Bill Smith's Photography

The holiday season this year has been bleak, and pretty much endless November with less daylight. That influenced the choice of film Kodak Tri-X which is pretty much the swiss army knife of black and white film, especially when push processed in Tmax Developer. I met up with friends for dinner on the edge of Yorkville and prior to that did a self-directed photo walk. I was supposed to meet up with my mid-week photo walk group but a combination of illness and schedule conflicts killed the meet up. I do however have a walk for in mind for the future. Running across a nice 1980s vintage Porsche 911 Carrera was nice, they don't make them like that anymore. Camera: Nikon F2 Photomic, Pre Ai Nikkor lenses. Film: Kodak Tri-X pushed to 1600, Tmax 1+4.

The Distillery District mid week during a February in a by Toronto standards snowstorm is quiet taking on a very different vibe than in high season. There were more people clearing snow than visiting, and a good 60% of the boutiques were closed. I know Mark O'Brien had a ball with his visit. Getting here is less painful than it used to be with the Cherry St.-Dufferin 514 streetcar. As a place to live, the Distillery-Canary-West Donlands is still off the beaten track a bit. Granted I visited in the middle of by Toronto standards snowstorm (yes Southern Ontario residents are weather wimps). I'll have to come back mid week during the spring to see what the difference is. Camera: Nikon FM, Nikkor Ai 50 f1.4 lens. Film: Kodak Tri-X 400 pushed to 1600, Xtol stock.

Creeping up on rush hour, the windchill is starting to bite and you just want to get home.. Camera: Nikon FM, Nikkor Ai 50 f2 lens. Film: Kodak Tri-X 400 pushed to 1600 and processd in Xtol stock.

It's winter in Toronto, you can feel the cold damp wind in your bones, and if you're not into winter sports, spring feels so far away.... Camera: Nikon FM, Nikkor Ai 50 f2 lens. Film: Kodak Tri-X 400, pushed to 1600 in Xtol stock.

This is the one and only post for the New Year's week and we'll back to regulary scheduled programming on the 9th I hope. I was gifted a Minolta MC Rokkor 58 f1.4 by Mike Bitaxi, one of the co-hosts of the Classic Camera Revival podcast. Optically it was in great condition but there were some mechanical issues that needed addressing, and I finally addressed them by having my repair tech do an overhaul. I'm glad I did because this is dreamy glass. The MC Rokkor went through its paces with a test roll of Kodak Tri-X 400 pushed to 1600 ISO because it was December and the light was dodgy as we got closer to the Winter Solstice. I love how this lens handles subjects stopped down around F11 and wide open around F2.8 with portraiture, especially wide open at 2.8. If you roll with a manual focus Minolta system, the MC Rokkor 58 f1.4 is a must have, you don't really need shutter priority on your X-700 or XD body anyway. Camera: Minolta SRT 102, MC Rokkor 58 f1.4 lens. Fi...