It was a hot, sunny day here in Barrie Ontario and my friend and classmate Rob picked me up for the road trip to Black Creek in Toronto. As we drove into the city the GPS took us past IKEA and towards York university. I began to lose confidence that this could really be a large pioneer village as described because we were entering such a densely populated area. Suddenly a sign popped up indicating the parking lot and a large wooded area appeared amid all the urbanization. We had arrived!
Passing through the visitor center to an open area I set about assembling my camera. I decided to try and stick with my new toy, the mighty Tamron 70-200 mm F/2.8 for as much of today as I could. Once I had the camera rigged to my back pack and the load balanced to avoid a decade of neck pain from the weight of the lens, we stepped off.
First location was a Masonic lodge which had been relocated to the park and had an incredible decor inside. I switched to my 35mm for a few shots before heading outside to wander around a bit solo while Rob loitered back at the lodge.
While on the road I found a small unit of troops practicing their weapons drills and grabbed a photo and moved on. Farther up the street to the right was a group of women dressed in period clothing gathered around tables in a park and a few of them were doing laundry in buckets. Once the clothes were in the bucket they would step into the bucket and walk in place to wash the clothes. This didn't strike me as efficient! One of the wash ladies was diligently working through sets of clothes and I was able to capture a pretty cool and "busty" photo of her hard at work.
Next stop was a field in front of town hall. I had excellent timing as a field demonstration of musket fire was about to be performed. I moved around to a few positions to capture it with some success and learned that muskets blast flame when fired! Pretty cool! They are also loud enough to make young children in the audience cry. So I moved on.
Rob rejoined me and we played typical tourist through a few of the open homes and staff in costume were very knowledgeable and incredibly friendly describing the leather working and harness store as well as the doctors house. A few buildings did not have staff inside them however all over the village was costumed actors in every yard and open space. From what I understood most of the outdoor actors were volunteers part of an organization staying for the weekend's reenactments.
With the sun beating down Rob and I headed down the stairs of one building following the signs to the brew house. Black Creek brews their own ales as it was down "Back in the day" with the same ingredients and process they would have used back then. I tried a Best biter which didn't suit me as they do not carbonate their beer, choosing to keep it authentic to their original process from days gone by. Next up was a porter which was a little better however I found much too sweet. Fair enough though because it was a porter after all. Last was the stout which was quite good. The flatness of it was perfectly in keeping with what I expect and enjoy from a stout so I was pretty happy in the end. The brew house was very busy so we finished our drinks as fast as possible and cleared out.
By this time we had cleared most of what we wanted to see in the village. I feel we crawled a third of the village which was just the highlights for us and it took about an hour and a half. We were still a little hot and maybe a little tired so we went for food. The event pavilion was closed and we later found out that they are working on contracting a new company to open up that area. Instead we found multiple Taco trucks next to the building? Needless to say this was out of place and just plain strange. The food was good and it was pretty well tucked out of sight so it was forgivable but I really would have preferred something in keeping with the wicked pioneer vibe they had maintained up to now.
Hamburger, french fries and an orange juice later Rob and I walked through a water mill and shortly after a crowd formed behind the town hall. A pioneer village public figure sought the help of the gathered crowd in identifying the "spy" among us. Scattered across the property were clues to solve the mystery of the traitor among us. Since it was our first time visiting Rob and I didn't play but it was fun watching the kids try to provide descriptions of the spy they had found. A little show was put on and the spy was dragged before the crowd. The young kids sentenced the spy to death by hanging! If you are passing by York university tonight and hear a ruckus it maybe the sentence being carried out at sundown after the park closes!
Finally it was time for the battle. A narrator gave a very simple summary of what was happening around us while actors began a battle in the streets. Slowly one side fell back and when safe to do so the crowd would surge forward. This was a hard time to take photos with the press of the crowd, risk of walking on children and trying to find angles for shot composure in the narrow streets. The Tamron was not the right choice here! I would have been better served by a 24-70 mm which I don't currently own. I'll put it onto a wish list so it will arrive before the next 1800's urban battle I find myself photographing.
The battle rolled towards a farmhouse with an open field. A rope fence was in place for us to observe the battle and the troops marched in as small units and gunpowder filled the air. Wicked heat beat at us in the sun and thoughtfully the farmhouse had water available for us during the battle. The Tamron performed pretty well. I performed a little less well. The transition from shade to sun and trying to figure out what to expose for and interpret what my light meter was trying to tell me was a bit tricky. It was fun though! The battle ended in a strategic retreat for the somebodies. I'll assume it was the British who were pushed back but honestly the story behind the battle and the opponents were not very clear to me. I think it was French rebels and Natives who repelled the British. Don't hold me to it!
With the battle decided and over 550 photos from the four hour visit we left the park. We stopped to answer questions about our visit with another friendly staff and made the long trip back home. Out of the 550 shots I did quick edits on 115 photos. I've narrowed that down to 37 photos here for you. I'll put a little navigation bar in so you can scroll through and click on ones that catch your eye. This was also my first time trying a "live" feed on Instagram. If you happened to catch it give me some feed back. I noticed I say um too much already. Hopefully it wasn't too painful to watch! Anyways, that's it for me.
I hope you enjoy the shots!
! The RPG
