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FINE ART GALLERY VII

Under flow

Under flow

Water channel below bridge at Palace Pier.

 

July 20, 2019

 

SONY ALPHA a7r MANUAL f/3.5  1/4 secs.  28mm  ISO50

FE 28-70mm F3.5-5.6 OSS

Bay Street after hours

Bay Street after hours

Toronto, Ontario

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July 7, 2018

SONY ALPHA a7r F4.5 ISO 6400 1/60

FE 28-70mm F3.5-5.6 OSS 43 mm

Train Museum

Train Museum

Toronto, Ontario

The presence of a number of full-sized locomotives stationed in a lot in downtown Toronto, surprised and fascinated me the first time I passed the Train Museum. I returned on two separate occasions, each time with my camera. The museum is a carefully articulated adventure through Canadian history and the story of how thousands of feet of iron, barely a yard wide, united the second largest landmass in the world. Bathed by the afternoon sun, the locomotives reminds me of a time long after we could walk, but well before Lindbergh and Earhart took to the skies.

September 15, 2018

SONY ALPHA a7r F10 ISO 80 

ZEISS Batis 18mm F2.8

Evergreen Brick Works,

Evergreen Brick Works

August 4, 2018

 

SONY a7r MANUAL EXPOSURE 1/800 ISO80 52mm

SEL Sony 28-70mm FE3.5—5.6 F/5.6 OSS handheld

Summer Rain/Railway Tracks

Summer Rain/Railway Tracks

Summer rain in the city on railway tracks.

 

Before the railway tracks where thousands gather daily surrounded by concrete partitions stretching east and west, then stopping, the end of the world hovering at the point of each platform. The wooden trusses lay still with rust painted flecks that glisten when the open door of sky is unlocked. "Rain". On the lips of the little league soccer players who stand in disappointment. “Rain,” say the farmers whose tongues are swollen and parched in the absence of the word. Rain, the last vestige of the pure earth. Promises made in the summer heat of the moment.


I’ve been wandering because that is what I do. Stepping between sidewalks and thoughts. Think of Hitchcock as I climbed vertigo-laden stairs. Never mind, lots of time to rest when my time is done. Walked along the bridge above the railroad tracks below. Like love, its destination remaining a mystery. Think of the first time I climbed the bridge and stood in the wind, wishing you were here. Fulfilling the fantasy of strangers poised at the foremost tip of love. Then the train. The silence in its wake. Did I mention I wished you were here?
 

August 6, 2019

 

SONY ALPHA a7r MANUAL f/9 1/60 secs.  12 mm  ISO50

FE 12-24 F4G

Winter Evening Toronto (Revisited)  Toronto, Ontario 2020

Winter Evening, Toronto (Revisited)

Toronto, Ontario 2020

 

 

​January 3, 2020

 

SONY ALPHA a7r 6-12 secs. F22  ISO 50  28mm

FE 28-72mm 3.5-5.6

Distillery District (Almost New Year's Eve)

Distillery District (Almost New Year's Eve) 6:10 pm

Toronto, Ontario

 

December 30, 2019

 

SONY ALPHA a7r MANUAL f/22 15 secs.  28 mm  ISO50

Sony FE 28-72mm 3.5-5.6

Massy Hall

Massey Hall

Toronto, Ontario 2018

 

June 22, 2018

SONY a7r AUTOMATIC  1/80 F/6.3 ISO 100  28MM

Sony FE  28-70mm F3.5 to 5.6 OSS handheld

Light, Alley and Rain

Light, Alley and Rain

Toronto, Ontario 2020

January 18, 2020

SONY ALPHA a7r 30 secs. F/20 ISO 50 27mm
Tamron E 17-28 F2/8-22

 

Queen Street E. and Power Street I  Toronto, Ontario 2018 (revisited)

Queen Street E. and Power Street I

Toronto, Ontario 2018 (revisited)

 

