Spring Light

As you might have noticed a few posts past, Old City Hall looked a bit curved and lean-ish in the photo. That's due to distortion from using a wide lens and shooting the subject off the plane of the film (e.g. the subject is not parlell to the face of the camera). Wide lenses tend to bend things (very noticeable in architecture, for example), while long lenses tend to compresses things (crowds of people look packed more tightly together in a telephoto shot, for example).

Anyway, in the tops of the buildings/sky shot here, you'll notice the blonde brick buidling (upper right) is actually curved away from the perpendicular (to the red brick buildings, which are across the street and parallel to the film plane of the camera). The distortion of a wide lens is made worse when the subject is near the edge of the frame. I like the effect, mostly 'cause I'm sure it drives architects and engineers crazy to view.

neighbours

A result of my not running for the last 6 or 7 years (gasp!) is that I rarely see other parts of the city. And believe me when you're running hundreds of kms every month you get to see many of the neighbourhoods. A regular route always took me through Cabbagetown, which is just a short walk from where I live.

Light Pollution

Bankers don't appear to ever sleep...

Looking west from east of Jarvis on Adelaide.

Things

Got new shades from He Who is Here Now for my birthday. Gucci, don't you know!! [insert snobbish throat noise here]

Also bought myself (!) a new lens for the D200. Been used to shooting with either a medium or long lens. The new one is wide -- short end of the zoom is 12mm, the widest she goes is 24mm. Compare to my long lens which is 70-200mm. Snorezzzzzzzz (sorry :) Speaking of snobbish, the lens is Nikon and about double the price of a third party lens maker. Yes, yes, yes, it's very much a superior lens, but not that I'm likely ever to notice...

(both very small files, the photos, btw)

Wrecking Ball Interrupted

Toronto's Old City Hall -- city council moved to their new "space ship" quarters in the mid-'60s -- was the largest municipal building in North America when it opened in 1899.

Of much greater interest about the building is the fact that city council had given the green light to demolish it to make room for a twin high-rise office tower as part of the Eaton Centre project. The public went ape shit at that and the idea died and the building lived.

The magnificent building now houses the criminal courts of Ontario Court of Justice and municipal courts. If you've ever seen "Night Court" (TV show) and been in old city hall, the similarities are striking, minus the humour in the latter location.

Getting on...

On this the day before I turn 48, I, for the first time in my life, quite literally forgot to shave this morning and went to work without doing so. Didn't notice until I rubbed my chin on the walk to the office. The nouns left a long time ago; daily tasks seem to be prepared to follow.

(false?) Spring

When a blog is near death

I haven't really blogged in a very, very long number of weeks. Oh, I've posted stuff and photos, but not really blogged blogged, have I?

A couple of reasons:

1) I have nothing to say (a particularly frightening place to be for a curmudgeon and a writer)
2) The thought of saying anything exhausts me to the point that I have nothing to say (which is really about not having anything to say but grasping at thoughts as possible topics to write about while in fact I have nothing to write about as I have, in fact, nothing to say about the thoughts...)

Something will show up soon, or I could just keep tossing up photos from shoots I have no time for either (and, my, doesn't the poor quality show), or I'll just pull the plug on this wee blog and start again if the need to say something decides to return. The last time this happend so absolutely I did another undergrad degree at the age of 40. That found voice has been pounded out of me again, I'm afraid. Hmmm, ya think change might be helpful? :)