Another abstract shot of some abstract art.  This is the same piece of sculpture from the last post, but looking up this time.  The sculpture is located at the historic Distillery district, where they used to make whiskey.  It’s now a nice venue for artists, events and various boutique shops.  It’s a great place to wander on the weekends, or  just to grab a coffee and sit on the brick-paved roads and take in some culture.

This wire mesh is part of a large sculpture on display at the Distillery District in Toronto.  The sculpture is made of various forms of industrial materials and sort of resembles some distilling equipment you might see in a laboratory, with spirals and cones.  I’m guessing it symbolizes the district’s historic past of being an industrial factory that produced whisky.  At any rate, it is an interesting sculpture.

I have a thing for abstract, yet symmetrical images.  The parallel lines of the mesh play with the shallow depth of field which sort of leads the eye in opposite direction.

As seen from the 54th floor of the TD Centre, the First Canadian Place tower (home to the Bank of Montreal) is Toronto’s tallest.

The white tiles are made of marble and are slowly being replaced as required. One tile fell 60 floors back in 2007 which prompted road closures and periodic investigations. The darker ones are older and the whiter ones are newer, which makes the building look a little worse for wear.

Went to the TD Centre in downtown Toronto this weekend to tour the 54th floor as part of the Doors Open Toronto event. More to come from the 54th floor, but this shot was taken at the ground level plaza, in between the tall towers that make the centre.

On my way out the door to catch an early flight, I noticed the sun rising over the city. The sky was a brilliant orange-red colour and I just had to capture it. Screw the waiting taxi, I thought. And I grabbed my camera.

Just as luck would have it, a flock of birds flew across the scene, adding some life to the image. I’m really happy with this one!

This image is unaltered, except for being cropped. It was shot through my living room window, in manual mode (which is rare for me to use, but was a lesson learned from my shots of the sun rising over Uluru in Australia). I basically set the aperture and adjusted the metering until the results met my liking. My lesson learned from this shot: I should have used a better lens, like my 70-200L. Oh well, next time…

Toronto’s Distillery District, an old industrial site that used to be home to the Gooderham and Worts distillery.

Two shots were merged together to create this image.  One shot was exposed for the alleyway & buildings, the other for the sky.  The tone curves were then adjusted to add more contrast, and finally, an aged photo effect was added.

I attended a Toronto Roller Derby match last weekend.  The Death Track Dolls vs. The D.-V.A.S. (Deadly Viper Assassination Squad–pronounced ‘divas’).  In this shot, the jammer (with the star on her helmet) leads the pack (the rest of the blood-thirsty skaters behind her) in one round, scoring a few points.

The match was quite entertaining and I highly recommend attending.  I liken it to a human form of NASCAR, but it’s all-women and they’re on roller skates.

*A lomo preset was used.

The end of an era is near.  The historic (?) Hillcrest Motel near Park Lawn and Lake Shore Blvd. has been sold to condo developers and will soon be torn down.  I snapped this shot back in 2006 thinking that it might not survive much longer.  Unfortunately I was right.

Although it’s tacky and a somewhat seedy reminder of what this neighborhood used to be (isolated from downtown, and somewhat industrial), I find these motels offer a sort of character that is not found anywhere else in the city.

Fellow Canadians might recognise this sign from tv ads on Showcase.

A shot of the pedestrian bridge crossing Mimico Creek.  This bridge has a similar architectural style as the Humber Pedestrian Bridge (seen here)

Shoppers going about their business at the Eaton Centre in Toronto.

“Are you a meat photographer?”  Sometimes I am…

Aging beef on display at the St. Lawrence Market.

White roses in a flower shop in Bloor West Village, Toronto.

A monochrome image of my condo building.  Slight colour adjustments were made before the conversion to black & white to add more contrast to the cloudy sky.

A shot of the marina behind my condo in the dead of winter.  The effect is made using a Lomography preset for Lightroom.

If you’re not familiar with Lomography, it’s based on ancient (almost) Russian technology: the LOMO LC-A camera.

Lomography is a sub-culture in itself.  Here are some links if you’re interested

• Lomography.com
• The Lomo Flickr Group 
• More info from Wikipedia

I shot this after watching China’s contribution to Ontario Place’s Festival of Fire–a week-long exhibition of fireworks from around the world. The shots of the fireworks turned out ok, but a longer lens would have helped. I’ll post more later.

Valves on an old fire water pump at the distillery district, Toronto.

Is graffiti vandalism or art? This is from a series of shots taken outside the Keele St. subway station, Toronto.

The Humber River pedestrian footbridge, Toronto.

A man feeding birds at Nathan Philips square in Toronto.

Near Eaton’s Centre, Toronto