June 22, 2018

SONY a7r AUTOMATIC  1/80 F/13 ISO 100  28MM

Sony FE  28-70mm F3.5 to 5.6 OSS handheld

Downtown Building

Toronto, Ontario

June 22, 2018

SONY ALPHA a7r MANUAL f/5.6 1/80 sec. F5.6  ISO100

Sony 28-70mm F3.5

Downtown Toronto Building
Osgoode Hall, Toronto

Winter Snowfall, Osgoode Hall

Toronto, Ontario 2020

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February  26, 2020

 

 

Iphone 6

Ferry Docks Bay Street

Golf Balls Don't Fly Away

Toronto, Ontario 2020

On the boardwalk, Laura listened for the notes left behind by the waves. Bach, Handel, Beethoven—all childhood friends, each with a melody as she met them one by one. It was her father who first placed her fingers on the cello's ebony, positioning each small digit along the spider's strand of string. "Golf Balls Don't Fly Away". Neither would fathers, so she had believed.

 

March 5, 2020

 

 

SONY ALPHA a7r 1/30 sec  F/8 ISO 50 17mm

Tamron E 17-28 F2/8-F22

 Ferry Docks k.g. Sambrano
Lost and Found

The Lost and Found

Toronto, Ontario 2020

 

She searched for happiness the same as she had hunted and pecked for each keystroke when first learning to type.

The day ended as did the one before. Her phone told her she had money. She was intent on escape, played with texting-in her two weeks' notice on a calculated dare.

She found the lake and the sunset each winter evening. This is where she would begin again. At the water's edge she learned to breath. It was a simple thing, a skill she promised herself she  would master.

 

March 5, 2020

 

 

SONY ALPHA a7r 1/30 sec  F/8 ISO 50 17mm

Tamron E 17-28 F2/8-F22

Ferry docks Toronto

What Ships Were Really Built  For

Toronto, Ontario 2020

 

You're allowed to wander. You might be out of practise but its a muscle to be retrained. If you're reading this, that's a good start. I wander and I dream. I point myself in a general direction and then I move. 

 

The subway to the bus to the ferry docks.  Seeing people, other wanderers. No apologies for living a dream. No regrets. None at all.

 

March 5, 2020

 

 

SONY ALPHA a7r 1/30 sec  F/16 ISO 50 25mm

Tamron E 17-28 F2/8-F22

ferrydockmagenta-1b.jpg
High Park, Porch
blue-1.jpg

Dragon's Breath, High Park

Toronto, Ontario 2020

Spring seemed a single breath away the entire month of February. Snow fell, but didn't last. The days became cold, but not for long. This winter season was remarkable on every level. There were times the entire city lived in a dream—a beautiful light-filled glow.

 

A walk down the street with a nearly depleted camera battery. I sought foreground and discovered the park. If in doubt, break glass. Breath deep. Release. Repeat.

 

This was the second and final photograph of the afternoon. I might have taken more if my battery hadn't died. Of course I always travel with a spare, which, was left at home. This was only my second photo with my new Tamron 28-75.

 

March 4, 2020

 

 

SONY ALPHA a7r 3.2 secs  F/20 ISO 50 28mm

Tamron E 28-75

Greektown, Sunset 2020 AD

Greektown, Sunset

 

Greektown, the eastern part of Toronto's Danforth. People's footsteps are lighter in this area of the city, slowed by a sense of reverence as they strolled past this church on the first mild evening of the new year. The night winter finally exhaled. Those who enjoy warmer year-round temperatures may never appreciate the excitement of winter's first thaw. Canada is nothing if not diverse in its people as well as its climate. To paraphrase a poet, as beautiful as Canada is, it is still a land where a winter's night without shelter can end a person's life.

 

February 24, 2020

 

 

SONY ALPHA a7r 4 secs  F/8 ISO 50 17mm

Tamron E 17-28 F2/8-22

Greektown, Sunset 2020 AD

Greektown Sidewalk and Church

Toronto, Ontario 2020

I forget that part of my history lay in Toronto's east end, among the movie theatres and the sidewalk cafes. The Palace theatre was my favourite cinema, where David Cronenberg's "The Fly" lived for months in a teenager's imagination. The corner of the Danforth and Pape is also where an angry merchant once chased me and a friend, pelting us with day-old fruits and vegetables. 

