Bill Smith's Photography

  This is one of the last rolls of pushed film from the backlog. I never pushed Kentmere 400, usually it's Kodak Tri-X and in the past few years Ilford's HP5. Kentmere 400 processed in Ilfotec HC developer is good for a one stop push. It was a very muggy late August day and my friend Dana was in town for dinner and we did a bit of a photo walk around the old part of Toronto. The visibility was almost November like at the tail end of Summer, flat grey light with high humidity. In the end by the time we got the C'Est What for dinner, the heavens opened up.  I sat on this film for months along with three rolls of HP5 that needed push processing (just have one to go). When you get outside the standard developing times, you just, procrastinate. The backlog is almost gone now, and I feel lighter.  Camera: Nikon FM2/T, Nikkor AIS 28 F2.8 lens.  Film: Kentmere 400, pushed to 800 ISO, Ilfotec HC 1+31.  ...

 I picked up a Nikkor AIS 28 F2 lens, to add to my manual focus Nikkor lens fleet. I already own a Nikkor N 28 F2 which is a pre AI F mount. Fast lenses are expensive and you are paying for the wider aperture for low light shooting environments. Usually you get a compromise with speed for sharpness, some cases like the 35 F1.4 you get barrel distortion you have to fix in post processing in Light Room. I don't have that in the 28 F2 series of lenses. Barrel distortion is rather low.  I was waiting for my friend Dana to come into the city for dinner, it gave me an opportunity to wander around the Annex for a bit very late afternoon/early evening. I love this neighbourhood, spent a lot of time around there back in the 1990s. For those not from Toronto, the Annex is just northwest of University of Toronto's downtown campus and the borders sorta starts in Bathurst in the west end to about Avenue Road to the east. with the Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Rail corridor to the north and ...