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.

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.

When I lived out west near gold-rush country I used to find a ghost town in just about any direction. I’d be out in the middle of nowhere and find the creepiest things. Heck, I’ve even spent the night all by myself in a ghost town. Creepy. So now that I live on the east coast where there’s a slightly longer history, I was hoping to find some interesting abandoned towns here. I haven’t been too successful with that mission, but since I’m new around here, perhaps I’m not looking hard enough.

I did manage to find Roxbury though. Wasn’t hard as it’s right there on page 76 of the Hiking Trails of Nova Scotia book. It’s a bit of a hike to get in and back if you’re not an ATV — about 17km round-trip — and the trail can be a bit muddy in the spring and fall, but that’s what a good pair of boots are for. Normally I’d just do this sort of thing by myself — there isn’t anyone lined up at my door to hike 17km in the mud, surprisingly — but I recruited a co-worker to make the journey. So, off we went down the old road.

We made our way all the way to Roxbury, and to the end of the “road” at Pleasant Lake, quite a beautiful spot. I can see why people lived here. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot left of the old town. The most notable features are the stone fence/walls that line the road for a good stretch. They’re a little creepy because you know they’re man-made, but they’re sufficiently old and grown over to appear like they’re there naturally. There are also open wells in the woods, so if you decide to go off-trail, make sure to keep your eyes glued to the ground. We came across one in what appeared to be an old yard, and though it wasn’t super deep, you wouldn’t want to fall in.

If you stick to the road you won’t see a whole lot, but if you do a little bushwhacking you can find what look to be old stone foundations and root cellars. Same kind of weirdness as the man-made-but-grown-over feeling of the stone walls. But the best thing about making the hike to Roxbury is the cemetery. To find the cemetery you need to take a side trail off the main road and hike about 200m over some fallen trees and around some bends. Nothing provides a connection to generations gone like a cemetery. The stone walls and foundations are neat, but there’s no sign of people. See a headstone sticking out of the ground in the middle of the forest and it’s an immediate holy crap people really did live here a hundred years ago feeling.

The cemetery is small and unkept but insanely interesting. There are only a few stones, the oldest dating back to the mid-19th century. It’s a mixture of fascination and sadness for me to find a place like this. It just feels so utterly forgotten. The point of putting up headstones is to be remembered and these folks are so off the beaten track and seemingly uncared for it doesn’t quite feel right. Then again I should stop being so sentimental.

It doesn’t help the sentiment-reducing part of my brain to see a headstone like this one. One that just says “BABY”. A small, unadorned stone with a simple, almost cold inscription. When we came upon the cemetery a few of the stones had been moved and placed upright on trees, or in this case, another headstone. It was late afternoon and the sun had come around and was getting low. I love this kind of light. As I kneeled next to this stone, all sorts of stories and thoughts racing around in my head, the letters on the stone magically darkened. Alright I know, direct light plus surface depth equals shadow, but from the angle I was at I couldn’t read the inscription. Then, for just a moment, there it was.

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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 last 15 seconds for the first three minutes, then once every three minutes.
Date: April, 2010
Location: 44.80470,-65.16820
Copyright: 2010 Chris Jones. All rights reserved.

After what felt like a long winter I decided that on the first sunny and reasonably warm weekend I’d take some cameras and head out of the city for a drive. I try to get to places I’ve never visited before, and on this day, it was the area called Burntcoat Head, on the Bay of Fundy. I timed it perfectly to get there while the tide was out so I could wander along the beach. It’s a never-ending photo opportunity I find.

So, I had the place to myself. During the summer I think it’s busier as there’s a little picnic area and an old lighthouse to see, but on this day it was all mine. Might have been the wind. Anyway, it was great not to have to wait for people to get out of the way or have to work around a stampede’s worth of footprints in the sand. I found myself on a short outcrop of rocks looking down on this pristine pattern in the sand. I think black and white works best in a couple of situations: gritty street photography or photojournalism and where there is pattern, texture and other visual interest. Not so much sunsets. I think this shot worked out very well, all because of the texture.

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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 15 seconds each minute for the first three minutes, then one inversion every three minutes.
Date: March, 2010
Location: 45.311408,-63.808408
Copyright: 2010 Chris Jones. All rights reserved.

I’ve been to quite a few ends of the road in my time, but I think this is the first time there was a sign the notify me of the fact. It’s remarkably satisfying. I’m a bit of a sign nerd for some reason, I like the symbology that’s supposed to be universal but has a local twist. Like on this sign how there’s a fishing boat and a huge whale. A sea monster sized whale. There’s got to be some legend about it all. This will also be the last photo of 2009, so it’s an overt attempt on my part to get that across. I know, it’s not very clever.

The little lighthouse you can see in the background sits on a little island and marks the southern entrance to the main harbour on Brier Island.

