Well it has been some time since I’ve gotten around to writing about photography. It’s not that I haven’t been thinking about it or shooting when I can… It’s just been some time since I’ve had the time to sit down and write down my thoughts.
So here goes some film photo talk about a roll of film I shot last fall, I think it was late October into early November.
Scene 1. Late last fall I took a road trip / day trip out to Morris Conservation Area to go for a little hike. It was an unusually warm late October day and I had nothing important to do in the city so I loaded up my backpack with a couple of cameras and hit the road. I didn’t know what to expect, and honestly did’t really know where I was going so I let the map app on my phone guide me there. Along the way after I turned off the main highway I found myself driving down country roads with farm fields on the left and to the right of me. I always find the further away from the city I get the more relaxed I become and today was no exception.
About an hour or so into my drive I rolled into a little town or village I suppose you could call it called Galetta, ON. As I slowed down I began to look around at the small town homes and began to wonder what it would be like to live there. I do this when I drive through anywhere. It must be the daydreamer in me… Anyways out of the corner of my eye I spot this old farm building with a few letters missing from the sign and knew that this was what I was infect looking for. I pulled over into the dirt laneway and noticed a boat just sitting there in the lot stranded in a sea of sand. I got out and pulled out the digital Nikon and took a few shots in colour first and then brought out the Seagull Twin Lens Reflex camera. I had already loaded up the camera with some Kosmo Foto Mono Black and White film before I left so that’s what I shot even though it was a beautiful sunny day and Colour film would have been better for sure.. So it goes.
Scene 2. I have always had a “thing” for old motels. I have wondered if it was from seeing them in movies over the years and dreamt what it would be like to stay there. Maybe it was from driving by them on road trips when I was younger or more than likely a combination of those things and the fact that this ‘Bel-Air Motel’ is around the corner from where I grew up in Bells Corners a little suburban neighbourhood in Ottawa.
I can’t tell you why I haven’t taken photos here before. I do know I will do it again. I will bring colour film to properly document this Motel that hasn’t really changed all that much in the 40 plus years that I have driven, walked, biked, or skateboarded by it in my lifetime. A time capsule into a different time when people travelled slower and would stop in for while. This motel is right across the main street in Bells Corners from a trailer park. That in itself is another topic and another story for another day. There are some funny little pockets of things in Ottawa and this place is definitely one of them!
Photo Tech Talk. These photos were taken Kosmo Foto Mono 100, 120mm film and a Seagull Twin Lens Reflex medium format camera. I set my handheld light meter to 64 ISO to slightly overexpose the film to boost the contrast and expose the shadows a bit better. With that being said the camera’s settings are an older standard and don’t always line up with what the meter suggests. When this happened I would use the closest setting on the camera that exposes the film more than less so some of these shots might be overexposed by 1 stop or more. High contrast and good detail. I have to mention on the Bel-Air Motel shots I was experimenting with “Zone”focusing and find some of the shots not as sharp as if I was to focus directly on the subject at hand so I probably won’t be doing that again!
That’s it for now, take care and keep shooting film
Jeremy Shane Reid
Dusty Negatives 
Very beautiful series. I really like this idea to go off the main road sometimes and to get “lost” what is not really possible today with the always connected phones.
About to imagine how it is to live in different small places – its my usual “problem” as well. I dream to have this ability to change a place or a country just every year. But it seems it will bring a lot of doing in terms of “acclimatization” in every new place, and will eat a lot of time.
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