This post should have a tag line: Art Event, Or Excuse To Get Wasted?
Tag: Urban
Toronto Buskerfest 2015
Here’s a selection of some of my best shots from Toronto’s Buskerfest 2015 which raises money for Epilepsy Toronto. I’ve posted more on flickr.
Shooting Bicycles
Here are sample photos of people riding bicycles. Each is shot by a different method, each with a different result. I shot the first image with a fast shutter speed. Both cyclist and background are crisp. I shot the second with a slower shutter speed (1/160) and moved the camera in sync with the cyclist…
Handheld Photos At Night
Typically, when I go out at night, I bring a tripod, shoot long exposures, cityscapes with light trails, people so blurred you can’t recognize them. But sometimes it’s good to break the rules, even if they are only self-imposed. Here are some night shots without a tripod.
Toronto Island
It doesn’t happen often, but every once in a while I get all sentimental and my camera turns to goo as it did when I went to Ward Island for dinner at The Rectory. Maybe it has something to do with all the grass and trees, or the clean air, or the quiet.
Billy Bishop Airport Tunnel Opens
Passengers no longer have to wait for the ferry when they want to catch a flight from Toronto Island. Heather Mallick’s op-ed in the Toronto Star nicely captures the feel of the place: “The pedestrian lake tunnel at Toronto’s downtown Billy Bishop Airport has finally opened at the cost of annihilating the soul, plus $82.5 million.”
Wheels, and Wheels and Heels
In Toronto, on the corner of Avenue Road and Davenport, there is a billboard advertising the Galerie de Bellefeuille in Montreal. It’s positioned so that people driving their Maseratis north from Yorkville will stop at the lights and stare at work by the gallery’s latest darling. Currently, it’s photographer David Drebin whose work you cannot find by following the URL on the billboard because somebody fucked it up.
Signs Of The Times
A selection of signs in downtown Toronto: I don’t see that a psychic has much to complain about in this situation; she should have foreseen the problem before she set up business. Also, I would have thought psychics are better spellers than this. Couldn’t she “travel” to the library & consult the OED before she…
Traffic in New York
I’m not sure traffic in New York — or at least in Manhattan — is as bad as everyone says. Then again, I live in downtown Toronto so what do I know? The subway has a lot better coverage than in Toronto. And the grid of one way streets is effective.
Street Art in NYC
I didn’t have time to sniff out really good examples of street art when I was visiting Manhattan. I suspect that if I were a tourist visiting Toronto, I’d have the same problem in reverse. I wouldn’t know where to look. Nevertheless, I saw what I saw and share it here:
Times Square – Mecca of Cheese
All the tourists go to Times Square in search of the real New York. What they find is each other … and people hustling them (which may, in fact, be the real New York).
Photographing Buildings In Manhattan
Photographing buildings in Manhattan is a challenge, or at least it was for me last week, and for two reasons. First, I didn’t have the right gear, only my little mirrorless Fujifilm camera and a pancake lens. Second, even if I had the right gear, buildings in Manhattan have been shot to death. What could I possibly say that’s original or interesting?
That Moment of Pause
Not everything in New York City moves at the pace of a George Gershwin piece. People DO take time to pause and reflect. Last week I was privileged to capture some of those moments.
The Digital Moment
From smartphones to camcorders to DSLRs, digital devices have become so ubiquitous, it’s like they’re everywhere. I observe (ironically) with my own digital device, and share (hypocritically?) through digital media. It’s almost impossible now to find a non-digital vantage point from which to observe.
Street Photography in NYC – Money
This is related to my previous post about “commerce on the ground” only, in this post, the money is more obvious.