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If you have ever listened to me talk about my photographic journey you will have learned about how much my first trip to Montreal changed my photography. I can always tell my work from before to after my trip in my style, composition, love of black & white and of course square format. So when I brought my family back to the city earlier this month I wanted to make sure I not only explored the city with my digital camera but also with a pair of square format cameras. The first being the same camera I brought on that first trip, my Rolleiflex 2.8FRead More →

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While writing camera reviews remain a favourite of mine, second favourite is developers. Despite the challenges, it does allow me a bit more latitude in choices of films and gear. And while there are only a limited number of developers out there and some that are highly specialised or have limited film stocks that are available. But despite the limited numbers, there are in many cases a tonne of clones out there that allow me to fully explore these developers. I’ll be walking through how I write and work through reviewing film developers as I write my review of Flic Film MQ-19. The main reasonRead More →

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In: Between Darkness & Light
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When you hear the term subway, you tend to think about long stretches of tunnels that run trains mostly underground. But that is only sometimes the case; if you look at the TTC’s subway system, a great deal runs above ground but below grade. And that’s the key; you can also call roads that run under train tracks ‘subways’, but what does this all have to do with Rochester? Context being everything, the Rochester Subway, or simply “The Subway”, was a rapid transit system that mainly ran below grade. It was one of many rapid transit systems that grew in the United States through theRead More →

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I have far surpassed one hundred and fifty camera reviews and one hundred film reviews, my other two reviews being lenses and developers have only made it to the big fifty this year. If you read my previous post on lens reviews these are my least favourite. And while I rather enjoy creating film and camera reviews the most, developer reviews come in as the third favourite. The reason being is that I have the most amount of freedom connected to their creation. And while I’m working on a full post on how I write developer reviews, this post is about looking back at theRead More →

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If you had to pick the epicentre of abandoned buildings in the American Rust Belt, many cities can claim that title. The 1970s were not kind to North American industry, and cities like Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit and many more still feel the sting of that troubled decade. Then there is Gary, Indiana; you can throw a rock in many parts of Gary and break the window of an abandoned building. And despite the stories I had heard about the city being a murder capital with rampant crime and watching not only your car but your wallet. I never once felt uncomfortable in Gary, unlike Detroit,Read More →

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I first discovered a package of Kodak Microdol-X in the back of an old camera shop in Pittsburg, PA. Microdol-X was Kodak’s original fine-grain developer before being supplanted by Kodak Xtol. Although both But Microdol-X was much loved by those who used it and I’ll admit, it’s an excellent developer. Thankfully as a powder developer even those old pouches have a long shelf life, but the supply is limited. Thankfully the fine folks at LegacyPro have an answer, Mic-X, a complete clone of the original Microdol-X that uses all the original times and dilutions. Technical Details Manufacturer: LegacyPro Name: Mic-X Primary Developer: Metol Type: Reusable/One-ShotRead More →

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While every type of review I write comes with unique problems, nothing is more challenging than writing a film review. Film reviews have been done for years, mostly in dusty photographic journals and magazines and reviewed under exact conditions and in large quantities. If I tried to follow these methods, it would take me years to complete and require a large volume of films, cameras, lenses, and equipment I need more room for. Like all my reviews, I set out my method to work within the realms of what I wanted these reviews to cover: the basics. I’ve aimed these at beginner and intermediate photographersRead More →

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It’s been a minute since I ran a Toronto Film Shooters Meetup, let alone getting one outside the city. My good friends Bill and John have been killing it with the meetups, especially those inside Toronto. I love getting the group out beyond the GTA. While Hamilton is close, the TFS group has representation across North America. I also love exploring Hamilton with its stunning heritage architecture, so I organised a walk through Jamesville and into the historic downtown core at the start of June. For the walk, I went with a couple of cameras; first up is my beautiful Minolta Dynax 600si with theRead More →

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Urban explorers always have a grail location or a favourite type of location. For many in the northeast of the United States, these locations are related to the treatment of mental illness. Now, I use the term ‘treatment’ loosely because of the long and rather cruel methods used in the past. While many were seen as humane compared to earlier treatments, in our modern context, they are rather terrible. Here in Ontario, we don’t have many abandoned mental hospitals. Most have been torn down and replaced with modern facilities or reverted back to their historical form. I had never explored many mental hospitals, and allRead More →

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Ha Ha, this is a pry from my dead hands camera…😀 There’s one fun part about being connected to so many amazing photographers and bloggers over the world because of the Internet. Often you come up with ideas like this, a whole series of posts on the same subject with a coordinated release. This idea comes from Jim Grey (Down the Road), from a conversation where Theo (PhotoThinking) was looking for links for his review of the Voigtlander Superb. Peggy (Camera Go Camera) suggested he give her the camera, and Theo replyed “this is a pry this from my dead hands camera.” Jim jumped onRead More →