And Update... and CIAS

Toronto is a funny place. There is a... There are entire cultures of people that are one of the following: anti-car and/or anti-bike and/or anti-TTC. And yet, when mid-winter arrives, we go into full-blown trade-show mode. When February rolls around, one of the biggest events in Toronto is held... The Canadian International Auto Show [fka The Toronto Car Show] that draws in thousands hoping to get a look at the next hottest things on the road, and maybe to literally kick a few tires - although, Mini prefers you screech them.




Ironic however, is how there is a nice gap between the Car show and the Annual Bike Show (This weekend... right now... as I type this... and I'm 150km away, in the suburb of Cheektowaga, New York - Far from home, and further from my beloved bicycle. At least, it feels like that cause I hate riding when its cold

Suffice to say, I went to the car show, because A) it was something to do B) I'm looking for a new car and C) it was chance to pull the camera out and fire off a few hundred shots. Of those... I have published 70 to Flickr.

Suffice to say, I walked away from the auto show, with a few pamphlets and a couple of shopping bags - 2 red (kinda crappy) Toyota bags and one fricken sweet graphic Kia bag with the Forte on one side and the Borrego on the other. Kia is really making a push to convert people and honestly, right now, bang for the buck, they offer the best stuff on the road. The bonus is... their cars stop and go when they're supposed to! To be honest... I've been loving my Toyota for the last 4 years, but I am far from inspired when it comes to getting into a new one. Recalls aside, Toyota has mismanaged and craptacularized their cars in the last few years. Most manufacturers have.

Things as simple as making Automatic transmissions and all power group (doors, windows, mirrors) standard in base models. Making more sensible engine options available across the trim... wait, no... scratch that. Trim lines are BS. They shouldn't exist, especially if theres any bit of overlap between one model to the next. A Fully Loaded Compact, should not be the same or more expensive than the Midsize's second-from-base-model. That's just complete bullshit and is just one reason why people aren't interested in certain trims. When you sell 20,000 base models, 10,000 "luxury" models and <5,000 "sport" models.

Anyhow... I had more to say, but Blogspot decided to eat half my entry/rant and messed up the order of my photos. So, suffice to say.... %^&$ it... here's some pics

I would love to have this one... that's for sure. Fully electric roadster that has a top speed 200+ and range of 250km? Hell Yeah.



Yeah... this one too.


Scions are cool too... especially when they're modded up (aren't they all)



The classic car of my dreams... one day... one day...



Autobots... Show Off!


Boing!

That's all for now... I'll probably update again in another 2months! See you then!

Self-Portraiture

Feeling creative, yet bored, I decided that I needed to try my hand at self portraiture. The following are a few of the results. All in all, in 2 sessions, I probably took about 100+ photos. The bulk were from yesterday, with today's numbering a total of 25+. Out of all of them, none from yesterday were worth a damn except the cat head.


The pics from today were a little more technical in approach, with me setting up my camera and measuring out my minimum focusing distance (MFD), and angling my flash and flood for best lighting. It wasn't until I did all of that, that i realized that I would never be able to get results I like without a stand-in. As a result, I used my flash tripod and got my focussing... bang on!

Camera: Canon Rebel XT
Lens: Contax Zeiss 135mm 2.8
Fstop = 8 Shutter = 100
Flash = Nikon SB24
Other equipment: Cactus Trigger
Lastolite 45'' reflector
Ikea flex lamp w/ 13w fluorescent
Sateen Flat Sheet from Target... 250 thread count. :P
Adobe Photoshop CS3 with TLR Sharpening

In a weird way, without really trying to, I got a annie-leibowitz/vanity fair type vibe in a few shots. Only 1 was grayscaled, and only so i could make my eye color stand out a little.


After firing a few test shots, I began to use a few props. A Lightbulb, Daha's "straw", my fire extinguisher, a can of lysol... Random things not usually seen in photo shoots... at least, I've never seen them used in a photo shoot. I also changed shirts for different effect and set-up. To see the rest of the pics, you'll have to go to Facebook or Flickr.




