the.blog @scwleung

And by fishy, I don’t mean something that is most likely to swindle you. I literally mean fish, as in the slippery animals that move around in large bodies of unpolluted waters [sorry, Lake Ontario]. These performers were quite fishy…dressed in mermaid costumes, floated lifelike in the air [they had these interesting little body stilts they used to mimic movement in water], and even had their own giant fish and sea anemone floats! Astounding and impressive sights! Too bad I only caught the last half of it, and it would’ve been great to actually understand what they were doing, but you really can’t ask for it all. I don’t remember the name of this group, but they are French/Quebecois, and it’d be great if someone out there can remind me.

On the south end of Toronto Island, there is a pier. Beside the pier, there are some rocks strategically placed to act as breakwaters against the roaring waves of Lake Ontario. You ask…roaring waves of Lake Ontario? Surely not! I assure you there are, and they are quite the roar!

There’s just something about undulating waves that keeps me mesmerized and entranced at a giant body of water. It really is like nothing else in the world. I must have spent 20 minutes or so standing in the wind on the aforementioned pier just taking pictures of water…and rocks…and the rhythmic and exotic slamming of said water on rock. I can’t say that this is my favourite shot of the bunch, but I do like it quite a bit. Would love to hear your thoughts on this set of shots. I tried a number of different settings and angles, and would love comments!

I’ll be honest. I’ve never understood avian photography, and I probably never will! This isn’t to say I don’t appreciate pictures of birds or even taking pictures of birds, I just can’t seem to get a grasp of why someone would sit and wait in the bushes for birds to do something for you. As Penny Arcade elequently stated, Birds are Weird, and I’m sticking to that.

That said, though, I will take pictures of birds when the opportunity arises and the birds aren’t ridiculously far away so I don’t have to swap to my telephoto lens. The above is one such occasion, and probably the one decent one I’ll ever get. I mean, how often is it that a bird flies overhead and the sky is actually clear and blue? Seriously! Love this shot. Hope you do too.

Oh…Diefenbaker…will you ever cease to be a comic’s delight? A large contingent of my friends went to the Gladstone Hotel for Monkey Toast! an improv comedy show featuring, amongst many talented others, Colin Mochrie and Jack Layton. It was quite a fun evening, and I hope to return to another one some time in the future.

Credit to all photos from Monkey Toast! evening go to Eric Logan.

I just wanted to quickly share this shot with you before the weekend. This is a shot of the Empire Sandy, and it seems like it’s perpetually docked at the Toronto Harbourfront throughout the year. I’m sure it actually sails and whatnot, but it just seems like whenever I take the Spadina Streetcar down to Union Station, the Empire Sandy is there, waiting…

There’s nothing really special about this shot, except that the ice really makes the light reflect onto the hull and capturing this tall ship in full splendor. It’s just a nice effect, that’s all.

As some of you may know, I have a penchant for wandering and walking around, taking pictures alone. Let me tell you one thing – this can get really annoying and painful in the winter. Take this past Friday night, for example. Went out for a walk down the Harbourfront [from York Street to Bathurst], and boy, was it freezing. My toes literally felt like they were going to fall off [ok...I'm exagerating, but it was really really cold!] It turns out that the Harbourfront is usually more scenic with daylight though, so I’ll probably go back again at some point and take these shots again with more lighting.

Despite my chagrin about doing these night-time photos alone, it does give me the opportunity to listen to some fantastic audiobooks. On this specific trek, I started and finished Carrie Fisher’s Wishful Drinking. It’s based on her autobiographical comedy routine, and it is simply a riot! I definitely don’t suggest picking up the paperback copy of it because it does not do it justice. You really need to listen to this book straight from Carrie Fisher’s mouth. But I digress…

Come back tomorrow…I think I’ll post another shot from the Harbourfront walk that turned out really nicely.

I went to Toronto Island this past weekend on a whim – mostly just to see if the ferries were even running [they were]. What I found there was a plethora of astounding sights both of the city, and of the lake on the other side of the island. The shot above was taken about 10 minutes walking distance from the Ward’s Island dock, and the two individuals standing in the mid-ground are actually standing on ice! Gosh, I love winter! I’ll probably post more of my photos from Toronto Island over the next few weeks – I really love how some of them came out!

So, a few weeks back, I had quite a bit of trouble sleeping in. Hmm…now that I think about it though, I still have quite a bit of problem sleeping in, but I digress… One of the joys of waking up early is the ability to be out and about before the sun comes up, so that you can take pictures as the sun rises. This image was taken just outside of Davisville TTC station early one morning. It was pretty bloody cold, but it was well worth it. Good thing there were so many coffee shops nearby for me to duck into afterwards though.

HDR? Whazzat? HDR stands for High Dynamic Range, and essentially, it means that the brights get brighter, and the darks get darker. It produces a pretty surreal image because the colour ranges get boosted. It’s quite an interesting effect and is actually pretty easy to produce. I’d definitely recommend trying it! It was a technique I picked up through the TWIP Photo podcast, and it’s definitely something I would also recommend you listen to if you’re into digital photography.

This image was originally taken at the Mt. Pleasant Cemetery one very gorgeous Sunday and post-processed using Photomatix. I probably could’ve boosted some of the colours a bit more to give it a bit more punch, but I really like the subtlety a slightly lower saturation gives me in this case.

Why? Because I’m most likely out taking photos. Hopefully, I’ll have more to show you Monday.

Later days!