A little bit of infrastructure porn for Week 10, inspired by some of Bill Schwab’s recent photos of this Bridge from the Detroit side of the River. As I was heading into Detroit for the weekend, I decided to stop and get a shot from the Windsor side. The bridge also serves as one of the busiest border crossings in North America and is one of two ways to cross the Detroit river, the other being the tunnel (which I oddly enough took). Officially opened in 1929, it was designed to ease the congestion in the tunnel without obstructing lake freighter traffic. It had theRead More →

Returning to the classic combo, Tri-X and HC-110. Due to flooding on my usual route to and from work, I had to take a road that I hadn’t driven in a while, and that’s where I came across this gem. It’s becoming fairly common in rural Milton to find old abandoned farmhouses, the field still used by others now, but the old houses left boarded up. I’m a little ticked at myself for leaving the gatepost in the frame, but sadly it was the only way to get the house through the trees without having to put the camera on a weird angle or findRead More →

Many things can be used to describe the Shawnee leader Tecumseh. Hero, Legend, Warrior, Hunter. Like many who fought in the war, Tecumseh’s name only became larger after his death, following in the line of those like Perry, Harrison, Brock, and Secord. But the war was in Tecumseh’s blood, despite him wanting nothing more than peace. Born in the latter half of the 1760s in the Ohio Valley, he was born into conflict. His true name, Tecumethe, meaning shooting star, was given to him as he was born under such an astrological sign. However, history has named him Tecumseh. The Shawnee had been forced toRead More →

Born into the American aristocracy on August 9th, 1773. Harrison was the youngest of seven children born to Benjamin Harrison V and his wife Elizabeth. He grew up on he Berkely Planation in Charles City County Virginia. He entered school at age 14 studying the classics, then entered the field of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 1790, after the death of his father in 1791 leaving little funds for him to continue his studies a friend arranged for him to meet Governor Henry Lee, and within a day Harrison accepted an Ensigns commission in the United States Army and was assigned to theRead More →

The outlook for General Henry Procter in the west was grim at best, hopeless at the worst. On September 10th, 1813 Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry had managed to take on the British Royal Navy Squadron on Lake Erie and capture all the ships intact, finally wresting control of Lake Erie from the mighty Royal Navy, this left the door wide open for a full out invasion of Upper Canada in the West. We have met the enemy and they are ours, Hazard penned in a dispatch to General William Henry Harrison who was waiting in the south. Harrison took this as an open invitation. ProcterRead More →

Back in the Summer there was a call out for unofficial FPP (Film Photography Project) meetups. As I do volunteer work for the FPP I took it upon myself to start organizing ones in Southern Ontario, but being busy I decided, hey why not just host one a season. Cross Promoting the event to APUG, and I settled on “Toronto Film Shooters Meetup” the Summer 2013 event was a good one, we took a very hot afternoon to wander around the Don Valley Brick Works. So for the fall at the suggestion of two other FPP fans in the area, Mike and John, for theRead More →

And then there are times when I loose a roll of film… I had started hearing clamoring for another Toronto FPP Meetup, and while I do a lot of work for them, I wanted to be fairly inclusive of any film shooter in the area and promised to the community that I would organize a film photo walk at least one per season. So in July of this year I found a Saturday and put the call out, and actually had a great turn out! Mike and John (not THE Mike and John) but the ones from Toronto who are friends and fans of theRead More →

Oliver Hazard Perry, one of the great American Heroes that made his name in the War of 1812. A navy man through and through and the man who beat the Royal Navy at their own game. Born in August 23rd, 1785 in South Kingston, Rhode Island entered the fledgling United States Navy at age 15 as a mid-shipman. He saw his first action during the First Barbary war in Tripoli under Commodore Preble. By 1802 he was promoted to Lieutenant and offered the post of master and commander of the Schooner Revenge with Commodore John Roger’s squadron. As it was a time of peace, PerryRead More →

I was remiss in posting about this year’s Photostock back in June! As with last year, it was a fantastic time, more so for me this year, as I stayed at the Birchwood to party it up with the group late into the night. Late nights and early mornings. Three things make Photostock great. The Place, the People, and the Community. So the photos I took reflect the first two items, the Place and the People. The third one can be shown in the photos. However, video drives the point home. This group of photographers shoots a wide range of cameras and techniques, yet weRead More →

The battle of Fort Dearborn, and the Fort itself are small footnotes in the War of 1812, the battle itself lasting less than fifteen minutes and resulted in complete victory in the hands of the natives, it’s also of note that there were no British or Canadian units present at the battle as well. But for the residents of Chicago, it is their only connection to the war. A bronze relief showing what Fort Dearborn looked like in 1812 Fort Dearborn itself was built on the south shore of the Chicago river in 1804, named after US General Henry Dearborn (his name can still beRead More →