Bill Smith's Photography

 North Toronto is familar turf for me, partly because Jo-Anne lives around Yonge and Eglington, it was also my late Aunt Barbara's part of the world though she live a bit further north in the Cricket Club Neighbourhod north of Lawerance and east of Avenue Road. My friends John Meadows and Ori Carmona joined me on a familar walk ruote. Sadly Jo-Anne has a part time job as a rehersal pianist for a local theatre group, and Sunday is rehearsal day for the next two months.  Shooting colour film a grey late winter day sounds counter intuitive but, the results speak for themselves. I'm stockpiling up on consumer grade film for this year and tossing it in the freezer. My logic is simple. While I love Ektar 100, the new $20 CAD per roll price, not so much, same goes for Portra 400, there are alternatives like Lomo 100 and 400 C-41 and I'm even returning to Fuji Superia Extra 400. Watching Risby's Youtube channel intrigued me. I haven't shot with that film in years and consid...

  Jo-Anne and I went down to the Distillery District to buy another courier bag and of course wander around a bit and eventually stop by Soma Chocolate. Oh Damn, if you are a chocolate junkie, Soma is a must visit if you're coming to Toronto.  This weekend I chose my Canon EF as my camera of choice and ran with FD 28 F2  and 50 F1.4 SSC lenses. I had a 100 F2.8 packed but didn't use it, and shot with Lomo 400 C-41. Wow! I love the results!  Super Spectra Coated lenses were amazing glass. i got lucky in buying the 28 F2 years ago. I would love a 35 F2 but that particular lens has gone insane price wise thanks to the motion picture industry's particular love for this focal length. The Canon FD 50 F1.4 is best in class, even better than it's rival from Nikon (their 50 F2 and later 1.8 are better than the 1.4 version).  I''ve grown to love shooting the EF on Shutter Priority and now understand Canon's thought process when they went this route back in 1973 compar...