Bill Smith's Photography

I'm a camera collector/accumulator and depending who you ask, hoarder. Honestly, I'm not that bad. A few months ago my brother Alex picked up a Japanese production Asahi Pentax K1000, the Volkswagen Beetle of 35mm SLRs, beloved by photography education programs everywhere as the learner camera. He loved the simplicity of it and the K1000 became Alex's knock around camera. Now long time readers know we are each other's worst enabler when it comes to camera gear and while I resisted jumping into a new lens mount I wound up with an Asahi KX which at a cursory glance looks just like a K1000 but with a much better light meter, self timer and depth of field preview. Here's the ironic thing with the KX, it's cheaper than the K1000. I got mine for $65, a K1000 with lens in decent shape will set you back at least $180 Cdn. My camera pusher at Burlington Camera Joan explained, yes while there a mountain of K1000s out there, most of them are like old retired Ford Crown ...

Got a story for you, for those not familiar, I'm on the executive board of the Oakville Camera Club and I organized a Summer outing to what I call Toronto below the tracks, that includes the area around the Roundhouse by the Rogers Centre and Harbourfront. Turns out I was the only one to show up. Not the end of the universe, I did the walk myself, had a great lunch at the Amsterdam Brew House and met up with friends doing a photo shoot in Graffiti Alley (photos in the next blog post).  First off, I love Kentmere 100, the dream developer combination is D76/ID-11 1+1 and Kodak Ektar in medium format is the perfect film for bright sunny days. The other thing both these films went through cameras when the Beatles were just crawling out of the Cavern Club and headed towards legend status. As for OCC members, they missed a great day for photography. Camera (black and white): Asahi Pentax SV, Super Takumar 50 f1.4 lens. Film: Kentmere 100, D76 1+1 Camera (colour shots): Rolleico...

I always been through Dorset in the early fall, the weather is still warm but the crowds are different. Going up Canada Day weekend during peak cottage season I saw my favourite Muskoka village come to life with the Summer crowd. If you're rolling through, the spot for lunch is the Trading Bay Dining Company , and go for the brisket sandwich, messy as all get out, but delicious. I was sad we only had a few hours in cottage country. Just a quick note, my apologies for not posting last Thursday, it was an unusually busy week. Camera: Canon F-1N, FDn  50 f1.4 lens. Film: Ilford Delta 100, HC110 B.