I usually try to photograph the river and downtown Almonte during the spring runoff. This year was slightly different as I performed my photography with a 16 year old digital camera body and a 10 year old lens. By digital standards this is pretty vintage. Of course I am pretty vintage myself.
I have to admit that as far as photography goes, my technical requirements stalled out around 2012. The current mirrorless cameras are far better at low light shooting, fast action, selfies, video, dynamic range, and high ISO – but I am pretty much a good light, still image photographer. Besides I have a ton of 30 year old Nikon glass I still want to use.
The old camera bodies are cheap and some beautiful pieces are available for a slight premium price.
So off I went with my Nikon D90 and Tamron 18-200 lens.
After parking at the library, I headed down the Almonte Alameda (better known as the old CPR railway right of way.)
Crossing Bridge Street, I got a photo of the old Almonte Town Hall. Then I walked on to the CPR railroad bridge.
A view from the bridge. The water is coursing pretty well over the weir that holds back the flow into the power station.
The power plant can’t handle all the water either, so it dumps quite a bit back into the river.
The riverside Barley Mow pub isn’t quite ready yet for outdoor dining and drinking, but it was busy inside.
Moving on to the Riverwalk, I got closer to the water.
There was plenty of water coming over the mini-dam next to the old Thoburn mill building,
Looking back at the railroad bridge from the Riverwalk.
The riverwalk continues over to the main waterfall. Here you can see the pub, the power station and the bridge.
This past winter did not have as much snow as usual, so the spring runoff is quite a bit less abundant. It is still pretty impressive at the main waterfall though.
After a walk to the base of the falls, I could photograph the whole cataract at once. Later this year all this will be a trickle but it’s pretty neat right now.
Now finished with my water based photos, I headed back up Mill Street towards the Alameda. Lighting was pretty good to capture the old Post Office in the distance.
Back on the Alameda, here is the Storytellers’ bench.
Well, having wrapped up a brief photoshoot, I can make the following observations about taking photos with a vintage DSLR camera:
- It’s quite a lot like using a film system. You have to take your time, fill the frame with your subject, watch where the light is coming from, and make sure you don’t have an extraneous telephone pole growing out of someone’s head. You really only get to review your work after you get home.
- Although you don’t have nearly the megapixel image size of a brand new mirrorless, your images are fine for printing or posting on the web. Even looking at them on a 1080p computer monitor will be fine.
- Nikon got digital color capture right the first time. Even a camera from 2008 will give lovely results.
- A big heavy camera and telephoto lens are hardly discreet enough for stealthy street photography. In fact, someone carrying a camera is so rare these days that the average person will likely think you are some sort of professional photographer.
I hoped you enjoyed this old school photo session in historic Almonte. I’ll try to do another one next spring if possible.
