There Goes the Neighbourhood

It's been so long since I've wandered Bay St. that I don't remember which development (left) this is (not the Trump tower) but the building bathed in the warmth of near sunset light is, of course, Scotia Plaza.

Three Reds at Sunset

Does this Sweater Make Me Look Green (Dresser II)

Rope Thin (Dresser I)

(NOT of the window mannequins deemed off limits -- as per earlier post).

Eye Patch

Thought I'd post this self portrait of a sorts as I had one of those odd moments that one has when one takes a camera into public space.

I was taking pictures of mannequins in a chain store window on Yonge Street. A young woman came out and said, "What do you think you're doing? They don't like it." I explained I was taking pictures of the mannequins and asked who "they" are, She then wondered about what I knew about the store -- I said I knew nothing about it. "It's not allowed, they don't like it," by which she meant my taking photos. I suggested that while I was going to be polite about it, "they" could not stop me from taking the photos.

I never did find out who "they" are.

If the creepiness of this shot is any indication, maybe that's why photographers frighten so many people.

Dirty glass awning, melting snow, sun

Blood Moon

Lame I know -- but if anyone wants to buy me the Nikkor 5 or 600 mm lens, that would be great, please -- I'll then be able to offer up better detail next eclipse...

This was shot at 200mm, wide open (2.8), 2 seconds, ISO 800. About 10 minutes after total eclipse ended.

Stolen Portrait

This young woman was standing, facing two guys with cameras, another guy with a very large reflector and a third fellow doing nothing apparent (no doubt the creative director :) ) while three other women this young woman's age had either their point and shoot cameras or cell phones pointed at this woman.

No one noticed me standing behind the entire entourage on the street until the model's eyes drifted to my lens (click) and the group turned to see what she was looking at. I left to the sounds of "what the heck was that" laughter.

It was late in a very overcast (you can see a few snowflakes in the shot) day and the light sucked for a formal portrait -- giant reflector or not -- so I hope she gets a discount :)

Libeskind's Lines

ROM Crystal -- up close, as I had only my long lens, so detail is all you get.

Seizure (self portrait)

Shower curtains behind a painted shop window on Yonge Street.

Photographer in a China Shop

William Ashley's, Toronto.

Cello wrapped bear price reduction

Toy Alligator with Old Blue Cowboy Boot

From my Nikon D70 files.

I gotta shoot more photographs -- I'm thinking a version from this series I've also posted before...

A very blue fish

Powder blue tang (Acanthurus leucosternon) cruising the reef that once swirled a few feet from my couch. I think this particular fish (as aggressive as he is beautiful) has been featured on my blog before. He's gone to live elsewhere with the rest of my wonderful reef aquarium (but now I sleep better without a few tons of marine rock and water on the 6th floor!)

Bring in the Creepies

This clown stopped juggling every single time I pointed my lens at him and pulled out the damn Tiny Tim guitar -- literally, he was very fast at switching. The kid is a spectator not a growth on the clown's leg.

Deco

Commerce Court North -- the nice looking building in the crowd, here.

Tallest building in the Commonwealth (British) for decades after its completion in 1931.

In Preparation of Dog Ownership

I remind myself to not eat yellow snow.

This photo the result from a night time shot of snow, illuminated by sodium streetlights, which is clearly much yellower to my camera's sensor than to my human eye (attached as it is to my brain which is the world's best white balance mechanism and thus corrects so we see, in person, a whiter image...) I could have chosen an after the fact white balance for the camera to get closer to what we see, but I love this result.

An Introduction...

Let me introduce (via some of THE worst photographs I've EVER taken) Ruby, the Portuguese water dog, born Jan 1, 2008. Ruby is, at least for the moment her name, the name she has been given by the breeder, and while we expected to select another name (we are partial to "Noodles")... well we met her today and she was made ours today and Ruby really just fits her. She's just not really a Noodles at the moment. We'll see when she moves home. She's a major cuddle monster at the moment, which is why the breeder chose her for us. Many of her sisters are majorly active hounds already -- we're leaving them for farm lives.

