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In: Between Darkness & Light
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We’re picking up where we left off last month with the second of two locations we hit up on a quick Labour Day trip to Buffalo in 2012. If you aren’t part of the classic hot rod hobby, the name Houdaille might be lost on you, but even today, these styles of shocks are highly valued in the hobby, especially when restoring or rebuilding cars from the 1930s and 1940s. The location itself didn’t spark anything interesting because it was empty. Its real value is in the history. In March 1909, French inventor Maurice Houdialle filed a patent for a new style of shock absorberRead More →

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Within the Canadian Mythos of our nation, there are several events, call them fixed points in the timeline, that have been arbitrarily assigned to build the Canada we live in today. These points are, of course, all post-contact with the Europeans, but that’s a discussion for another time. You can look at the arrival of the French and the founding of Quebec City and Montreal. The French and Indian War that established British rule, the American Revolution, the two attempted invasions, and the arrival of the Loyalists. The War of 1812, which saw the American invasions repeatedly tossed back. The Canadian Confederation in 1867. WouldRead More →

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I had not been exploring in Buffalo proper since 2007, and honestly, if they had including some of these locations at that event I probably would have had a better time. So taking advantage of the invitation to join in a short Labour Day exploration in 2012 to check out a couple of locations on the other side of the border, I jumped on the chance. Both locations we checked out were right next to each other in a former industrial corridor on Northland Avenue. Of the two, the most interesting is this spot, the former Curtiss-Wright metal forming works, but its history is muchRead More →

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I love winter. Well, a specific type of winter, the winter we had this past winter. And while we’re all here now, looking forward to spring, I wanted to look back at the winter that was, because I had a lot of fun this year. So what made this winter better than, say, the past two that we had? Well, first off, we got snow early, back in November 2025, which was awesome. And sure, we did lose all of it over the rest of the month and into December. But we did get some back in December, only to lose it again. But weRead More →

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Like last year, I had a few extra days free to myself at the end of the year. So I rounded up the CCR team and headed into the city. The goal was to shoot some film and record an episode of the Classic Camera Revival for the start of our new season. I grabbed a train out from Oakville and into Union Station to meet up with the gang. I packed my Minolta Maxxum 7 and the 20mm lens, along with a roll of Kodak Tri-X 400 (rated at ASA-320 and developed in 510-Pyro). Since we were also doing the Mystery Camera Challenge, IRead More →

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I had a lot of fun last year working through some of my cameras and picking a different camera and film each month and shooting them for the enjoyment of photography. Often I would tie the roll to a YouTube video, specific blog post, developer review, or a podcast episode, but sometimes it would be for the fun of photography. These were always posted to Instagram and I worked again in collaboration with the community of folks through the 12monthsonfilm account. For 2025 I’ll admit there were repeat cameras from last year, but I did make a point to include some new arrivals and thoseRead More →

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In: 1812:Revisited
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By 1814, both sides were starting to tire of the war. For the Americans, they had been facing no actual movement. The Royal Navy was causing havoc on the east coast. The British held Mackinac Island, Fort Niagara, the District of Maine, and Prarie Du Chien. The Americans only held Fort Erie, having been turned back in their Niagara invasion. They were under siege and had some control of the western edge of Upper Canada but nothing beyond the settlements of Sandwich and Amherstburg. The possibility of peace negotiations had started in 1813 but were soon shut down. However, with long lines of communication betweenRead More →

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Well we made it through another year. Like every years things did not always go to plan and that’s okay. Because it’s important to be flexible, especially when this blog and other channels is not a full time job. The year was a lot of fun despite being a little chaotic. I always have hope that things will eventually calm down, but they do in fact always calm up. There was a rather unfortunate bump through the fall with a five week support staff strike that did reduce some capacity for creation, but I had the chance to play catch up through October and NovemberRead More →

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The war had ground to an unceremonious stalemate; it had not gone to plan for both the British and Americans. The Americans continued believing that the Canadians would welcome them as liberators rather than invaders and join them in an easy campaign to free them all from the shackles of the Crown and a distant parliament. The British believed that once Napoleon was safely taken care of, a series of campaigns on the eastern seaboard would help the Americans sue for peace on British terms. None of that happened. Instead, the Americans were left to command a small sliver along the Detroit River of UpperRead More →

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The war had become a stalemate, and peace negotiations reached an impasse. Drummond’s siege remained in place but had been reduced to ineffective artillery fire, and most of his troops were reduced by illness due to the ongoing rain and poor conditions in the camp. Drummond’s requests for additional troops had been granted, and elements of the 4th and 82nd Regiments marched with heavy siege artillery to Niagara. On 4 September, the American defenders of Fort Erie did attempt to dislodge the British attackers. The short skirmish resulted in several deaths, including the traitor Joseph Willcocks and many of his Canadian Volunteers in the shortRead More →