So this is a bit of an accompaniment piece to my last post as I had to change a roll of film on location to get a few more shots of the Civitan Club building in Smiths Falls. I had been shooting a roll of Kodak TMAX 400 and the roll abruptly ended at 24 frames… I was confounded and confused for a moment thinking my trusty F4 had jammed up or something and then quickly realized after rewinding the film that I had indeed loaded up a 24 exposure roll! I always try and shoot 36 exposure film as it cost the same to process and you get 30% more shots on a single roll. It really is a no brainer for me. However I must have bought a roll of 24 by mistake and loaded it up without noticing.
Anyways I had to load up another roll and luckily I had another roll of TMAX 400 in my bag so in it went so I could get a few more shots in of this large building on the edge of town, beside some sort of industrial plant. I had noticed the sign before on previous trips down this highway. The name Civitan Club peaked my interest and the lettering of the sign was unique too. I am always a sucker for a good font or unique and original typography and find myself drawn to photograph anything that looks old, odd or original to me. I popped off a few frames of the building and the adjacent industrial plant and headed on home from my trip to Smiths Falls.
That was in the fall of 2021. I didn’t pick up the F4 again until sometime in the summer of 2022. That is a caveat of collecting cameras, you pick one or two to shoot with the most and the rest of them sit in your camera bag waiting patiently to be used again. I have mentioned before the Nikon F4 is big and heavy a workhorse of a camera, but not always the one that I want to have in my bag everyday when I am bouncing around town. I have been leaning towards smaller more compact cameras lately, but that is a post for another time.
So in a bit of a journalistic way the rest of this roll is a reflection of my life. I have a few more shots on a photo mission to an industrial park near my house in Carlington. If you look closely at these images you will notice some blurry out of focus parts which I am not sure what happened. Maybe I had a smudge or fingerprint on the lens? It was accidentally and I can’t even remember WHAT lens I was using in these shots.
After that I have a few shots from my home “studio” space. I do believe I was trying out a new lens and fired off a few frames on a rainy day inside. The lens was a Tamron adaptall 24mm manual focus lens that I found used for $20.
The next few frames are from me walking my dog Sasha around the Arboretum which is another daily event in my life. Continuing on with the visual documentation of my daily life, here are a few more pictures around the tennis court that I walk by on my way to work on a rainy day last summer. Then it is the Elgin Street Diner (which is right beside the Manx, the little pub that I work at). I walk by the diner so many times and have taken a bunch of photos of it, trying to get the “perfect” shot. I don’t think the perfect shot actually exists but I will keep on trying to get a good one with no cars out front and the right lighting. This time I caught it with no cars and the wet road reflections.
I almost forgot to write about these next 2 frames. I have driven by this store in Nepean a few times and had it in the back of my mind that I would get some photos of it. I am drawn to the older unique buildings in this city, they give it character. Another rainy day, no cars in front. It actually wasn’t even open for some reason so I didn’t get the chance to go inside.. These were definitely taken with that Tamron 24mm lens.
This last frame is the corner of Bank and First, the home for so so many years of the Glebe Emporium. A once iconic and timeless kitchen and home store that was a cornerstone of the Glebe, something I thought would be around forever. Alas I am starting to realize that nothing is around forever and is life is always moving along. I was surprised that it was gone but also not surprised that it was gone as that neighbourhood is changing and evolving with the times.
That is it, no technical talk. You can read my last post for some insight on the film and camera used for the images if you would like to. I don’t even know if the camera and film matter anymore as long as you have something that works for you and can expose the film properly and you are comfortable shooting.
That is it for now, take care and keep shooting film
Jeremy Shane Reid
Dusty Negatives 