Bill Smith's Photography

After lunch we left Elora for an hour's drive south through Cambridge down to Glen Morris to visit the German Woollen Mill Ruins on the shores of the Grand River. Rumour has it the ruins are haunted, I didn't see any ghosts while I was there, only a couple and their wedding photographer showing up to do an engagement shoot. The mill has a bit of an interesting history, started out processing, became an inn and later a private residence. It sits between the river and the Paris to Cambridge Rail Trail. Ben, Svetlana and I walked in from the south by about 2 km, being a rail trail it was an easy walk. Camera: Asahi Pentax KX, SMC Pentax K 28 f3.5 lens, SMC Pentax M 50 f1.7 lens. Film: Rollei RPX 400, HC110 B.

Had so much fun shooting in the Don Valley from Riverdale down to the Riverside neighbourhood (or west Leslieville depending which real estate agent you talk to), I did it again only this time using Cinestill 50D. If you are up on Broadview north of Bridgepoint Health, check The Rooster Coffee House, I think I found my new favourite source of caffeine in the east end. Camera: Asahi Pentax KX, SMC Pentax M 50 f1.4 lens, SMC K 28 f3.5 lens. Film: Cinestill 50D

I got a cool little camera for my birthday, the Asahi Pentax MX with  SMC Pentax M 50 f1.7 lens. This is the smallest 35mm SLR on the market, even a tick smaller than the Olympus OM-1. Mechanically the MX under the the metal shell is a lot like the first generation K series SLRS like the K-1000, KM and KX which in turn are Asahi Pentax Spotmatic Fs with a bayonet mount and upgraded metering. What was different with the MX was it's meter, it used red, orange and green led lights to tell if you correct with your exposure. Neat idea but also the camera's achilles heal. Let me explain, I love shooting with this camera, however, in certain lighting situations, you lose the LED light meter lights to flare, a pain in the ass if you're out to get that perfect exposure. That said in about 90% of those photographic situations I was fine. The MX is a cool camera I can put in my brief case and not worry about bulk. Camera: Asahi Pentax MX, SMC Pentax K 28 f3.5 lens. SMC Pentax M...

Just got back from my two week stay in the Beaches. Had a blast and one weird moment but we won't be talking about that. One thing I wanted to shoot badly was the Scarborough Bluffs, humour me, I'm a west ender and never been here before. I was blown away at what I saw, if you have never been to the Bluffs before it's a neat spot in the city. The other cool thing is the small year around houseboat community in the marina, something you don't see in Southern Ontario too often. On a bright sunny morning, my guess I should have come earlier but I had to walk Rufus first, oh well. There's always next time, I should come in the fall when the leaves have changed colour. I would pack a neutral density filter to deal with the latitude, metering the sandstone was a bit of a challenge. Camera: Asahi Pentax KX, SMC Pentax-M 50 f1.4 lens. SMC Pentax-K 28 f3.5 lens. Film: Cinestill 50D.

More with CineStill 50D and Pentax K mount love. Camera: Asahi Pentax KX, SMC Pentax M 50 f1.4 lens. SMC Pentax K Pentax K 28 f3.5 lens. Film: Cinestill 50D

What amazed me with my Asahi Pentax KX (not to be confused with the more recent k-x crop sensor DSLR) was how nicely it metered with colour film. I decided to try out a roll of Cinestill 50 which was shot partly in late afternoon sun and the following morning with muggy overcast skies. This film loves bright sunshine and gives you a warm almost retro look to it. Overcast skies is a different matter, I really like what I got, the colour palette became more subdued which is fine. What's cool with this particular film, it is essentially Kodak Vision 50D motion picture stock with the rem-jet layer removed. This is the same motion picture film loved by Quentin Tarantino and J.J. Abrams for their daylight shots in Hateful Eight and Star Wars, The Force Awakens. The downside with Cinestill 50D is cost, in Canadian dollars you're looking at about $15 per roll and some C-41 film labs might get a little spooked seeing this for the first time. Outside of that choose your projects caref...

I was house and dog sitting in the Beaches a few weeks ago and by the time this blog post goes live, I'm back in the Beaches for two more weeks until Labour Day Weekend. Some members of the Toronto Film Shooters Facebook Group and I met up for lunch at Murphy's Law and went for what could be best described as "photowalk of the damned" on what could be considered the hottest day of the year. This weekend I gave my Pentax KX a good workout with colour film. I shot a roll of Ektar 100 and Cinestill 50D to see how the camera and lenses work with said films. I was blown away at what I got with the Ektar 100, I barely touched the images in Lightroom, just some cropping and dust removal. Cinestill 50 negatives needed a bit more work, I find I get a slight green cast when I scan them into TIFF files. Again Lightroom can sort them out pretty good. Camera: Asahi Pentax KX, SMC Pentax M 50 f1.4 lens. SMC Pentax K 28 f3.5 lens. Film: Kodak Ektar 100