Church of Tintype

I just spent 5 glorious days in upstate NY with tintype master, John Coffer. I am now an initiate of the Church of Tintype where collodion is holy, and chickens run free. We managed to sneak in some time to get to a garage sale where we picked up some dresses and bonnets worn by the Mennonite women. In the Mennonite community, once you are of age to enter the church, you cannot pose for photos, nor take photos. The image is me in my newly acquired dress and bonnet using a reproduction wetplate camera to set up a shot with John's assistant Nick. The countryside was breathtaking. I fall asleep with collodion visions.

Summer in the city

Summer is here... the smell of rain on the pavement, the sticky hot air, the sound of red winged blackbirds, ahhhh summer in the city.

A fair is a veritable smorgasbord...orgasbord...orgasbord

I love the smell of the fair, sugared donuts, fried everythings, spun sugar and sweet dayglo fruity shaved ice. I was surprised to find a very old fashioned fair right here in Ottawa as part of the world famous Tulip Fest. Down near Dows Lake on a lovely patch of grass was a small fair just right for folks with small children. We sat on the grass and listened to the live band and ate poutine and of course, I took photos. I pulled out my DIY kit and made myself another TTV contraption. TTV stands for "through the viewfinder". I use my digital SLR to photograph through the viewfinder of an old brownie camera to get a fabulously distorted refracted image that gives a lovely nostalgic feeling image.

If I could bend time

I would go back to when my nana was still alive and sit with her and look at old photos. If I could bend time I would go back to when my daughter was little and spend more time pushing her on the swings, and laying in the grass and making up stories.

The photobooth Tour finally arrives

Ok, so we did take a detour from our original plan to stay in Canada the WHOLE way. We decided it would be fabulous to go through a Chicago snow storm, and ice storm in Michigan, and crazy traffic jams and endless toll booths, all so we wouldn't hit a moose on the road driving through the Great Northern Shield. We loved Minneapolis and Chicago and wished we could have stayed longer but there was a turkey dinner calling us in Toronto. We did manage to get some photobooth action, which most often accompanied coffee in a mall, the ONLY time I have ever been happy to go into a mall. First one thanks to Rita for the tip was Chinook Mall in Calgary, Alberta

Bears ate our garbage

X-processed Homage to the Sunshine Coast

Photobooth pre-tour action

Ok, so it's really happening, after setting up my studio and doing a few studio sessions we are now off to Ottawa! Hooray! That means... ROADTRIP across Canada in the snow. Insane, possibly, but very truly Canadian. So I had this idea. I wonder if we could find photobooths along the way? That would be fun, we could stop, grab a coffee and hunt down booths in malls, bus depots, carnivals...ok, maybe there are no carnivals but there are bars and bowling alleys across Canada that still have old school photobooths.
I have found websites with locations that people send in the info for like
this one here.
I have made a google map that can be added to as more booths are sleuthed out. The map is public so all you folks who are also crazy to cross this snowy land can also enjoy some photoboothing and be sure to add what you find. If anyone has a favorite photobooth, please post it on my blog, and help spread the photobooth love around the world.
Thank you to Robert Eaton from Photo Booth Rentals of Winnipeg for the extensive list of all the photobooths publicly available in Winnipeg. Winnipeg just may be the photo booth capital of Canada. More to come...
The accompanying pre-tour photo was taken at Pacific Centre in Vancouver, it is located in the hallway between Fairweather and the Satchel shop. Zoe looked dashing, and I had a feral animal on my head the whole rainy day.