I decided to spend an hour or so in the evening after work out on a little jut of land with my 4x5 large-format camera. As usual, I took my medium-format camera along, just in case. It turned out to be a beautiful evening and I got four sheets with the big camera and finished a roll that was in the medium camera. The evening is such an amazing time to take photos. The light is pure and dramatic, and when you have silhouettes like this, you can’t lose.

I should mention that this little just of land is Horseshoe Island Park, at the end of Quinpool Road in Halifax. The Northwest Arm is just that, an arm of water that is basically a long, narrow protected bay. At the north end of the arm — in shadow here in the top-right corner — is the Armdale Rotary, and at the south end of the arm, well, is the Atlantic Ocean.

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Camera: Mamiya 6 medium-format rangefinder
Lens: Mamiya 75mm
Filter: #15 deep yellow
Film: Fuji Neopan 400
Developer: Rodinal 1+50
Development: Small tank for 11 minutes at 20 degrees Celsius. Agitation was for the first thirty seconds, then five inversions per minute.
Date: May, 2010
Location: 44.639465,-63.613326
Copyright: 2010 Chris Jones. All rights reserved.

I don’t think there’s a better way to see the backcountry than a canoe. Unless it’s windy, then it’s bloody frightening and I’d rather be on solid ground. But on this day, the weather was great and the exploring was fun. We went all over the place in the canoe, spending a bit of time on the spectacular white sandy beach of backcountry campsite number 32 at Kejimkujik National Park. It doesn’t get any better than this spot.

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Camera: Mamiya 6 medium-format rangefinder
Lens: Mamiya 75mm
Filter: #15 deep yellow
Film: Fuji Neopan 400
Developer: Rodinal 1+50
Development: Small tank for 11 minutes at 20 degrees Celsius. Agitation was for the first thirty seconds, then five inversions per minute.
Date: May, 2010
Location: 44.312917,-65.278430
Copyright: 2010 Chris Jones. All rights reserved.

I don’t normally go anywhere near Lunenburg in the summer time as it’s completely overrun with tourists and difficult to enjoy. My favourite time of the year to visit is the fall and early winter. The light is still beautiful and you pretty much get the place to yourself. You get to actually interact with the people who live there.

This year though my brother and sister-in-law came for a visit in June, so it wasn’t too bad. This awesome bike leaning up against the cracked white side of a house was begging for me to take its photo. I think that when I print this I’ll tone it somehow, maybe in sepia or tea.

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Camera: Mamiya 6 medium-format rangefinder
Lens: Mamiya 75mm
Filter: #15 yellow
Film: Fuji Neopan 400
Developer: Rodinal 1+50
Development: Small tank for 11 minutes at 20 degrees Celsius. Agitation was for the first thirty seconds, then five inversions per minute.
Date: June, 2010
Location: 44.376073,-64.308399
Copyright: 2010 Chris Jones. All rights reserved.

I decided to wander around the harbourfront on Natal Day taking photos of whatever I could find. I had a specific purpose for wanting to be there during a busy long weekend as I’m trying to collect some photos for a top-secret photography project I’m working on. It may or may not see the light of day but I’m going to try. Anyway, at the end of one of the piers I found this rope all piled and coiled up. With strong overhead light and natural differences in tones between the three types of rope, it was an easy shot to take.

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Camera: Mamiya 6 medium-format rangefinder
Lens: Mamiya 75mm
Filter: #15 deep yellow
Film: Fuji Acros 100
Developer: Rodinal 1+100
Development: Small tank for 18 minutes at 20 degrees Celsius. Agitation was for the first fifteen seconds of the first three minutes, then one inversion every three minutes.
Date: August, 2010
Location: 44.648420,-63.570224
Copyright: 2010 Chris Jones. All rights reserved.

August 1st is Natal Day in Nova Scotia and a long weekend for many in the heart of the summer. The weather this year was perfect, bright and sunny but not too warm. So, to stretch my legs from a 20km hike the day before, I went for a stroll along the harbourfront to see what was going on and do some people watching.

Theodore Too, the self-proclaimed world-famous tugboat calls Cable Wharf home and takes people for a jaunty little ride around the harbour. It’s unlike the real tugboats that work the harbour in that it has eyes, a nose and wears a baseball cap. So, when it goes by, people tend to stop and point. These people seemed to think it was a pretty funny sight.

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Camera: Mamiya 6 medium-format rangefinder
Lens: Mamiya 75mm
Filter: #15 yellow
Film: Fuji Acros 100
Developer: Rodinal 1+100
Development: Small tank for 18 minutes at 20 degrees Celsius. Agitation was for 15 seconds at the start of the first three minutes, then one inversion every three minutes.
Date: August, 2010
Location: 44.650040,-63.571643
Copyright: 2010 Chris Jones. All rights reserved.

