Bill Smith's Photography

 Awenda doesn't have the spectacular landscape you're going to get inside Algonquin Park, or Mono Cliffs or Boyne River for that matter. There is however something magical about this place that just calms the soul during these interesting times. I now want to go back next year with colour film and see what I get during peak fall colours.  The only downside is the time window, it's a two drive from Oakville, the day trip has to start early.   Minolta XD, MD Rokkor X lenses.  Film: Ilford HP5 400, ID-11 1+1. 

Early Saturday morning late October I drove up to Midland to pick up my friend Nicole, it was her birthday and we did a hike in Awenda Provincial Park. Toronto Photo Walks have done fall colours meet ups up in Awenda in the past but I never went due to schedule conflicts. This Saturday, we pretty had the park to ourselves almost and while the weather was less than wonderful the landscape was interesting. While the hike was relatively easy in terms of terrain, I was blown away once I got to the shores of Geeorgian Bay.  Nicole likes camping here, even if it's in her backyard. It was being on Nicole's turf for a change. and we had fun exploring the park, even if it was a gloomy morning.  Gear wise I chose my Minolta XD and some MD Rokkor X lenses, the 24 F2.8, 50 f1.7 and the Minolta MD 75-150 F 4 Zoom, a variant of the 35mm kit was i going to take with me to Muksoka this year if it went off. I was happy with what I got.  I hope to get back to Awenda when the fall colours a...

  Two things, I experimented with Pyrocat HD developer pioneered by Sandy King and belongs to the family of Pryro staining developers. My friend John Meadows gifted me a small stash of the two part developer to try out. I shot some Ultrafine Extreme 400 back in August while at my brother's place in the Beaches. Pyrocat HD is chemically a nasty developer to work with, only slightly less toxic and more stable than the older Pyro developers. I'm not planning on having kids at this point in my life, so lets give it a shot. Done properly when you pull out the the tank the negative loosks a lot like something developed in a conventional developer but it has a brown cast. I'm on the fence if I want to get some some and add Pyrocat HD into my workflow, If I did, I'll get the version made with glycol for further stabliity. Right now, I'm content with HC110 and D76/1D-11 and that covers the vast majority of films I process.  Which leads me to the second part. I've swtiche...

 It was bleak day for a hike, but I needed to get out of the house, even though it called for rain later in the day. I was pretty much the only person in Boyne Valley and I had plans to get to the north end of the park and shoot the leaf canopy. Well, the rain forcasted for later that day is arrived earlier and I didn't even make it to Murphy's peak. I shot what I shot and went home.  Camera: Nikon N90S, Nikkor AF-D 28-105 lens.  Film: Kodak Portra 400.