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I seem to have found yet another home away from home. Emmet county is up in the northern part of Michigan. I was first introduced to this beautiful part of the United States in 2012 at Photostock. Photostock, the brainchild of world-renowned photographer Bill Schwab is a gathering of photographers in his backyard. And in its early years, it was literally in his backyard, but by the time I started going, it had moved to the Birchwood Inn; this throw-back backwoods hotel would make you think you had stepped back into the 1960s. I have written about Photostock before, but this time it’s different. PhotostockRead More →

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Comrades! May 1st (well the whole week apparently) was International Commie Camera Day. Of course to the average person wouldn’t know a communist camera from a regular one. So what makes a camera communist? Last time I checked Cameras don’t hold to political ideologies (or do they?), but rather what makes a camera communist is where it was made and when. For the most part a camera is communist when it it well made in a communist country (so yes, those Chinese cameras that are still produced today, yep, communist). But for the most part a “Commie Camera” was one that was produced in theRead More →

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One of the more interesting urban legends and mysteries of the Anglo-American War of 1812 is Bakus Mills. Unlike similar mills across the western part of Upper Canada, Bakus survived. While many other mills at Port Dover, Port Reyes, and Malcolm’s Mills saw destruction in the last part of the war at the hands of American raiders. These mills despite the threat of raids continued to provide much-needed food supplies to the British front line in the Niagara Region. The Backhouse Homestead, Prospect Hill, while not the original home of the family this was built later in the 19th-Century. Anniversary Speed Graphic – Kodak EktarRead More →

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While today the small town of Port Dover is better known for it’s Friday the Thirteenth Motorcycle event than the small role it played during the Anglo-American War of 1812, the small port played a small but important role in the early parts of the conflict and suffered a pair of disastrous raids by the Americans before the war ended. Lake traffic remains a key feature of Port Dover today. Nikon FM2 – AI-S Nikkor 50mm 1:1.8 – Kodak Tmax 100 @ ASA-100 – Rodinal 1+50 12:00 @ 20C Like many early communities of Upper Canada Port Dover was first settled by United Empire LoyalistsRead More →

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The Battle of Malcolm’s Mills is little more than a small skirmish, noted only for it being the final engagement of the war in Upper Canada. By November 1814 the Americans had abandoned their beachhead at Fort Erie. Negotiations in Gent between the British and the American governments saw progress, but for those living in the western part of Upper Canada, they remained under threat of American raids and occupation. And while the Americans had neither the will, supply line, or manpower to occupy the territory fully they did continue to send out small raiding parties to disrupt any militia activity or destroy British supplyRead More →

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She is the stuff of legends, a hero in her own right, a hull of iron, and undefeated in battle. A mighty sailing ship that spans three centuries and is still able to move under her power, she’s called Old Ironsides, but her real name is the US Frigate Constitution (44). And while the history of the Constution extends both before and long after the Anglo-American War of 1812. And while the ship is not a fort, person, battle, or location, it played a major role in the war and added to the overall mythos surrounding the war in these past 200 years. By 1793Read More →

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Last week Sunday was August 19th, to most people it’s just another Sunday, but August 19th is World Photography Day…why the 19th, simple, it was on August 19th, 1839 that France gave the world a gift, the gift of Photography. You see earlier that year (January 9th) Joseph Nicèphore Nièpce and Louis Daguerre developed the photographic process and the French Academy of Sciences passed it along to the world. So after church that morning I loaded up a roll of Kodak Tmax 100 into my Rolleiflex and hit a local hiking trail, Mount Nemo. World Photography Day was created in 2009 and launched in 2010Read More →

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When you use Leica, Nikon, Carl Zeiss optics the idea of plastic lenses and “toy” cameras will often scare a photographer, you really don’t know what you’re going to be getting out of your image. It certainly won’t be the sharpest image on the block, vignetting is going to be there, soft focus, light leaks, all very possible. Add Expired film into the mix and things just start getting dicy. Something that many photographers won’t even touch, and I used to be like that…until I picked up, on a whim, a Holga from The Film Photography Project. And instantly was dragged into the wonderful worldRead More →