name Miranda I think of two things first and foremost, number one is Star Trek and the venerable Miranda Class that first appeared in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and has remained a staple of the Federation Starfleet (I prefer the roll bar version) the second is Shakespeare which is where the class name takes its inspiration from. But when it comes to cameras, the Miranda brand is one that doesn’t get much respect, despite being an innovative company that sadly lacked the level of quality assurance that the bigger names could provide. I first learned about Miranda camerasRead More →

By:
On:
In: Musings
With: 0 Comments

So far in this ongoing series, I have only focused on my written content, mainly because there continues to be an influx of AI-generated blog posts. But this isn’t the only area where AI is starting to get in the way of real creative content. AI videos are a thing with avatars that can act and look like real-life people. Also, the number of ‘faceless’ videos with obviously generated images and voices is large. I’m happy that my channel is AI-generated content-free and always will be! Let’s dig into the process of how I go about creating a YouTube video. In the case of thisRead More →

By:
On:
In: 1812:Revisited
With: 0 Comments

From 2012 to 2016, I worked on my most extensive photography and history project, covering almost all aspects of the Anglo-American War of 1812. It remains one of my favourite projects I ever worked on and became virtually a template for a few other projects. Both ones that were finished and published and others that remain in the background as possible for future endeavours. But this year marks the 210th anniversary of the end of the War of 1812, so I have decided to revisit the conflict and present it in a new way. Instead of going deep into details, I’ll show the war throughRead More →

By:
On:
In: News & Updates
With: 1 Comment

Well, here we are at the end of another year, and you know in the rearview, 2024 was a good year. I felt that I was putting out posts and content at a more sustainable rate. I also felt that I was not always pressed for time each month in producing reviews. I got to check out some new film stocks, add some new favourite cameras, and explore some familiar and new places. The Best of 2024 This year, I consciously chose to reduce the number of reviews I did over the year. It was starting to get challenging to keep everything moving and outputRead More →

By:
On:
In: Musings
With: 4 Comments

Developing your film at home is both rewarding and frustrating at the same time and to add on an extra layer of complexity there is a lot of developers out there that you can use, especially in the black & white field. While certainly not as much as there used to be, there is still an excellent selection of developers to suit almost every person’s need, without having to dive deep into building your developers from base chemicals. Ultimately every photographer has a different taste but if you’re starting out with home development the choices may seem a little overwhelming so I’ll be breaking downRead More →

By:
On:
In: Developer Review Blogs
With: 3 Comments

I have far surpassed one hundred and fifty camera reviews and one hundred film reviews, my other two reviews being lenses and developers have only made it to the big fifty this year. If you read my previous post on lens reviews these are my least favourite. And while I rather enjoy creating film and camera reviews the most, developer reviews come in as the third favourite. The reason being is that I have the most amount of freedom connected to their creation. And while I’m working on a full post on how I write developer reviews, this post is about looking back at theRead More →

By:
On:
In: Musings
With: 0 Comments

While every type of review I write comes with unique problems, nothing is more challenging than writing a film review. Film reviews have been done for years, mostly in dusty photographic journals and magazines and reviewed under exact conditions and in large quantities. If I tried to follow these methods, it would take me years to complete and require a large volume of films, cameras, lenses, and equipment I need more room for. Like all my reviews, I set out my method to work within the realms of what I wanted these reviews to cover: the basics. I’ve aimed these at beginner and intermediate photographersRead More →