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.