 

But there were quieter times as well, a cycle along the Danforth on my ten-speed. I used to run back then, along the boulevards of sheer excitement.  It's no quieter of late. Yes, the cinema has closed. I usually walk now, but muscle memory abounds. If ever you are in Toronto, wait for a hot night when the teenagers roll down their car windows and the merchants unfurl their wares for the world. Move in the melody of the street. Swallow deep as you stroll. Move slowly. Take in each sight, sound and taste.

 

February 24, 2020

 

 

SONY ALPHA a7r 13secs  F/22 ISO 50 21mm

Tamron E 17-28 F2/8-22

Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Light
Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Light

Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Light

Toronto, Ontario 2020

I was there. Yes, an unusual way to begin a thought, but I was there. I believe that when someone takes a great many photos or writes a great many words, if not careful, one may become lost in the very process of creating. I'm amused when I forget that I remain the one element omitted from each photo or written piece. That evening, I remember being frustrated because my new wide-angle lens was “too" wide, as I ironically, yearned for a longer lens. I recall the light in the background— blue and intense, hanging just above the setting sun. I remember the plastic paint palette with the colour disks that we used to mix with brush and water during art classes in grade two or maybe three. Everything I painted was blue.

 

Standing inside the cemetery gates,  I recall trying to keep my shutter release warm by burying it in my gloved hands to prevent the cold from draining the battery before I took my next exposure. And then there were the cars—the familiar yellow and red streaks across my viewfinder, timing each photograph carefully to find the spaces between the approaching lights. I remember the shadow of the rot iron fence across bare stone. The setting sun and its hue that I my brush could never emulate was bonus. It was really the shadow painted on the bare rock, and the reflection of light across the metal that had drawn me closer. I was cold. I was frustrated but I was there.

 

February 8, 2020

 

 

SONY ALPHA a7r .6 sec  F/13 ISO 50 17mm

Tamron E 17-28 F2/8-22

Blue Hour, Mount Pleasant Cemetery
Blue Hour, Mount Pleasant Cemetery

Blue Hour, Mount Pleasant Cemetery

Toronto, Ontario 2020

 

Concrete continues to bloom at the north end of the city and sadly the natural green of the city becomes somewhat eclipsed by the high rises. Amidst the mainly residential structures and the odd commercial space—Tim Horton's, KFC, the Mount Pleasant Cemetery is where nature still resides.  

I rarely miss the opportunity to photograph, and if able, I often commute with tripod and camera in tow.  I had always heard the grounds of the Mount Pleasant Cemetery described as peaceful and serene. It is also the resting place of some of Canada's most renown persons, such as Jennie Smillie Robertson, Canada's first female Surgeon.  

The light was gentle as is often the case at winter's twilight. Scarcely any cars, I positioned myself in the centre of the road, the moon in the distance flanked by headstones and the streetlights. The photo does not do justice to the calm of the moment.

February 8, 2020

 

SONY ALPHA a7r 15 secs. F/2.8 ISO 50 17mm

Tamron E 17-28 F2/8-22

Stoe and Light

Stone and Light

Toronto, Ontario 2020

Outside the Runnymede library, I waited for the blue hour.

 

I've come to not only enjoy winters but to rely on the peacefulness of the season, the rhythm of the setting sun and the early yawn of the moon. Watching the blue hour each morning and then again at night—it is difficult to take a truly poor photograph in the backdrop of the season. Of late, I'm surprised by how often I venture into the cold; early morning, late afternoon, and the occasional late late night shoot with camera, tripod and the neon of the evening.

February 4, 2020

 

SONY ALPHA a7r 15 secs. F/22 ISO 50 28mm

Tamron E 17-28 F2/8-22

Stone and Light
Aga Khan Museum
khan lavenderbwcorrected-1extendedfiinal

Aga Khan Museum (looking east)

Toronto, Ontario 2020

Don Mills is much like a day trip to me, a downtown Torontonian, but the childhood memories remain of waiting for the 25 Pape bus to take us home. Daydreaming as I peered out the window, the world seemed so large. So exciting. Unexplored.

