The Bridge

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Alex

Hidden behind a hospital and a massive shopping mall a tiny road dead ends at a park. You can still see the old light standards continuing down. I had some time to kill on a Saturday afternoon so I decided to stop and check it out, having a camera with me I naturally brought it along for the hike.

Down at the base of the road I was drawn out onto one the side trails that ran along a river bank, following it around I noticed something in the distance, it looked like a bridge, but not a bridge one would expect, it looked like an old road bridge.

I moved in closer to said bridge, sticking to the river, it looked old, concret with stone pilings on either bank.

The bridge was only a single lane, and happened to continue the road that I had followed initally, this was a bowstring truss (I remembered that from the Bridge project I had in Grade 5), and it was old, that much was clear, such details are not put onto most modern bridges, functionality before form eh? At least there was a plaque to date the bridge, 1909.

Some research on The King’s Highway website pulls up the following. The bridge was part indeed built as a bowstring truss bridge in 1909, the first such bridge in Ontario, and the road I was walking on…was the Middle Road, yes, the road that in the 1930s was converted into Ontario’s first limited access freeway. The bridge however only served one year on the Middle road before the highway was realigned and a bigger (and less attractive) bridge was constructed.

Nikon F3 – AI-S Nikkor 50mm 1:1.4 – Fuji Provia 100F (RDPIII)

Railed

Posted on December 20, 2011 by Alex

The year was 1994, March. An electrical failure causes one of hte trains on Toronto Zoo’s Domain Ride to roll backwards hitting a second vehicle injuring thirty people, and forcing the Zoo to shut down the Domain Ride, ending 30 years of the ride giving tours through some of the more remote areas of the Toronto Zoo which streached well out and along the Rouge River, which visitors could not walk to. But on this cold December Saturday we were forced to. The six of us crept down the steep grade to the river banks and made our way along looking for the concrete guideway. The Domain Zoo ride, although called a monorail (probably because of hte electrified rail) was actually closer to the Montreal Subway (Metro) with rubber tyred trams that passangers sat in during the trip. We eventually were able to get access to the abandoned guideway and move along it. Mostly over grown (and terminating where the zoo-mobile now runs) with long streaches through areas that could easily be found in Northern Ontario, even abandoned animal shelters for the exhibits that once roamed ‘free’.

Project:52 – Week 41

Posted on October 19, 2011 by Alex

Week 41, or how Emily got her groove on.

My original idea for this week (and one I might use later on) was to get random people in the streets to throw on some headphone and dance, but at the time I realized that might be a little creepy, so instead I called up my friend Emily who is always willing to pose for my cameras. So off into Toronto we headed with an mp3 player filled with music, a camera loaded with a roll of film, and she danced, pranced, and played around in parks, subways, and alleys. Yes we got questioning gazes, smiles, and outright confusion.

But good times were had by all.

Did I ever mention that I think I’m addicted to the new Kodak Portra 400? Because I am…such a glorious film.

Nikon F4 – AF Nikkor 50mm 1:1.4D – Kodak Portra 400

Sarah & Derrick’s Wedding

Posted on October 3, 2011 by Alex

September 10th dawned bright and clear, not too cold either. I found myself out in Clarrington, ON at the beautiful 4 Season’s Golf & Country club to photograph Sarah & Derrick’s Wedding, a couple I had photographed for their engagement photos last year. The back drop was beautiful, the sky a deep blue, the greens bright with life, the fall colours not yet starting to come in.

It was such a day that I wish I had access to Kodachrome to shoot, and the colour processing to match.

Sarah & Derrick were a wonderful couple to work with, both naturals in front of the cameras and very easy to photograph.

Sometimes some of the strongest photos are the ones that catch a moment of peace between the couple amidst the chaos of hte day

Project:52 – Week 38

Posted on October 1, 2011 by Alex

I broadened my horizons, and went W I D E, and when I mean WIDE, I’m talking panoramic wide…using one of the more unique cameras in my collection. After popping into the Lomography store to get a lesson on how to use the Horizon Kompakt, a Russian swing lens camera I took once again to the streets of Toronto to give it a go. The camera itself is what makes the whole concept unique, as I mentioned earlier it is a swing lens, a fixed 28mm f/8 lens, that will travel across a 120 degree arc exposing a thin slit of the film as it passes to create the final image which takes up approximately two standard frames. The best part, no batteries, powered entirely by a near silent clockwork motor. I got many stares as I stopped to use the camera as I wandered along.

So yes, this camera eats film, a roll of 36 will yield about 22 images, also with no meter in it you have to be careful about the film you load into it. Using the 400 speed film (Ilford HP5+) on that bright a day made a lot of the images unrecoverable, a 200 or even 100 speed may have worked better. But with a bit of work in post I was able to pull out some pretty awesome photos.

Horizon Kompakt – Обьектив ИНДУСТАР MC 8/28 – Ilford HP5+

Cross Processing

Posted on September 28, 2011 by Alex

Cross Processing or XPro the act of developing film specifically colour in the wrong chemicals.

Yes, you just read that right, I purposefully got some film developed wrong.

It sounds weird I know, putting your slide film in chemicals made for colour negative film, or colour negative in slide film chemicals. But as of late I’ve been getting into a bit of a lo-fi vibe, so I figured it was about time to try out some cross processing. The Lomographic Society markets film that is designed for cross processing, called aptly XPro. Just between us, it is actually old Agfa slide film stock just re-branded on the canister. Developing the film as slide film (which it is natively) brings out wonderful colour and resolution, so it was the film I was going to try out.

