Bill Smith's Photography

 I love Belfountain, been going through on the way up hiking or skiing in the winter, stopping for lunch, coffee or an ice cream cone. It's quaint little hamlet in the heart of regional municipality of Caledon in the north end of Peel Region. While pretty, Belfountain is under pressure from both development and over tourism. Just off Mississauga Road where it tranistions into Main St. there's a parcel of former farmland that's been passsd from one developer to another over the years. The current project is to build mansions and make some sort of rural super luxury neighbourhood. There's one little problem, every household and business in Belfountain gets their water from wells, and the water table is pretty much maxed out. Any new development will cause havoc for the locals.  The other challenge is over toursim, over the past 10 years, I've seen what best could be described as the BlogTO effect,  where Toronto regional news blog. Even pre pandemic, Belfountain was a...

 I needed to get out of dodge and I have a bit of a project documenting the Credit River Headwaters land within the GTA Greenbelt which covers large parts of Caledon, the north end of Halton Region and the eastern corner of Wellington County. Part of the plan was to get up to Erin, shoot it on my Mamiya C220f and head over to Belfountain for lunch at Higher Ground Cafe because I had a craving for their grilled pesto chicken wrap. I brought my Olympus OM-1n with MC Zuiko 50 f1.8 lens loaded with some Kodak Color Plus 200.  Part of the Headwaters Project is documenting the small towns within the watershed and the pressures facing them. Erin is a village at the east end of Wellington County of just over 11 thousand people, the main industry is still farming but the town is fast becoming a suburb of Brampton, Mississauga, Guelph, even many years ago I worked with an account director at Carlson Marketing Group who commuted down  from Erin. That's happening more and more as peo...

Queen St. West between Spadina Ave and Trinity Bellwoods Park has changed a lot over the years, I'm glad some landmarks remain like the Cameron House and a few stalawart retailers, bars and restaraunts. I hate seeing old landmarks disappear. Now, Fomapan 400, this film really shone on this photowalk, I exposed it at 250 ISO and processed in HC 100 Dilution B. I was aiming for something gritty, I got something much nicer. There's still a very old school look to this film. Now I need to buy more, a lot more as I've found the sweet spot where I need something faster than 100 ISO with some character but not 400 ISO, this gives me the in between I want. Camera: Olympus OM-2n, Zuiko 50 MC 50 f1.8 lens. Film: Fomapan 400, HC110 B/

We actually got a snow storm in January! The worst hit overnight so driving up skiing was fine, driving back, yeah, that was a treat. Photographing during snowstorms and other crappy weather can give you great shots. The secret for winter photography in winter wonderland, overexpose around a stop and a half, or more, otherwise, your snow will be grey, not white. The OM-2n, held up nicely in the elements, and I'm impressed. I finally got a chance to try out my Tamron Adaptall 2 SP 70-200 F3.5-4 zoom lens. I only shot two frames at around the 80mm focal length, and the first two images show the results. Tamron made a ton of different lenses, some that were on par with tier one OEM glass, others, not so much. If you are on the hunt for a zoom telephoto, Tamron's adapatall system is an interesting one. I hope we get some more real winter weather weather because I love shooting in it. Camera: Olympus OM-2n, Tamron Adaptall 2 SP 70-200 F3.5-F4 zoom lens, MC Zuiko 50 f1.8 lens...