Toronto Ultimate Club - 30 year commemorative disc

Toronto Ultimate Club - 30 year commemorative disc - #195/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

I started playing ultimate in 1992 and have played every year since. My first team, the Phlithy Flyers were one of about 20 teams, now the league has hundreds of teams. My second team, with a much more creative name of GO Ho Sex Hounds is also on this commemorative disc and my third team and one of the most talented teams I ever played on, Black Toe, make it three. The teams listed here are from the early years, and since Black Toe I've probably played on 6 other summer teams and countless indoor winter teams. I'm also proud to say that I the diving man in the oval is actually my design. I always wished I'd copyrighted it back when I drew it in the 90's as it is still used as th Toronto Ultimate Club logo.

I played a lot with lighting the disc for this photo. I probably could have got a reasonable shot without doing anything too special, but I had a few spare minutes and wanted to get a shot with minimal reflections. I took the shot as the sun was quite low, so I need flash to get the best exposure and be in control of the light. I set up my small (gold) reflector to the right and aimed my external Speedlight flash towards it from camera left. I had to have the pop-up enabled to trigger the IR controlled external Speedlight, but I didn't want direct flash, so I simply shielded the pop-up a little with my hand. I played with camera and flash EV and voila.

My day in court, well a few minutes anyway

I had a date in court today to fight a parking ticket.  Over a year ago, I had an appointment at Toronto East General Hospital.  As you can imagine the parking options are always bad around the hospital, but as I circled a second time I saw someone pulling out of a spot pretty close to the hospital on Coxwell Ave.  I couldn't believe my luck.  I pulled in and hopped out and headed over to the ticketing machine.  Before I got my ticket, and still quite close to my car I notice a ticketing officer and make a gesture of "hey, don't ticket me, I just pulled in and I'm going to pay for my ticket, right now, like, ok!".  Of course, when I came out, I found out that I'd actually parked in a drop off area for another medical building.  I felt that this just wasn't right, the officer must have seen me pull in, allowed me to pay for my ticket and not say I'd parked illegally.  Therefore I went down to the parking office and told then I was going to fight the ticket.  (Funny how ticket means two opposite things in the world of parking!).  

So my court date was today.  This is the second parking ticket I've fought against and they have both been in the court offices on Markham Road in Scarborough (quite the drive).  My first ticket a few years ago was dismissed because the officer didn't show up.  Today, after I checked in, I learnt that the officer was in attendance.  I noticed that many people checking in to the court clerk were pleading guilty, I however wanted to argue my case.  Just after I indicated I was pleading not guilty, the clerk stood up and made a clarification for everyone (and perhaps especially me), that if you plead guilty, it's very likely your fine will be reduced.  However, if you plead not guilty, you could face a larger fine.  Furthermore, she said some legalize about the black and white of a parking offense, you're guilty if you parked illegally.  Maybe I should have just taken the easier path and not worry about taking my chances explaining my case ?  I had parked illegally, but I wanted a chance to explain my story and bring to light what I think was unfair, unethical and perhaps even be as bold as to say it was entrapment !  I wanted my day in court (I honestly would have been ok paying more jsut to make my point!).

So they began calling up the cases, and many people simply confirmed that they were pleading guilty and the judge lowered the fine (quite considerably in many cases, e.g $20 down to $5).  There were a few cases that were dismissed since the officer had no evidence to prove his case.

So my time came and I was called to the front.  I provided my name and the clerk said the officer had no evidence to present so my case was dismissed.  How anti-climatic !  I felt a little cheated.  What evidence did he need ?  Sure, I was happy to leave the court and get on with my day, but I wish I'd had a chance to tell my story - thanks ma'am, but can I tell you what happened, see that officer over there, well he's the one who should be in trouble...

Focused Mat

Focused Mat - #194/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

First night of our summer ultimate [frisbee] league. I took quite a few shots while I was taking a breather on the sideline. This is my old friend and teammate on Oxygen Hazard, Mat. If you're not familiar with ultimate, Mat is looking for an open upfield teammate to pass to as the defense rushing in to try and block his throw. We put in a strong fight in the 2nd half but lost our season opener.

