Ilford HP5 Plus - Canon Canonet QL17 - Toronto

Toronto's CN Tower

Last week over on the Coalesce52 blog I posted some of my Fuji Astia 100 images from Toronto's Chinatown. While I was in Toronto I also shot a roll of 35mm Ilford HP5 Plus using my Canon Canonet QL17 GIII, which is what you see here. I must say, the more I shoot Ilford's films in any format the more I enjoy them. Take a look at some of my favorite images from this roll and then be sure to check out my Chinatown images over on the Roll-A-Week blog. Enjoy!

View from the CN Tower

Downtown Toronto

Lakeshore Blvd

Little Boxes on the Hillside

Ilford 100 Delta Pro 120 - Yashica D - Eagle Clothing Brooklyn

A week or so ago I posted some images from the DUMBO area of Brooklyn that I shot with my Yashica D and some Ilford 100 Delta Pro 120 film. Today I have one more image from that same roll of film that is from a slightly different area of Brooklyn known as Park Slope. After a short subway ride back from Brooklyn Bridge Park we stopped to shoot a few frames of this Eagle Clothing Co. sign that we had seen looming over the area on our many subway trips in and out of the city. From what I've read this sign is something of an Iconic landmark to the area for a previously well known clothing manufacturer that has since gone by the wayside. Though the building is now a giant U-Haul facility the sign remains. As a fan of old signage and american, I, for one, am happy that some people still appreciate and leave these monolithic remnants of another time standing.

Ilford 100 Delta Pro 120 - Yashica D - DUMBO

Some time ago (around June) I spent a couple of days in the NYC and Brooklyn area. I've posted some photos from that trip before, but, just recently got back my final roll of film from being developed after hanging onto it for way too long. These particular photos were shot with one of my favorite MF cameras, the Yashica D, on some Ilford 100 Delta Pro 120 film. 

After a long day of rain in the city we decided to jump off the subway on our way back to our hotel in Brooklyn and check out Brooklyn Bridge Park and the DUMBO area. Luckily, it stopped raining just about the time we arrived which (finally) gave us a chance to wander about and take a few photos. I shot almost an entire roll right there in the park, but, these are three of my favorites. Enjoy.

Ilford Delta 3200 Pro 120 - Yashica D - Huntington Reservation at Night

Back in March I posted a very similar photo to the one above from the Huntington Reservation in the Cleveland Metro parks. That same night, I had my Yashica D along as well - loaded up with some Ilford Delta 3200 Pro - and that is what I used to snap this shot. As you can see, there's definitely a bit more contrast and range in this film than the Fuji instant film and I think I like this shot just a little bit better. This photo was taken shortly after sunset, in nearly complete dark, with a longer exposure. Personally, I love these long exposures by the water - there's something ethereal about the stillness they create...

Ilford Delta 3200 Pro 120 - Yashica D - NYC Subway Images

One of the things I enjoy most about going to NYC is experiencing the things that we don't have in Cleveland. While we do have great public transportation, we have nothing that compares to the NYC subway system. It's easy for me to become engrossed in watching the people. There are people who ride on a daily basis, tourists who are new to the system, people who are riding to get somewhere and others who are just riding. There seems to even be an entirely different set of accepted behaviors and social interactions - it's not at all unlike riding in an elevator with strangers.

Of course, since I find the subway so fascinating, it's not surprising that I took the many trips in and out of the city as an opportunity to shoot. This type of photography (actually most of the photography from this trip) is really not my usual style. I would liken this more to street photography - which is a style I've always admired but never really been able to grasp personally, but, I think I see little hints of success in my more recent work. I attribute part of that to being more comfortable with my analog cameras but also to being more willing to shoot those images of unknown people - realizing now that it's often those people and their interactions with the camera that make good street photography good.

For reference, all of the images in this post were taken with my Yashica D TLR - a camera that I have come to love more and more as the results that I get from this camera are always fantastic. The film of choice for these subway photos is of course a high ISO film - Ilford Delta 3200 Pro - which allowed me to shoot handheld in the darker parts of the subway. This was actually my first experience with this Ilford 3200 and I'm surprised by how little grain there actually is in the scans. For such a high ISO film I expected to find much grainier images. Overall, I'm pretty happy with it and will likely shoot with it again in the near future.