Bill Smith's Photography

Took long enough, welcome back. Camera: Nikon FM2, Nikkor Ai 28 f3.5 lens. Film: Kentmere 100, Xtol 1+1 for 10min at 20c.

The ski hill is my sanctuary on winter weekends and the rare weekday I can play hooky. Camera: Nikon FM2, Nikkor Ais 35 f2 lens. Film: Ilford HP5 400, HC110 B.

A few years back I did a photography project and my first exhibition with two friends called "In the Shadow of the GTA Greenbelt." Long after that was put to bed I still shoot within the Green Belt on a regular basis, part of it due to the fact Greater Toronto is a sprawling region and what was farmland 15 years ago is now a subdivision. It is my hope the Greenbelt is protected over the long haul regardless who is in power at the provincial level. Camera: Nikon FM2, Nikkor Ais 35 f2 lens. Film: Ilford HP5 400, HC110 B,

An old friend gave me some wise advice once, be the water.Well I had to be the water this past fall as I had multiple projects both personal and professional along with some professional development with University of Toronto's Digital Strategy and Communications certificate program. In fact this blog was an assignment for the foundations class and I had fun writing them, in fact they were an escape from everything else. There is a blog roll on the side here and please check out my classmates blogs, they are all great reads. So, Albion Falls, I was here back in late October with the Oakville Camera Club on a Sunday morning photo shoot. Now if you wanted to get closer you had to get to a fenced off access trail and I wouldn't recommend it for anyone with mobility or balance issues. If I were to come back I want to do it on an overcast day to even out the exposure. Camera Gear: Nikon F3HP, Kodak Portra 400 Nikon FM2, Ilford HP5 and Delta 100 Various Nikkor lenses used....

All good long weekend road trips come to an end at some point and my drive home was a rainy one. I took Highway 35 South through Dorset Ontario, a former lumber town turned cottage community. I didn't want the weekend to end, there is something about the landscape that has me wanting to come back. Dorset is the one town I want to hide out in for a few days next fall to extend a long weekend for just a little bit longer. Got a question for the studio audience out there, have you come across a place that draws you back for a follow up visit? Cameras: Nikon FM2, F3HP with various Nikkor lenses. Film: Ilford HP5 400, Kodak Portra 400 

I made an effort this year to shoot more colour photography which you have seen on recent posts over the past couple of months, my first love is black and white. In terms of workflow, I drop my colour film off at a lab and I have recently switched to Downtown Camara in Toronto as they have a busy c-41 service and their processing chemistry is fresh and that's important. All the black and white film I process is done at home in the basement and the process is in fact pretty easy. You need a daylight tank and I'm partial to Patterson because their reals are easy to load in complete darkness and in my case I use a dark changing bag. As far as the developing process goes it's three steps.  developer which pulls the image out of the silver emulsion on the film, the stop bath which lasts for 40 seconds of course stops the developing process and the fix bath pulls out the remaining silver particles and stabilizes the negative and that lasts from five to 10 minutes depending o...

Just off Highway 60 on the Oxtongue Rapids Park Road into the woods is a lookout onto the Oxtongue River. I understand what the Group of Seven painters saw when they first encountered the Canadian Shield early last century. Cameras: Nikon F3HP and FM2 with various Nikkor lenses. Film: Ilford HP5 400 for black and white and Kodak Ektar 100 for colour. 

I like taking the scenic route. A few weeks ago I was up Algonquin Park way with friends for a long weekend of photography from the Friday to Sunday, honestly it wasn't long enough.  While the others took Highway 400 through Barrie, I took the 404, cut through Uxbridge and then hopped on the Trans Canada Highway North (#12) passing through Brock Township in the northern part of Durham Region. The Smith family emigrated from Forres Scotland arriving  in what is now Durham Region the early 1830s.  My branch of the clan settled in Cannington Ontario becoming merchants owning the town's feed store. My great granddad William George Smith and family left for Toronto in the early 1900s due to changing economic realities and agricultural practices. They are buried in a family plot in the Presbyterian cemetery Concession Road 11. A great uncle of mine Dr. Masson Smith (granddad's brother) was the town physician in Beaverton roughly 20 minutes drive further north along the Tr...

What a month this has been, as rule I try to unplug and go for a good long walk in the woods and when things get very busy, I head up to Mono Cliffs Provincial Park northeast of Orangeville. What I like about Mono and the Hockley Valley, it's still a reasonable drive from Greater Toronto yet you don't hear civilization. In fact cellphone reception is a little spotty in low lying sections, my iPhone gets switched into airplane mode. I need the silence. There are two ways up here,  a quick way up Highway 10 and the scenic route. You will see images from the scenic route in a later post. For now you got black and white images to tide you over. Tomorrow I'm back up there leading a photo walk with some members of the Oakville Camera Club  . I usually shoot alone, we'll see what I'll get. Camera: Nikon FM2, Nikkor Ai 28 f2.8 or 50 f1.8 lens, Film: Ilford HP5 400, HC110 Dillution B. 

All shot on the 2013 Winter Photography Outing with the Oakville Camera Club up in Belfountain Conservation Area and surrounding neighbourhood. I really love shooting with my Nikon FM2, especially in the winter. The Canadian Government used them up in the high arctic because it was the only camera that would function in temperatures as low as -40c, I don't think the replacement DSLRs would last anywhere near as long out there. Camera: Nikon FM2 and the 35 F2 Ais Lens mostly. Film: Fuji Pro 400 H.