Bill Smith's Photography

Go in for lunch, it was overcast. Eat an expensive yet very delicious grilled cheese sandwich and enjoy two pints of Exchange Brewery amber ale. Come back outside the skies clear off, and became a beautiful afternoon. Jo-Anne peeled off to do some Chirstmas shopping, John, Trevor and I went off for a wander. I can't say enough Ultrafine Extreme 400 sings in bright sunlight. If there is one achilles heal with this film is water spots. I didn't leave the  in the photo flo bath long enough at the other end of processing prior to hanging to dry. I spent hours in Lightroom cleaning off water spots, oh joy. All that said Ultrafine Extreme 400 and Zuiko glass work well together particulary the silver nose 50 f1.8 with a pale yellow filter, that's all you really need to get some bite into the negatives. Camera: Olympus OM-1n, Zuiko lenses. Film: Ultrafine Extreme 400, HC110 B.

Niagara on the Lake is an interesting town, a tourist destination courtesy the Shaw Festival, a weekend retreat alternative for those wanting wine country instead of cottage country, and a year around community for locals. Off Picton St. you can find bed breakfasts in residential neighbourhoods. Even late fall they were still doing a decent business. The true off season is after Christmas in the dead of winter. Camera: Olympus OM-1n, Zuiko lenses. Film: Ultrafine Extreme 400, HC110 B.

My friend John Meadows put together a creative retreat weekend in Niagara on the Lake with a few mutual friends back in late November. Initially I was on board for the whole weekend but family circumstances cut that down to a day trip, this year. Stuff I can't control but metaphorically roll with the punches so to speak. I made the decsion to roll with a compact kit, and that was my Olympus OM-1n with a couple of lenses. For those keeping track this camera's meter has gone kapaut for all intents and purposes so I rolled with a Sekonic L398a meter and Ultrafine Extreme 400 as my film. I'm the only member of the Classic Camera Revival to shoot Olympus OM (for now), it is a niche system but the end results are beautiful regardless if you're shooting colour or black and white. Handheld metering really isn't all that hard so I'm not in a huge rush to get the OM-1n repaired. I will, at some point because before the meter pooped out, it was very accurate. Maybe in...

I was pleasantly surprised to see Colin and Jenn come up from Metro NYC and the Toronto Film Shooters Facebook Group Summer Meet Up became an informal Film Shooters Collective photo walk. It is one thing to meet people online within the context of a Facebook Group, it is much better to meet them in person. I hope at some point I meet other members of the Film Shooters Collective. The Toronto Film Shooters have a great itinerary of outings in the works including the second Classic Camera Revival Meet Up in September over in Cambridge Ontario and a little insider information The Toronto Film Shooters have their fall outing slated for Toronto Island sometime in October. Camera: Minolta XD11, MD Rokkor X 50 f1.7 lens. Film: Rollei Retro 400S, HC110 B.