Bill Smith's Photography

Alrighty, it's going to be +13c today and +17c Christmas Eve, a year ago we had something more along the lines of this: Camera: Nikon F3HP, Nikkor Ai 28 f2.8 lens. Film: Kodak Tri-X 400, Xtol 1+1. Camera: Mamiya C220f, Sekor 55 f4.5 lens. Film: Kodak Tmax 400, Tmax Dev. 1+4. It just feels weird being the Christmas season with it feeling like more late October out there so I went back into the archives to pull some gems I shot up in Belfountain a few years back when there was snow on the ground. Have a very merry Christmas, or an extremely belated Happy Hanukkah and all the best for a happy healthy 2016. Hopefully we'll get some winter because I want to go skiing! 

I had a pair of Olympus OM-1s that recently went in for service, a Black "n" model that needed an overhaul and a chrome MD model that just need the meter re-calibrated. I wandered around the neighbourhood two weeks ago to give the black OM-1n test run, I had frame overlap which is endemic of OM-1s and a good overhaul by a tech who knows their stuff fixes it. From about mid November onwards to about Christmas time the light in Southern Ontario is just ugly with flat visibility from low clouds stretching on for weeks. It makes outdoor photography challenging to say the least. I put an orange filter on my lens to help boost contrast. It sort of worked but I had to do some work in Adobe Lightroom. Camera: Olympus OM-1n, Zuiko 50 f 1.8 MC lens. Film: Ilford HP5 400, HC110 B.

Shooting at Maclean's Auto Wreckers for the first time was overwhelming at first. Most of the cars, trucks and school buses were from the late 1970s to the 1990s. Now tucked away in one corner of the property is a section of cars and trucks from the 1950s and '60s. I wound up shooting automotive portraits and capturing parts of a vehicle. Seeing a few old VW Beetles scattered over the property was sad as well as '70s vintage Jaguar XJ6 sedan, elegant car, fiendishly unreliable. Maclean's has an auto crusher but it looks like it hasn't been used in years, my guess the cashflow is from car parts and truck repair. It is an interesting place to go photographing amongst the wrecks. I would love to go back in the spring when the light is different. Camera: Mamiya C220f, Sekor 80 f2.8 lens. Film: Ilford HP5 400, Kodak Portra 400

So I got an opportunity a few weeks ago to wander around an auto graveyard just south of Rockwood in Northern Halton Region.... Camera: Mamiya C220f twin lens reflex camera, Sekor 80 f2.8 lens. Film: Kodak Portra 400, Ilford FP4 125 processed in HC110 B.