Bill Smith's Photography

I last walked Harbourfront a couple years back on a warm Saturday night in late July before an Oakville Camera Club outing to shoot the Toronto Skyline from Centre Island, it was a great walk and got some great images. It was a great idea at the time, while I got in town early, OCC members arrived closer to the meet up time, Taylor Swift was playing the Air Canada Centre and normal parking rates tripled to event prices. Ok, a small irritant, we got the ferry docks and noticed hordes of people coming off, I did not connect the dots. Once our group got to Centre Island we quickly realized there not not one but two South Asian Cultural Festivals and the there were easy 50,000 people on the island. We got our skyline shots and around 9:30 decided it was time to head back to the mainland. Not so fast, the line up for ferry stretched from the Centre Island Terminal to about the beach on the south side of the Island. We got on the boat at around midnight, my feet touched mainland around ...

Long before Toronto's condominium boom, southwest of Union Station where The Rogers Centre (I still call it the Skydome) used to be switching yards for CN and CP's passenger rail rolling stock. One of the locomotive roundhouses remains today as home for Steamwhistle Brewing, a Railway museum and a furniture store. Further west, large condo developments going from abandoned land to New York's Battery Park City in the space of a decade. I haven't been this way in a long time, I've been to the Toronto Railway Museum's outdoor exhibit's in the past but not further west of the Roger's Centre. This was part of a dry run for an Oakville Camera Club outing later this month along Harbourfront. Camera: Mamiya C220f, Sekor 55 f4.5 lens, 80 f2.8 lens. Film: Ilford HP5 400, HC110 B. (last image Fuji Neopan Acros 100).

University of Toronto is a special place for me and I'm very fortunate to my Digital Strategy and Communications Management Certificate there. A quarter century ago I did my bachelors degree here too so it was coming home sort of, I was at what is now University of Toronto Mississauga campus, then Erindale College. A nice place and I had great time during my undergrad years but it lacks the history of the St. George Campus. The centre piece is University College which begs to be photographed, especially the inner courtyard which is an oasis of tranquility in the middle of a downtown campus. Camera: Canon F-1N with FD 28 f2.8 and 50 f1.4 lens. Film: Ilford HP5 400, HC110 B. Location University of Toronto, St. George Campus, Toronto On.

A very big dump of photos on this post but then walking King St. from Liberty Village to York St. is a study in a big change from a creative district to the financial district. Now I have to walk Queen St., I don't know which one has seen the bigger changes over the past 20 years. This was also an opportunity to test drive a recently overhauled Canon F-1N with the AE prism. It sort of looks like Canon's answer to the Nikon F3HP, I don't think one body is better than the other, same thing goes for the optics each company has strengths in different focal lengths, this from an avid Nikon user. Camera: Canon F-1N with AE prism, FD 50 f1.4 and 28 f2.8 lens.

I've neglected downtown Toronto long for the countryside with my photography and I plan to spend more time shooting in different neighbourhoods. For now though, I have a walk between Union Station and The St. George Campus to document from different angles. Once you get past the chaos at Union Station and Front Street. Toronto just keeps on going about it's business. What I am doing is setting up a photography outing for the Oakville Camera Club for later in June to take a more circuitous route up to UofT. It's going to be a good one and I think the members will love it. Camera: Leica M4-2, Canon 50 f1.4 LTM lens, Film:Ilford HP5 400, HC110 B.

I don't to Hamilton too often as I usually default to Toronto for work, professional development and social life. Meanwhile to the west of me is a city ripe for exploring, I've been to Hamilton off an on over a quarter century, friends have lived and currently live there. As a city, it's looking for a path away from the steel industry towards education and healthcare as well as supporting a thriving arts scene. Further trips down the QEW/403 are in order over the next few months. Camera: Mamiya C220f TLR, Sekor 80 f2.8 blue dot lens. Film: Fuji Neopan Acros 100, Xtol 1+1.

I'm taking the day off tomorrow and go for a nice long walk weather permitting. Saturday is going to be miserable, I'll catch up then. Camera: Nikon F Photomic Tn, Nikkor S 50 f1.4 and H 28 f3.5 lens. Film: ORWO UN 54 100, Xtol 1+1,

As an antidote to the fine Vancouver-Seattle weather pattern of endless rain Southern Ontario is being subjected too, here is part two to a beautiful day somewhere along the Niagara Escarpment in Caledon. This weekend is starting look like a washout from here, at least you can vicariously go hiking in the photos. Camera: Nikon F Photomic Tn circa 1968, Nikkor S 50 f1.4 and H 28 f3.5 lenses, Film: ORWO UN 54 ISO 100 processed in Xtol 1+1 for 6min, 30 sec at 20c. This is actually the Forks of the Credit River. 

So glad April has arrived and spring has a strong foothold. It was a rough March on several fronts and I'm not going to miss one, well the skiing was nice but I'm done with the following phrases and words: wind chill, polar vortex and special weather statement, my personal favourite. Well get out there and enjoy the sunshine, we deserve it.

Winter has finally been kicked to the curb, see you again on December 21, 2014. Camera: Rolleicord IV K3B, 75 f3.5 Schneider Xenar Lens. Film: Kodak Tmax 400 processed in Xtol 1+1.