Bill Smith's Photography

I love visiting Elora, it's a great day trip from the GTA and a fun place to photograph. I met up a few weeks ago with some members of Toronto Photowalks who were day tripping, I drove through Guelph and did some photographing on the way up. I never get tired photographing this part of the world. Elora is a great place to visit and they want visitors. The former cornerstone of the village is the Inn, which has been closed for my guess at least six years now if not longer for renovations. Unfortunately it has killed tourism in Elora and the locals now rely on day trippers from Toronto and points elsewhere. If you do go, check out the following the Village Olive Grove where artisanal vinegars, olive oils and organic ice cream from Mapleton Dairy is sold, get the dandelion flavour, trust me, it tastes delicious. As for lunch, take your pick, my picks are the Shepherd's Pub, Wreckless Eric's and the Elora Brewing Company. You really can't go wrong, the food is amazing ...

I was passing through Guelph a few weeks ago on my way up to Elora to meet up with friends from the Toronto Photowalks group. I stopped to shoot the downtown a bit and meet up with my friend Tracy from high school for coffee. I haven't seen her in 20 years and it was great to reconnect. I even managed to get a pair of portraits of Tracy who is camera shy, to respect her wishes, I'm not posting them. Now, Guelph on a Sunday morning is pretty quiet and I captured that, the downtown has a lot of great architecture but it is a bit on the seedy side with the overwhelming number of bars catering to Guelph University students and it was a little sad walking past the offices of the now defunct Guelph Mercury. Camera: Olympus OM-1n, Zuiko 50 f1.4 lens. Film: ORWO UN 54, D76 1+1.

I came into Toronto to visit the Beaches neighbourhood with fellow photographer John Meadows  (he does amazing work and is one third of the Classic Camera Revival podcast) a few weeks ago. He was shooting some infrared black and white film on his Hasselblad 500 c/m, I was running with something a little less esoteric, my Pentax Spotmatic II and some Delta 100. It was a great day for wandering around taking pictures and talking about film photography. Camera: Asahi Spotmatic II, Super Multi Coated Takumar 50 f1.4, Super Multi Coated Takumar 28 f3.5 lenses. Film: Ilford Delta 100, HC110 B.