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This is only the second time I’ve reached a significant milestone in my ongoing reviews, the magic number of one hundred. And to be clear, I’ve done one hundred film reviews, not reviewed one hundred separate film stocks. And that’s because I’ve reviewed some rebadged films; sometimes, I knew it was a rebadge and then made a point not to go after that film stock again, notability ORWO films. I reviewed the four motion picture-specific films from ORWO as their Lomography rebadge. But in the case of Fomapan 100, I reviewed that first as KosmoFoto Mono 100 and then again as Fomapan 100. Agfa AviFotoRead More →

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While the Mark 1 Intrepid is long obsolete, it was a fantastic camera for the era in which it was produced. It became the foundation of a resurgence in modern large-format camera creation, not only from the folks at Intrepid. And while this camera is long gone, it certainly left an impression on me and my photography. This camera was designed to make large format affordable and modern construction. And it certainly made that dream a reality. Was the camera perfect? Far from it, I had many problems with this camera, but for what it was and what it cost, it made a large format,Read More →

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In: Foma:52
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It’s funny that for this year’s 52-roll project, the city of Toronto that has in the past featured prominently has taken more of a minor role this time around. With all the restrictions placed on us this year, I have found myself purposefully avoiding the city. But when my friend John Meadows asked me to be a part of his project, I jumped on a visit to Toronto. After spending time at The Only, I decided to take the hour and a half walk from Greektown on the Danforth to downtown Toronto to stock up on supplies at Downtown Camera. Having already told the grandRead More →

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If you haven’t heard of the small community of Petrolia, that makes perfect sense, it seems a bit out of place here in Ontario. But this is the area credited with kicking off an early oil boom in Ontario and within the British Empire. While a shadow of its former glory, the name and legacy live on as part of Canada’s role as a major exporter of raw resources. Back thousands of years, the Attiwonderonk, Anishiabewaki, and Mississaugas made use of the sticky tar-like substance through the region to help with waterproofing their canoes. The area remained the territory of the Mississaugas until the CanadaRead More →

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Despite being far more niche these days, film photography still hangs on. And while there are plenty of options out there for getting your films lab developed and colour film developed, both C-41 and E-6 is fairly uniform no matter what chemical you buy. Except for E-6, Cinestill has a unique E-6 kit, but that’s a whole other thing. When it comes to Black & White, there is a tonne of options available to you for development. It can seem a bit overwhelming at times. But I have spent close to a decade developing my own Black & White at home and have tried aRead More →

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One of the great things about photography as a hobby is that you can take whatever level you want and be happy where your photography is, even if it is just snapping away with your phone. But you may eventually want to take your craft up to that next level, and while new gear can certainly help make that next step, photography is one of those things that you don’t always need that next best thing. All cameras are the same idea, a dark box that allows you to capture images, freeze time, if you will, onto some form of medium. Getting a film cameraRead More →

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In: Musings
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Over the previous year, I worked hard to expand my knowledge of black & white film developers and find myself down a deep rabbit hole. Some good, some meh. Some I didn’t care for or I found them to be too specialised for average use. And while I have several up for review later this year and you can check those out later, here are seven that have stood out in my head as worthy of using again and of getting you out of the rut of using the more vanilla developers like D-76/ID-11, HC-110/Ilfotec HC, and Rodinal. 1 – Adox FX-39 II Based onRead More →

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Back in the Summer of 2013 when APUG was the place to get your online fix of the analogue photography community, I noticed a post in the Toronto local board that there weren’t enough meetups for the film photography community. Which was at the time partly true, sure there had been a couple of FPP/APUG meetups in the area in the past, I had even helped coordinate one in 2011. But there had not been anything since. So I took it upon myself to plan these events, at least four, in a year. The first one dropped in July 2013, had a decent turnout andRead More →

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In: The Canal
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When it comes past projects related to history which I have written, the foundations of the events which I planned to explore are relatively modern happening some three to two hundred years in the past. A small drop in the bucket of the history of our planet. But when it comes to the Welland Canal, the foundations of that canal take place in the dark distances of prehistory. The need for a canal across the Niagara Peninsula is related to a massive limestone cliff that cuts across the modern province of Ontario known today as the Niagara Escarpment. Today the cliff runs from the NiagaraRead More →

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Earlier this year I completed the second major historical photographic project on the Confederation of Canada and the events and places that lead up to the joining of four British Provinces in British North America into the Dominion of Canada in 1867. Over the course of that project, I came across many events and locations that inspired me to try and tell the deeper story. Of course, I couldn’t tell every story so instead, I selected two that I felt I couldn’t tell the whole story due to the timeline for the project ending in 1867. One of these is the railroad through Ontario theRead More →