The day of the event we gathered a crowd of just under 60 enthusiast photographers. There were people from their late 20’s right up to the mid 70’s. Some had never used a film camera and some wanted to rekindle the analog flame after 20 years of not shooting film. The weather was picture perfect and the group was split in three. One gang went on and experimented with double exposure techniques, another explored architecture and the remaining one snapped portraits. They walked the pavement of Old Montreal for a solid 2-hours n the hope of catching that perfect image. It was very satisfying to see the level of interest for Ilford black and white photography and we can anticipate happy returns to film for a number of them.
We asked our resident Black & White expert, Crombie McNeill, to pick the three best shots from the day.
It was a real pleasure reviewing all the excellent shots submitted from the photo walk. Each one had something special going for it and it was very difficult to select only three.
1. by Michel Paquette
An excellent composition with three muscular men all gazing in the same direction, while at the top of the composition is a person leisurely absorbed in a completely different world with their cell phone. Good balance to a composition is important and it’s very evident here. Bravo to Michel.
2. by Normand Charpentier
There’s real harmony is this complex composition and it’s all in perfect balance and perspective… very darn nice. The play of the open shadows is very pleasing showing Normand knows how to expose and process his Ilford film. The shot would be so, so if it were not for the photographer shooting through the gate bars. Excellent!
3. by Sebastien Arbour
This candid portrait breaks a lot of traditional rules; but it’s a great success! I suggest Sebastien shot by pure instinct of the moment and it worked. The glasses adds a sense of mystery, then the vertical windows of the building tilted in the composition adds a real sense of tension to this shot. Outstanding.
Do you have darkroom facilities for the general public to use?
Do you sell enlargers?