Bill Smith's Photography

 I was up at the Caledon Ski Club a few weeks ago to get my RFID badge to comply with Covid guidelines the club laid out. Well it was moot because we're in a stay at home order and all the ski hills in Ontario are closed down. So this is the closest I got the slopes which looked beautiful machine groomed powder snow. Will I be skiing this winter, I don't know at this point.  What I did get was a chance to get out of Oakville for a little while and shoot some winter photography and I love the results I got, my Nikkormat FT3 delivered, it was a rare sunny day and I should have shot 100 ISO film, or Ilford Ortho 80. Hindsight is 20/20.  It does feel weird shooting at the top of a ski hill in the middle of January when I should be skiing.  Camera: Nikkormat FT3, Nikkor Ai 50 f2 lens.  Film: Ultrafine Extreme 400, HC110 B. 

 The Caledon Ski Club had the best of plans to operate the hill during the lockdown part of which I had to pick up an RFID badge that had to be with me at all times when I'm on club property. I drove up on a rare sunny Friday afternoon packing my Nikkormat FT3, which keeps with my predomenant theme for the winter, mostly Nikkormat.  Shooting on a sunny afternoon when we could still sort of wander by your self, I forgot what that was like as it has been a shade of pale anthricite grey skies since the holidays. The drive up was nice, I decided to go through Inglewood a little hamlet with in the rural municaplity of Caledon. It was pretty quiet, on the other side I drove up MacLaren Side Road.   Camera: Nikkormat FT3, NIkkor Ai 50 f2 lens.  Film: Ultrafine Extreme 400, HC110 B. 

 I don't photograph Kerr St. all that often I walked over via Cornwall Ave./Speers Road. and walked down shooting the east side of the street. Kerr St. itself was quiet. Everything is shutdown save for curbside pick up and take out. The walk took me down to Lakeshore Road and turned East towards home.  Camera: Nikkormat FT3, Nikkor Ai 50 f2 lens, Ai 28 f2.8 lens.  Film: Ultrafine Extreme 400, HC110 B. 

 My Nikkormat FT3 was a gift from Alex Luykx , the ringleader of the Classic Camera Revival Podcast I'm part of and it book ends the Nikkormat collection I have. There's an incoming chrome FT made in somewhere between 1965 and 1967, but it's stuck in Canada Post hell. I was on a walking tear until my left knee got a little tender. The Nikkormat FT3 was the end of the line and was only in production for a couple of months and replaced by the lighter Nikon FM.  What can I say, I'm a sucker for 1970s SLRs built like tanks.  Camera: Nikkormat FT3, Nikkor Ai 50 f2 léns. Film: Ultrafine Extreme 400, HC110 B. 

 So, I'm not wandering very far. With the current "Stay at Home" order, I have no idea if my long neighbourhood walks constitute "essential" for exercise. I will find out at some point. In the meantime I decided to walk east of me for a change and exploring a part of Oakville where a fair number of the original houses are still standing.  I found switching up to one of my my Olympus OM-1's was a nice change up and the Zuiko glass worked well on a dismally grey day.  Camera: Olympus OM-1n, Zuiko lenses.  Film: Kentmere 400, HC110 B.