I used the in-camera trim as a quick way to crop before downloading. I'm not certain if there's a difference in quality between the cropping methods, but for casual shots like this, in-camera looks fine. At a sports event, it makes lots of sense to shoot quick multi-frame bursts and worry about what you've captured later on - the luxury of digital. My Nikon in-camera custom image optimization settings for this shot and what I have had set some quite some time now are: +1 sharpening; +1 tone compensation (contrast); IIIa color; auto saturation and 0 hue adjustment.

Scott

Scott - stranger #54 and daily photo #193/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

I went to pick my son up from Don Valley Golf Club and while I was waiting I got talking with Scott. He was working the pro shop and he told me he was turning pro in the fall. Like my son he played CJGA tournaments when he was younger and had a junior membership for the City of Toronto golf clubs. During one of his first years being a member he got a job at Don Valley and has been working there ever since.

The sun was going down very fast so I had to resort to my pop-up flash to get a decent exposure for Scott. I didn't have my external Speedlight flash, so I got some odd colouring in one of Scott's eyes. The red-eye Photoshop and Nikon in-camera fixers didn't work, so one fix I had to make to this otherwise unedited shot, was use the clone tool on one eye and replace the other.

Scott is also #54 in my 100 strangers project.

The Urban Cottage Weekend

I don't have a cottage.  I can't afford one and I'm not lucky enough to have one in the family.  I love visiting Ontario's beautiful lakes and enjoying cottage life.  Even a drive that passes through cottage country, freshens my wish list and tints my mood a little green with envy.  However, what many people say and I may have to agree, owning a cottage isn't all it's made up to be.  You have a second home to maintain and tackling the traffic really taints the whole experience.  I recently heard from one Muskoka regular, that he avoids the lakes on the weekend, because of the chaos on the water with the boom in powerboat action.


So, I decided that we'd have an urban cottage weekend.  Of course, we don't have a beautiful (but cold) lake on our doorstep, but there are many things we can simulate in the city that can give us the feel of cottage life.  My daughter wrote up our rules (version 2) and posted it on the fridge.  We managed to do most of the things on the list, including roasting marshmallows (in our living room fireplace) !  And funnily enough, the city on Sunday and holiday morning was quite quiet, maybe quieter that cottage country !

Although not specifically on the list, I avoided checking my Blackberry all weekend and didn't check email, blogs, Facebook and Twitter at all.  Although I felt a little disconnected from the world (isn't that one of the things you enjoy from being at the cottage), the odd feeling was that time slowed down.  I wasn't always distracted by an incoming email and social posts and neve had to say - just a minute, while I check something !  I managed to get outside a lot  and enjoy the glorious weather, which unfortunately limited the time to play one of my favourite games, but we did enjoy some movies and I had lots of time to read. 

Tankhouse

Tankhouse - #192/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

After a tough, hot weather bike ride and a tall glass of water, a beer was the perfect way to finish off a glorious afternoon. The condensation on the bottle added some texture to the shot and I shot from a low angle to get some brighter background bokeh. I used a close-up 4x filter.

She loves her mug

She loves her mug - #192/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

Now the warm weather is here, we spend a lot of time on our deck. My wife just loved her heart mug and I like the colour of her shirt with the darker brink. I took a few shots, but chose this low depth-of-field shot because I liked the way the mug stood out and the soft focus of my wife fits with the mood of our lazy morning.

Indoor marshmallow roasting

Indoor marshmallow roasting - #191/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

As part of our Urban Cottage Weekend, we decided that wood burning fireplace in the living room would serve just fine for roasting marshmallows.

There is lots of light coming from the flame, so no-flash was an easy choice and I didn't take long with only a few minor adjustments to capture the flames like this. I think the marshmallow silhouette works well.

Nightime fauna goes deep sea

Nightime fauna goes deep sea - #190/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

I really like the way these branches twist and turn. I changed to B&W and took a low angle and heated it up with direct (pop-up) flash. I like that it kind of looks like something from the deep. The shot has some flaws, but I'm still pleased with the overall creation.