The snow fell steadily as the bus let me out a few blocks before the Aga Khan Museum, the first museum in the western world dedicated to Islamic art and objects. It is as majestic and culturally rich on the outside as the in, as snow blanketed the polished stones that decorate its landscape fashioned as a contemporary interpretation of a Charbagh.

Owing to weather conditions and the prohibiting of tripods, I made several more photos than usual. The challenges with shooting urban landscapes without a  tripod are numerous—focusing issues, camera shake, higher than desired shutter speeds.. the list is long. The photo of the Aga Khan Museum was taken by placing my camera bag on the ground, and carefully balancing the camera on top all this as snowflakes covered my LCD display, and my new gloves proved to be only marginally better than bare hands.  

Remarkably, there is very little manipulation in the colour print, as the sky, in spite of the snow was a deep blue. The resulting blue/magenta cast is the reason I prefer shooting at sunset, although both sunrise and sunset are preceded by a blue hour, there is usually the added touch of magenta which seems unique to the late evening light.

January 31, 2020

 

SONY ALPHA a7r 1.3 secs. F/2.8 ISO 50 17mm

Tamron E 17-28 F2/8-22

Aga Khan Museum (Charbagh)

Aga Khan Museum (Charbagh)

Toronto, Ontario 2020

January 31, 2020

 

SONY ALPHA a7r 13 secs. F/22 ISO 50 21mm

Tamron E 17-28 F2/8-22

Aga Khan Museum
Dance with Me
Make a Wish

Dance with Me

Toronto, Ontario 2020
 

Go ahead, jump in. Pretend it's summer again in your home in the burbs where snowdrift palaces once eclipsed all memories of summer days, and as boys played king of the mountain. Charge! Footprints left in the wake of each snow-covered climb to conquest and victory.

 

Go ahead, pretend it's summer again, the rains having left its  pools of sadness like snowmen in a sudden spring thaw. After summer's drizzle your mother opens the front door. Unleashed onto the driveway is the whirlwind of youth  pushing your wagon around and around and around Urrrh! Urrrh!

 

The skipping rope tied to the fence post, you ask your older sister as your steeled yourself to jump between the pink shutters that opened and shut, “What month was I born in?”  Double-dutch. Crazy feet. The laughter reaching your mother's window. Laughter—medicine for all childhood ailments. And then later on the orange glow of evening that folds the light into sunsets you had only seen on postcards from your father. Before “Where's Waldo” there was your father, the traveller. 

On the veranda your mother rests, the setting sun bleaching her hair. You looked up to see her growing old in summer's evening, the ethereal light a “snapshot” into the future where hair greyed and youth withered. Beauty tired. So tired. You do not understand the arc of time, the echo of memory as she aged before you. The puddles, the footprints of the rain, turn into the tears a young boy leaves behind when he comes to understand that one day his mother will leave him and never come back. Go ahead, jump in if it reminds you of a better time, if only to remind yourself of joy. If only to take yourself to a better place.

January 25, 2020

 

SONY ALPHA a7r 13 secs. F/8 ISO 50 28mm

Tamron E 17-28 F2/8-22

k.g. Sambrano, Light and Alley
Light and Alley

Light and Alley

Toronto, Ontario 2020
 

Toronto changes in the rain, as do many urban landscapes. At street-level from the subway, I discovered a city I had never before experienced.  There was a glow to the buildings and a sheen that decorated the streets. Morning blue hour. Breathtaking anytime, and even more so on this January morning as the city seemed to exhale colours in the morning drizzle.

I had been studying another Toronto photographer, Lucan Coutts, whose work I greatly respect. His work is opposite to mine, often shooting at night in inclement weather. I consider his work to be simply off the scale. In truth, I hadn't realized it was raining until after I had left my home. Sigh, but I remembered some of Coutts' images and decided that for the first time, I would deliberately shoot in the rain.

The original photo was taken from beneath the overhang of a building, where in the distance I saw the hotel. After taking a few images I moved closer, through the rain, to set up in a deserted alley. Without proper rain gear, and somewhat skeptical about of Sony's claims of my camera being weather sealed (whatever that means) I moved quickly. The last time, I had gotten caught in the rain, so now I walk with a plastic bag, which I placed over my camera and tripod as I worked.