Here’s one from last summer I’ve been meaning to post for a while. I’m due for one of my three-times-a-year colour shot. This is the harbour in Sydney, Nova Scotia.

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Camera: Mamiya 6 medium-format rangefinder
Lens: Mamiya 75mm
Filter: none
Film: Kodak Portra 160NC
Developer: C41
Development: Lab developed in C41 chemistry.
Date: August, 2009
Location: 46.136618,-60.196630
Copyright: 2010 Chris Jones. All rights reserved.

The hands-down, best way to see a place is on a bicycle. The backroads are all fine and good, but you’re still in a car, whizzing by things. A bike is a perfect mix of speed and agility. In this case, I was able to ride through fields that were completely inaccessible to a car. It was either foot, tractor or bike.

This is a stretch of fence along Old Post Road. It runs directly behind the Grand Pré National Historic Site, just outside of Wolfville, Nova Scotia. I had spent much of the day riding along the tops of the dykes and through the fields. It was a fine day to be out on the bike, far from the hordes with nothing but amazing scenery and fresh air. Not a parking lot in sight.

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Camera: Mamiya 6 medium-format rangefinder
Lens: Mamiya 75mm
Filter: #15 deep yellow
Film: Fuji Neopan 400
Developer: Rodinal 1+50
Development: Small tank for 11 minutes at 20 degrees Celsius. Agitation was for the first thirty seconds, then five inversions per minute.
Date: May, 2010
Location: 45.104155,-64.307475
Copyright: 2010 Chris Jones. All rights reserved.

As part of the Canadian Naval Centennial celebrations and the visit by Her Majesty, Halifax harbour was packed full of some pretty impressive ships. There were two aircraft carriers — one each from America and Great Britain — as well as some cruisers, destroyers, suppliers and even a submarine or two. On top of the usual sailboats, tug boats and other working craft, the harbour was a hub of activity.

I kept my distance from the crowds on the weekend, there’s literally ten thousand people wandering the boardwalk, all taking the same photos. Luckily for me, I can take the boardwalk home from work, and on a foggy weekday I decided to finish a roll of film shooting the ships as they rested silently. This way I could get the shots I wanted without fighting and use the fog to my advantage to blur the background even more.

I liked the anchor chain hanging from the ship — if I remember correctly it was the HMCS Toronto — and the reflections. It sort of looks like a face with a looooong tongue sticking out of its mouth.

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Camera: Mamiya 6 medium-format rangefinder
Lens: Mamiya 75mm
Filter: #15 deep yellow
Film: Fuji Neopan 400
Developer: Rodinal 1+50
Development: Small tank for 11 minutes at 20 degrees Celsius. Agitation was for the first thirty seconds, then five inversions per minute.
Date: June, 2010
Location: 44.642586,-63.566947
Copyright: 2010 Chris Jones. All rights reserved.

I took this on my way home one late winter day. It was sunny, there was no snow, and I was feeling pretty good that spring was on its way. It wasn’t. Anyway, when bikes start making their appearances it’s gotta be close.

I also liked the cheeky way the bike was locked to a meter with “no parking” bags over them. I don’t remember why you couldn’t park there, there wasn’t any work being done. Sometimes I think the city just likes to throw their weight around. Anyway, I think I may do a photo project devoted to bikes locked up to parking meters in Halifax. There are so few places to lock up a bike in this city, you gotta do it where you can. I’m pretty sure I could fill a portfolio just on my way to work in the morning. And for those keeping score, this is the south side of Government House.

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Camera: Mamiya 6 medium-format rangefinder
Lens: Mamiya 75mm
Filter: #8 yellow
Film: Fuji Acros 100
Developer: Rodinal 1+100
Development: Small tank for 18 minutes at 20 degrees Celsius. Agitation was for the first 15 seconds of the first three minutes, then one inversion every three minutes.
Date: March, 2010
Location: 44.643135,-63.571410
Copyright: 2010 Chris Jones. All rights reserved.

Here’s another window, this time inside Amos Pewter, in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia. Whenever I bring someone to the south shore, we typically stop here. It’s a unique shop as they design and manufacture the pewter right in the store. There’s usually someone working in the back, pouring pewter into moulds and explaining the process. The end result is beautiful.

It’s always a treat to see craftspeople at work in a world full of machine-made, mass manufactured crap.

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Camera: Mamiya 6 medium-format rangefinder
Lens: Mamiya 75mm
Filter: #15 deep yellow
Film: Fuji Neopan 400
Developer: Rodinal 1+50
Development: Small tank for 11 minutes at 20 degrees Celsius. Agitation was for the first thirty seconds, then five inversions per minute.
Date: June, 2010
Location: 44.449224,-64.382205
Copyright: 2010 Chris Jones. All rights reserved.