Spring concert notes

The new (and apparently last) LCD Soundsystem album, This is Happening is getting rave reviews this week and just in time for Tuesday night's gig at Kool Haus, tickets are still available - should be a great show.


Neo soul meets some electro beats with Jamie Lidell, new album has lots of collaborators and guests, including locals Zeus - June 12th Mod Club.


Iggy and The Stooges are back together for a world tour in conjunction with a re-release of Raw Power - free at Yonge Dundas Sqaure as part of NXNE - June 19th.


NXNE Festival - 650 bands over 7 days, all for $50 - June 14-20.

One of our all-time favourite jazz crooners Harry Connick, Jr. will be playing the Canon Theatre on June 27th as part of the Toronto Jazz Festival.

TorontoJazz Festival - tons of different venues and some good free options - June 25th - July 4th.


And last but not least, Rush - Molson Amphitheatre (July 13th) and ACC (July 17th).  This tour is coinciding with a documentary that just won the audience award at the Tribeca Flm Festival - and I have to give a plug here to a couple of old friends I met through ultimate - Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen, these guys are on a fantastic hot streak of rock documentaries.


Also check out Concerts we recommend in the right hand column - something for everyone I'm sure !

Doyon-Rivest. Le siècle des lumières

Doyon-Rivest. Le siècle des lumières - #189/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

This is just one segment of a very large photographic piece mounted against the West windows of Brookfield Place, downtown Toronto as part of the Contact Photography Festival. It's definitely worth a look if you're downtown, but you have to get up close to really appreciate th quality of the print and what a fantastic concept. Click here for more info and here for other shots.

Man amongst the pigeons

Man amongst the pigeons - #188/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

The silhouettes and the warm background were much more attractive that shooting a "correct" exposure. I just had to be patient for an interesting composition.

Gord Deppe, The Spoons

Gord Deppe, The Spoons - #187/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

Local 80's band, The Spoons played at Yonge Dundas Square in conjunction with a Dairy Queen promotion (they're about the same age). It was great to hear some of their classic tracks and I was pleased to see a lot of people singing and dancing along.

It's always quite difficult to photograph concerts, but at least I had pretty good access and it was in the bright of day. The partly sunny weather made for tricky lighting and exposure, so I ended up using auto white balance (although I do use -1 EV to add some warmth), I used the cloudy setting (with -1 EV again) for this shot.

Ontario Veteran's Memorial, Queen's Park

Ontario Veteran's Memorial, Queen's Park - #186/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

I stopped by Queen's Park for the first time in a long time and I really liked the Ontario Veteran's Memorial - classy, but gritty and grainy textures gave it the appropriate somber feel.

Jesus and the chimney

Jesus and the chimney - #185/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

I had a tough time picking a shot today as each shot had something I wasn't happy with. I ended up choosing this one, as I like reflections, and the glass has some interested texture to it and I like the way Jesus is centered over the chimney reflection.

Contact. Gladstone. Slootsky.

Contact. Gladstone. Slootsky. #184/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

I was at The Gladstone Hotel to check out the Exposed photography showing which is part of the Contact Photography Festival. If you've never been to The Gladstone, it's worth the visit for its step-back-in-time interiors. And if you're short on festival time, The Gladstone is perfect because the 2nd floor has a a wide variety of photographic work from a lot of different artists. Then there are other exhibits on the 3rd and 4th floors. This shot is on the 4th floor and gives a glimpse of some of Zach Slootsky's wonderful captures.

Lolo scooter

Lolo scooter, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

I walk by Lolo on Yonge (at Albertus) almost every day walking my dog. I had a fantastic Bouillabaisse there a while ago with my wife and a visiting work colleague. Scooters seem to be a popular promotional and style accessory for smaller European restaurants in Toronto.

The exposure was critical to show a little of the inside and not too much to blow out the lettering on the awning. I took the shot from across the street using a lamp post to steady the shot.

The Last Olympian

The Last Olympian - #182/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

I love seeing my kids read. My son is a good reader and gobbles up fiction series very quickly. He just got this book - The Last Olympian today and he's about a third of the way through it in under 2 hours.

