Tag Archives: rural

400TX:365 – Week 15 – St. Jacobs

I seem to be going on a small town kick for this project. Week 15 brought be out to St. Jacobs. After an early start to the day and a run up to Lindsay to pick up a puppy with my friend Nicole I headed out to the Kitchener-Waterloo area for a friend’s stag-and-doe. But I took some extra time to head up to St. Jacobs. I usually stick to the area around the Highway as that’s where there’s this awesome antique store. But I never ventured into the historic downtown. Like many towns that grew up in this part of Ontario it was based around a mill, St. Jacobs is no different. The mill operations are long gone, however the mill is now an arts complex.

400TX:365 – Week 12 – No Theme

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Another “No Theme” week as the battery in my Nikon F3, which I put into it when I first got the camera a good four-five years ago now finally gave up the ghost and I’ve been having trouble getting a replacement. So I grabbed the next best camera that I could, my all mechanical Nikon FM2. Oddly enough the FM2 was the original choice for the project and from here on in will the camera of choice for the rest of the project (mostly because it only uses the battery for the meter, unlike the F3 which needs power to even release the shutter). The lens will remain the same 50mm f/1.4 Nikon glass.

A rather odd collection of photos for this week as I just carried the camera with me around work, and driving to and from.

400TX:365 – Week 08 – Elora, ON

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Situated high above the rushing waters of the grand river sits the tiny town of Elora Ontario. And in all my time living in the area I’ve never actually visited the small town. But taking advantage of a cold bright Monday morning (we had a long weekend here) I drove the hour or so north to visit the town. I was inspired to visit here after seeing an entry in the recent contest for the Milton Camera club of an old mill on a river. I wanted to see this place for myself. I was plesently surprised I have to say.

The local residents who saw this strange young man all bundled up lugging around two cameras were friendly and engaged me in conversation as I wandered through their downtown. I need to go back in the summer when the folliage is out to check out the conversation area, and water sports going on in the rapids. So you may just see this place again!

Out of Sight

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As you may know the human eye can only see a small part of the full light spectrum in the world. This is known as the visible spectrum, and it is what photography works with…mostly.

Using special films and filters you can actually photograph in the infrared spectrum. I recently came into possesion of several rolls of Infrared film, sadly not the famous Kodak HIE, but two rolls of Konica IR750, a bunch of (highly sought after) Efke IR820, a roll of (sort of infrared) Ilford SFX200, and bought some Rollei Infrared film. So I purchased a nice Kenko R72 filter big enough to screw into my 35mm lens for my Pentax 645, and the 17-55mm and 70-200mm lens for my Nikon D300. I also have a Hoya 89b filter for smaller lenses.

My first test didn’t turn out too well using some very expired Konica IR750 film…but in the February 1st podcast from the FPP I picked up a couple tips for the second roll I have. But it gave the IR effect. Black skies, white greens. I exposed the film at ISO-10 based on Internet reading, but the second roll will be exposed slower, maybe ISO-1 (like Efke films).

Pentax 645 – SMC Pentax A 645 35mm 1:3.5 – Konica IR750 – HC-110 Dil. B 7:00 @ 20C

I also slapped the filter onto my D300 and fired off and got some pretty pleasing results as well, but have to work a bit on my exposure still.

However it was back on Monday that I got my first real taste of what can be done with Infrared film using a roll of the Rollei IR film. Now for the most part IR film is rated at 400, because adding the filter in front has such a high filter factor you have to pull the film several stops, in this case I exposed the film at ISO-25 (that’s 4 stops). I used my trusty Gossen Luna Pro F to manually meter each scene. The results, well they speak for themselves. I can’t wait to actually print some of these.

Pentax 645 – SMC Pentax A 645 35mm 1:3.5 – Rollei Infrared @ ISO-25 – Rodinal 1+50 12:00 @ 20C

Now I wait for spring and summer to arrive to work more in infrared, I’m also glad I can still get new stock film because I’m rather enjoying this look.

Long Live Film.

400TX:365 – Week 07 – The Beautiful Aftermath

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For the first time in a couple years now I had a snow day, one of the perks of working for an educational institution is that if the college closes, I don’t have to work. However most of that Friday was spent shovling the snow we got, but Saturday dawned bright, clear, and snowcovered. The beautiful aftermath. So taking advantage of this I headed out and travelled along the backroads and rural areas of Hamilton, capturing the snow covered beauty that I missed last year.

Nikon F3 – AI-S Nikkor 50mm 1:1.4 – Kodak Tri-X 400
Kodak HC-110 Dil. B 4:30 @ 20C

400TX:365 – Week 04 – House Hunting

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It was back when I was still in college and would take back roads to and from the school from my home town of Milton, there were about ten abandoned farmhouses along these roads, and one day I just decided to stop and poke my head into them, and decided to bring along my camera, at that time a Minolta SRT-102 loaded with cheap Fuji Superia film. Well as many who know me I’ve gone far beyond exploring houses, so much so that I find them kinda boring these days. But when a new to the community explorer invited me along, I wasn’t going to say no. So on a very nice Saturday morning Cody, Christine, and Kelly struck out into rural Milton once again.

Still boring? Yes, at least to me (no offense intended in the statement, explore what you love, I prefer big industrial/institutional places with grand sweeping histories), but a decent subject to photograph.

Nikon F3 – AI-S Nikkor 50mm 1:1.4 – Kodak Tri-X 400 (400TX)
Dev: Kodak HC-110 Dil. B 4:30 @ 20C

Project:52 – Week 47

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I love backroads and sunday afternoon drives and taking the senic route. Sure it may take you a little bit longer to get there, but sometimes the journey is more important than the destination. So coming home from a party I decided to load up the newest member of my camera family with some film and took the long, stupid, and conviluted route home, just to see what I could see.

Bronica SQ-Am – Zenzanon-PS 150mm 1:4 – Kodak Tri-X 400 (400TX)

A Country Wedding

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What a great wedding to kick off my 2011 wedding photography season with! Despite the early hour of starting, and the slight cloud coverage when we woke up by the time the portrait sessions started, the light was perfect. Laura and Mark (and their associated families) were wonderful to work with. The portraits were taken out at Laura’s family farm, the rural setting was beautiful.