Photo of the Week 2025-07-14

 

My return to shooting film is certainly not an abandonment of digital, I will continue to shoot with modern digital cameras. This leg of my journey still sees me wielding some of the most advanced digital camera bodies and lenses available in addition to 40-50 year old film SLR's with manual focus lenses. At times these worlds collide and vintage manual focus lenses find their way onto digital bodies by way of mount adapters that became popular with the introduction of the mirrorless camera format.

 

As of this writing, I have been using local processing labs to develop film and provide most negative scans with processing and any printing done using my established digital workflow. At some point there will be a return to the darkroom, first to develop B&W film. Wet darkroom print development is a possibility but a ways down the road.

 

Combining Film and Digital, some call it " Figital " , is an interesting hybrid experience. I have been abruptly reminded of dust, scratch and fingerprint issues with negatives. The images in this post were scanned at home using an Epson v500 photo scanner I picked up used with negative holders sourced from a 3rd party. The native Epson software for scanning was easy to use though admittedly I have not had a lot of experience with it and would like to investigate some of the advanced scanning options. Film used was Ilford XP2 that had expired back in the 90's. Following some online advice, I decided to increase exposure x2 by rating the film at ISO 100 and then had it processed normally in C41 process as designed.

 

' white clapboard church '

 

 

 

' sunlight sermon '

' fence & monument 

' post interment '

 

' buggy barn '

 

 

 

 

 

I have a number of takeaways from shooting this roll and working with the resulting images. The capture experience with the Canon FTb-n was quite enjoyable. The camera is fully manual with 'match-the-needle' exposure setting using the shutter speed dial on top plate and aperture ring on the lens. Of course the lens was manual focus and the film had to be manually advanced for to the next frame, something that I kept forgetting to do as I've gotten used to the conveniences of digital. A note on film advance, I've decided not to advance the film after I make an exposure but wait until I'm ready to shoot again. This will leave the shutter uncocked (no spring tension of the shutter) in case I don't make any more images and the camera sits unused for a bit. The mechanisms were robustly built back in the day but like me they have seen a few years so no need for more tension than necessary ;-)

 

More of my thoughts on Figital in a future post ...

 

'click' 

 

DJE 

Photo of the Week 2025-07-07

 

I always knew there would be a return to film for me at some point in this photographic journey, it was just a matter of when ...

 

' bricked '

 

 

After attending a vintage camera fair in Etobicoke, went to explore the nearby Humber College Lakeshore Campus. I wanted to walk around the former Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital site to see some of the preserved brick buildings, now repurposed by the College.

 

I had a roll of Ilford XP2 loaded into my Canon A-1, and shot with both an FDn 17mm f/4 and the FDn 24mm f/2 that I used for the image above. I chose the XP2 for quick turn around processing at a local photo store / lab. They also provided scans of the negatives, something that I'm preparing to do myself, along with processing of 'conventional' B&W film. Any colour, and XP2 will still be sent out for development.

 

Here is a shot of "H" Building, originally one of the "cottages" where patients/residents were housed.

 

' "H" Building '

Still early in this leg of my journey, though several weeks and rolls of film since I shot film for the image above, I'm not sure when it will lead. And I'm excited to see where that may be ... 

 

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2025-06-30

 

Reconnecting with a friend who suggested an outing to a rodeo in Feversham, we had a great day and the rain mostly held off, though the corral was a tad wet for the competitions ...

 

While Grant positioned near the pens and mostly shot shorter focal lengths, the requirement to get down on knees for other spectators to see over us motivated me to head to the other end and shoot some longer glass to capture the action. These images were shot with the venerable EF 70-200 f/2.8 L IS III USM on Canon mount adapter to my EOS R5.

 

 

 ' good form '

 

' whoa now '

' dismount '

  

DJE 

Photo of the Week 2025-06-23

 

 

' forest forget me nots '

On a recent outing to a rodeo in Feversham, we made a stop to check out the trails along the gorge in Madeleine Graydon Memorial Conservation Area. Just as we were entering the woods, this pretty little scene grabbed my attention.

 

It reminded me of images of the forest bluebells I've seen from UK photographers. Though not as abundant or dominant in the scene, they're Canadian, a bit understated and just as beautiful nestled among the native trees and a lot closer to home.

 

DJE 

Photo of the Week 2025-06-16

 

A few days of the cottage at just the right time allowed me to capture some of the many spring wildflowers currently in bloom. I had planned to present a selection of those photos but there are quite a few and I chose to showcase just two for this post. Others will follow on my social media streams, but for now ... 

 

' lone slipper '

' slipper triplet '

 

I shot these (on morning walks with Lynn and Sullivan) handheld with the RF 85mm f/2 Macro on an R5 at fairly wide aperture for background blur and was very pleased with the results ... some of my favourite images of the Yellow Lady's Slipper so abundant in June on the Bruce.

 

DJE