Bill Smith's Photography

 Lake Simcoe is a gateway to cottage country in Ontario of sorts. Roughly an hour's drive north of Toronto, while not not one of the Great Lakes, it is a really big lake that draws people year around for fishing.  Morningside Cottage has been in the Smith-Stewart family since it was first built in the 1920s. The original plans were found in the walls by my cousins Leslie and Wendy and now framed and hanging in the front dining room. In many respects aside from the updated wiring, plumbing, bathroom addition, and kitchen update, the cottage is pretty much the same as it has been for decades.  I first visited for a family reunion in August 2019 and stayed the weekend, while I've never been to Morningside before, I felt an immediate sense of peace and being safe when I got there.  I'm thankful I got a chance to visit Labour Day weekend and say hi to my cousins.  Speaking of sanctuaries outside the city, I just got back from a long weekend photography retreat so mor...

 Beaverton Ontario (not to be confused with The Beaverton satire site) is a small town within Brock Township on the eastern shores of Lake Simcoe roughly an hour and a bit's drive north of Toronto if you go all the way up the 404 to the end and taking some side roads. Beaverton is sort of cottage country, south of the Haliburtons, west of the Muskokas, it does not come to mind, but on the Beaver River there are boathouses that are also cottages.  Usually I roll through in the fall on the way up north to Dwight Ontario for my annual fall photography retreat, I did visit Summer 2019 with a family reunion with some cousins and my aunt. There's a family connection to the town, my great uncle Masson Smith was the town doctor in the first half of the 20th century and to make house calls to Thorah Island during the winter he put skis on the front tires of has car. Beaverton honoured my uncle's memory on the wall of the Strand Theatre but my Aunt Mary Elinor, strongly dislikes the ...

  ORWO UN 54 shines in the bright sunshine, again on my last day in the Beaches it was a sauna and was stuck only using one lens, the AIS 50 f1.8 which is really sharp glass in the Nikon line up but what a combination. The perfect end to August.  Camera: Nikon FE2, Nikkor Ais 50 f1.8.  Film: ORWO UN 54, ID-11 1+1. 

 I love ORWO UN54, it ties with Ilford's FP4 125 and Fomapan 100 (Kosmo Mono 100/Lady Grey 100) for an easy to use medium speed black and white film. Yes you can get UN54 branded as Lomo Kino Potsdam if you don't want to bulk load your own. Truthfully though, if you're this hard core about a certain emulsion, you're rolling your own to save money and buy from the source. ORWO North America sells UN54 in 100'/30m rolls for about $70 USD.  The go to developer for me is ID-11 or D76 at 1+1 for seven minutes. I've messed around with Rodinal and Xtol in the past but never gave me what I was looking for. I plan to take a couple of rolls of UN54 up with me up to Billie Bear Resort in a week or so.  Camera: Nikon FE2, Nikkor Ais 50 f1.8 lens.  Film: ORWO UN 54, ID-11 1+1