Bill Smith's Photography

My friend James offered to process my slide film and I took him up on the offer, he owns a Jobo Processor and I know the end results would be great. Well, there was a teachable moment along the way. James lives up in Milton, and Milton draws it's municipal water from wells and is as hard as a granite countertop. That is the chemical wrench in E-6 processing. All my slide film came out almost a stop or two underexposed and there was some serious rescue work done in Lightroom. James apologized profusely, turned out he usually uses distilled water mixing up E-6 chemicals only this time used tap water. I  get it because that is the same exact blunder I would do on autopilot. So the teachable moment, if you're processing your slides at home, either 1) use distilled water or 2) invest in a water softener. Hard water does a number on the dye couplers so some colour channels are over represented and others under represented. I also had a roll of Velvia 100 and Provia 100 in 35mm pro...

The long weekend is never long enough, time to drive home.... I stopped through Dorset again (never gets old) and for a change of pace stopped in Minden for lunch. The Dominion makes a really nice burger. Camera: Olympus OM2n, Zuiko Lenses. Film: Lomography 400 C-41.

There's a story, I wanted to shoot some slide film through my Rollei on my long weekend trip. A friend with a Jobo processer and E-6 Processing kit offered to develop my two rolls of Provia. Hey why not? Well, my friend, where he lives has very hard municipal tap water, and makes the slide film look like it was under exposed by two stops. So, no beautiful shots of downtown Cannington or of Billie Bear Resort on a Sunny Saturday morning on medium format slide film. Ok, I still have two rolls of Ilford HP5, I processed one in HC110 Dilution B, a bog standard developer and developing time. Well, HC110 is a robust developer that keeps for long time, and delivers. The first roll was that time I found out HC110 is great until it's not, I lost a roll. Ok, the other roll was processed in Tmax Developer and here are the results. Camera: Rolleiflex Series E 3.5 Planar Twin Lens Reflex Camera Film: Ilford HP5 400, Tmax Dev 1+4.

We went to the end of Billie Bear Road and entered Big East, Provincial Park. Camera: Olympus OM2n, Zuiko lenses. Film: Kodak Portra 400.

To shake things up on Saturday, we decided to head north on Billie Bear Road to see where it ends, which is somewhere north on the Big East River. On the way, we stumbled across a twin pond that may or may not be part of Heck Lake inside Big East River Provincial Park which isn't really a park like Arrowhead or Algonquin Park. Think more an eco-preserve along the Big East River watershed between both parks. The weather, to be honest, was very changeable, so you will see the difference in the next post. Camera: Olympus OM-2n, Zuiko lenses. Film: Lomo 400 C-41,

My happy place, Bille Bear never gets old. Landscape photography is part of the pull for me to come up here year after year, the other part is the resort itself and the timeless vibe it has. Long may it stay the same. Now, there are more photos to come, I'm waiting for a roll of medium format Fuji Provia 100 slide film to be processed please stay tuned. (Update) Sadly due to either user error or my Rollei needs a CLA, the roll of Provia 100 didn't turn out, well, it did but only with a massive amount of work in Lightroom and it looks like cross processing instead of standard development. Oh well, shit happens. Camera: Olympus OM-2n, Zuiko lenses. Film: Lomo 400 C-41