Quebec City photowalk on a cloudy morning.

 According to Wikipedia, “photowalking is a communal activity of camera enthusiasts who gather in a group to walk around with a camera for the main purpose of taking pictures of things that interest them.”

In mid-October, I was a speaker at an electricity grid security conference being held in Quebec City.  My friend and colleague Ross Johnson was also presenting at the conference, so we took this opportunity for a second photowalk, the first having been in Ottawa in March of this year.  This time, it was not just the two of us: I took the opportunity at the podium during my talk to invite anyone at the conference interested in joining us for a sunrise walk to join in.

Despite the grey weather and lack of an actual sunrise, we had a half-dozen folks who luckily had brought along their camera gear (or one with the latest iPhone) to the conference join us for an early morning walk through the streets of the old city inside the walls, out to the Dufferin Terrace at the Chateau Frontenac. A shout-out to Ross and the conference attendees who braved the cold and the darkness for what proved to be a nice walk, some great conversations, an opportunity for me to share some of the history of one of my favourite cities, and a chance to take some photos.  Now that we have done this twice, Ross and I have decided that this will not be a two-off but something we will look to organize at all future events when we are both in attendance.

A word or two about film development. I developed and scanned these at home; this was my second attempt at self-development, continuing my return to doing my own processing for the first time since 1979-1980 in the student lab at Dawson CEGEP’s Viger campus. I don’t have a darkroom, but I use a film changing bag to load the film into a Paterson tank, and do all the rest outside the bag, with the lights on. There are great resources for film development online. During long flights with internet access, I watched YouTube videos on techniques as both a refresh more than 40 years after my last film-developing experience and to figure out how to work with a bag instead of a darkroom.

The Paterson tank was part of kit I bought that also included Ilford development chemicals, enough for a first batch.  My first test batch was successful, so I needed more chemistry. Again, I turned to online resources for guidance on what to purchase to replenish, and the best resource I could find was an excellent and very detailed series of reviews of film developers by a fellow Canadian named Alex Luyckx. He has posted detailed reviews of 46 (and counting) different developers, which I consulted while shopping at the Photo Service store in Old Montréal. In the end, of the developers in stock in the store, and based on Alex’s reviews, I matched the Rollei Supergrain developer with standard Ilford stop bath and fixer. Of note as well, Alex Luyckx is also part of the team that puts together the excellent and my new favourite podcast, Classic Camera Revival, with already 161 episodes online.

All of these photos were shot on my Hasselblad 500 C/M paired with the Carl Zeiss Planar 1:2.8 80mm lens. The first group was part of a partial roll of Rollei Retro 80s, which had loaded into a film back in July while on summer vacation.  The second batch was a new-to-me film: Lomography Earl Grey 100 ISO. Considering the weather, these low-ISO films were far from optimal, but a tripod made it manageable.

Negatives scanned on EpsonPerfection V850 Pro scanner using Silverfast software.

Here are the photos...

Rollei Retro 80S: 

Lomography Earl Grey

Some frames were left on the roll, so I took a few shots around home before developing:

I left my Mamiya RB67, two film backs and three lenses at one of the few specialty repair businesses for film cameras,Service Caméra Pro in Quebec City. I look forward to a good-as-new. cleaned, lubricated, and adjusted RB67, with new light seals.  And while it will take 8-10 weeks, given the backlog at the shop, the good news is that it will give us an excuse to return once again to Quebec City.

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Previous Posts: 

• Garden, at home, in bloom, shot on a really nice budget film
• Jardins de Métis / Reford Gardens
• Ottawa, at Night, in Winter, on Cinestill 800T
• Supply Ship Visit to Remote Québec (and Labrador) Villages
• Mamiya RB67, Egypt and Mount Sinai
• Paris: One week, one camera, one lens, and whole lot of film
• Nikon F4 (F4S)
• Nikon F4, part 2: Fall Colours
• Classic folding cameras capture Thanksgiving in Upstate NY
• San Diego, February 2023, Nikon F4, Tri-X
• Washington DC, Feb 2023
• Voigtländer Perkeo 1
• Voigtländer Vito II
• The beginning of a blog...