Bill Smith's Photography

Had so much fun shooting in the Don Valley from Riverdale down to the Riverside neighbourhood (or west Leslieville depending which real estate agent you talk to), I did it again only this time using Cinestill 50D. If you are up on Broadview north of Bridgepoint Health, check The Rooster Coffee House, I think I found my new favourite source of caffeine in the east end. Camera: Asahi Pentax KX, SMC Pentax M 50 f1.4 lens, SMC K 28 f3.5 lens. Film: Cinestill 50D

Just got back from my two week stay in the Beaches. Had a blast and one weird moment but we won't be talking about that. One thing I wanted to shoot badly was the Scarborough Bluffs, humour me, I'm a west ender and never been here before. I was blown away at what I saw, if you have never been to the Bluffs before it's a neat spot in the city. The other cool thing is the small year around houseboat community in the marina, something you don't see in Southern Ontario too often. On a bright sunny morning, my guess I should have come earlier but I had to walk Rufus first, oh well. There's always next time, I should come in the fall when the leaves have changed colour. I would pack a neutral density filter to deal with the latitude, metering the sandstone was a bit of a challenge. Camera: Asahi Pentax KX, SMC Pentax-M 50 f1.4 lens. SMC Pentax-K 28 f3.5 lens. Film: Cinestill 50D.

More with CineStill 50D and Pentax K mount love. Camera: Asahi Pentax KX, SMC Pentax M 50 f1.4 lens. SMC Pentax K Pentax K 28 f3.5 lens. Film: Cinestill 50D

What amazed me with my Asahi Pentax KX (not to be confused with the more recent k-x crop sensor DSLR) was how nicely it metered with colour film. I decided to try out a roll of Cinestill 50 which was shot partly in late afternoon sun and the following morning with muggy overcast skies. This film loves bright sunshine and gives you a warm almost retro look to it. Overcast skies is a different matter, I really like what I got, the colour palette became more subdued which is fine. What's cool with this particular film, it is essentially Kodak Vision 50D motion picture stock with the rem-jet layer removed. This is the same motion picture film loved by Quentin Tarantino and J.J. Abrams for their daylight shots in Hateful Eight and Star Wars, The Force Awakens. The downside with Cinestill 50D is cost, in Canadian dollars you're looking at about $15 per roll and some C-41 film labs might get a little spooked seeing this for the first time. Outside of that choose your projects caref...

Last year, we hit the Bat Lake Trail around 3:30 or 4 p.m., a little later than we should have. Ok by the time we got to the view looking North East, it was about 5:30 seeing the fall colours looked spectacular, downside it was still a long hike back to the car. To make things even more interesting, we discovered fresh bear poop on the side of the trail and near the end we were still hiking after sunset in the dark and it was fast descending into a  re-enactment of the Blair Witch Project. For those who never been to Algonquin Park, it's one of those places if you walk a certain direction, you are neither seen or heard from again. This year we hiked the Bat Lake Trail in the morning and it was a totally different experience with the bright sunshine. Sadly though the leaves barely changed colours so you make do with what you have. I enjoyed the hike and next year, it's time to head elsewhere in the park. Thankfully no bear encounters but we did come across some wildlife aft...

This place is really hard to get to, there's little to no Wi Fi (you're not here for that anyway), cell service is spotty at best and I'm discouraging as many of you who crave the creature comforts of the city from ever coming up here. Those of us who can appreciate the rustic charms of Billie Bear Resort like it the way it is. For me this is paradise, most people crave Bora Bora or a small island in the Bahamas, me,  I'll take a lake in the Muskokas or Haliburtons every time. I did say this is hard to get too....... Cameras: Nikon FM, F2a, Nikkor Ais 50 f1.8 and Ais 28 f2.8 lenses. Film: Kodak Portra 400 and Cinestill 50 respectively.

I needed to fall of the grid last week. Monday became a play day and I drove northwest to the village of Elora , it's about an hour and a bit northwest of Greater Toronto. If you have never been take the time to go, especially during the week when it's not quite so busy. If you're looking for a nice place to eat, there are plenty of options, I have been to the Shepherd's Pub by the Grand River but this time had lunch at Wreckless Eric's. While up there I wanted to experiment with some Cinestill 50   a niche C-41 colour negative film that's actually daylight motion picture stock from Kodak with the remjet layer removed. They weren't kidding there's no grain. I plan to use this film on the Algonquin Trip this coming fall if I can get the scans just right, digitizing colour film is still a learning process. What I really love is the latitude, you have tons of it compared to Kodak Ektar 100, another one of my favourite C-41 films. The only real downside...