haunted self...

Again, not really a picture of Toronto but I wanted to share a new technique I discovered. I have been slowly trying to leave the automatic programs on my camera and venture into the manual settings that allow for more creativity. I have been playing around with shutter exposures. Both long ones, and short ones. There is alot of wonderful things you can do with exposures, for example you can create a sense of time, and movement. I'm still trying to work on this outside, but I am particularly proud of the self portrait I took indoors on a 30 second exposure....

Yellow & Turquoise

Another one of my favorite urban texture shots, this time in yellow and turquoise. Most of these shots are of brick walls that have been painted several times, and the effects of weather and time, have caused them to peel and show multiple colours. Some of them are murals, or graffiti that have also been aged by natural elements. Regardless, I will always be a fan of the end result, and am happy when I capture a small segment of the entire wall.

Honourable Mention 1

This is one of two photos that I received an honourable mention for in a photo contest held by the City of Toronto. I submitted around 64 images over a few month period, and recently found out I had placed 2nd and had two honourable mentions.

This photo was titled "Layers", and was taken in the Historic Distillery District. It is a segment of an old metal hatch that time, and weather have caused the paint to peel, and create multiple layers. It was also one of my early photos of urban decay, and the results helped spur me on to capture all things weathered, worn, and rusting.

I will post my other honourable mention when I find it amongst my few thousand photo files. :)

Texture 1

This is one of my urban texture shots I absolutely love. I am fascinated how time and weather create art out of man made objects. This brick wall was on Queen Street west, and it stopped me in my tracks. I took a couple shots of the wall, but this was by far my favorite, and it now hangs on my apartment wall.

It will be one of many texture shots, as I simply can not resist rust, peeling paint, and weathered wood. I hope to put a collection together of such items some day.

Vintage

One of my favorite places to take photos is the Distillery District at the bottom of Parliament street. There is a great sense of times past, yet the art galleries, and interiors in some of the shops keep the place current. The unfortunate thing about this area is that the sense of nostalgia has been sharply cut by the massive condo tower in the midst of it all. But don't get me started on that....

The area is rich with patina. There is plenty of textures in the brickwork, peeling paint, weathered wood,and rusting shutter hooks. For someone like me who loves the textures and patterns time creates, it is a photographers Heaven. If you follow this blog, I am positive you will see many photos taken in this great place.