Bill Smith's Photography

Toronto Photowalks is a grassroots group of people from Greater Toronto who meet up regularly to explore various neighbourhoods in Toronto. Founded by Paul Henman back in November 2009, TOPW attracts area photographers of all skill levels to explore the city and surrounding environments with a current head count of more than 1600 members on their Facebook page. What I love about TOPW is the camaraderie among the members and the fact we stop at local pubs on route halfway through for lunch and at the end for dinner. The journey is indeed more fun than the destination. Camera: Canon F-1N, FD 28 f2 SSC and 50 f1.4 SSC lenses. Film: Ilford HP5 400, HC110 B. Click through on the image to see the album set on flickr. or click here instead: https://flic.kr/s/aHskgyZjdo

I missed my Minolta SRT 202, it was a nice tank of a camera, gifted it along with 99% of my Rokkor lenses along with a X700 to my brother to thin the herd out a bit. A few years later I came across my dead Minolta XE-7(no repair techie in Canada will touch it) and it had a MC Rokkor X 50 f1.4 lens that was still great. Found a restored SRT 102 on EBay along with some lenses and I'm back shooting Minolta. I forgot how nice the Rokkor series of lenses were. I can see why Leica partnered up with them back in the 1970s to share 35mm SLR technology. Camera: Minolta SRT 102, MC Rokkor X 50 f1.4 lens, 135 f2.8 for Lindsey's portrait. Film: Ilford HP5 400, HC110 B.

This is the perfect day trip destination. Camera: Hasselblad 500 C/M, Zeiss 80 f2.8 lens. Film: Portra 400 for colour, Fuji Neopan Acros 100 for black and white.

I needed to fall of the grid last week. Monday became a play day and I drove northwest to the village of Elora , it's about an hour and a bit northwest of Greater Toronto. If you have never been take the time to go, especially during the week when it's not quite so busy. If you're looking for a nice place to eat, there are plenty of options, I have been to the Shepherd's Pub by the Grand River but this time had lunch at Wreckless Eric's. While up there I wanted to experiment with some Cinestill 50   a niche C-41 colour negative film that's actually daylight motion picture stock from Kodak with the remjet layer removed. They weren't kidding there's no grain. I plan to use this film on the Algonquin Trip this coming fall if I can get the scans just right, digitizing colour film is still a learning process. What I really love is the latitude, you have tons of it compared to Kodak Ektar 100, another one of my favourite C-41 films. The only real downside...

I do portraits. Yes you see a lot of landscape and street photography on my blog but I love shooting portraits when I get the opportunity. My friend Crystal here just one Volunteer of the Year Award for the Toronto chapter of the  International Association of Business Communicators. We met volunteering on the Social Media committee and been friends since. I shot Crystal's portrait in the evening after she received her award at the annual general meeting last week. By the time we got around to it, I had no choice but to shoot wide open. My one regret is Crystal has a beautiful smile and here, it looks like the day had caught up with her, I will be re-shooting at some point. Camera: Olympus OM-2n, Zuiko 100 f2.8 shot wide open. Film:  Ilford HP5 400, HC110 B. Shot on the patio of the Paint Box Bistro

Sometimes you have to slow down a bit and be the water.   Camera: Olympus OM-2n, Zuiko 28 f3.5 lens. Film: Ilford HP5 400, HC110 b.

I love shooting with my oldest Nikon F, it belonged to my dad and dates from late 1960 if I got the serial number right. This never came with an on board light meter so I used a hand held Sekonic L398a  and never get a bad exposure. Of course silly me forgot my lens hoods for both the the 28mm and 24mm lenses so I got some flare to contend with. At one point I would have been freaking out with that, now I've made piece with some imperfection. Of course I decide to do some street photography with colour film just to be different. One thing that really surprised me as how quiet it was on a late Monday afternoon in early June. Camera: Nikon F, Nikkor H 28 f3.5 lens, Nikkor N 24 f2.8 lens. Film: Fuji Pro 400H

More black and white fun on a sunny Saturday morning downtown Toronto. Camera: Series E Rolleiflex 3.5 Planar Twin Lens Reflex Camera. Film: Kodak Tri-X 400, HC110 B.

Toronto on a Saturday morning has a different vibe than mid week, people slow down, take their time with their morning coffees and go for a walk. Camera: Series E Rolleiflex TLR with the 75 f3.5 Planar lens. Film: Kodak Tri-X 400, HC110 B.

Forks of the Credit Provincial Park is about an hour's drive northwest of Toronto near Belfountain Ontario and gets its name from where the East and West Credit Rivers meet up. Walk up Dominion Street you will come across Brimstone, formerly a village of "hard living" limestone miners over a 100 years ago, now a collection of cottages and weekend retreats along the East Credit River. From there I walk into the park along the Dominion Trail. This is one of my favourite places to unwind for a few hours. Where will I be hiking this weekend? Panorama Photo: iPhone 5S with the Google Snap-Seed app. Everything Else: Camera: Leica M4-2, Canon 50 f1.4 LTM lens, Voightlander 35 f2.5 lens. Film: Ilford HP5 400, HC110 B.

Not done with Belfountain by a long shot.  Camera: Leica M4-2, Canon 50 f1.4 LTM lens. Film: Ilford HP5 400, HC110 B. 

The hamlet Belfountain is located within the regional municipality of Caledon Ontario roughly an hour's drive north west of Toronto and was overdue for a visit after a month of crappy weather and lingering cold from hell slowing me down. Odd thing on the Saturday of this past Victoria Day Weekend, it was pretty quiet. Usually if the weather is nice Belfountain is slammed with motorcyclists and day trippers. I enjoyed the tranquility while I had it. Camera: Leica M4-2, Canon 50 f1.4 LTM lens. Film: Ilford HP5 400, HC110 B.

I was last here about 8 years ago and I took a spill into Grindstone Creek in early November with my gear at the time, I think it was my Minolta XE-7. Great camera, pity the meter has gone erratic and repair techs just don't want to touch it. Two weeks ago I returned to Smokey Hollow this time with my Mamiya C220f kit, a better tripod and was way more careful not to fall into the creek. Now, it was a bright day and that presents a problem because I don't have any neutral density filters that fit Sekor TLR lenses. To solve this I deliberately overexposed the film between 32 and 50 ISO and shortened my processing time with my go to developer Xtol. I'm happy with that I got from this. Camera: Mamiya C220f, Sekor 80 f2.8 and 135 f4.5 lenses. Film: Ilford FP4 125 pulled down to somewhere around 32-50 ISO, Xtol 1+1.

Hiking of another sort in Toronto. Camera: Leica M3 Dual Stroke, type one 50 f2 Summicron lens. Film: Ilford Delta 100, Xtol 1+1.