Although above zero, in the rain, the hands began to sting. I shot on instinct knowing I needed the foreground, mid-ground as well as the background to be in focus. Although with this lens, my limited tests suggested the sharpest aperture is actually around f/11, but without a neutral density filter (I had one but who had the time to fiddle with them, remember cold hands!) that aperture would have yielded too short an exposure. I find my best exposures are somewhere between 30 to 45 seconds.

The photo was taken almost fully stopped down at f/20. Interestingly enough, although I had the benefit of my new 17 to 28 zoom lens, this photo was shot at 27 mm. Without much thinking I had simply zoomed in and out and had chosen the best photo cropping without even glancing at the focal length of the lens.

Both images are a combination of three bracketed photos resulting in an HDR image. My processing was same as usual, but for correcting the lens distortion (new step since I have a shorter lens). I processed in colour, then converted the image to black and white. The only step I did not execute was that of manipulating the black and white image. It seems the image works just as well as in black and white as in colour with no extra work. In other words, I got two for the price of one.

Hotel and Alley, remains one of my most satisfying images to date, and well worth the rain. My takeaway as a photographer was the reminder to shoot, shoot often, continue to experiment, not to be discouraged if every shot isn't as rich as the one before. Be happy when one does. The famous film director, Francis Ford Coppola once remarked, it's not about the shots that you miss, it about the shots that you're able to get. The payoffs of this type of diligence are rewarding beyond words.

 

January 18, 2020

 

SONY ALPHA a7r 30 secs. F/20 ISO 50 27mm

Tamron E 17-28 F2/8-22

Runnymede Barber Shop

Notes:

Further west where the bridge arches over the Humber where children climb upon imaginary rafts and paddling to their highway's end, meeting Lake Ontario, exclaiming to each of their travelling companions “We've reached the ocean!” From the same bridge you can see the ice that tonight holds back the river—ice, thick and white like the icing from the thousands of wedding cakes that feed the hopes of newlyweds in the Old Mill Inn, just down the way. The wedding music from its chapel clear to anyone who has walked by at any time. But now late night, late, late night, the cold grasping hands and feet, as bones begin to whisper and shake... must stay warm, must stay warm. Another sound, like that of carpenter's nails across an endless metal blackboard, drowns out any other sound. The subway train, the glow of metal and incandescent light rattles the blackness of the evening splitting the wedding cake river, drowning out the dream of happiness and discovery. There is no ocean tonight, no weddings. It is Toronto. It is past midnight. Tonight it is cold for such a warm city. Home the only words on chapped lips. Safe. Sound. Gratitude.

Away from Home

Toronto, Ontario 2020


Take a walk along Bloor Street West in the dead of winter, camera switched to automatic between well-worn gloves.  No tripod.  And like bad dialogue from a cheap film, you declare that tonight "you're breaking all the rules!".

 

Pass by the closed restaurants and the all-night Circle-K or the neighbourhood theatre built below street-level from which the over-60 crowd emerges, laughing in the dark cold. They've seen war, lived recessions, they're not bothered by the minus 8-degree temperature. The roads are dry on account of the snow having abandoned the city with the changing climate, so cars now travel silently as red and yellow streaks of light in your peripheral. Traffic hovers upon the mist rising from the sewer grates and “manhole” covers. The few people on the streets dismiss the photographer as just another street ornament. The homeless have found homes. The cold becomes a type of invisibility.

The late-night places—the Pizza Pizza, the Shoppers Drug Mart are still well-lit, same as the barbershop with its candy cane staff that has swizzled above the store's doorway for over 50 years without stopping once but for the time when the Canadian Fighter pilots arrived at City Hall after flying combat missions in the Gulf.  We breathed deeply that day and richly.  “Safe and sound” are the words all parents would gladly give up their lives to hear.  

Where people gather, stories are told and left behind.