The only way I could have possibly improved on these shots is if I opted to slow down the shutter to allow a little blur, to bring out the magic that the Zeiss lens is so good at making.




Of course, I could not, not take a picture with a lightbulb. After all... the whole idea was a bright idea.



At one point, I was trying shots with the raybans on, and thought of the CSI one-liner meme picture and thought... what the hell, let's do one with that too.



YYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Please note: the skyline photo is not mine. I googled for an image and photoshopped it accordingly.

Cherry Beach and The Sky over Toronto

Last Weekend I took a few photos when i went down to Cherry Beach for a free techno party. Aside from the cold, it was pretty good. My only mistake was not bringing a heavier layer (jacket) and some sort of booze. I wish i did, cause both would've kept me warm for sure. ;)

Here's a few shots from my little photographic adventure at Cherry








Because These were taken around 5pm-ish, I had a good amount of "North Light" to work with. Although, the one picture of the DJ, did not benefit from Northlight, directly... No, that one was a case of my being lucky and having perfect light balance.

Now... this one was not what i was hoping for, but in the end, it gave me a little post-processing fun. Incidentally, it looked much better in Adobe Bridge (pre-processing), for reasons that escape me.



The Dippers overhead my place. I've outlined as best as i could, the two outlines of the most famous (non-zodiacal) constellations, in the sky. If i had a better placement, I could've also indicated Polaris and the twin galaxies M81/82, not to mention, the owl Nebula.

Well... the Owl Nebula is technically in this shot, it's just very faint. It's more easily resolved with binoculars or telescope (or better yet, a camera with a decent telephoto lens)

Taking a shot like this requires a bit of skill and a whole lot of understanding that... quite frankly I don't possess. The exposure i used was I think... 10seconds. I tried doing a 30min exposure, but I forgot to switch a setting in my camera that allowed that. The camera, as far as i can tell, turned off mid-exposure, thus not taking the photo at all. Note to self: next time change auto-shutoff to "never".

East York... at Night

As many of you know, this is Toronto's 175th anniversary after being incorporated. I'm not entirely sure, but it's probably around the 10 year mark after megacity amalgamation as well.

Being a resident of East York, I am privy (although, i don't necessarily engage in) to witnessing the beauty of this multicultural community. We have the Greeks on Danforth, the Pakistani/Indians on Gerrard, and the Chinese on Broadview and Gerrard. And of course, everyone and everything in between along the gaps and such.

Two Things that caught my eye last night were... 1) The statue of Sun Yat-Sen, in Riverdale - poorly lit because the chinese community seems to not give a damn about the man that modernized China. And 2) The fountain at Logan Ave - featuring the bust of Alexander the Great. The juxtaposition is kinda scary when i think about it. The Sun Yat Sen statue has a burnt out lamp, and is all concrete and bronze, surrounded by parkland. The Alexander bust, has benches, a fountain, trees, lights and a conveniently placed Gyro spot next to it.

Anyhow... The following are some of last nights photos.












Click on this one to see the fuller 1024x324 version.

Earth Hour results

Lets start this off with saying... I like living in Toronto, but because of its horrible transition through the years, its become a bit of a travesty in terms of architecture, land planning and what not. Last night I got a glimpse of how sadly true this is when i went out on a photographic adventure.

If you are familiar with Cherry Street, then you are probably aware of some of the buildings down there. The most poignant of which, that demonstrates my point is currently occupied by "Quantex". I am not sure what this building was once used for, but it appears to have been a Bank - built at least in the 30s? I imagine there was good cause for it to be built there (as a bank for longshoreman?)

Now, it stands vigilante, amongst a sad and pathetic industrial backdrop. If anything, this building is definitely a gem amongst boulders and slag. Kudos to Quantex for reappropriating this building for their office. From what I saw in the two windows, it looked extremely modern inside and well appointed. [Note: After reading their website, their choice of location makes a lot of sense given the history of that area (side note: if anyone knows a better link in regards to pollution in the portlands, please let me know!)]

Other examples of forgotten history can be found through out Toronto - two good examples being on Yonge, just north of Queen.

