Bill Smith's Photography

I went to Midnight Madness for the first time in a really long time (10-15 years), I wanted to do some street photography. Midnight Madness is a long time street festival put on by the downtown BIA, kicking off summer clearance sales with local retailers and restauarants set up temporary patios on Lakeshore Road. This has been going on for decades.  Well reality creeps in, street festivals are a big soft target for someone with an axe to grid with society.  Midnight Madness was fortified with salt trucks and other vehicles from Oakville Public Works Department at each end of Lakeshore Road  and on side streets feeding in. I also noticed a lot of the merchants didn't have tables outside anymore as in the past, the sales were in the stores proper.  Out of all the photographs, the shot of the DJ is my favourite. It hit Flickr explore and the metrics went off the charts on that site.  Camera: Nikon F2SB, Nikkor S.C. 50 f1.4 lens.  Film: Decade old...

I have a newfound respect for Kodak Portra 400, I usually shoot Ektar 100, oh wow, no grain! Camera: Minolta XD, MD Rokkor X 50 f1.7 lens. Film: Kodak Portra 400

I last visited the Don Valley Brickworks last November and had some fun shooting in that environment. I didn't go in and explore the oven area because I wasn't packing a tripod, and you needed one in that lighting environment. Out back, the former pit where the clay was mined is now a park. What's really cool is the Brickworks is a community hub, on the weekends there are all sorts of events booked and in the past I've been to a Toronto Underground Food Truck event. Getting there you have options, one, drive and pay for parking, two, get off the Broadview Subway Station and catch the free shuttle bus that runs half hourly, and three hike in along the Beltline Trail. Camera: Minolta XD(11) MD Rokkor X 50 f1.7 lens. Film: Kodak Portra 400, Ektar 100.

I got my crhrome Minolta XD back from Garry's Camera a few weeks ago and I wanted to give it a good workout so I packed it along with my black XD-11 for a photowalk through The Evergreen Don Valley Brickworks and along part of the Beltline Trail. With bright sunshine, this is going to be a colour film weekend, end of discussion. The XD (Japan home market) and XD-11 (North America) are the same camera, in fact with a different outer shell and lens mount, it's a Leica R4 and R5, take out the electronics, an R6. Wish I  could swing a Leica R system but lens prices are just plain silly these days thank you mirrorless full frame digital bodies. With the Minolta XD system you're getting pretty much the same experience. The XD system is pretty close in size and shape to the Nikon FM/FE platform with pretty similar ergonomics and was best in class in 1977/78 in terms of technology. If you're looking for one, the XD(7/11 I really hate how Minolta designated their models in ...

I was up in Milton Ontario Canada Day (July 1) to record some Classic Camera Revival Podcasts over at my friend James Lee's place. I had some time to kill and wandered around the downtown. The Canon FTBn was for an upcoming episode on cameras that got passed around the group, this case Mike Bitaxi sold me the Canon for $40. Tossed another $60 for a CLA and she works. Some people ask me if I'm a professional photographer, the answer is no, I do sell prints on occasion and if you ask me really, really nicely, give me complete creative control, and don't be an ass about it after the fact, I'll photograph your portraits. Just to prove I'm not in it for the money, I shoot film, only film unless I'm grabbing a snapshot or event photo on my iPhone. The film photography community is very welcoming, even more so in the film photography podcast community, I was invited onto the Classic Camera Revival, I guess going on two years ago, and I am happy to count Alex, Jo...

Funny what you find in the Lightroom catalogue, I had a bunch of photos from the rare nice day last Summer and I never published them. I'm thinking the FE2 was one of Nikon's best cameras after seeing these images, again as mentioned in a previous post I wish there was a battery check lever like the FE. I sent the camera off for a CLA to deal with the over exposing meter issue, I'm trying a repair tech in Quebec City who was highly recommended to my by fellow Classic Camera Revival host John Meadows. What also got my attention was Portra 400, I've been shooting mostly Kodak Ultramax, Lomo 400 C-41 and Kodak Ektar, I forgot the Portra series of films. Oh wow, I have to shoot some more. Now, what I should do is try some Portra 160. My brother shot some in medium format and I was in awe with what he got out of it. Camera: Nikon FE2, Nikkor Ai lenses. Film: Kodak Portra 400