Sunday Afternoon Bike Ride (August 25th, 2013)

So being that I had three concerts to attend, I did not get my weekly supply of bike riding.  Feeling bored and lethargic I took it upon myself to grab my camera and head out on a nice long bike ride around the city.  My trek took me all over the city including highlights like Casa Loma, Buskerfest and some bike trails that I frequent in season.  I highly recommend checking out a few of these attractions if you are ever in the area.

(My first stop of the day was the lovely Casa Loma.  Lots and lots of visitors when I was cruising by.)

(Queens Park was under construction so it wasn't very photogenic, but the front gardens were beautiful!)

(One of my favourite buildings.  The Canada Life building with the CN Tower in the background.)

(Very interesting performance from the three birds and of course their ringmaster which you can see below.) 

(And commanding the beasts!)

(Someone has some of the feathers still on their beak.  Water must make a few of them itchy.) 

(The ducks and wildlife were really cool to get up and close with.  Most of which didn't mind me hanging around taking snapshots.)

(Drying off after a swim in the water.) 

(Steady...steady)

(Yonge Street from Davisville down to approx. Health Street/St. Clair Avenue.  Taken from the Kay Gardner Beltline Trail.)

Hey Rosetta @ Adelaide Hall (August 22nd, 2013)

Not overly impressed with the result of these photos, but then again everyone who takes photos are usually their worst critic.  Didn't get the fancy photo pass for the evening so I decided to bring my camera nonetheless and try and get a couple shots of the band while at the same time weaving in and out of a pretty packed house.  Sounds like fun right?  Carrying a nice expensive camera around everyone with a beer.  haha

Nonetheless, Hey Rosetta did a fantastic job and a huge thanks to my buddy John for hooking me up with a ticket!  I have mixed feelings on the venue (Adelaide Hall) but might give it another try depending on who's playing there.

Toronto on Monday Morning

So being that my girlfriend and I had a very relaxing weekend, we crashed early on Sunday night.  Luck would have it I was up and at it first thing in the morning so I decided to do an extended bike ride into work.  Thankfully I was carrying one of my cameras on me because the #45 bike trail (stretches from Sunnybrook Hospital/Park all the way to Lakeshore Blvd.) was absolutely beautiful, quiet and sometime you can find some wildlife!  If you haven't been for a ride on the path, I highly suggest it as it is great exercise anytime of the day.

These photos were taken around 6:45/7:00am.

Downtown Toronto (August 15th, 2013)

Downtown Toronto has some beautiful architecture between gov't buildings and private ones.  So for my lunch I decided to walk around the Yonge/Queen/Bay/Dundas area and take random shot of people and places.  Some of the buildings in the shots are part of the Toronto Eaton Centre, City Hall and various other buildings.


(Yonge Street from Dundas to Gerrard)

 (Overview of northeast Toronto)

(Yonge Street from Shuter to the waterfront)

(1 Dundas Street West)  

(Trinity Park to Bay Street)

(20 Queen Street West from James Street) 

(Toronto City Hall)

(Toronto City Hall) 

(Downtown core overlooking Nathan Phillips Square)

(Downtown-ish.  Playing around with the contrast in black & white while snapping a shot of Yonge Street)

(250 Richmond Street West)

Random Acts of Music

This post is more or less related to random shots that happen to turn out quite nice when I'm actually watching a show.  I try and bring either a point and shoot or my DSLR (if the venue permits it) to every show I go to so I can capture even a small fraction of the memory.  The rest of the time I am a firm believer to enjoy the band that's in front of you.

Since this is a random kind of post, photos here will be added as they become available.

Amaranthe @ The MOD Club
(July 20th, 2013)

Five Finger Death Punch @ Heavy TO 2012
(August 10th-11th, 2013)


Periphery @ Heavy TO 2012
(August 10th-11th, 2013)

Killswitch Engage @ Heavy TO 2012
(August 10th-11th, 2013)

Killswitch Engage @ Heavy TO 2012
(August 10th-11th, 2013)

Veil of Maya @ Heavy TO 2012
(August 10th-11th, 2013)

The People and Friends of Chatham-Kent/Norfolk County (Civic Holiday, 2013)

So I try my best to take some good landscape shots but my camera/lens was ultimately designed for low light action shots and portraits.  So what a better way to test out the new lenses by taking random shots of people and animals during my visit.  Many thanks go out to the people in these shots (Kevin, Chloe, and Kendal) for giving me the approval to put these up for display.

(Frances is my sister's lionhead rabbit that she adopted a few months ago.)

(Kevin is a family friend and boyfriend of my sister.  Thanks again Kevin!)

(Kendal and Chloe are my girlfriend's niece and nephew.  We haven't visited them in a few months so they were very happy to see us.)

(I asked Chloe to give a big smile for her mum so I could show her the quality of some of these photos.)

(Auntie Alli & I decided to take the twins off their mum's hands for the afternoon, so what a better place to go then Port Burwell beach for some water, sandcastles and snacks afterwards!)

(Say hello to Otis.  He is my uncle Al's hunting partner and best bud to play fetch with.)

(My uncle decided to take us all out on his new boat and Otis tagged along for the ride.)

(And of course when we return home we have our little Abi just gabbing our ear off!)

Chatham-Kent/Norfolk County (Civic Holiday, 2013)

So this article was also my vacation from my day job.  Took a week or so off work and went to visit family, friends, and to enjoy the wonderful scenery of southwestern Ontario.  Within that vacation time frame, I managed to take some shots of Chatham-Kent, Erieau, Tilsonburg/Port Burwell/Straffordville, Long Point, and Brantford.  Long Point and Erieau had some wonderful sunshine/sunsets which made for some great colours in the sky (and reflected one some water shots).  These are in [somewhat] chronological order of the places we visited.