St. Lawrence and Union

Today was a 'I'll take my camera to work today because I have errands to run and I might have some time to shoot' that turned into 'I don't have time to run errands because I have to shoot' day. I had fun, but I missed having a tripod on hand for some shots.

I went to the St. Lawrence to take photos, but the priority was lunch! Half and half ravioli with meat sauce and cheese, $8-ish.

When I realized my 35mm (52-ish mm on my DX camera), wasn't wide enough to do the kinds of shots I had in my head, I focused on smaller subjects instead. And in the case of this stack of bacon, by 'small' I mean 'really freaking huge and super awesome looking'.

I basically drool constantly while in the market.

Good inspiration for color photos!

Some random people, doing random market things...

Picnic symmetry.

This is one of the many narrow, rabbit warren hallways where I work.

An old and foreboding-looking church I didn't shoot due to the foreboding locals.

I've been wanting to take photographs inside union station for years, and while the 35mm wasn't wide enough for most of what I wanted to do, I had some success focusing on the details.

The roof is a fantastic display of artistic brickwork.

/Salute.

The sign from the Royal York peaked through one of the windows (and if you look really carefully at this incredibly small photo, you can one of the panes is partially open).

The skyway (?) on the way to the CN Tower.

I was getting a little distracted at this point. Just some lines and tones... nothing to see here, move along.

It was really hard to get this shot, not because it is a hard shot to get, but because I'd turned my lens to manual focus a few steps back and forgot. Golly gee, I couldn't shoot a focused image to save my life! I actually left in disgust, got about 300 feet, remembered I switched it, and went back for this shot.

Some clear direction on the way back to... Well, you get it.

On the platform where I caught the train to Richmond Hill almost every night for 2.5 years. Can't say I miss the experience very much.

Back in the day we didn't have these fancy locomotives, either. A rushed shot due to GO staff avoidance techniques in action.

© Jeremy Buehler and Bug Noir (www.bugnoir.com), 2010.

Working Late

Today I decided to take my camera to work with me, armed only with my 35mm 1.8. Last night I tried shopping in the Eaton's Center and it was insane, so I escaped outside for fresh air and saw how fantastically colorful Dundas Square is, complete with its holiday trimmings. I vowed to go back tonight and shoot it.

Now, it seems to me I have a short memory and should know better. I *know* I won't take good night shots without a tripod, but I didn't bring mine. I decided to do some guerrilla high ISO handheld shots. It was cold, and that helped keep me moving.

The night started with me killing time waiting for a phone call that didn't come. I vowed to wait until 6 p.m., which is late for a Friday before a working weekend, imHo.

I basically walked in circles around the office looking for stuff to shoot. This is a great exercise (not physical, I'm not in that bad of shape yet), as it gets the creative juices flowing, and gets you looking.

I was happy to take this photo because every time I walk to and from the washroom, I look out this window and say to myself, man, I really have to shoot that alley one day. Done and done!

This is a row of fake flowers on a window sill. They do not belong to us, and are likely the long lost remains of someone's trinkets and trash marketing spend. I got lucky that the light reflection kind of highlights the subject. The reflections are a little wonky, though.

I'm a bit of a fanatic about white board cleanliness, so this photo makes me chuckle.

Six p.m. hit and I wasn't sticking around any longer. I grabbed my coat and scarf and left.

Across the road.

Towers of banking power.

I took this one because of the photography in-joke. Those are not sunstars from a carefully stopped down long exposure shot, but light patterns created by lampshades cut to cast the star pattern. Cheating! That, and 'I went to the big city and all I saw was a fake snowman' t-shirts.

This was fun. A tree of light reaching for the moon. The moon blew out and I was really wishing for a wider lens so I could do more with it. Regardless, the illusion created by the leading lines to the dot is neat.

A well lit building on the way to Yonge St. via the shortcut to the King subway entrance.

Other pedestrians don't respond well to someone stopping in the middle of the road to take photos. In this photo it's possible to get a sense of how much visual confusion is created by the Christmas decorations combined with other lights.

A beautifully lit building.

More pseudo-jaywalking.

More visual confusion.

It's at its worst here in the (relatively) recently renovated Dundas Square. I liked the guy in the ad and how he interacts with the woman walking into my shot. He looks upset!

I had to leave some color shots in just to give an idea of how wild the colors are. I'm sure they're something to see all year, but add in Christmas and it's ka-razy!

These color photos are shot at ISO 200, and the camera's auto white balance hit daylight/flash temp (5500) all by itself. I managed to catch this race between three fake polar bears and a street car. The bears won. That's a little TTC joke for my streetcar riding friends.

I'm fairly confident I'll never know how to control light in a shot like this.

© Jeremy Buehler and Bug Noir (www.bugnoir.com), 2010.

Church at Night

Back out at night I went. This time, I wasn't going for light effects, or cool colors; I went out because it was warmer and less windy than it was during the day. I did some grocery shopping earlier and drove past the nearby church and after seeing how it was lit, I decided to shoot it.

Before we start with the church: The Christmas spirit is alive and well in Richmond Hill, even if it isn't yet December.

Obviously I wasn't going to have much success shooting the whole church. Not only is it steps from an intersection with many interfering lights, I would have to stand a far distance away to get it in the frame and that's not practical with a 35 (effective 50) mm lens.

Instead I tried to focus on detail. I ran into a couple of problems. The boring nature of the church (at least on the outside... will have to go in one day) means the detail is... boring.

So I tried to fall back on lighting to make more of it. There were a couple of street lamps and a globe over a door that, had the church bothered to replace the burnt-out bulb, would be spectacular.

In some spots the available light cut dramatic swaths across the frame.

In other areas it created larger blooms of light.

I tried to say 'here is a 190 year old church on what is otherwise, a boring residential street'.

© Jeremy Buehler and Bug Noir (www.bugnoir.com), 2010.

Richmond Hill at Night

Last night (thanks to a work at home day today and no commute) I took a walk around Yonge St. to shoot some night shots. Everything was high ISO and handheld, mostly at f/1.8 to f/2.8 with my 35mm. It was too cold to lug my aluminum tripod around. I went black and white because I was more interested in texture and light than color. Light is a complex subject, and I need the practice before buckling down and focusing on my studio work.

One of the advantages of shooting in the wee hours is that there is no traffic on Yonge St.

Shooting at night lets one use the existing lighting and shoot whatever it emphasizes.

Probably the coolest sign in downtown Richmond Hill, with the exception of the Three Coins Diner.

The city always does well when it comes to dressing up for holidays; the Christmas look is starting to appear.

Sitting and watching the cars and people go by.

Brick plus light plus a touch of grain is so cool.

What used to be my favorite Persian restaurant, now a Persian restaurant that I haven't yet tried.

An inanimate object breaks the law.

An automobile, no doubt of some lingering significance.

Natural framing.

The parking lot lights beside the grave yard were doing really interesting things to the grave stones. Then they turned off as I was shooting.

Just before the lights went out.

And just after. Used the pop-up flash for this one, to try to blow out the white on the tree.

41 Acacia Avenue. Not really, but I think about the similarly named Iron Maiden song every time I see this door.

© Jeremy Buehler and Bug Noir (www.bugnoir.com), 2010.