Wandering Down Bathurst Street

Went for a long walk last Thursday to see what I could see. Okay, I was going to the Flickr meet up and other business in the area and was too cheap to take the bus. Still, saw lots of interesting things along the way.






Will probably do the same tomorrow as well. Walk down Bathurst that is. Should be sunny and warm tomorrow. Better light, probably some different things to see.

Need new shoes I think.

Paladin Phil

March Toronto Flickr Meetup: Techniques and Stuff

One of the fun things about these meet ups is learning new tricks. For some of the more experienced, it's nothing. For those of us just starting out, it's a whole new world. At the last meet up some one demonstrated an interesting technique called the "beer filter". Essentially what you do is hold your pint of beer in front of the flash while taking a picture. Here are two samples I did that night, the beer I was drinking at the time was called "Hockley Valley Dark Ale", very nice flavour and a great colour too.



Well I was sitting at one of the tables, Sui Gen picked up my camera and started taking pictures with it. I was curious to see what he was doing, but I was patient and waited till he was done. The next couple of pictures were what he took.


What he was doing was creating a blur of lights on the camera sensor and using a combination of slow shutter speed, flash, and pulling the zoom all the way back in at the same time. He demonstrated once more and then gave me the camera back to try it. Here were my two attempts.


Originally I didn't think anything happened in the first picture. You have to look closely at the bottom left to see anything, as well the picture has to be a bit larger.

Keeping your eyes open was key too. This is nothing about technique really. Some one said "Oh, that girl in that dress makes a nice match with that picture". Having my camera ready, I asked permission, and took two pictures. You learn sometimes from someone else's eye.



Well that's about it for today. Oh, except for one more picture. This has nothing to do with the meet up really. Just the technique I learned from Sui Gen applied this past Saturday night.

I think I learned well.

Paladin Phil

March Toronto Flickr Meetup

Last week was another meet up of fellow Flickr photographers. I am finding these to be fun to socialize, talk cameras, and talk technique. Quite a few of us there this time. We met up at the Victory Cafe at Lennox and Markham streets, which is near the main intersection of Bathurst and Bloor. Great place to go since you have the iconic "Honest Eds" Store there on the corner.

Here's a few shots today of the people, and the cameras that were there when I arrived a little late.


And the back of the building at night.


Tomorrow will be techniques and stuff that I was shown and learned.

Paladin Phil

Friday: Come on Spring Greenery

One thing I hate about this time of year is all the browns and stuff. Some days it's nice and warm, others are a little cool. Or like today down right frigid. I look at trees and most of the time all I see are brown limbs. What can I do? Just wait I guess.



Wait, what's that I am seeing? It looks like a tree is starting to bud.

The long wait is over, spring is officially here, and this is the sign of real spring in my opinion. Going to have to go walking to find even more signs.

Paladin Phil

Toronto Buildings: Casa Loma

We have some fascinating history in Toronto. One of the most interesting parts involves Casa Loma, a castle in Toronto. I won't go into the history here. I will show pictures though. You can find all sorts of resources on the internet. Especially Wikipedia. Anyway, here we go.








Paladin Phil

"Fly Witt Me" Video Shoot: Behind the Scenes, Shooting the Video

Feeling a little blah today so I won't talk much. After all the hair was done, it was time to shoot the video. It was done in two parts, Donovan in front of a mike, then people dancing in front of the green screen. So here we go.









That's it for today and the shoot. Back tomorrow with more walk stuff.

Paladin Phil