Bill Smith's Photography

 The Saturday was the opposite of Friday, grey and miserable would be more accurate, the skies didn't open up until after dinner but it felt like it was going to rain all day. I walked up Billie Bear Road to Antioch Conservation Area for some alone time. I loved walking up the road alone, it's a chance to re charge my introvert batteries. Billie Bear Resort and Bella Lake.  Unfortunately all good things come to an end but there will be a twist because while not chronologically correct, I'm not headed home yet in my blog posts. Stay tuned for the next post.  Camera: Nikon FM2n, Nikkor Ais 50 f 1.8 lens.  Film: Ilford HP5 400, HC110 B. 

  Billie Bear Resort is one of my happy places in the world, and the return visit is much overdue considerign what I have been through the past year and a half. I only wish Jo-Anne was with me, she did meet my friends via Facetime.  This set was both shot on Color Plus 200 and Ultramax 400, two of Kodak's consumer films, they delivered, really well. Of the two Ultramax 400 is what I call a more contemporary look film while Color Plus 200 harkens back to the 1980s  Of course there was a casulty this year, one of our group, Chris, lost his drone in Bella Lake. He went out with Rafal our ringleader in a paddleboat to find it, they might still be out there looking.   Camera: Nikon F4, Nikkor Ais 50 F1.8 lens.  Film: Kodak Color Plus 200. Kodak Ultramax 400

I never tire photographing Billie Bear and Bella Lake, at first glance it looks the same but there are differences from year to year, weather, the pace of the leaves changing, and this year I found a beach a half hour walk up from the resort. I shot all this in black and white with Ilford HP5 400, if Kodak Portra 400 is the Swiss Army knife of colour film, this is the black and white equivelant. What I find interesting is Ilford Photo is hinting at a new product introduction for next year. People are speculating like crazy, everything from an IR film to a Panatomic X clone, my prediction is the re-introduction of a 400 ISO colour film. Ilford already makes a black and white C-41 film with XP2, they already have the ability to make it, they also used to make a colour film decades ago. Even though Ilford has positioned themselves the black and white photography experts, introducing a 400 ISO C-41 Colour film will give people a third choice other than Kodak and Fujifilm. We'll see...