Bill Smith's Photography

 Erin Ontario is in Wellington County halfway between Orangeville and Guelph and would be sort of a regional centre of sorts. Erin used to have a branch line formerly Credit Valley Railway/Canadian Pacific that went from Cataract in Caledon to Elora where the route terminated. That got yanked up 30 years ago and is now a rail trail loved by gravel cyclists.  I've driven through Erin on the way to the Caledon Ski Club all the time in the winter and I have photographed on occasion. As a small town its pretty healthy with some industry and with commuters going down to "Pill Hill" in Northern Mississauga. The big downside with Erin is the main drag is an arterial road between village on Highway 10 and Guelph, and there trucks, lots of trucks, some carrying goods, others are hauling gravel from local quarries in neighbouring Caledon. It's perma rush hour with the amount of traffic passing through.  Camera: Mamiya C220F Twin Lens Reflex Camera,  Sekor 80 F2.8 lens.  F...

 I don't shoot medium format in the winter much, I had an expereince with my Mamiya C220f where the 80 F2.8 lens crapped out on me in the cold and needed servicing. Actually the lens really did need servicing. Since winter weather receded sooner than later, I pulled out my Rolleicord Vb for a good workout and loaded it with Catlabs X Film 80, their tribute to Kodak Panatomic X black and white film that got discontinued ages ago with Tmax 100 being its replacement.  The big knock against Catlabs X Film 80 is it was finished and spooled by Shanghai Film in China, which has at best a very mixed reputation for quality control (work with me, I'm being polite, they might get their act together and surprise us all). I pre soak the film in water for five minutes or so prior to developing to get the antihalation layer off and any other crud that wound up on the film. I process in HC110 dillution B and I love the results. I prefer X Film 80 for a hybrid process, as in develop, scan, pos...