I took a whole bunch of shots down at his level but the compositions were never just right, but this elevated perspective stood out. Lesson learned: always look for new angles, especially when you're trying to keep the frame distraction free.

Macro circles and spirals

Macro circles and spirals - #181/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

I had a very busy day at work, so I only got around to taking a few shots around 11pm tonight. One of the reasons I recently bought a set of close-up filters was to add some creative options for photography around the home when I don't get a chance to take shots in the outside world. I like how this one turned out, simple object, close up detail captured with 4x close-up filter. I also used the "commander" mode on my Nikon D80 to trigger the remote flash that helped with reducing the very strong shadows. I could have bumped up the external flash EV to take out the shadow, but perhaps leaving some shadow helps preserve context and depth.

First round of the year

First round of the year - #180/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

My son has a junior pass for the city golf courses this year, which includes a couple of evening time slots. The weather was pretty iffy, but we easily finished our 18 hole round in way under 4 hours. I was pleased with a 99 (including a mulligan and max, messed up 10), my son gave me a good run on the first 9, but his frozen hand hurt his swing on the back nine - advantage Dad.

Mature blue nose

Mature blue nose - #179/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

Our dog Kooper had a couple days boarding while we were out of town for Mother's day. He seems to have changed a little, more mature, more mellow, more responsive, even less hungry. Mostly good, but worried he may be a little under the weather, we'll see. I caught him on the back deck, enjoying the warm sun and liked the highlight around his eye. The shadow came out rather blue, maybe because of his nose.

G20, Brookfield Properties and street photography

G20, Brookfield Properties and street photography, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

I had a few minutes to kill while I was recently at Yonge and Bloor, so I thought I'd do some street photography and see if I could capture some interesting people. I took a few shots of this guy and a few others before a security guard approached me. I have been told on quite a few occasions that I'm not allowed to take photographs in a particular location (library, mall) but this was the first time it has happened while on the street. My exact location was just outside the doors exiting the Yonge and Bloor subway station, next to the Hudson's Bay store.

I can understand that photography may be formally restricted in certain buildings and I appreciate the concerns around taking pictures of children in public, however I was rather puzzled in this case. The security guard tells me that Brookfield Properties owns the sidewalk where I was standing. I asked where their property ended and I was shocked to hear that they own the property right to the curb - the whole sidewalk ! How can that be ? Could Brookfield Properties go a hop skip and a jump further and restrict certain people from walking on the (sorry, their) sidewalk ? I was rather taken-aback by this and found it quite absurd. I thought it would be funny to ask the security guard if I could take his photograph - I thought this was an interesting encounter and a perfect addition to my 100 stranger project ! Of course he said no, but maybe not for security reasons. The security guard was part native and he said there were very few photographs of him because of his belief that a photograph takes something away from their being. I of course, respected his position, but it made the encounter even more interesting. His name was Sherman, a real nice guy. He also said that they had been asked to step up this type of security because of the upcoming G20 meetings.

Close-up-filter test (10x)

Close-up-filter test (10x) - #178/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

Another close-up filter test. This one was taken with the 10x filter on my 50mm lens. I'd read that the 10x filter produced some very soft focus away from centre, so it's important to keep you subject quite centered.

Close-up-filter test (4x)

Close-up-filter test (4x) - #177/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

I purchased a set of Zeikos closeup filters from Amazon (US) recently after reading about the cheap option to expensive macro specific lenses. These filters basically reduce the closest focusing distance of a normal lens. The set I purchased had 1x, 2x, 4x and 10x magnification factors. This one was taken with the 4x filter on my 50mm lens. The other thing that will take a little getting used to is the dramatic decrease of depth-of-field. But for less than $15, if worth experimenting and seeing if macro photography is your thing.

Cafe Supreme moment in the rain

Cafe Sumpreme moment in the rain - #176/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

The weather was really nasty and I didn't have a lot of chances to get out and shoot many photos. I tried to get some car curb splashes, but lost patience with the settings and waiting for a pedestrian victim. I took this one from while under cover and chose it fr the mix of some interesting architectural detail, the reflection and the lady's look.

