Bill Smith's Photography

 I love Belfountain, been going through on the way up hiking or skiing in the winter, stopping for lunch, coffee or an ice cream cone. It's quaint little hamlet in the heart of regional municipality of Caledon in the north end of Peel Region. While pretty, Belfountain is under pressure from both development and over tourism. Just off Mississauga Road where it tranistions into Main St. there's a parcel of former farmland that's been passsd from one developer to another over the years. The current project is to build mansions and make some sort of rural super luxury neighbourhood. There's one little problem, every household and business in Belfountain gets their water from wells, and the water table is pretty much maxed out. Any new development will cause havoc for the locals.  The other challenge is over toursim, over the past 10 years, I've seen what best could be described as the BlogTO effect,  where Toronto regional news blog. Even pre pandemic, Belfountain was a...

 One big massive picture dump, and part of a zine project called Headwaters referencing the Headwaters of the Credit River which covers Peel, Wellington and Halton Regions. With this project I'm using a couple of cameras most likely an Olympus OM body for 35mm colour work and my Mamiya C220f with the 120 black and white.  This region being part of the GTA Greenbelt which is under great threat from a six lane highway nobody wants and low density residential and commerical development. While some city and regional councils have strongly voted against Highway 413, other councils are politically on the fence due to firece political lobbying from developers and construction companies who stand to gain exopentially from this development.  The Headwaters Project focuses on the rural and small town landscapes and the long standing recreational facilities in the region focused highlighting what could be lost in the name of progress.  Camera: Mamiya C220f, Sekor lenses.  ...

 I was up at the Caledon Ski Club a few weeks ago to get my RFID badge to comply with Covid guidelines the club laid out. Well it was moot because we're in a stay at home order and all the ski hills in Ontario are closed down. So this is the closest I got the slopes which looked beautiful machine groomed powder snow. Will I be skiing this winter, I don't know at this point.  What I did get was a chance to get out of Oakville for a little while and shoot some winter photography and I love the results I got, my Nikkormat FT3 delivered, it was a rare sunny day and I should have shot 100 ISO film, or Ilford Ortho 80. Hindsight is 20/20.  It does feel weird shooting at the top of a ski hill in the middle of January when I should be skiing.  Camera: Nikkormat FT3, Nikkor Ai 50 f2 lens.  Film: Ultrafine Extreme 400, HC110 B. 

 The Caledon Ski Club had the best of plans to operate the hill during the lockdown part of which I had to pick up an RFID badge that had to be with me at all times when I'm on club property. I drove up on a rare sunny Friday afternoon packing my Nikkormat FT3, which keeps with my predomenant theme for the winter, mostly Nikkormat.  Shooting on a sunny afternoon when we could still sort of wander by your self, I forgot what that was like as it has been a shade of pale anthricite grey skies since the holidays. The drive up was nice, I decided to go through Inglewood a little hamlet with in the rural municaplity of Caledon. It was pretty quiet, on the other side I drove up MacLaren Side Road.   Camera: Nikkormat FT3, NIkkor Ai 50 f2 lens.  Film: Ultrafine Extreme 400, HC110 B.