Bill Smith's Photography

Welcome to Part two the Oxtongue River set. I shot this on Fuji Superia Extra 400, and it was also around the time my eight year old Epson V600 wore out and was on its last legs. Five hundred dollars later, I was back in business for the last roll I have of NLP 2023 which is the next post.  Camera: Nikon FM2/T, Nikkor AIS lenses.  Film: Fujifilm Superia 400. 

I first visited the Oxtongue Rapids 10 years ago on my first photography retreat with the NLP group. I'm using the same gear sort of as I was a decade ago but with different film stocks this time around. On this post I rolled with the Nikon F3/T and Portra 160 which fast became my new favourite splurge for medium speed colour negative film. I prefer Portra 160 over 400 any day of the week and it fast replaced Ektar 100 as the new go to landscape colour negative film.  It was Jo-Anne's first time at the Oxtongue Rapids and was blown away at the beauty. I myself had another chance to photograph an extremely beautiful spot in the eastern edge of Muskoka Region. We also went further up river to see the upper rapids which I did not visit decade ago. I would love to shoot medium format colour film here at some point with my Mamiya C220F.  Camera: Nikon F3/T, Nikkor AIS lenses.  Film: Kodak Portra 160. 

I usually love shooting waterfalls, Oxtongue Falls just outside of Algonquin Park proved to be a challenge. Finding a decent locations to take a decent photo was tricky as was dealing with a number of tourists. At the top of the falls proved challenging, I prefer not to have a bunch of people walking behind me while I have a camera set up on a tripod centimetres away from the rock ledge with a metre drop into very fast moving water at the top of the falls. Confession here, I have a fear of heights, don't ask me how I painted houses as a summer job during university so long ago. Being up a ladder cutting in on a second story window is one thing,  being nudged by a clumsy tourist who wants a slightly closer look and taking a spill into the Oxtongue River and going over the falls is something else. After getting my shot I retreated away from the top of the falls to safer ground. Next year if the group comes back here I'm shooting from the bottom of the falls. Call it for wh...

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.