From the Road inside the GTA Greenbelt

A few years back I did a photography project and my first exhibition with two friends called "In the Shadow of the GTA Greenbelt." Long after that was put to bed I still shoot within the Green Belt on a regular basis, part of it due to the fact Greater Toronto is a sprawling region and what was farmland 15 years ago is now a subdivision. It is my hope the Greenbelt is protected over the long haul regardless who is in power at the provincial level.

Camera: Nikon FM2, Nikkor Ais 35 f2 lens.
Film: Ilford HP5 400, HC110 B,

Winter is Taking It's Time

Winter took it's time to show up this year, we had rain and a thunderstorm Christmas Eve, that should say it all right there. We now have a little bit of snow on the ground but I would not call it a dump like last year. Unfortunately the cold temperatures returned as well but unlike last year, that may not last, one can hope for average winter temperatures for a change.

The top photos were taken along McLaren Side Road in Caledon,  one of my favourite drives and it started snowing while I was taking the pictures. The others were shot along the West Credit River near Brimstone and the hairpin turn on Forks of the Credit Road that same afternoon after skiing.

Camera: Olympus OM-1MD, Zuiko lenses,
Film: Ilford HP5 400, HC110 B.

Ski Season

Long time readers know I'm a ski bum, been skiing for 40 years first leaning how when I was six years old north of Montreal. This year, it has been a green holiday season and the local hill I go to got things up and running through the magic of snowmaking. It was also quiet because people psychologically didn't think it was winter but just very late November over the Christmas season and stayed away. That meant no line ups which for dedicated skiers and snowboarders meant more time on the slopes.

While I'm thankful for the more seasonably cold temperatures, it's just not winter without about 30cm of snow on the ground, just feels weird.


Camera: Olympus OM-1md, Zuiko lenses.
Film: Ilford HP5 400, HC110 B.

Happy New Year!

It's time 2014 got shown the door, while my year was pretty good in the grand scheme of things, most of my friends and colleagues had in one form or another a tough year.  Some of them it was career setbacks or relationships going sour, others bad life events, the majority it was a loss of a loved one.  If you suffered a bad case of horrible year, regardless what happened, repeat after me, "2014, I'm kicking your sorry ass to the curb, and don't come back!"

I wish you all a safe Happy 2015, it's a clean page, what are you going to put on it?

Closing in the End of the Year.

I'm back on familiar ground and happy to have a camera in my hand for a change. This past weekend I was up in skiing at the Caledon Ski Club, unlike last year when we had real winter, it's looking a lot more like a brown/green Christmas with a bit of half melted snow for accents.

Exploring the back roads of Caledon On before and after skiing is going to be the activity over the next few months. Now if we can only get a nice dump of the white fluffy stuff....

Have a Merry Christmas and a safe happy New Year!



Camera: Olympus OM-1n, Zuiko 50 f1.8 lens
Film:  Ilford HP5 400, HC110 B.

Wandering Around Toronto with a Pentax Spotmatic SP. Part One.

I confess I'm a camera collector as well as a user. One of my systems is the Pentax or M-42 screw mount system, I own a Spotmatic F, a pair of SVs, a S1a and an Asahi Pentax model K from the late 1950s (not to be confused with the K1000) which is a rare beast. So my brother (and worst enabler) told me an independent Leica Repair tech out of the US mid west was selling a batch of overhauled Pentax Spotmatics for $40USD. Granted this was before the Canadian dollar started melting in currency markets so it came to about $55Cdn with postage, how can you go wrong?

The Asahi Pentax SP was considered the first SLR camera to offer through the lens metering (TTL) in the mid 1960s and I would consider it the VW Beetle of cameras. Now here's the deal with the Pentax screw mount lens family, their optics were on par with Leica and Zeiss. It the day comes I add a digital body to the camera kit, it will most likely be a Sony A7 MkII with an adapter.

Camera: Pentax Spotmatic SP, Super Multi-Coated Takumar 50 f1.4 lens,
Film: Ilford HP5 400, HC110 B.

Headshots

I do headshots for Linked In and other social media platforms.

Camera: Hasselblad 500 C/M, 80 f2.8 Zeiss Planar Lens.
Film: Fuji Pro 400 H.