Some new pictures

Here are some new pictures...

I've been playing with panoramas quite a bit lately...


the go train


I think the kid in the background here was mesmerized by ryan's beard and hair. She didn't stop staring at him the entire time we ate these wonderful tacos. I discovered this new tortilleria shortly after coming home from traveling but didn't try it until a bunch of co-workers brought me there for lunch. It's pretty good - you can get 4 tacos of any kind (they have about 8 varieties) for $8.50. They're tasty. And the tortillas are fresh. Mmm... mole tacos... oh and the chorizo ones are pretty amazing too!


Igor Kenk's store on Queen West that was recently raided by the police as part of the crackdown on stolen bikes in the city. I cannot understand how this shop managed to remain open for so long without the police ever getting involved. I remember shortly after moving into the area seeing a man running down the street toward this shop with half a bicycle - it had obviously been sawed in half... I quickly realized that my bikes would need to be locked up inside somewhere.


Ryan and I will be printing some pictures up in large format in the next little while to put up on our wall at home. It's time to get something up there that isn't posters we have from University. We've been going through them and trying to decide which ones to print out. I really want to print out the Go Train one I posted above. We may print out the panorama as well. I think a lot of them will be pictures that I posted during our trip - there is a very good night shot of Hong Kong that we're printing out. We'll see. Once I know which ones I'm printing I'll post them here. The printing will actually be fairly inexpensive... framing them will be a different story... unless I'm feeling crafty enough to make some frames... we'll see.

A new toy

Yesterday I decided that my dreams to own that wonderful (and highly rated) Nikkor 18-200mm VR lens were just that - dreams. It really makes no sense for me to spend that much money ($800) on a lens right now.

And so... I opted for the next best thing - a Nikkor 55-200 VR lens. This should complement my 18-55mm lens nicely and allow me to do more of that street-type photography I was doing when I was traveling. It was also a quarter of the price of the other lens... definitely makes more sense for now. For some reason, it seems very hard to do any kind of street photography in Toronto. Is it that there aren't enough people here? The fear of getting caught? I don't know but ever since coming back I've been struggling to get any kind of good street shots. And so hopefully (even though I've said many times that shooting street at 200mm is not the same) this new lens will help me a bit.

And so I went out, picked up this wonderful new (to me but slightly used) lens and started scouring the streets for something interesting. What a perfect weekend to get this lens - it's Caribana!







These are from today's walk. As I was telling my dad, this new lens is pretty cool. I can hide in bushes and take pictures of old men:


Or stumble upon a turkish festival:




As I was preparing to take a picture this man walked up past and then turned around and asked "do you want to take my picture?" Not sure what the appropriate response was (it seems rare that people want their pictures taken...) I asked "do you want me to take your picture?" and he said sure. I took the picture and then thanked him, went to shake his hand but instead he wanted me to "punch it"...




I can't quite seem to get the screen I'm using on my photoshop computer calibrated correctly. I've been trying for the last two weeks and every time the pictures end up looking kind of like the saturation is wrong. So then I have to check my second computer to see if the colour is any better and then readjust. I think it's time to swap monitors.