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!

So I’ve already posted three night time shots by now, and it feels like I’m not doing my daytime shots any justice. So, without further ado, here’s a shot I took this past Sunday as I was walking around the neighbourhood. This was taken by the park just south of the Lawrence TTC Station. You couldn’t tell from the shot, but I actually took it from the sidewalk, and I wasn’t actually in any sort of park or woods. Funny how photography can fool the mind, huh? Just loved the way the light shines down and hits the snow. Too bad it was all melting that day.

In case anybody actually checks this blog directly via blog.scwleung.ca, I’ve actually been writing these posts ahead of time and setting WordPress to publish them at some point in the future. This really allows me to post tons of entries ahead of time and just let the software throttle the number of posts that come out. It’s great! The only downside is that crossposting to my LiveJournal and MSN Pages is broken. It’s a shame, really, because most of the people who would remotely care about this read those friend-feeds religiously. Ah well. Bonus content for those who actually come here.

The photo above was taken on the night of January 16th. In case nobody remembers [and really, who does...], it was one of those ridiculously cold Friday nights that people whine and nag about. Seriously, it was a perfectly fine evening to be out and about as long as you think losing your fingers and toes is kinda fun! The photo was taken at the corner of Queen and York [I think] right on the corner of where I used to work at Deloitte. Sure brought back some memories. Glad I don’t work there anymore. I just love the way the light hits the streetcar though. I do wish the other photos with more smoke came out a lot better, but I’m pretty happy with this one.