 

January 18, 2020

 

SONY ALPHA a7r 1/60 sec. F/4.5 ISO 4000 17mm (handheld)

Tamron E 17-28 F2/8-2/8

York Street, Car, k.g. Sambrano
York Street, Car

York Street, Car

Toronto, Ontario 2020


At times, photography is about what one does not reveal in a photo. For example, I did not include the woman, arms full, hurrying back and forth through the hotel doors to the car as she filled up the back seat or the concern in my face each time she reappeared threatening to complete her task and drive away. Ironically, a car, usually the bane of my post-processing (they usually serve only to muddle an otherwise acceptable  composition) in this case became an integral element of the scene.

Much like "High Park, Playground Chairs", I've been taking a more subtle approach in my post-processing of late.

 

Sometimes the strength of an image isn't readily revealed. In this case it wasn't until after I thought the image had been completed that I realized that by also including the lights to the left and right of the car, the composition was strengthened. In an instant the image morphed from a "smash and grab" photo of a car and a hotel, to that of a car and a hotel as the winter sun began to set in a busy metropolis.

This photo was taken without a tripod and without much time for preparation. I adjusted  the camera to auto-focus as I leaned up against a construction pole on the other side of the street and adjusted the shutter speed. This is one of my few images that is not processed as an HDR as, again, the image was captured without a tripod or bracketing, although still very dynamic and sharp.
 

January 13, 2020

 

SONY ALPHA a7r 1/15 sec. F/4 ISO 50 28mm (handheld)

Tamron E 17-28 F2/8-2/8

The Intersection of Falling Stars

The Intersection of Stars

Toronto, Ontario 2020


Even in the "hurry...hurry...ding...ding.." of the city, one can sometimes find a pause, a pure experience. I have taken to carrying my camera and tripod wherever I can— appointments, meetings, any opportunity to shoot with my new Tamron lens before the temperature dropped for good.  The sun was just dimming as it does so early in January. The glow of the sign above me is what caught my attention as well as the convergence of city spires.

I believe that we often take for granted that we belong to a race, a species that has stepped foot on the moon. Wait, think about that for just a moment. We harnessed our ingenuity and courage, leaving our planet to travel into space and back. We have devices that allow us to speak to each other on the other side of the street or on the other side of the earth, effortlessly. We create tools that enable us to not only record our personal experiences, but to also share them with others.

January 13, 2020

 

SONY ALPHA a7r 1/4 sec. F22 ISO 50 17mm

Tamron E 17-28 F2/8-2/8

Doorway, University of Toronto St. George
_DSC3335.oringial.jpg

Doorway, University of Toronto St. George

Toronto, Ontario 2020

 

As it began to rain, the walk from the University of Toronto's Convocation Hall seemed like kilometres rather than a simple short jaunt along the asphalt path. The rain had begun to come down even harder when I noted the archway as I hurried by. The texture of the brick was nothing short of exquisite, as were the arches of the doorway. In the background, like an ethereal heart, a door.

 

While working on this image in Photoshop, I removed the sign on the gate, after which, the image suddenly felt empty. If I was focused strictly on the building's architecture, perhaps I would have omitted the sign permanently, but rather, I was attempting to capture a snapshot in the urban landscape. Come spring or summer, the sign will eventually be removed permanently. Toronto is an ever-changing city—construction signs and detours are all part of the living landscape.

Other than sunrise and sundown, overcast days are my favourite time to explore the city. I've supplied the original file taken just before it began to pour. 

 

January 11, 2020

 

SONY ALPHA a7r 1/6 sec. F11 ISO 50 28mm

Tamron E 17-28 F2/8-2/8

University of Toronto, Goldring Centre

University of Toronto, Steps

Toronto, Ontario 2020
 

January 12, 2020

 

SONY ALPHA a7r 30 secs. F22 ISO 50 17mm

Tamron E 17-28 F2/8-2/8

January Twilight, High Park
January Twilight, High Park

January Twilight, High Park

Toronto, Ontario 2020

When asked how his movies were so always so beautifully lit,  a famous director quipped, "I use available light...what ever light is available...I use." 
 

The fog was showing no signs of soon lifting. In the background to the right is the lit baseball diamond with its stadium lights, and behind the tree is the street lamp, the quintessential accent of urban landscape.  The "available" light, along with the fog together with the glow from the Blue Hour, helped me to capture the last vestiges of the January evening at sundown.

