(1040) #430, Towers

Construction continues. (Compare with December 2005.)

The 'weekly project' idea has run its course. I'll still make every effort to post new photos at least once a week, especially by Sunday - starting again in mid-November. Until then, no promises.

(1039) #815, Lash Miller

I'm falling into a nice rhythm, taking photos on the weekends and developing them during the week. Film can be fun.

(1038) #595, concrete

Another from the construction site at Yonge and Gerrard, taken with my newest camera: a Fujifilm disposable that I bought last Saturday. I forgot to put a memory card back in the Panasonic, and really wanted some photos of Penny's booth at the Queen West show.

Someone suggested that I should carry a spare SD card in my wallet, which makes a lot of sense, but then I would have missed out on the fun of using the disposable. Its entertainment value was worth it, even if it's not something I ever do again.

(1037) #436, No Diving

I've been looking at a print of this for days, and still love it.

(1036) #288, A Pineapple-shaped lamp

It's been a busy week, without much time for photography.

Next week is going to be about the same.

(1035) #145, End of Summer

The Labour Day long weekend is the traditional conclusion to summer, and the heavy jackets we've needed these past few days have just been a punctuation point.

(1034) #842, New College

Despite living next to the main University of Toronto campus for years, I'm still finding new places to go and new things to photograph. Six of the fifteen posts from the last thirty days have been from there, another was from the same city block, and I have three more that I've uploaded to my gallery host but haven't included here (yet).

And to think that I like to travel.

(1033) #066, Silver and Green

Stretching a bit on this one…

(1032) #472, Juliette

There's very little that isn't improved by a curled-up sleeping cat.

Even if I am allergic to her.

(1031) #711, Red and Blue

There's something really wonderful about transparency film: holding such perfect miniature images, and seeing them shining with light, is an experience that exceeds anything possible with negative/print film.

Too bad the rest of it is such a hassle, though - not to mention its eye-blurring expense.

In a rare and (hopefully) precedent-setting move for me, I've experimented with three different films, and like the cheapest one the best.

(1030) #093, Anikon

The point of my weekly project is that it would motivate me to take more photos. After all, if I'm committed to publicly showing at least one photo per week, it should shame me into taking better images, or at least more of them. I was in one of my periodic slumps, and it has worked to keep me active through a couple more in the 62 weeks since then.

But I never considered that there could be a time when I'm taking a lot of photos, but literally have nothing to show for it.

So instead of more images of doors and walls, here's a photo that I took this week of the reason for my lack of current material.

The flight deck of the Zeiss Ikon is one of the most beautiful control layouts I've ever seen. The focus and aperture controls are on the lens, and everything else is right here. Film counter and advance lever. The shutter button on top of the power/lockout switch. The position of the dial marked "A" means that the camera's in Auto Exposure mode, and rotating it so that the "A" is from -2 to +2 is the exposure compensation control. Rotated further, it's the shutter speed selection. Lifting that same dial changes the film speed / iso sensitivity; its current position one-third of a stop below the red "400" means iso320, since I like to expose colour negatives one-third of a stop over what the film is rated for.

And that's it. Sure, there's also a lens release button, a film door latch, a release button and rewind crank. But compare that to my D700, which I used to take this picture. It has twenty-eight different controls on the outside of it, and that's being conservative - i.e., counting the drive mode dial but not the individual modes, and the four-way controller as only one button. After a year and a half, I'm still not sure exactly what that camera does.

I'm almost done my seventh roll of film with the Ikon, and I'm using my Nikon F100 alongside it for this weekend. It's been an interesting couple of weeks.

(1029) #001, Barriers

I'd really like to see a nice print of this image, and have lots of bad prints to prove it.

(1028) #658, Sunflower

On average, I post a photo titled "Sunflower" once every 960 days. The next one is tentatively scheduled for March 2013.

(2005/04)
(2007/11)

(1027) #116, Progress

There weren't many photographs taken this week; this one is a quick snap from a walk that Penny and I took today.

Progress Avenue at Kennedy Road.

(1026) #163, Fireworks

One of the nice things about living up high is the view across the city. Every holiday, we go out and watch the pyrotechnics from nearby parks, houses, and the occasional apartment building.

(1025) #693, Skin on the Drum

The big deal this week has been the G20 conference, and the big deal about that has been the small groups of vandals that took advantage of the much larger non-violent protests.

Naturally, I was nowhere near that, but I did take an early-morning tour of downtown Toronto which ended at the rallying point for the largest protest of the weekend. It was a large and extremely diverse group, with representatives from the fringe from both sides, as well as mainstream groups like Amnesty International and a few of the local unions. Lots of signs, but also balloons and music.

I've certainly seen more strident demonstrations, as well as much, much larger ones. None of them have done more than disrupt traffic. It's going to be interesting to see who the police arrest over the next few weeks.

(1024) #007, Shade

Following some advice to do something different, I took an old manual-focus Nikon lens for a walk. It has a very different look from the more modern lenses that I'm familiar with, being slightly soft with very mild contrast wide open, and in certain moods I like the results.

(1023) Balloons and Marching Bands

Spending the day at the Bloor Annex street festival.

(1022) #467, Cinderblock

I don't expect this blog to be overrun with new photos for a while, but at the very least, I'll be keeping up my weekly project.

(1021) #837, Blue and White

For a change of pace this week, I took my D700 and 105VR for a walk. Small cameras are nice, but so are big ones.

But I suspect that this one camera and lens weighs more than my entire GH1 kit.