I've been taking more pictures these few days, feels as if I am learning to do more with that humble (some would disagree) Canon G7. I would like to get a DSLR one day - but for now, I guess I have to shoot to this little camera's limits. It accompanies me now whenever we go out; something I suppose would be a bit hard to do on a DSLR, but that's something to worry about another time.
In the process of looking around at bike shops, we walked around to Chinatown, at the junction of Spadina and Dundas. It was rainy, and I felt quite cheated by the weather - when we had decided to go out, the rained had stopped. But by the time we got dressed and out the door, it had started raining again. We walked on nonetheless, to see the mass of people in Chinatown doing what they had to do. We had lunch at our favourite Chinese restaurant; that's not interesting. Anyway; some photos:
Ever noticed how, when it's raining, and cold, and everyone's miserable and wanting to overtake you so that they can get the heck out of the weather, that it is often the kids who are still enjoying themselves? Well, I can't be sure; when I took this picture the subject wasn't the kids, but the contrast does stand out, doesn't it? Perhaps the simple answer is that they're wearing bright cheery clothes and the rest of them dull dreary colours. Me? I was wearing a Kenny McCormick style orange parka, hood off, of course; it was not that cold.
We eventually found ourselves on Bloor Street. Bloor Street is an interesting East West Street that seems to demarcate the northern boundary of the University, and stretches for quite a distance. A branch of the subway line runs beneath it, so I guess, this is quite a major road. I've not been east on Bloor past Yonge, but around Yonge and Bay till about Avenue, Bloor is a very upmarket retail district. OISE sits on Bloor itself, and then further west, it becomes a very active, village like atmosphere with restaurants, grocers, and other amenities seemingly suited for the university population; and then morphing again to what they call the "Korean Business District", or what we would call, Koreatown, where we get most of our groceries. If you don't have a map handy, and/or have not been here before, never mind...
The Royal Ontario Museum, or the ROM, is one place we would like to visit one day, but where we put off because it is so close by, and we can't justify spending the almost $20 (i think) admission per person. Still, it makes good photographing, because of the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, a new extension of the ROM which was officially opened last year. At first, I had thought that it was named after the architect, but Michael Lee-Chin is probably the fella who donated money; he is one of the richest Canadians, of, interestingly, bi-racial Chinese Jamaican descent. Apparently, he donated $30M out of the $270M expansion costs. Just looks controversial, doesn't it:
Personally, the picture could have been taken on a better day; there's almost no contrast between the top of the crystal and the grey skies. Ah well, c'est la vie.As I was saying, Bloor is home to many boutique shops. Here's CK underwear; whose mannequin layout made me do a double take:
Over here, the window displays seem to be done up with much attention to detail. A few stores down, at Ermengildo Zegna (told you it was classy) put up a display with their mannequins donning bright safety vests, hard hats, and surrounded by construction accessories, despite their being dressed with Zegna's finest. Confused? The storefront had scaffolding put up by the construction company to fix something on the building façade. The display was somewhat obscured by the scaffolding, but the display designers did their best anyway, and dressed their mannequins up as if they were workmen. I should have taken a picture of that display; too bad when we were past it yesterday, it had been changed already. So; I suppose the CK staff had to do something creative too. Putting one of their mannequins lying down must have seemed to them to add some interest in the display. But then, to me, it seemed like the mannequin had lost its head, and was therefore lying on its back:
And, we walked past a photo store, and got me this Gorillapod. Thanks Desmond for pointing it out to me... The mirror is really dirty, I know. So far, we have not had the chance to use it much. Yeah, ok, I don't really feel like being photographed - I've put on some weight, and I look like I have the pimple equivalent of Cindy Crawford's mole. Maybe one of these nights when it has warmed up enough that we can spend hours outdoors without feeling too cold, I'll take a few pics.
Sunday, we went to Christie Pits park, and also to PAT for some grocery shopping. Along the way, Serene got distracted by snacks, so she went to get it. Me, I took the opportunity to take a few shots along Bloor on such a sunny day. Here's one looking east:
If you look carefully, you will see the TD Waterhouse building, at about 2km away, then the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, some church which I forgot the name of, but is a really big one, and Honest Ed's. The interesting thing about this picture is the effect of zoom perspective distortion. I shot this at the camera's long end of the zoom, at 210mm equivalent, and all the buildings appear as if they were next to each other...She came out of the store, and started munching away:
and showed me the cross section of the confectionery (pastry?):
Finger licking good, it seems:
We went to Christie Pits Park, where barely 2 months ago, was covered in snow, and was the local sledding and toboggan paradise. At this time, it was marginally warmer (still chilly at about 4C), all the snow had gone, and the grass has grown out:
And the last pic for this post: I've noticed that on days like these, jets leave very distinctive trails. At sunset, it just makes a beautiful picture:
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