Lines.sky.Kooper.me

Lines.sky.Kooper.me - #175/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

I forgot to take my dSLR to the dog park this evening, but had Blackberry did an ok job catching the shot. As I was loading Kooper in the trunk of our wagon, I noticed the powerded sky. I like the layer of Kooper and me, although I wish I'd smiled.

Centaurs

I asked my son to describe Lady Gaga's set on American Idol tonight.  He came up with the creative "centaury" which kind of surprised my wife who wasn't in tune with his new fantasy fiction vocabulary.

Later in the show, Harry Connick Jr. (one of my all time favourite singers), said he would prefer being a centaur rather than a mentor.  Maybe he saw Lady Gaga's rehearsal, but that's a unusual descriptive coincidence regardless.

AGO white arches

AGO white arches - #174/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

I stopped by the AGO today to see the Barbara Kruger exhibit as part of the Contact Photography Festival. There are so many beautiful shapes and lines in the gallery and the lighting in the open atriums is wonderful.

Busy bee

Busy bee - #173/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

This is my neighbour's tree and as I was takig shots of the beautiful blossoms I spotted this busy bee. Grabbed some good shots even though I chose AF-S (static auto focus) my mistake, I'd meant to chose AF-C (continuous) to keep him in focus as he moved about.

I also accidentally left the vivid+ setting on when I took this shot, so I used the RAW version and saved it unedited as JPG (always good to have the RAW version handy).

West Humber Motown shades

West Humber Motown shades - #172/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

Now the warm weather is truly settling in, we get to enjoy musical performances on a regular basis at Yonge Dundas Square. These events, big or small are wonderful opportunities to capture musicians up close. This was the Motown style band from West Humber C.I.

Dog gone tired

Dog gone tired - #171/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

We picked Kooper up from his trial overnight stay at a pet boarding place and he was so tired all day. I love getting down on all fours to get the best angles.

Old newspaper folds, glimpses of the past

Old newspaper folds, glimpses of the past - #170/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

While doing a little cleanup around the house I found this yellowed piece of a very old newspaper. Our house is about 80 years old, so this could be from the 1930's. I thought the way the page was folded was interesting as the left side page shows some housing prices and on the inside page on the right as obituaries. I shot using the marco text setting on our Fuji FinePix 200exr and also used a sepia in-camera setting.

Warning - geek working late

Warning - geek working late - #169/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

It's been a very busy week for me, but taking a little break and working some angles and lighting to photo everyday things keeps the project going. Once again, I'm choosing B&W to show engineering design, shapes and surfaces of the many tech equipment we use day to day (without noticing their "beauty"). I actually had a discussion with my brother-in-law yesterday about how some of us describe tech (especially from Apple) as sexy. He couldn't quite see it. We talk about cars as sexy, not much of a stretch to call an iPhone sexy, no ?

Comic relief at the shoot

Comic relief at the shoot - #168/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

I'm lucky to have an office downtown where there's so many interesting people around. I found this scene quite comical, with a serious (but unusual) photo shoot occurring while a rather bemused onlooker provides some "assistance".

As per early comments regarding in-camera B&W processing, in natural light, the B&W in-camera settings work quite nicely.

Telly time

Telly time - #167/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

Very busy day and didn't pull my camera out of my bag until after dinner. Luckily I have 3 wonderfully photogenic people leaving with me.

This is the first inCamera shot I've used that is from a RAW image. I had the image optimization set to B&W and once again, I wasn't too happy with the result. I think it is a combination of flash and the type (if any) filters I'm applying to the B&W setting. I always shoot in JPG and RAW these days, so I used the RAW image and simply saved it without edits to a JPG version. Therefore there is no adjustments for sharpness or contrast at all. The B&W version is here.

Drawing a line in (personal) photojournalism

As you may have seen from my photo blog (365inCamera) or from some of my recent Flickr updates I've been doing a little personal photojournalism of late.  So much so, I added a new set on Flickr just for photojournalism.  I say personal photojournalism, because I'm really only doing this for personal reasons rather than working on behalf of some kind of news provider (although that's not to say, I wouldn't mind the opportunity to do this at some point in the future).  Similar to sports and candid photography, trying to capture the drama of a newsworthy event is a challenge I enjoy.  By following the golden rule of photography - always have a camera with you - I've been able to photograph some interesting events of late.  I was going to say that working downtown Toronto is another factor that has provided these opportunities for photojournalism, but just tonight there was another event that was closer to home.

