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At the end of my 24mm f/2.8 review I asked: Do I now need to find and invest in the 20mm? Well if you’re reading this review, the answer was yes. I enjoy working with wide-angle lenses, and while I do have the lovely 17-35/2.8-4 D ultra-wide zoom, there’s something special about an ultra-wide prime lens. I started looking at getting this particular lens after I finished my 24/2.8 review for the A-Mount. The desire to add one to my A-Mount kit only increased after picking up the 14mm f/2.8D for my Nikon kit. I was always concerned about the cost of these lenses; usually,Read More →

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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 →

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One of my favourite events to attend in the GTHA is Hamilton’s Doors Open event. This was my first experience with architectural tours and has for many years been my birthday present to myself. My original plan for this year was to hit up locations in Ancaster and Dundas. I wanted to check out some of the historic churches in those communities, but what struck me as interesting is that not a single church was listed as being part of Doors Open Hamilton this year. So I went back with what I knew, downtown Hamilton and the industrial sector. I got in four locations thisRead More →

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Kit lenses: I have ones I like and others I’m not too fond of; of the ones I’m not too fond of, it’s the Canon Zoom Lens EF 28-80mm. After using the lens extensively last year for the Frugal Film Project, I realised that it has many things that could be improved in the optical quality and set out to get my hands on Canon’s elevated kit lens, the 28-105mm USM. I also used the lens while reviewing the Canon EOS Elan 7ne and A2. First introduced in 1992 as the standard kit lens for the EOS A2, it features the USM or Ultra SonicRead More →

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On the eastern side of the Iron Curtin, one of the biggest producers of photographic materials was ORWO, or Original Wolfen. ORWO was born out of the split between the Germanys and the companies that existed. Famously, there is Carl Zeiss, but there is also Agfa. While Agfa reformed in the west, its factories in Wolfen were formed under the new name ORWO. While ORWO did produce a series of photographic films for still photography, they also produced specialised motion picture films. The two standard negative films are N74+ and UN54+. UN54+ is the film that I’ll be reviewing today. Now, this isn’t the firstRead More →

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If you’re familiar with Toronto’s financial district and downtown Toronto as a whole you may have some understand of an entire underground community that connects most of the tall towers that dominate the skyline. But many walk right over this warren of pedestrian tunnels without even realising that the employees can quickly move between buildings, access services and even grab a bite to eat without stepping outside. Known as the PATH, the system is one that I’ve been in before and quickly got lost and locked out of, but having some time, I decided to go on a mission to try and explore and photographRead More →

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Last year, I participated in a ‘hidden project. Usually, when I do a photography project, I have regular blog posts and a Flickr album all related to it. But not this one; this was another group project called 12 Months On Film; it ran on Instagram and was moderated by the Film Shooters Collective. The purpose was to get cameras off shelves, film out of fridges and enjoy photography. The guidelines were simple, shoot a different camera each month, you could use different film stocks, developers or all the same, but the camera had to be different each month. A rather nice change from theRead More →

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Well it’s the end of the old year and the start of a new one. Which means it’s time to look back at last year’s favourite shots from the Frugal Film Project and look ahead at what I’m doing this year for the project. It’s hard to believe that I’m going into my third year of the project, but I feel I’m hitting the groove and not feeling that I need to do more each month. I’m also glad that I can still continue to run the project and I have some interesting ideas for this year and a camera that breaks the theme fromRead More →

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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 →

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I will be honest, I’ve been trying to get out to Westfield Village all year because this year marks the 60th Anniversary of this hidden gem of a living history museum. While it isn’t staffed as often thanks to the changes that came down the pipe but they still maintain the property and make it accessible to the public while keeping site staff to a minimum. But I’ll let you in on a secret, I like the village when it’s quiet, it lets me soak in the history of the place. Like many other living history museums around Ontario, Westfield Heritage Village is a builtRead More →