A friend (hi Suzanne) once said to me after seeing picutres of the litter, "My heart just grew," and that sentiment was with a tenfold force actually meeting the canine menagerie. He Who is Now Landed and I are simply in love already with the wee creature, Ruby. With grand mercy we were given just two puppy option to start with -- how anyone could choose from 10 is beyond me; it was Ruby we met first and it was Ruby we settled on. I felt like I was abandoning "wee Mikey" by not choosing him, but there are homes for all and I have neither Catholic or Jewish leanings so the guilt quickly passed.

Ruby comes home March 1. I'm already a nervous wreck. He Who is Landed is already worrying about the dog falling off the balcony! He Who is Landed should be again renamed, this time as He Who Thrives on Things to Worry About :)

If you go to Wheatleywaterdogs.com you can see links to youtube which shows the puppies at various stages thus far. Also some nice photos of Sailor, mommy dog.

Christ's Knuckles

From my D70.

"The Dead Christ" (1854) in white Carrara marble by Irish sculptor John Hogan in the Basilica-Cathederal of St. John the Baptist in St. John's Newfoundland, Canada.

One of three versions of this statue done in Rome by Hogan -- the other two are in Ireland (Dublin and Cork). This stunning bit of religious art rests behind glass (an annoyance for photography) at the front of the sanctuary.

I was most struck by the detail of the hand that rests on the abdomen. I awaited its movement not for reasons of faith, but due to the incredible lifelikeness.

Alex. Black & White

Starting to figure out Adobe Lightroom. Liking it's b&w processing, so am playing with some old photos (from my D70) that I always wanted in b&w but couldn't settle on tones that were quite right in Photoshop. I'm pleased with these tones.

Facial Expressions

More from Gajes theater group's Alice in Wonderland (on stilts)

Alice in Wonderland (on stilts)

If I'd known about it I'm sure the premise would have had me dismissing it outright, but I found myself in Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto today, camera in hand, as the theatre group "Gajes" (from the Netherlands) began their performance of Alice in Wonderland on stilts. It was playful and adult and entertaining -- gosh, just like the damn book.

Oh, when not on elevated platforms (e.g. Alice's bed, narrator's boat or 30 foot dress drapery) the actors performed on stilts -- in a couple of scenes on those big spring loaded boots like that legless sprinter wears. Just a bloody hoot of a performance, in any event. Sorry it was the last evening as I would have loved to see it from start to finish without worrying (and thus missing much) about running around to get in good position for photos.

In the one shot, that's Alice drilling a hole in the narrator's canoe, btw...

Got more, will share later likely.

Sky Coral?

All that are missing for me in this shot are schools of brightly coloured anthias and damsels, ready to dart into the protective stony branches of a colony of staghorn coral...

The dying moments of a Toronto storm, at night.

New Growth

Some new-growth ivy extends beyond the darkness of a recess in the rock of the small waterfall at Allan Gardens and is rewarded with a shaft of light.

On the Line

Forgive the border on this shot. Apple and Nikon have both slipped up most royally and in a flurry of incompatibilities between Leopard (Mac's operating system) and software (including Nikon's own and non current versions of Adobe stuff) one can't process NEF (raw) files out of the D3.

So, I'm using (reckless use of the word there; more like, stumbling with) a trial version of Adobe's Lightroom. I have no idea how to use the thing -- have been told I'll love the software once I figure it out, but it is NOT intuitive in any way. For example, there is no menu command that says "save" (I believe one "exports") so this file originally wound up as a pdf somehow -- and I did not even see that option when trying to save, er, export, and then this border after I converted to jpg (although I'm not sure how I got there!). I'm such a wiener with this stuff. I should not be allowed near a computer :)

Oh and this blather is really for a fellow blogger who, based on his (dis)interest in the written content of my blogs, deems said material to not be blog material, at all!! :)