Bill Smith's Photography

When most people spend the day in the Beaches neighbourhood, they spend it on the south side of Queen St. walking along the board walk and on the beaches proper. North of Queen St. is a different world, especially around Glen Stewart Park and Ravine, there are a lot of nice homes in that part of the neighbourhood. The big attraction is the ravine itself, a short hike in a valley where it feels like the middle of nowhere not in the biggest city in Canada. The ravine itself starts where Glen Stewart park finishes and takes you up to Kingston Rd. along a well maintained pathway. I think the best time to visit would be in the fall when the leaves change colour, something I will have to do. The other photo of note is the shot of the red barber shop, it relocated as the property is slated for teardown for a condo development, the neighbourhood is constantly re-inventing itself wether it wants it or not. Rectangular Photos Camera: Minolta SRT 102, MC Rokkor 50 1.4 lens Film: Kodak P...

I'm not done posting Beaches images just yet. Shooting colour negative (c-41) film is a nice change of pace from black and white and the Beach neighbourhood is full of colour. I shot most of these images south of Queen St., my next post will hight light images images on the north side of the street and deep into a neighbourhood ravine. Funny how I just blink my eyes and it's towards the end of August already. I'm still not done with Summer, the official rollover into fall is not for another month. Did anyone else have any interesting adventures on staycations? Got something planned for the next two weeks? A technical note, both film stocks I used are factory rated for 400 ISO, I deliberately overexposed at 250 ISO to get more punch with the colour, C-41 film has very wide latitude and I have seen results of Portra 400 exposed at 100 ISO with little change. Rectangular Shots: Camera: Minolta SRT-102, MC Rokkor Lenses Film: Kodak Portra 400 Square Shots: Camera: ...

I forgot how nice MC Rokkor lenses are, especially on a bright sunny day. I'm blown away at what I got. I had very little post processing to do outside some cropping and dust removal, the negs were plenty sharp on their own. I love my Minolta SRT 102, it's a nice tank of a camera and I like the fact there are not one but two Cds meter cells so you get a more accurate light reading. Most people who explore the Beaches usually make a beeline for the boardwalk, myself included every time I visit. What's more fun is exploring the streets north of Queen. The Beaches has it's own ravine trail and you will see that next blog post. Camera: Minolta SRT 102, MC Rokkor X 50 f1.4 and 28 f3.5 lenses, Film: Ilford HP5 400, HC110 B.

I spent the first week of August house sitting in the Beaches at my brother's place looking after a black lab, turtle, and gold fish. I also got a chance to wander through one of my favourite Toronto neighbourhoods. At the east end is an architectural gem the R.C. Harris Water Treatment Plant which also was non speaking character in the Michael Ondaatje novel In the Skin of a Lion. The best time to shoot this complex is on a bright sunny morning. I can see the buildings used for exterior shots for exterior shots from period pieces to science fiction if it hasn't already. There's much more to come. Unfortunately I lost a roll during processing, it was an expired medium format Kodak Plus X. The emulsion was fine but the film itself, the polyester base had issues I just could not rescue. Pity. Stay tuned there's much more to come. Camera: Series E  Rolleiflex Twin Lens Reflex Camera with the 75mm f3.5 Zeiss Planar Lens Film: Kodak Tri-X400, Hc110 B.

Sunday morning in the city. Camera: Mamiya C220f, Sekor 80 f2.8 lens. Film: Ilford HP5 400, HC110 B.

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.