Bill Smith's Photography

I really have to walk the west end more often, there's so much photographic potential. Canon EF, FD 50 f1.4 chrome nose lens, FD 28 f2 SSC lens. Film: Ilford HP5 400 @1600 ISO, HC110 B.

I was in Little Portugal recently to check out Alternative Photo Services open house at their new location, I've known Bob Carnie for years and if you need an exhibition ready group of photographic prints for the Tate Modern Gallery in London England, he's your go to guy. I did a photowalk during the Summer last year in the neighbourhood and I really liked the potential it has for a future Toronto Film Shooters event. When and where we start and end I'm still figuring out. The Canon EF was my camera choice and I wound up using the chrome nose FD mount 50 f 1.4 lens most of the time,  ran with pushed Ilford HP5 400 at 1600 ISO and metered off one of my Sekonic L398 meters. This is a solid combo. Sadly the on camera meter is off by a few stops and could use a re-calibration. Not a huge priority, the camera otherwise works just fine. Canon EF, FD 50 f1.4 Chrome Nose lens. Film: Ilford HP5 400 pushed to 1600, HC110 B.

Ultrafine Extreme 400 has been getting a lot of street cred recently as the cheep and cheerful film that punches way, way, way above it's price point and plain delivers the goods. I've shot it at near box speed (320 ISO) over the Summer, that was great when you had a lot of light to work with. Toronto is now headed into grey sky season, which on this day is distressed pewter. I loaded up some UFX 400 into my Nikon F2SB and took it in with me to the city to do some urbran photography and put the film through it's paces. Some exposures were really thin as in I didn't even bother to scan the frames. Don't know why that happened as other frames were just bang on in terms of exposure. Grain isn't too bad at 1600 and I processed in dilution B HC110, a developer every black and white photographer should be familiar with if they process at home. The frames that turned out great are keepsers. Will this replace HP5 400 as my film to push to 1600, no, but it will supp

I have 24mm lenses in some of my camera systems but not others, and up until recently while I own thses lenses I didn't use them much unitl this past winter, with the Nikkor Ais 24 f2.8 lens with my black Nikon FM. I also used that same lens on this year's NLP trip up to Norhtern Muskoka and I really loved the photographs I got out of it. So with a recent trip into the city, I packed my Nikkor N 24 f2.8 lens with my Nikon F2SB instead of the Nikkor H 28 f3.5 lens. The 24mm lens got used just past sun down which this time of year was around 5 PM. I need something that can hoover light in and the same time deliver reasonably shart results I can print from. The Nikkor N 24 f2.8 delivers in this case. I also love the OM Zuiko, and Canon FD SSC 24 F2.8 lenses. They both deliver in spades in this focal length camera companies usually go to town and deliver a stunning piece of glass. I'm still on the hunt for something in Pentax K mount and Minolta Rokkor MC/MD mount, patience

I seriously don't miss my Olympus OM-4, the OM-2n and my OM-1's are perfect for me. In terms of ergonomics the OM-2n is just plain intuitive in terms of meter read out and controls, the OM-1 even more so. After the Toronto Film Shooters meet up, I wandered down through Yorkville, one of the most expensive neighourhoods in the city. There are so many layers in this neighbourhood, 50 years ago it was counter culture heaven, not now. Camera: Olympus OM-2n, Zuiko MC 35 f2 lens. Film: Rollei RPX 400, HC110 B.

We really lucked in with the weather for the Toronto Film Shooters city photowalk at the end of October. We had a great group. For some reason I feel like I'm slightly missing the mark with my Kodak Portra 400 scans. I'm trying to figure it out. Hamrick had been on a tear with a bunch of software updates for Vuescan and I'm wondering if that's part of it. Cheap and cheerful film like ColorPlus 200 and Max 400, or Lomo 400 C-41 Colour film is easy peasy to scan with little to no colour correction. Portra, I feel like I'm trying to tame the beast. Sadly the OEM Epson interface is shit with the Apple ecosystem and I really don't feel like spending a fortune on Silverfast. Camera: Olympus OM-2n, Zuiko lenses. Film: Kodak Portra 400