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.

On our way back up through midtown we came across a massive street festival along 6th Avenue. It stretched for blocks and blocks and it seemed the sea of people never ended. There were neighbourhood festivals all over the city that weekend, with vendors of all kinds, food stalls and tons of performers. It really made the city come to life. It was a little surprising, then it felt completely natural to have all these people in the streets hanging out together having fun and getting along.

I wish cities like Halifax would do more of this sort of thing. If NYC can shut down blocks and blocks of major downtown streets on the weekend to get people together and promote local businesses, there’s no reason — other than lack of vision — to do this here. Anyway, it was great to be a small part of this fun. You can see the Radio City Music Hall sign up on the right, about four blocks up.

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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: 40.757378,-73.982176
Copyright: 2010 Chris Jones. All rights reserved.

Times Square is awesome, that’s all there is to say. People everywhere going in every direction. People looking in every direction, including up. Cars, lights, music, it’s non-stop sensory overload. There are people from all over the world, cops on horses, people drinking coffee and eating dinner, all in one small city block. I could have sat there and watched all day and night. Here’s a panorama of it all I took with my phone. Insanity, and I wish I could go back.

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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 15 seconds of the first three minutes, then one inversion every three minutes.
Date: May, 2010
Location: 40.759305,-73.984954
Copyright: 2010 Chris Jones. All rights reserved.

My brother and I walked around midtown Manhattan for a little while, ending up at the Dean & DeLuca at Rockefeller Plaza and West 49th for a cappuccino. While I was waiting for our tasty beverages to be made, I spied a police car parked out front. So, waiting plus camera around neck ready to go equals a bit of a New York moment. The blurry guy walking down the street adds a nice touch. The shutter speed was fairly slow, it was evening by this time, but the trusty rangefinder can be handheld down to some pretty slow speeds.

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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 14 minutes at 20 degrees Celsius. Agitation was for the first thirty seconds, then four inversions every minute.
Date: May, 2010
Location: 40.758265,-73.978838
Copyright: 2010 Chris Jones. All rights reserved.

I found myself in downtown Toronto waiting for my sister to get off work. We had tickets to see the Maple Leafs play that evening, an original six matchup with the Boston Bruins. As usual when visiting my sister, I go downtown a few hours early to blast away with the camera and visit some favourite shops. Don’t get me wrong, I love Halifax, but it doesn’t quite cut it for endless amounts of downtown activity, people, traffic and actual tall buildings. In fact, after 5:30 or so it’s pretty much deserted. So I take the shots when I can. On this afternoon I made my way downtown on the subway and found a beautiful bright low sun creating all sorts of great drama with shadows. At that time of the afternoon I was one of the only people walking up (north) on King as most people were heading south towards the train station to make their way home. But there were a few of us on the south corner so I decided to take a snap.

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Camera: Mamiya 6 medium-format rangefinder
Lens: Mamiya 75mm
Filter: #8 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: March, 2010
Location: 43.647879,-79.383544
Copyright: 2010 Chris Jones. All rights reserved.

This might be the last wintery shot of the season. Spring has sort of sprung, the clock has moved forward and frankly we’re all a little tired of winter.

I’ve always wondered a little about this tree. I can see the point of putting a small tree here, but man, this thing looks tired and abused. I suppose anything living that has to put up with bus fumes all day and night would suffer more than a plant should, and I’m fairly certain that the “soil” that surrounds this poor tree’s roots mostly consists of cigarette butts and discarded Tim Hortons cups. Then again, the cynic in me thinks those are two of the major constituents of the soil almost anywhere in Nova Scotia.

Anyway, with a gentle coating of new snow, even this tree got to look a little lovely for a short while.

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Camera: Mamiya 6 medium-format rangefinder
Lens: Mamiya 75mm
Filter: #8 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: February, 2010
Location: 44.645789,-63.573209
Copyright: 2010 Chris Jones. All rights reserved.

