Bill Smith's Photography

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.

There's a lot to shoot within Gore Park in Hamilton. I'll have to come back at some point to do some more because I feel as though I missed some photographs... Camera: Olympus OM-4, Zuiko 50 f1.4 lens, Zuiko 28 f2.8 lens. Film: Bergger BRF400, HC110 B.

My only complaint with Bergger BRF 400 is the fact it curls when it dries after processing which makes scanning a bit of challenge. Aside from that if you are getting a bit bored of Tri-X, HP5 or Fomapan 400, give BRF 400 a try. I highly recommend it for shooting in different light environments (full sunshine, overcast and indoors) and in urban environments and processes well in most developers including my favourite HC110. Camera: Nikon F3HP, Ai 50 f1.4 lens. Film: Bergger BRF 400, HC110 B. for 7.5 min at 20c.

The standard rule of thumb when shooting with Kodak Ekar 100 colour film is it loves bright sun. This past March Break I didn't get a lot of that while house sitting in the Beaches at my brother's place. I went out on I think Tuesday, the light looked pretty good so I loaded up my camera with some Kodak Ektar 100, a colour film that leans towards a saturated look. Well, mother nature had other ideas as I walked further east along the boardwalk. I like what I got out out of this series. What you see here is the winter art installation along the Beaches, design students come up with seasonal shelters to build around the lifeguard chairs and they get dismantled towards the end of March. The rope structure was particularly interesting as I got to play with my new macro lens with the rope shots. One thing I did notice in some frames the film was not being exposed evenly. My Nikon F2SB was recently overhauled and was worried it was a shutter issue, but it was only with certain s...

I don't wander around west of Spadina often enough. I was in Toronto for an evening seminar and had some time to kill. Now being March, it's just like November only you get cruelly teased with a few nice days only to have a two week stretch of awful weather. I pushed my film to 1600 to get more out the light I had. Camera: Rolleicord IV K3B, Schneider 75 f3.5 Xenar lens. Film: Kodak Tri-X 400 pushed to 1600 ISO, HC110 B.

Fun while it lasted. Onward to Spring.  Camera: Nikon FM2n, Nikkor Ais 35 f2 and 24 f2.8 lenses.  Film: Ilford Delta 100, HC110 B. 

A small hamlet in Caledon Ontario.... Camera: Hasselblad 500 C/M, 80 f28 Zeiss Planar Lens Film: Kodak Tmax 400, HC110 B.

This hasn't been the optimal ski season, a late start and mild spells that make for ski conditions like a giant slurpie. There are however weekends where it is downright near perfect. This weekend is going to be one of them so I'm skiing Friday and maybe Sunday if the weather cooperates  and enjoying it while we still got it.  Camera: Nikon FM, Nikkor Ais 35 f2 lens, Nikkor Ais 105 f2.5 lens. Film: Fomapan 200, D76 1+1.  Now an old friend of mine, Shelagh McGrogen gave me some solid advice a few years back, be the water. I now I've said it before and I'll say it again, be the water. You can't be the rock in the middle, the ice along the shoreline or the shore. 

King St. Between Liberty Village and Spadina Ave is constantly evolving with the constant development going on. I particularly like the stretch between Bathurst and Spadina for the architectural integrity compared to other stretches which have become condos. Unfortunately if I'm on schedule there's never enough time to slow down and wander through capturing the details on the buildings. Thankfully Allied REIT is smart and renovated the old factories and warehouses into office space. I'll be back on my own time when ski season is done for the year. I shot this on my recently overhauled Nikon F2SB I picked up from Burlington Camera back in December, the tech did a superb job on it and the meter is bang on. The Nikkor O 35 f2 lens is a brilliant piece of glass and I forgot how nice it is. I'm figuring out my March Break kit and it could be a Nikkormat and The F2SB, we'll see. Camera: Nikon F2SB, Nikkor O 35 f2 lens. Film: Ilford HP5 400, HC110 B. ...