Things get lost. Especially the good things. Often the simple things. “January Twilight” was captured just minutes after the “High Park, Playground Chairs”.  The greatest gift for a photographer maybe when one is able to capture in digital form what the eyes first saw. "January Twilight" one of those gifts.

 

I often forget that I began as a landscape photographer. It is always pleasant when I am able to return to my roots, figuratively or otherwise.

 

January 11, 2020

 

SONY ALPHA a7r 30 secs. F22 ISO 50 17mm

Tamron E 17-28 F2/8-2/8

High Park, Chairs

High Park, Playground Chairs

Toronto, Ontario 2020


A few feet behind me is a playground: swings, seesaws, and giant plastic flowers. It's not the same without the melody of laughter and squeals. During the summer months, these chairs are filled by parents and caregivers, aunts, uncles or daydreamers. This evening in January, the voices of children were replaced by that of a photographer fumbling with tripod and camera before the rain fell even harder.

 

The photo is different from my usual work, and purposefully so. I was testing a new lens as the sun dimmed in the distance. The clouds brought a glow to the chairs, in contrast to the natural foliage behind them. What struck me the most was the solitude—no snow despite it being almost mid-January, no children, nothing but the rain.

I had been working more in the 16:9 ratio, the same as that of motion picture. The photo in its finished form reminds me of Fellini, which reminds me of Donald Sutherland in Don't Look Now, a film about a lost child and a bright red hood.

 

January 11, 2020

 

SONY ALPHA a7r 30 secs. F22 ISO 50 17mm

Tamron E 17-28 F2/8-2/8

Winter Evening Toronto
Winter Evening Toronto

Winter Evening Toronto

Toronto, Ontario 2020

In early spring, after enjoying a dinner with a friend, we walked along The Esplanade admiring the architecture and the setting sun. As we crossed the street, I glanced back at a tall, uniquely shaped building that protruded from the rest of the cityscape.  I promised to return with my camera.

 

Fast forward to early morning August 3, 2019. After photographing the Royal Bank Tower I tried to return to the location from earlier that spring, but couldn't find the building! I spent over an hour combing the area, but with the changing light, the building seemed to have disappeared!

It was now winter, almost sundown as I walked the Toronto streets with tripod and torn winter gloves. Slightly frustrated by a number of disappointing images, I continued east until I reached The Esplanade. The building I had seen that previous spring had not crossed my mind, until like Hilton's Shangri-La, the building reappeared, as if the changing light was revealing what I thought had been forever lost.

 

The resulting image of Toronto at winter's dusk was well-worth the nine-month wait, as well as the  cold hands.   
 

January 3, 2020

 

SONY ALPHA a7r 6-12 secs. F22  ISO 50  28mm

FE 28-72mm 3.5-5.6

"Sky full of Lighters" Toronto

"Sky full of Lighters", New Year's Day 6:22 pm

Toronto, Ontario 2020

Bloor street is in constant motion—all-night buses, cyclists and pedestrians. It was winter as I took advantage of the early sunsets between 5:00 and 6:00 pm. Under-dressed as usual, I moved quickly. The focal point was originally the lamp post and bouquet of lights above the stone pillars, but stepping back, I realized an image that included the sun set in the distance and the orange glow of the traffic.

This photo was taken about 20 feet from where I would  capture the image of the Royal Ontario Museum just minutes later.

One day I may very well invest in a winter jacket. Until then the cold forces me to move quicker and to compose mostly on instinct, sometimes hitting the mark, and other times, simply enduring another cold evening in Toronto.


January 1, 2020

 

SONY ALPHA a7r 30 secs. F22 ISO 50 31mm

FE 28-72mm 3.5-5.6

romblackandwhitecropped-1fi.jpg

Royal Ontario Museum, New Year's Day 6:35 pm

Toronto, Ontario 2020

 

January 1, 2020

 

SONY ALPHA a7r 30 secs. F16 ISO 50 28mm

FE 28-72mm 3.5-5.6

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