Montreal Evening in picture with a $5 Ricoh FF-70 point and shoot

Film point and shoot cameras are plenty and inexpensive. Case in point this Ricoh FF-70 with integrated flash and automatic everything. Bought at a thrift store for the bargain basement price of $5, it came with the original sales receipt dated August 1986 in its case, $257!

I've been having a hard time taking photos during the evening in the City with my Canon G12. Any type of movement made the images overly blurry, high ISO setting left too much noise in the image and the black and white result isn't that great. I prefer black and white in the evening since street lights do not bring out nice colours. Film for me is the way to go for crisp black and white pictures.

Candles and flowers left on the grounds where Denis Blanchette a 48 year old sound technician and Father , fell. A lot of time was spent in Gimp to have this image in a usable way.

I was heading to the Metropolis on Ste-Catherine on the evening of September 5th in order to document and participate in a vigil organized to commemorate the shooting death of an innocent by-stander. The evening prior while our new Prime Minister elect made her acceptance speech, a maniac tried to get in the theatre to go on what appeared to be a shooting rampage. He was quickly arrested by Montreal Police but he had already killed one and wounded another. This kind of thing never happens here.

I decided to use the Ricoh since it was easy enough to use and I figured I would manage to get shots like they use too back in the day with the integrated flash. I used Kodak Professional 400TX 400 ISO film for the job and I am quite pleased with the results. All of the shots you'll see were done hand held. The Ricoh is great for jamming it flat on your face and remains pretty stable while the shutter opens.

Local TVA news crew setting up across from Metropolis. Flash used.

Metropolis Theatre on Sainte-Catherine in Montreal.

CBC Radio reporter doing an interview. Flash used.

People gathered in front of the Metropolis.

People hold hands while observing a minute of silence for the victims.

The rest of the evening was spent going around Sainte-Catherine trying to find the light and picture opportunities. I was lucky to find a few decent shots.

Bumming for change with a dog and a nice looking fixie bike.

Shish Taouk place on Sainte-Catherine.

Nice Lady who volunteered to pose for me. Flash was used.

Original Archambault music store

Sainte-Catherine and Berri.

Berri-Uquam Metro station

Graffiti from the Under Pressure festival. Flash was used.

Thanks for watching.

Gerry :)