Best of 2009: #375, Helvetica in Black on Grey

On May 23, I was on the subway heading out to Scarborough to continue a photo series along Kingston Road. One of the first photos that I took that morning, this shot is a giant sign behind glass on the grocery store that I shopped in when I briefly lived on Woodbine north of Queen street. It was something of a photographic warm-up for me, since I wasn't at my anticipated starting point yet.

It turned out that the part of Kingston Road that I'd already visited was the most interesting, and I didn't get any decent photos from my intended subject. I did get three other photos that I used here, so it was still a good trip.

First posted here on May 24, this photo started my 'weekly project' series that has helped to keep me taking 'fun' photos on a regular basis. For this version, I've returned a little bit of colour to the image, which shows the reflections in the window. You can't see my reflection in the window because I was using my 85mm tilt-shift lens. That's my main 'work' lens, so it doesn't come out to play very much, but it still contributes three of the eight images that I've picked as my best of 2009.

Best of 2009: #548, Hangout

This is part of the larger-than-life sign for The World's Biggest Bookstore, and it has become my ceremonial first photo for any new camera gear. The fact that it's just down the street from the camera store where I work part-time is a big part of that.

More than any other, this has to be my signature image for 2009. It took an Honourable Mention in a club competition - the highest I ever achieve - as a print that was three feet wide and two feet high. It was shot as a panorama that gives me a 125 megapixel image, and one day I'd like to print it as a 6'x4' vinyl banner. It's the closest I'm likely to come to the scale of the Color Field paintings that I'm not-so-secretly envious of.

While I've posted other versions here (the original on January 31, a reprise on December 20) and used it to illustrate reviews, this one hasn't been shown before. It's my favourite of them all.

Best of 2009: #876, Yellow Daisy

In March, I was looking for an image of mine that I could donate to a charity auction for the Sanfilippo Children's Research Foundation. I decided that none of my existing images were appropriate - saleable - and set out to shoot some new ones. There were four variations, but this was my favourite.

The photo here is the result of shooting twenty-five separate images and then blending them in a focus-stacking application. From there, I've edited the image in Lightroom and then tweaked it some more in Photoshop. It was shot in my lightbox, with the flower held sideways.

The large amount of white lets me change how it's cropped and framed for each print size, and I have a 4x6 sitting on my filing cabinet. It was taken on March 28, and first posted here on April 9.

Best of 2009: #279, Futura on White Plastic

This is a detail from the sign of David Mirvish Books, taken on the last Sunday that the store was open to the public. It has since reduced its operations to web-only sales of books of and about art. It's located on a side street beside Honest Ed's discount store, which is only one of the reasons why the Mirvish name should be familiar to everyone in Toronto. My home is about a block from where this photo was taken.

This was taken with my E-3 and 50-200 lens, a combination that I rarely use for casual 'street' photography. It's a very large, very long lens that makes me even more self-conscious than usual when I'm photographing around people.

Shot on February 22, this photo was originally posted here on March 21. I've refined the processing since then, but it's essentially unchanged.

(953) #171 - Yellow, Black, and Grey

There are themes in my photography - predominantly yellow, red, white and black.

#177 - Yellow

I could call this the first photo that I've posted taken in 2010, but in reality it's a re-shoot of a photo I took almost two weeks ago.

I'll post that one once I get the film developed, if it's any good.

Happy New Year II

Returning to my erratic custom of marking the new year with a photo of a strip club.

(2005/6, 2006/7.)