This past Sunday was dark and gloomy in Toronto, but I have decided not to let lousy weather interfere with my photography! I went out with my Voigtlander Bessa R rangefinder and 21mm/4 super wide lens and still found some interesting subjects.
Voigtlander Bessa R 35mm rangefinder
with 21mm/4 Color Skopar lens
Tri-X film @ EI 400 developed in Pyrocat-HD 1+1+100,
15 minutes @ 20 C
There are places in Toronto I keep coming back to for photography: Kensington Market, The Beaches, the ravine near St. Clair/Yonge, the Lower Don Valley, and of course High Park, where I was yesterday. A cold, rather dreary day, but still plenty to photograph!
Voigtlander VITO B 35mm camera, 50mm/3.5 Color Skopar lens
Svema Foto 200 film developed in Pyrocat HD, 1+1+100 for 15.5 min. @ 20 C
I’ve had the privilege of working with sisters Sabrina and Rowena recently, and here is an image of them together at Allen Garden’s last Saturday. I think the relationship that sisters have can be a complicated dance. 🙂
Rolleiflex E3, 75mm/3.5 Xenotar lens
Ilford Delta 3200 developed in DD-X for 12.5 minutes @ 20 C
I first met Karen a number of years ago, when we both had images in an exhibit of photographs from the G20 incident in Toronto. A talented, resourceful and strong woman, she has a lot of presence in front of the camera!
Rolleiflex E3, 75mm/3.5 Xenotar lens
Tri-X @ EI 800 developed in Diafine
Negative Scanned and post-processed in Lightroom and Nik Efex
Another Tree Roots image. Black and white was made for subject matter like this!
Rolleiflex E3, 75mm/3.5 Xenotar lens
Tri-X @ EI 800 developed in Diafine
From a recent walk in the ravine near Yonge/St. Clair. For a black and white shooter, this kind of texture is priceless.
Rolleiflex E3 75mm/3.5 Xenotar lens
Tri-X @ EI 800 developed in Diafine
Shooting was a challenge in terms of light this past Saturday. Indoors at the Allen Gardens on a dreary day it was not very bright. I had one roll left of Delta 3200, and developing it in DD-X (at the time listed for EI 6400, not 3200) gave a look I quite like, wit ha smooth tonal range.
Rolleiflex E3, 75mm/3.5 Xenotar lens
Ilford Delta 3200 film @ EI 3200
Developed in DD-X 1+4, 12.5 minutes @ 20 C
It was lovely to work with Natasha again. Since we last worked together she has discovered she has a great talent for drawing, so a portrait of her makes a nice addition to my long term “Portrait of the Artist” project. In her expression I see the same thing I have been privileged to see in a number of artists: the joy of imagination, and the ability to tap into it. Shot in late afternoon in a fall day with the light rapidly fading, the Tri-X/Diafine combination made this film image possible.
Rolleiflex E3, 75mm/3.5 Xenotar lens
Tri-X @ EI 800 developed in Diafine
Today’s image of the fall colours in Toronto’ St. James Cemetery is from the first roll of colour slide film I developed at home using the Argentix E6 development kit. Slide development is a fussy thing, and I don’t think I got it quite right, but it was definitely in the ballpark! It is not easy to get slide film developed in Toronto any more, so I was very happy to find a Canadian distributor for the development chemistry, as U.S. sellers aren’t allowed to ship these kind of chemicals across borders. I might not shoot E6 slide film all that much anymore, but I can at least say I’ve developed my own!
Rolleiflex E3, 75mm/3.5 Xenotar lens
Fuji Velvia Slide film, home developed using Argentix E6 kit
Yesterday at St. James Cemetery: the dazzling sunshine and shade from the leaves still left on the tree made for very contrasty lighting, but the film/developer combination did a decent job in holding a lot of the shadow detail.
Rolleiflex E3, 75mm/3.5 Xenotar lens.
Rollei PRX400 film at EI 320 developed in Pyrocat HD, 18 minutes @ 20 C
My Third Eye 