Bill Smith's Photography

 The walk route in Hamilton was straight down James St. and it crosses Hamilton from the North End which has become a locus of cool and when you start to cross the city, you see poverty, Crossing King St. at Jackson Square we came across a monthly pop up food bank which had a line up in the thousands, that's an eye opener. Toronto has poverty, but its spread out in smaller pockets. Hamilton, it's in your face. You could say it's the echos of the old industrial collapse of 20 years ago, and Hamilton being now a healthcare, education and food processing hub has a population hasn't or can't pivot to the new economy.  The second roll is Kodak Gold 200, I should shoot this film more, it really works well with the 50 f2.5 Color Skopar lens. I struggled loading the second roll of Pro Image 100, which was annoying, I'm getting pretty good loading Barnack Leicas, they can still be finicky to load. I got the roll of Gold 200 loaded and here we are.  Camera: Leica IIIg, Vo...

  Just like that, I'm back and I got my scanning workflow up and running. More content is coming soon, be patient. In the meantime, from a month ago from the Toronto Film Shooters trip out to Hamilton. Alex Luykx put the walk together which was great because I was running ragged getting ready for my move into the city.  It's been a while since I was last in Hamilton and it was my first time taking the GO Train to West Harbour  GO Station in Hamilton's North End across the street from the old CN Station which is now an event space owned LIUNA. It was a great group of photographers who showed up, some having gone to school in Hamilton.  I ran with my Leica IIIg and Voigtlander 50 F2.5 Color Skopar Lens, great for shooting with C-41 film. Mix of sun and cloud through me off. I got better as I went along. I love the Color Skopar lens. I've shoot black and white film through it, now colour, the lens doesn't deserve the reputation it originally had when released over 20 y...

 A tale of two modern "Nifty Fifties" from Voigtlander, both Leica Screwmount, which means you can use both lenses, on Barnack Leicas, Canon Rangefinders, and other copies. The Color Skopar is a 50 F2.5 lens, with compact dimensions and would be at home on any Barnack Leica, love shooting with it on my IIIG and will live on that body. While slightly "slower" than F2, the Color Skopar is very sharp lens, and at the time of release had a mixed reputation, over time has been rehabilitated with several users including myself. I shot a roll of black and white with the Color Skopar on my IIIG almost a month ago and loved the results and wondered why people were dumping on this lens. Look, the real proof is how does the negative print either from a darkroom print or scanned and printed via inkjet or some other media. At say 11x14 that's where the true performance lies.  Now, the 50 F1.5 Nokton is a different beast, it's a big lens, with a 52mm filter thread, yet do...