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Camera: Mamiya 6 medium-format rangefinder
Lens: Mamiya 75mm
Filter: #15 deep yellow filter
Film: Fuji Acros 100
Developer: Kodak XTOL 1+3
Development: Small tank for 14 minutes at 20 degrees Celsius. Agitation was for the first minute, then five inversions per minute.
Date: November, 2009
Location: 44.255607,-66.343946
Copyright: 2009 Chris Jones. All rights reserved.

If you take a right off the ferry and go all the way to the end of the road, you get to the Coast Guard station and north light house. I parked at the end of the road trying not to take a spot in the little parking lot for the station, and walked around the tip of the island. It’s tough to not stare out at the ocean and be captivated — from here it’s just uninterrupted horizon — but on the way back to the car I thought this view captured the loneliness of the station pretty well.

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Camera: Mamiya 6 medium-format rangefinder
Lens: Mamiya 75mm
Filter: #15 deep yellow
Film: Fuji Acros 100
Developer: Kodak XTOL 1+3
Development: Small tank for 14 minutes at 20 degrees Celsius. Agitation was for the first minute, then five inversions per minute.
Date: November, 2009
Location: 44.287011,-66.341502
Copyright: 2009 Chris Jones. All rights reserved.

I took my life into my hands walking down the government wharf in Westport. Even though there was one of those annoying Economic Action Plan signs planted next to it, this structure is scary. When you’re on a wharf and the planks are bending and cracking below your feet you tend to step lightly and carefully. Problem is it provided some interesting views so I couldn’t resist.

There were some things lying around on the wharf — a lawnmower? — that had obviously been left by smarter people fleeing the danger. Again, I couldn’t resist so I spent a few minutes shooting. I had a suspicion the locals had the village emergency crew on hold as they watched me out there. The risk was worth it though as I got a couple of nice shots.

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Camera: Mamiya 6 medium-format rangefinder
Lens: Mamiya 75mm
Filter: #15 deep yellow
Film: Fuji Acros 100
Developer: Kodak XTOL 1+3
Development: Small tank for 14 minutes at 20 degrees Celsius. Agitation was for the first minute, then five inversions per minute.
Date: November, 2009
Location: 44.258325,-66.348498
Copyright: 2009 Chris Jones. All rights reserved.

After a long winter of not really getting out and taking next to no photos a colleague of mine and I decided to go for a short hike at the always beautiful Blomidon Provincial Park. What was supposed to be a leisurely hike on a Saturday afternoon of around 4 or 5 kilometres, turned into a 12 kilometre trudge through the snow. In the end it turned out all right, but I didn’t get to take many photos. In fact, I only got three, of which this is one.

It was cloudy but bright and it had just started to snow lightly. So into this stand of bare Aspen we came and I thought the light was perfect. There was very little wind, if any, so the whole place felt totally peaceful. I like the dark patches on the trees against the white of the snow, it provides a great contrast and gives the trees a frail look. It was worth the sore legs.

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Camera: Mamiya 6 medium-format rangefinder
Lens: Mamiya 75mm
Filter: none
Film: Kodak Portra 160NC
Developer: C41
Development: Lab processed in C41 chemistry
Date: March, 2009
Location: 45.27008,-64.33293
Copyright: 2009 Chris Jones. All rights reserved.

I spent quite a bit of time on this sideroad shooting the farms. As I’ve said before, this is some of the finest farmland in the province. It is so nice and productive, it’s nice to look at, and before long it’ll be completely obliterated by suburbia. Everyone needs a huge cookie-cutter house to live in, park their SUV’s in front of and lock themselves in at night apparently, but food? Nah, who needs it. We can import that from other places. Right?

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Camera: Mamiya C33 Professional
Lens: Mamiya-Sekor 80mm (Black)
Filter: #8 yellow
Film: Kodak 320TXP
Developer: Kodak D76 1+1
Development: Small tank for 12:45 at 20 degrees Celsius. Agitation was for the first minute, then four inversions per minute.
Date: December, 2007
Location: 44.11005,-79.08220
Copyright: 2007 Chris Jones. All rights reserved.

Download wallpaper for the iPhone/iPod Touch.

While I was home for Christmas that year I decided to take a drive through the countryside on New Year’s Eve. This area is a bit northeast of where I grew up and is a stark contrast to the over-developed nightmare of carbon copy suburban housing and big box stores. I wanted to shoot some of this area before it disappears. It’s sounds funny to say that but development is encroaching and it won’t be long. These fields will disappear under tiny lawns and roads during my lifetime, of that I’m convinced.

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Camera: Mamiya C33 Professional
Lens: Mamiya-Sekor 80mm (Black)
Filter: #8 yellow
Film: Kodak 320TXP
Developer: Kodak D76 1+1
Development: Small tank for 12:45 at 20 degrees Celsius. Agitation was for the first minute, then four inversions per minute.
Date: December, 2007
Location: 43.95350,-79.02249
Copyright: 2007 Chris Jones. All rights reserved.