Toronto Photography Meetup Group

Hi All,

I recently had the opportunity to photograph the Robert Nesbitt Sawmill, located at Black Creek Pioneer Village. The Village itself is located in Toronto, however the northern property is located in Vaughn where the sawmill currently sits. The village had hoped at one time to operate the sawmill for visitors, but unfortunately that never happened.

Just to give a little history on the building: The Nesbitt Sawmill was moved from Uxbridge to BCPV in 1981. The building was restored over a period of 7 years. The mill was originally steam powered, however most of the boiler equipment had deteriorated to a point which would make it not usable. The village had explored the option of installing a new boiler and restoring the steam operation in the mill, as well as an electrical motor to operate the equipment when steam was not feesable. That never happened.

The Nesbitt Sawmill was built in 1889, and ran until July of 1962. 73 years of operation. It was the third steam powered mill built at the location in Uxbridge (the original mill was built in 1830). Fire destroyed the previous 2 mills. This was very common in sawmill operation, thus why smoking was strictly prohibited around mills!

Anyhow... here are some of the pictures: I will be exhibiting some of these images at my upcoming exhibit in May 2010. The remaining photos from the mill shoot are on my flickr.

I like them. Just curious, what's the image size and photo paper on exhibit day?

Randy

Great shot and info...Thanks for this...

Chris

Good question... I am thinking of the first image printed on Kodak paper (traditional photographic paper), and mounted on wood, then done with either epoxy or liquitex pour finish. I like that look very much, and have been doing some experimentation with the liquitex product.

Nice shots Dave. Are these bracketed hdr?

Yes, they are all HDR processed images using Photomatix.

This is a great example of HDR done right, it looks very natural - i.e. not overdone at all

Thanks! My aim with these images was to use HDR to give the most natural representation possible. Its not overly complicated, but getting the settings right, are a bit of a challenge. I may do some post processing in PS before I print them.

Gotta agree with Seren Dipity as well. While some pics look great when it's uber punchy, contrasty and tones cranked up, I like tend to like the more natural look when HDR is done this way. Nice job!

Beautiful use of HDR.
Thanks for sharing.