After dinner tonight, I decided to take my dog Kooper for a run at Sunnybrook dog park before it got dark.  On the way to the park, I noticed that Blythwood Road was closed at Mt. Pleasant with quite a lot of emergency vehicles and TV crews at the scene.  I decided that a little exercise for Kooper was more important that investigating right then, so I continued to the park.  It's been very windy for a few day so I thought a large tree may have some down.  On the drive home, Blythwood had been re-opened and a did a quick drive by and saw that there had been a fire in one of the houses.  A drove on a little, but then my new found photojournalistic instincts kicked in (plus I didn't have a great shot yet for the day), so I stopped, circled back and grabbed my camera.

While photographing the other recent events, I had some serious reservations about the potential personal injuries and losses that I may be recording.  In the Chinatown accident, I hesitated taking any photographs until I could see that the young girl was not seriously injured and those people nearby were helping her.  For the Gould Street incident, I heard from a few sources that luckily there had been no serious injuries.  For the First Nations' protest, even though there was plenty of police at the ready, the event looked to be quite peaceful.  I did wonder what the chances were of it boiling over, especially seeing a few people masking their faces.  What would I do if things got violent ?

Back to Blythwood.  So I'm walking back to the burned out house with my camera in hand and I'm wondering was anyone hurt here ?  There was just one person I noticed on the street other than emergency and TV people so I asked if he knew if anyone had been hurt in the fire.  He said that he heard from TV news that a lady had died.

I decided not to photograph the house.  I didn't feel right.  I drew a line.

The Toronto Sun report.

Flower Tower

Flower Tower - #166/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

The CN Tower is undoubtedly Toronto's most recognizable and probably largest landmark. So it naturally appears in quite a few of my photos, both as a primary interest and like in this case, an interesting backdrop.

Tentatively selected for my wrecked landscape project, but still debating it's contribution and relevance.

Guitar squeeze

Guitarist squeeze - #165/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

A couple of old university friends work in the building on the left and this newsstand used to be a really nice "little" cafe about 10 years ago. I like the proportional contrasts with some human street element and the fire escape. If this was a top shot, then I'd probably adjust for the skewed perspective, but ok to leave in for this project.

Kooper's birthday

Kooper's birthday - #164/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

Our Australian Shepherd Kooper turned one year old today. My wife bought him some treat and toys and he had a fantastic time ripping off all the wrapping.

As you can see, my home has a lot of dark wood, so I always have to be very careful with the image optimization settings and in many cases the wood appears way too red with high saturation or contrast settings. So I edit the JPGs or use the RAW images most of the time. I got lucky here, perhaps because I was lower to the ground and the bounced difused flash was a little less strong than if I'd been standing up and/or the angles worked in my favour. Regardless, I liked the dog action, angle, colour and exposure.

Blossom tourists

Blossom tourists - #163/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

As you've perhaps seen in many recent shots, Toronto is in full bloom these days. I've seen some beautiful blooming trees in my neighbourhood, but my wife wanted to see the collection of tree blossoms in High Park, so I went along with my full camera bag. I actually suggested we wait to later afternoon so the sunlight would not be so harsh. However, the afternoon turned quite cloudy and the light was a little too flat, especially for the pale colours.

My wife had heard that there were bus loads of tourists on a previous day, but I dismissed it thinking it was a one-off. However, when we arrived at High Park (after battling some heavier than normal traffic en-route), I couldn't believe the thousands of tourists. I don't think I'd never seen so many tourists (mostly Asian) at any Toronto tourist location - it actually reminded me of London's most popular sights, like Trafalgar Square.

So it was rather difficult to actually capture the beauty of the blossoms, but the day to produce some interesting opportunities to photograph people.

