Bill Smith's Photography

I've tried to go to Cannington at least once or twice a year.  My family settled there in the early/mid 19th Century and owned the feed store at the corner of Anne and Cameron Sts. up until the early 20th century when my great granddad William G. Smith sold the business and retired to Toronto living in what is now Corso Italia just north of St. Clair east of Dufferin. The building that housed the feed store burned down back in the early 1990s and I've been trying to track down an exterior photo with no success as of yet.  When I rolled through after seeing my cousins Cannington felt quiet compared to Beaverton. This is a true small Ontario farming town, not a toursit attraction like Elora. That said there are people with weekend retreats, the late Canadian author Timothy Findley and his long time partner had a hobby farm just outside of town. Where exactly, don't know.  Camera: Nikon F2AS, Nikkor Ai 50 F2 lens.  Film: Bergger Pancro 400, HC110 B.  ...

 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...

 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.