Bill Smith's Photography

  There's a story, I've played around with the Leica R system but never took the plunge, well, my brother Alex, enabled me. He had a decent Leica R collection but sold it to streamline his collection prior to moving house back in 2009. Turns out there's seller's remorse that grew over the years. Alex bought back in the past few years, through a text conversation via Facebook Messenger enabled me. I blought a chrome Leicaflex SL with working meter, a 2 cam 50 F2 Summicron R lens. and a 35 F2.8 Elmarit, also a 2 cam R lens.  The SL feels solid, one reviewer commented it felt lke an old Cadillac, I vehemently disagree with that statement, this camera is the embodiment of of an early 1970s Mercedes 300 SEL with the 6.3 Litre V8. The shutter sound is hypnotic a solid thunk.  R lenses are over engineeed and the optical quality is something else.  I loaded up my SL with a roll of Ilford HP5 400 and shot ir around downtown Oakville which felt odd in some way. I moved away ov...

 I had some me time last Saturday, Jo-Anne is working on composing a new musical/play so I went down to Roncesvalles Village/High Park partly to do some photography, but also attend a talk my friend and colleague Alison Garwood Jones at the High Park Library branch to support her graphic novel, I Miss My Mommy . Less of a novel but something adult orphans can read to help process loss of their parents, which I'm one of. I Miss My Mommy published the same year my mom passed in 2023, it showed up at the right time, my case mom passed from Alzheimer's, COPD and heart failure, I greived along the way I guess so my situation is a tad different.  The camera of choice was my dad's Leica M3 with the collapsible Summicron with a roll of Cinestill 400D, a comped roll from last falls Cinestill Photo Walk. One camera and one lens for reduced decision making. Been a while since I last shot with this camera, things just felt right for a day like this. I wonder if the camera is ready for...