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I can’t recall when I first saw the historic city of Galt, Ontario. It was probably on a trip to see the outlet shops at the old Southworks location (now the Gaslight district), but I did do a bit of Urban Exploration in that same area several years later. Today, Galt is a part of the modern city of Cambridge, one of four historic settlements that merged in the 1970s. Galt was among the largest, and the historic core remains one of the best to visit if you’re a fan of historic architecture. When I first thought about taking a closer look at Galt, itRead More →

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In: Between Darkness & Light
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If there was a symbol of Hamilton’s rise, fall, and rebirth, that symbol downtown would be the Lister Block. It also was one of the jewels of the Hamilton Urban Exploration scene and could make for a fun night of exploration, which, depending on access, would see an easy group including the Lyric Theatre, Tivoli, Royal Connaught and then Lister Block. After getting out, I grabbed slices from National Pizza. But those days are long gone, Lister and Connaught being restored, Lyric long gone, and Tivoli is sealed demolished. Among all the places I explored, Lister Block is one that I was around when itRead More →

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Alright, I said I wasn’t going to get one of these, well, specifically an autofocus version of the Nikkor 20mm lens. The Minolta one solidified my enjoyment of the 20mm focal length, and I was passively looking for a manual focus lens, either AI or AI-S, because then it would work on all my cameras without fail. But I also don’t turn up my nose to a lens when offered. And well, here we are, the 20mm f/2.8D. I do like my wide-angle choices, and the 20mm offers up a nice in-between when 24mm isn’t wide enough and 14mm is too wide. And I don’tRead 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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This year marked a major milestone for my podcast, the Classic Camera Revival. And while I call it ‘my’ podcast, unlike other content I’ve posted in this series of entries, CCR is far more a community effort. I wanted it to be not on my shoulders only but rather based around a team of dedicated people who can take on every duty along the way. It’s only fair that the final entry in the series is centred around creating the podcast. Since we started in 2015, a lot has changed in almost every aspect, from how and when we record to the production and evenRead More →

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Nikon is known for many things; among them is its insane level of detail regarding its macro lenses, or micro lenses in Nikon parlance. For those who aren’t in the know, macro photography is photographing small objects and reproducing them at life-size. Nikon produced its first macro lens in 1956 for the rangefinder or S-Series of cameras, a 55mm f/3.5; this got carried into the F-Mount in 1961, the Micro-Nikkor 1:3.5 f=5.5cm. This lens was improved through its lifetime, eventually becoming the legendary AI-S Micro-Nikkor 55mm 1:2.8, then got an AF make-over and eventually was superseded by this lens, the Micro-Nikkor 60mm 1:2.8. First introducedRead More →

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There’s no denying it; this lens is a monster. I have some big and heavy lenses in my tool kit, and while this one is undoubtedly smaller than my 70-200/2.8G, it is the largest and heaviest of my manual focus kit. It is also often overlooked compared to later versions of the lens, which means that it’s an excellent, affordable lens, no matter what other people say about the number of aperture blades. The lens itself comes from a long lineage, released in 1977. Designed initially by Saburo Murakami and released in 1964, the Auto Nikkor-P 300mm 1:4.5 used a five-element design but struggled withRead More →

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It’s always good to get out from the familiar especially with a photo walk group. While the Toronto Film Shooters has always been centered around Toronto, Ontario and a majority of the events take place in different parts of the city. The group has on several occasionally spread their wings and headed outside the normal area and into different parts of the province. We’ve had events in Guelph, Unionville, Elora, and even Niagara-On-The-Lake. So at the end of September I decided to host a bonus event in Dundas, Ontario. A small historical town, today a part of Hamilton, Ontario on a Sunday afternoon. While BillRead More →

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I miss Efke films; these were a blast from the past, a film stock that survived sixty years through three manufacturers. While the production line shut down in 2012, I had several years of using these classic films under the Adox and Efke brands. And even after the discontinuation, I secured a brick of the film through eBay, which I enjoyed for another couple of years. Back in July, I got a single roll of film from James Lee after the CCR 10th Anniversary event. So I decided to save it for a special day, so I took it out on World Photography Day, 19Read More →