Old and new TO towers

Old and new TO towers - #162/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

It seems like the number of new towers being built in Toronto keep growing and growing. I grabbed a few shots today and this contrast of new and (relatively) old stood out - Festival Tower is in the foreground.

First Nations protest HST

First Nations protest HST - #161/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

People from The First Nations were protesting the Harmonized Sales Tax today, walking from Queen's park and making a stop at Yonge and Dundas just by my office.

Click here for full story and set.

Big kid in the playground

Big kid in the playground - #160/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

A short detour on the way to the subway station gave me a few new photo opportunities this morning. I had shot the playground empty, but then caught the jogger dead centre and thought it added a little human interest. Had to cheat with a small alignment fix, but otherwise in-camera.

Keane and Mt Desolation

It takes so long from the time an album is announced to the time it is released. For me, lately, I try to hold off on listening to all the sneak peaks. I have found in the past that by the time the album is released, my excitement has waned.

For months, I have been hearing about Keane's upcoming release...actually it was over a year ago that I heard about K'naan recording songs with Keane.

I did watch the video for the first single Stop for a Minute when it was released, but I didn't listen to any of the songs until yesterday when I saw that the album was on iTunes for pre-order.

The video is SO good by the way:



I was quite excited knowing that new Keane songs would be entering my library in three weeks. I was also hopeful that they would be touring again. Seeing them six times so far still isn't enough.

Then this morning, I wake up to the news that Tim Rice-Oxley (the keyboardist and songwriter) for Keane has joined a supergroup.

The headline of Keane and The Killers forming a supergroup initially got me excited. Two of my favourites getting together? But it was misleading as I read on, it is only one member of each band joining a member of Noah and the Whale and a member of Mumford & Sons.

The article said that Mt Desolation would consist of Tim Rice-Oxley, Ronnie Vanucci (drummer for the Killers), Tom Hobden (violin player for Noah and the Whale) and Winston Marshall (banjo and vocals for Mumford & Sons).


However according to Mt Desolation's website, the band also consists of Jesse Quin: the newest member of Keane. It turns out that Tim and Jesse spear-headed this side project. They involved other musicians they knew.

Mt Desolation actually consists of:
Tim Rice-Oxley - Vocals, Piano
Jesse Quin - Vocals, Guitar
Andrew Lowe - Bass
Fimbo - Drums
John Roderick - BVs, Guitar
Pete Roe - Keys, BVs
Tom Hobden - Fiddle
Jessica Staveley-Taylor - BVs

and features:
Ronnie Vannucci - Perc, good vibes
Winston Marshall - Banjo
Charity Quin - BVs
Jayne Rice-Oxley - BVs
Francois Deville - Pedal Steel

So the mainstream media took some liberties in announcing that Keane and The Killers were forming a supergroup. The supergroup "features" Ronnie.

As excited as I should be at the prospect of a new band, when just recently I was saying that I needed some new music in my life, a line in the article burst my bubble.

"They will be releasing an album of country alternative songs later this year".

What? Country Alternative? Uggh.

A year or two ago, when one of my favourite singers, Ross Copperman teamed up with Heather Morgan to form a country duo: Roots & Wings, I said..."if anyone can get me into country music, it will be Ross".

Well, they didn't release any music and perhaps with Ross releasing an EP a few months ago, his own music became the priority.

So now, I will say, "if anyone can get me into (alternative) country music, perhaps it will be Tim".

My teenager

My teenager - #159/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

Using B&W for this shot with flash lighting almost blows out my son's face; but this one isn't a harsh as others I shot. When viewing the RAW version, the exposure looks perfect, but with the in-camera processed B&W, it looks like you need to underexposure so you don't lose definition in skin tones. If you did a B&W conversion in Photoshop, you could control the colour channels better and get better results (as shown here).

Time on King West

Time on King West - 158/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

I liked the low angle I got by simply setting the camera down on the bench and raising the lens a little with my lens cap. As with most self portraits, focusing is a tricky, so I autofocused on the back of the bench at the end where I was going to sit. Then set focusing to manual and set the self timer for 10s. I kept a tight 2.8 f-stop on my 50mm lens to get the depth-of-field I wanted, but had to shoot high iso to keep the shutter speed reasonable.