I love snow. Maybe it’s because I live in an apartment and someone else does the shovelling. Whatever the reason, I wish we got more in these parts. Most of the time the snow around here is mixed with rain, or it’s just rain itself, and everything ends up being soggy and damp and grey and miserable. When there is snow though, there is the most magical, deep light. The smallest amount of light is scattered in every direction making it beautiful and flat with wonderful contrast.

There always seems to be a bike locked up along Barrington Street — there were two on this morning — almost completely buried under the previous night’s snowfall. This bike was a good shot because of its dark frame and its undisturbed blanket of snow.

I shot an entire roll during my twelve minute walk to work that morning, and much of the roll turned out quite nicely. I hope to post a couple more before I move on to something else.

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Camera: Mamiya 6 medium-format rangefinder
Lens: Mamiya 75mm
Filter: #8 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: February, 2010
Location: 44.646879,-63.573691
Copyright: 2010 Chris Jones. All rights reserved.

I love this art-deco signage. You can find it here and there in downtown Halifax. I might make it a little project of mine to photograph all the examples I find during my wandering. Being fairly new to Halifax, I’m not sure what the previous name of the building was, but it apparently was not agreeable enough for the current owners, hence the missing lettering. Too bad, but I’m glad they at least left this obvious example. If I was more of an appreciator of the obvious — an obviist? — and less of a typophile I think I’d be taking a different type of interest in this.

Here’s a Google Street View of the corner:

There’s a larger version if you’re interested.

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Camera: Mamiya 6 medium-format rangefinder
Lens: Mamiya 75mm
Filter: none
Film: 400TX exposed at 320
Developer: Rodinal 1+50
Development: Small tank for 116 and a half minutes at 20 degrees Celsius. Agitation was an initial five inversions, then two inversions every minute.
Date: December, 2009
Location: 44.646510,-63.572802
Copyright: 2009 Chris Jones. All rights reserved.

What light there was on this grey, dreary day seemed to shine a little brighter on the stainless steel of this handrail. Up against the concrete, it seemed like a natural for black and white.

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Camera: Mamiya 6 medium-format rangefinder
Lens: Mamiya 75mm
Filter: none
Film: Kodak 400TX exposed at 320
Developer: Rodinal 1+50
Development: Small tank for 16 and a half minutes at 20 degrees Celsius. Agitation was an initial five inversions, then two inversions every minute.
Date: December, 2009
Location: 43.647879,-79.383544
Copyright: 2009 Chris Jones. All rights reserved.

A friend invited me over for more drinks and food on Boxing Day so I decided to take my camera and walk from my place to his. The trip takes me across downtown which on that day was pretty much deserted. So there I was, minding my own business, walking up the street with my camera around my neck when this guy stopped me.

I don’t normally shoot people, so I’m never looking to ask or approach anyone for a snap. This guy offered, but not before he told me his story. Seems he was out on Boxing Day looking for a bar or pub that was open. But not for drinking, for VLT’s. He made sure to tell me he wasn’t addicted or anything, it’s just that he’s really, really lucky. A horseshoe where the sun don’t shine apparently. I told him I hadn’t seen an open establishment during my travels so I wasn’t of much help. Then he offered his Beaker — strange scientist sidekick from the Muppets — impression as a parting gift. Who am I to decline that?

Anyway, I composed, focussed and shot, but he didn’t believe me because he didn’t hear the click or sound or whatever a camera is supposed to do. So I had to tell him the story of my ultra-quiet, film-based, manual everything rangefinder camera. A story about my addiction — it’s not I swear — for his. After that he told me not to trust those cash for gold places and left. Never a dull moment.

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Camera: Mamiya 6 medium-format rangefinder
Lens: Mamiya 75mm
Filter: none
Film: Kodak 400TX exposed at 320
Developer: Rodinal 1+50
Development: Small tank for 16 and a half minutes at 20 degrees Celsius. Agitation was an initial five inversions, then two inversions every minute.
Date: December, 2009
Location: 44.646925,-63.575498
Copyright: 2009 Chris Jones. All rights reserved.