Bill Smith's Photography

Oh boy colour negative film through a Rolleiflex with Zeiss Planar glass is glorious. I've been getting much better shooting with the Rolleinar 2 and getting close ups with flowers. I love what I got of this particular roll of Portra 400, in medium format, this film sings.  Camera: Rolleiflex 3.5 F Planar Twin Lens Reflex Camera.  Film: Kodak Portra 400

I did a beer run to Indie Ale House in Toronto's Junction neighbourhood a few weeks ago, I love their beer, especially the breakfast porter and Instigator IPA. Of course a packed a camera and some film because I've been in shooting around Southeast Oakville almost exclusively for the past few months and while it makes for an interesting exercise to find something interesting in what you see every day. I needed a change of scenery. Well,  pre March 15, 2020, I would not have given it any thought, now I was wearing a mask in the street becasue physical distancing, was, well, kinda hard to do on a busy sidewalk. This was my first and last beer run to Indie Ale House in person until a safe and viable vaccine comes out. I have some people in my orbit with delicate immune systems and I can't afford to 1) get sick myself or 2) even worse, become an asymptomatic carrier. Once half a roll of Portra 400 was killed, I got the beer and made my way over to Bloor West Village to fin...

One camera, one lens, well that describes most of my TLR's save for the Mamiya C220f, the Canon P was one of those purchases I was glad I did. I tried to like Barnack Leicas but the bottom loading was too much a test of my sanity. The Canon rangefinders of the later 1950s and '60s were everyone's dream Leica Threadmount camera. You can load it like an SLR, believe me, that's a great thing. Using the P is pretty straightforward if you are used to shooting a Leica M, Zeiss M or a Voightlander Bessa R. Compact and quiet, you can almost use this as a travel camera if you want to travel really light with just a 50mm lens. Well I'm not traveling very far, just my walks around Southeast Oakville during The Great Shutdown. Camera: Canon P Rangefinder, 50 f1.8 Canon Leica Thread Mount lens. Film: Kosmo Mono 100, Rodinal 1+50.

I was part of a travelling camera project, in this case involving a Pentax K1000SE and the stipulation that Eastman Double X be used as the film stock. I got the camera in the mail at the tail end of February, it was already a month behind and COVID-19 was still an abstract concept. I shot the first roll in early March when I was in Toronto with an independent communicators networking event. I walked up from Union Station, of course stopping by at Downtown Camera for a film top up. Looking back at these negatives from almost two months ago I'm struck how different things are now. I haven't been downtown Toronto since my stay in the Beaches, even then you could feel something was coming, we're just not sure what at the time. I didn't keep the K1000SE long, I shot a second roll which you will see next time and I sent the camera along to the next person who was in Illinois as quickly as possible. I already have a Pentax K2, KX and a pair of KM's so I already have t...