Junos

I recently heard  that my daughter's music teacher was nominated for a Juno award for Reggae Recording of the Year.  He was the instrumentalist for Carl Henry III.  He unfortunately lost the award to Dubmatix ft. Prince Blanco.  I immediately recognized the name Prince Blanco as I met him a few years ago as he was singing with a local reggae band called the Liquidaires with a ultimate [frisbee] friend of mine on bass.    I went to the gig with another ultimate friend and had a great night.  On a related note, I was really pleased to see that a couple of other friends I met playing ultimate, Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen won a Juno for DVD of the year.

Prehistoric Sunnybrook

Prehistoric Sunnybrook - #157/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

What a perfect subject, lots of contrast, didn't object to a close up and barely moved for 5 minutes. I stumbled across this beauty after my usual dog park visit and we came across him (or her) enjoying the warm sun on a nature trail not far from a busy parking lot at Sunnybrook park. I took a number of shots to document his beautiful features, but I tried to compose a more artistic shot here and I think the low to the ground angle works well.

C bracelets

C bracelets, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

We had a houseful for dinner tonight with old university friends and their children. I did manage to get a few people shots, but I didn't seem to have a lot of time to get that creative, so although there's some nice shots, they'll be posted to my personal photo sharing site, rather than here where I try to keep my more artistic material and where the portraits offer something unique or are of high quality.

I was quite pleased with this quick shot and offers some nice contrast, reasonable composition and some interesting shapes for focus.

Gould Street wall collapses

Gould Street wall collapses - #155/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

At lunchtime on April 16th, 2010 a second floor wall collapsed on Gould Street, just East of Yonge Street. The large section of brick wall facade (seen in the background) above a newly opened Sushi restaurant fell to the street. From current reports, there were no serious injuries. I had almost chosen to have lunch at the Thai, Salad King restaurant, but instead went to another restaurant with a friend. As the press wrapped up the formal interview with the police, the man in the white glasses yelled over to the group and said they should interview this man for his story. He had been in the Sushi restaurant when the wall came down - he had a few scrapes, but nothing too serious.

James, the guitar teacher

James, the guitar teacher - #154/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

My son has been getting guitar lessons from James for quite a while now. James is a brilliant guitarist and has played and toured professionally extensively - I love talking to him about music. He has a natural (or well learned) ability to pick up notes and chords from the many songs my son throws his way and within a few minutes they've reproduced some of our favourite music. He was very comfortable when I started taking lots shots from all angles. The 50mm 1.8 proves once again to produce some great depth-of-field and crisp shots. I used a bounced flash with a difuser.

Concerned

Concerned - #153/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

This man hit the young lady on the left while driving along Dundas St in Chinatown today. While walking along the street, I heard a alerting yell and when I turned I saw the girl bounce off the hood of this man's car and fall to the ground. He appeared to be driving quite fast and she didn't seem to be paying attention as she crossed mid-block. I debated whether it was appropriate to stop and take a few shots, but 1) I felt this was a photojournalistic opportunity and 2) I thought I should perhaps record the event in case she was badly hurt and he tried to make a run for it. She remarkably got up quite quickly and it looked like she only had a few knee and arm scrapes - she was very lucky. I overheard someone ask for a 911 call, however the police never showed up. This shot was taken as a police car siren was heard close by. As things seems to settle down and the majority of the crowd dispersed, I asked the girl if she was ok - she said she was ok, although she still looked rather shocked and he appeared rather in shock himself. When he took her into a nearby pharmacy with a few other witnesses and no police showed up, I went on my way.

Mom

Mom - #152/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

My parents are visiting for a few days. I take quite a lot of photos of them but they are often posed or they miss the mark in capturing a candid moment. But recently, as I have the camera out and ready all the time, it seems that the more photos I take, the more comfortable the subject gets with the camera.

Soccer tryout day

Soccer tryout day - #151/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

Both my son and daughter had their school soccer tryouts after school today. I didn't get a chance to see the action, but thought a shot of their cleats would be a way to record the day and they'd make a decent subject.