Category: 35mm

Two Solitudes – Another Take

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After a fun Nikkormat – themed photowalk with my friend Bill Smith, we ducked into a pub for a beer. From our table facing the front of the restaurant I couldn’t help but notice a couple who seemed oblivious to each other, and were glued to their phones. I couldn’t resist the image, so I picked up the Nikkormat  with a 105mm/2.5 lens, and shot a few frames wide open at 1/60th of a second, guessing on the exposure (since the camera did not have a functioning meter) and hoping  I could get one frame of Tri-X sufficiently sharp. I got lucky.

W. Bill NKMT TX MicX 005

Early Morning in the Scarborough Bluffs

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This morning my good friend Ori and I met up for an early morning shoot in Scarborough bluffs in Eastern Toronto. These two images were shot using my Nikon F4S, a 28mm/2.8 Nikkor lens, and an oddball film: Eastman 2366, a film meant for creating motion picture positives from negatives, but usable for still photography with developers such as Xtol.

Bluff 2366 F4 8-16025
 Bluff 2366 F4 8-16024

Through a Child’s Eyes

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We’ve all seen it: A live performance of some kind, with the adults standing back passively watching, then a child comes up and gets close to the performers and perhaps join in, without the slightest hint of self-consciousness or acceptance of the dividing line between performer and audience. I witnessed one such moment at last weekend’s Open Streets festival as a young girl was entranced by a street band. It was a challenge to create the image; I just had the wide angle on the camera at the time, and I felt I had to take the image from the vantage point of the rest of the audience, so it would appear that I was merely taking photographs of the band, given the antipathy of so many to street photography today, especially when children are involved.

This image has been through a couple of treatments, and this is the final version, with a fair amount of cropping, but leaving enough space to show how the child had become an audience of one.

OPen Streets F4 UN54 035

Nikon F4S, 28mm/2.8 Nikkor lens
ORWO UN54 film developed in Legacy Pro EcoPro developer

Back to the Railway Bridge

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A couple of weeks ago, the Toronto Film shooters group had a meet-up in the lower Don Valley, and one of the stops was the old railway bridge. It was the most humid day I could recall for sometime, and compared to my last visit, there was a lot more vegetation: combined with the heavy air, it felt like a tropical rain forest.

TFS Nikon F4 rxp25 8-16033

Nikon F4, 50mm/1.8 Nikkor D lens
Rollei RPX 25 film, developed in Rodinal

Fading

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I’ve lived long enough in Toronto to remember brighter days, when the city was described as “New York run by the Swiss”. Before decades of infrastructure neglect, enshrined through the selfish parsimony of the electorate, and the cowardice of elected officials. In today’s images, even though the park and the bridge are still in use, there is still to my eyes an atmosphere of neglect. All images created with Nikon F3, 28mm/2.8 Nikkor lens. Rollei Retro 80s film developed in Rodinal and toned in post.

Taylor Creen F3 80s 8-16017-EditTaylor Creen F3 80s 8-16027-Edit

Taylor Creen F3 80s 8-16018-Edit

Taylor Creen F3 80s 8-16016-Edit

The Beaten Path

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I love the organic look of unpaved trails. There is a sense of magic and story in them.

All these images are from a walk last Monday through High Park, taken with a Nikon N90s 35mm camera and Tamron 17mm superwide lens. Film used was Rollei RPX 400, developed in Perceptol developer.

High Park N90s RPX 400 026-Edit
 High Park N90s RPX 400 013-Edit
 High Park N90s RPX 400 008-Edit
 High Park N90s RPX 400 006-Edit

High Park N90s RPX 400 014-Edit

Perfect Expression

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Last weekend I had a photoshoot with my good friend (and very talented musician and composer) Jo-Anne. While I was using my Hasselblad kit for most of the work I did take some 35mm images using my Nikon N90s and 50mm/1.4 Nikkor lens. I used Rollei RPX 400, pushed to EI 1600 using Tmax developer. I was very happy with the expression I was able to catch.

Jo-Anne W RXP 1600003-Edit

Deeper Than Any Forest Primeval

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I guess I’m an old softie at heart: one of my favourite love songs is “Longer” by Dan Fogelberg. As I was out yesterday morning in High Park in the forest path near Keele Station, the dim light from the morning overcast and the silence reminded me of a line from the song:

“Deeper than any forest primeval, I am in love with you.”

The forest did feel very deep and moody yesterday, and these three images for me capture the mood. All were created using my Nikon N90s 35mm SLR, 17mm/3.5 Tamron Ultra-wide angle lens, shot on Rollei RPX400 film, developed in Perceptol.

High Park N90s RPX 400 029-Edit

High Park N90s RPX 400 028-Edit

High Park N90s RPX 400 027-Edit

Framed

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I have always liked images with inner framing, and this view near Roy Thomson Hall caught my eye recently.

Olympus XA street005

Olympus XA 35mm rangefinder camera
Bergger BRF 400+ film developed in Ilfosol 3