Having said that... The portlands are an interesting area filled with industrial goodies for the urban explorer/modern archaeologist armed with a camera.

The only reason why I was actually down there last night was to take skyline photos. I would've gone down the Leslie Street Spit, except that's a bird sanctuary and it smells bad down there (at least during the day it does, i'm not going to find out if the night is bad too)

Anyhow... here are some of the results of my exploration.

This one was taken at Ashbridges Bay, from the little "lookout point" on the side of the road, opposite the bay to the Sewage Treatment plant (pictured). Sewage is hardly a beautiful thing, but when the plant is lit up at night and you view it from that point, it's gorgeous.




This here, was taken about... 8:40-ish, on Lakeshore Blvd, just west of Leslie. I parked at Cdn. Tire and walked over to the median to catch this one. It's a neat picture because under normal circumstances, you would see the skyscrapers from here. They were all observing Earth Hour, and so, were not lit up like usual. Only the navigation warning lights flickered on the CN Tower.







Sadly... this one was taken at 9:27. YES, 9:27!! I missed my opportunity to catch the downtown core from this angle (Traintracks over Cherry Street)

Actually, truth be told. I was hoping to get a pic of the CN Tower lit, and the other skyscrapers still off. I lucked out that the CN Tower was fired up ahead of schedule.

This is somewhat disappointing if this was done unintentionally. The CN Tower is supposed to be a communications tower and what not. The poor timing of lights-on shows that they aren't communicating very well with the outside world. That, or any report of what the real time is from them... should be ignored.

At the tone, it will be 2:00pm.

beep beep


This freighter was docked at one of the piers just off Cherry Street. I thought the lighting was rather interesting, so i'd grab a few shots.

I was rather unaware that the sky was overcast at the time, so the colour is a bit strange. This is the true colour as far as I can discern, based on the white balance of the Forecastle of this freighter.

That, and other pics are similar.

Interesting note: there is a disturbance in the water to the right in the frame there. That was a duck. Because this was a long exposure (i think 20secs?) the duck turned into a blob.










A Stalwart of the oldways. I dunno if it's modern technology that has done away with them, or if it's a matter of Toronto harbour being relatively easy to navigate large ships into... or even, a matter of modernized replacements, but every now and then, you see a poor creature of the tubboat kind sitting on drydock, rusting the rest of its life away.

It appears that Kenneth A has sat here for a while. How long? I do not know... at least a few months - at least longer than this past winter.

It's been a few weeks since i first spied this guy from the Gardiner, and thought "that'd be a cool pic to take". Last night, i took the chance.

At this point, I was no longer alone... about 50 feet away was a creature that I have seen in the past in rare occasions... however, in the past, I never saw one of this size. A Red Fox. I mean... this guy (or girl) was big. Really big. About the size of a Springer Spaniel or so? Foxes i've seen in the past have been more the size of a Cocker Spaniel or so. Sadly, i could not take a photo of it as it was dark and I don't have a fast telephoto. I was working with my 50mm prime (f/1.8)


This is the external staircase of the Essroc [Italcementi] Elevator-type building/edifice/concrete monolith. I liked how the light played off the support beams, so i snapped this one. It kinda looks blurry which is strange, because i was focussed fairly well - I may've bumped the tripod but i cannot be too sure of that. It's possible that despite being on solid concrete and soil, vibrations from vehicles passing by on Cherry street actually affected this shot in a negative way.

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Rounding out the night, my last stop was RC Harris Filtration. However, due to construction and what not, I opted not to take any photos of that beautiful example of Art Deco. Perhaps another time, eh?

So... the parting shot. These photos were taken using 3 of my 4 lenses. The shots on Lakeshore were taken with my 35-80mm [a lens that i rarely use cause... it sucks], Skyline was taken using 50mm F/1.8 and 18-55mm F/3.5-5.6.

I did use my Lensbaby, however not for any of these shots. Night-time use is not something i've been able to do with that lens effectively. Given that it is a F2.0, it requires a steady hand for shots longer than say... 1/50th of a second. If i had the Control Freak, this would be a non-issue.