Lomography XPro 100 developed as Slide Film

So I loaded in a roll of Lomography’s XPro 100 film into my trusty Nikon FM2 and the 50mm 1.4 lens and hit the streets of Toronto.

Now I had seen XPro photos in the past, and wasn’t really that keen on the look, but I went into the project knowing that the results might be a bit…weird, but I was ready for that. Of course there was a call from the lab making sure that I wasn’t being an idiot for requesting that the slide film be processed in colour negative chemistry, and me reassuring them that yes, I really wanted it done this way and that I wasn’t an idiot.

The results were…much better than I expected, of course there were several shots that really didn’t turn out that well, cross processing is not good when you’re shooting in very low light, but in the bright sun earlier in the day, the results were actually pretty fantastic.

See for yourself!

Most of these were shot straight from the hip, very little attention was paid to the settings (Sunny-16 metering). Would I do it again…most definitely.

Project:52 – Week 18

Posted on May 16, 2011 by Alex

So for the past 17 weeks, each week has been about one camera, and one type of film…so why not celebrate film shooting, and more specifically the April 30th Film Photography Podcast and APUG meet up in Toronto’s Distillery District that I organized.

The meet itself was an amazing success, I was very pleased with the turn out, about 20 people showed up and the weather was spectacular! (I had the sunburn on my face to prove it the next day). I was still recieving compliments this past Sunday at the PHSC fair.

Canon AE-1 Program – Canon FD Lens 50mm 1:1.8 – Kodak Ektar 100

Polaroid Land Camera 240 Automatic – Polaroid 664

Rolleiflex 2.8F – Carl Zeiss Planar 80mm 1:2.8 – Fuji Velvia (RVP)

Rolleiflex 2.8F – Carl Zeiss Planar 80mm 1:2.8 – Fuji Astia 100F (RAP100F)

For the rest of the Meet Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/axle81401/sets/72157626501869889/with/5725599303/
Also Check out the Film Photography Podcast at: http://www.filmphotographypodcast.com

Project:52 – Week 16

Posted on May 2, 2011 by Alex

Another rainy Saturday in Toronto. But rather than set the mood again with a black and white film, why not let the colours of a spring rain sing. So once again my trusty Nikon F4 was loaded up with another roll of Kodak’s new Portra 400 and off I set. Walking from University Ave west along Queen Street to Dufferin. Yes I did make a quick stop at the Lomography Store at Queen and Bathurst. At least this time around the rain actually held off so I wasn’t soaked by the time I reached Liberty Village.

Nikon F4 – AF DC-Nikkor 105mm 1:2D – Kodak Portra 400

The Last Roll (Of Kodachrome)

Posted on March 11, 2011 by Alex

There are probably a lot of people on here who have much longer and fonder memories of this magically slide film called Kodachrome. Kodak canceled the long running film in 2009 along with all support and additional products needed to run the K-14 process. Introduced in 1935 Kodachrome became the first commercially available colour films. It featured bright colours, and long lasting stability. The reason for this was at its very core Kodachrome was a black and white film, with each emulsion layer sensitive to a different colour. Then during the process the dyes were introduced and stuck to the layers to bring out the colours.

I came into Kodachrome far too late.

At the beginning of 2010 Dwayne’s Photo in Parsons, KS announced they would be continuing to process Kodachrome but only will accept orders for processing until December 31st, 2010. The Race was on. Having shot three rolls to this point, those three being major disappointments (poor storage), I went hunting on both Ebay and within the local photographer population and managed to secure myself six more rolls. Living in Canada meant that I had at least a month turn around for my photos.

These photos are from that last roll that I shot on December 18th, 2010. I went along King Street for the most part in Toronto, a street I hadn’t really explored that much with the camera. After I finished the roll, I mailed it off that same day.

This was the very last frame I shot, the building is the City of Toronto’s First Post Office (4th Post office for the City of York) it was shut down after the Rebellions in1837 when the postmaster was framed for aiding the anti-government rebels. It was restored and reopened in 1983 and serves both as a full service Post Office (I mailed the roll off that day from the post office to Dwayne’s) and a museum.

Contax G2 – Carl Zeiss Biogon 2,8/28 T* – Kodachrome 64 (KR)

For all my Kodachrome shots (Including the first failed rolls) you can visit my Last Days of Kodachrome set on Flickr

But fear not! As I mentioned previously, Kodachrome is at it’s core a black and white film, so several people have been experimenting with processing the film in normal b/w chemicals! The results, spectacular! So don’t ditch those spare rolls (if you have any) laying around! Sharp Photo does a good job as does Blue Moon Camera. (If you don’t want/need them, you can always send them to me…)

Project:52 – Week 7

Posted on February 28, 2011 by Alex

I’ll admit I had a hard time choosing my top seven for Week 7. I recently found out about Vivian Maier a Chicago Street Photographer in the 1950s and 1960s, and that she used a TLR, specifically a Rolleiflex for her work. Blown away by her style I decided that rather than bemone that she was far better that I, I took her works and used it for inspiration for week 7, taking to the streets of Toronto with my Rolleiflex, and a handful of Ilford HP5. I ended up shooting two rolls at Nathan Phillips Square, I am rather pleased to give you week 7, the streets.

alex luyckx | blog

Explorer, Photographer, Wanderer

Tag Archives: Toronto