Happy New Year VII

Remington's Men of Steel on Yonge street, taken with a spherical camera.

Given the pace of updates on this site, and the rate of change coming to Yonge street, this post could still be on the front page here long after Remington's itself is gone.

While this blog only saw two updates in the past year, the blog on my main site – matthewpiers.com – has had over seventy-five. I've been writing about streetcars, the ROM, hiking with the Bruce Trail club, been experimenting with two different infrared cameras, posted a bunch of photos from the spherical camera that took this photo, done another annual project on cars, and gone for weekends away to Niagara-on-the-Lake and to northern Ontario.

And yes, I should still update this one from time to time as well.

Tuesday, March 15, day 075.

Out shooting today with my little Fuji camera. I tried to use the zoom lens, but couldn't resist my core nature, and switched to my 60mm macro for most of the day.

And remember that my current work can be found on matthewpiers.com these days.

Happy New Year VI

A photo in my continuing erratic tradition, etcetera.

Please note that if you're a grown man who likes looking at naked 'girls', we have a special word for you. And you won't like it.

Sun comes up, it's Tuesday morning.

In Case Of Fire

State Of The Art Facility

The former National Trade Centre on the CNE grounds.

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Jellies

I don't really understand the concept of jellyfish. They're photogenic little beasts, but aside from that I'm stumped.

These are from Toronto's newish aquarium, which I visited for the first time this weekend. The spotted jellies in the first two photos are quite small, so they were photographed with my Sigma DP3M, while the larger animals in the last three photos were recored with the DP2M. The Merrill's were very lucky to find blue light, which their black and white mode responds well to, but it was a tough place to shoot for colour.

This is with the Ricoh GR, which does better in colour in low light than the Sigma cameras do, but not as well for black and white under these conditions. Both styles of camera had a hard time with focusing speed and light levels, so it was just as well that this wasn't really a photographic visit; next time I'd probably carry the same cameras, but take a lot more care with each shot.

Snowstorm 2015

A few things that I haven't done much recently: take some photos on my walk home and post them with minimal fuss, and get snowed on.

This has been a very uneventful winter with very few storms and almost no snow accumulation. We've had cold, and plenty of wind, but not much actual weather. It was almost nice to be able to walk home in it for a change, even though it was pretty trivial by 2014 standards.

Happy New Year VI

This is in danger of becoming my longest-running photo series. Happy new year.

White Castle

I went to White Castle and couldn't resolve which end was up.

Hamburgers

I have a new personal rule: if it doesn't look appetizing in black and white, don't eat it.

City Wall

This shape of building – square with a central void – is New York, not Toronto. It's a big part of why the cities sound so different.

Park Central NYC

My fourth trip of the year, and my second one to include a one-night stay in a hotel.

Lamps of the CN Tower

This is post #1300, figuratively speaking.

And the blog is over ten years old.

CN Tower

I decided that I would work in monochrome as much as possible for September, which is a good indication of how long it's taking me to finish and post photos these days.

cave carrum

Solid advice for any time.

Metal Shop

I wish I had a better photo of this machine from my visit to the TTC's Harvey shop. It may not look like much, but I'm told that it makes the steel panels that line the TTC's escalators. That makes it one of the highlights of my day.

Railfans

TTC CEO Andy Byford watches as Bombardier Flexity test streetcar 4002 rolls by, seen from inside of the TTC's 1927-vintage Peter Witt heritage car.

Watch Your Step

If you look at "Watch Your Step" for long enough it starts to seem like a threat.

I've been making more of an effort to work in monochrome this month, although my original plan to use it exclusively never worked out. Sometimes colour is important, but I still can't decide if this is one of those times.

Working on the Railroad

From an early friday downtown. I've discovered that I need a really compelling reason to leave the house before noon, but sometimes it's worth it.