Contrasts

     I've had an interesting couple of days off. Yesterday, I took a day trip to Toronto.I guess that I was feeling the old springtime restlessness. Don't get me wrong, I love the little town where I live, but, its biggest fault is that it is just that, a little town. I can only walk overly familiar streets and paths for so long. I enjoyed my day immensely. With some quick last minute planning, I arranged to catch the Paris shuttle to the Via Rail station in nearby Brantford and, after a quick sandwich at the Station Cafe found myself on a train to Hogtown.  

     Toronto is a city that always seems to be under construction. I mean most cities have a few projects going on here or there but for Toronto, it seems to be its primary indusrtry! As I wandered up Yonge St., I found it difficult to make a photograph without construction equipment, scaffolding or construction barriers in it! 

Old bank building on Yonge St. Note construction crane at top.

Same picture with crane removed. Ahh, the wonders of Photoshop! If you look to the lower right of the picture you'll still see some construction gear and I was barely able to crop out a construction site porta potty!

     Anyway I ended up going to Downtown Camera on Queen St.(my new favourite camera shop) where I purchased a few accessories for my new pseudo Leica and continued to roam about the downtown area taking pictures, poking about and just generally enjoying the day.

Look! A Toronto picture without construction equipment in it! Don't ever say I don't work hard for you folks!

If you are doing street photography with a Leica, you have to do some black and whites. It's a Cartier-Bresson bylaw or something!

On the train about to head home. Note that Union Station is under a state of PERPETUAL construction!

     This morning I awoke at my usual hour of too stupid for a day off, and, after the requisite two cups of coffee, took a stroll up to the dam near my home to see if there were any pictures that needed taking. I wanted to try out a polarizing filter that I purchased yesterday in the big city. For the photographically uninitiated, a polarizing filter is a piece of glass that fits over the front of the lens and reduces reflected light. It is useful for reducing the washed out look of a blue sky caused by reflected haze.

Without Polariser

With Polariser

                                                                                                                                                                I know that nowadays you can reproduce the effect digitally in post processing, but I'm kind of old school. I like to get it right in camera. I cut my teeth shooting Kodachrome in a fully manual mechanical camera.

     As I strolled further up the riverbank, I saw a beaver swimming about in the mill pond behind the dam. ( I know, the irony of seeing a beaver swimming near a man made dam is not lost on me either!) The Leica, for its many attributes, does not have a lens long enough for wildlife photography. I raced home (Or, more accurately, moseyed at a purposeful pace.) and got my Canon fitted with my longest zoom lens. By the time I got back there old Mr. Beaver had swum closer to the shore and I managed to get a few nice shots

.

     On the way home, I decided to do a little more wildlife photography. I snapped some pictures of the birds I encountered on the trail.

         What struck me as I meandered home with my little clutch of digital treasures, was the contrast I had experienced within the space of twenty-four hours. Yesterday in Toronto I felt the frenetic pace of the city and, for the time that I was there, I enjoyed it. I guess that the old saying is true, that a change is as good as a rest. Today I enjoyed the absolute calm of a morning spent by the river within a five minute walk from my home. When I finish this post I will go downtown to pick up a few sundries of life.I will probably share a chat and a smile with people who know me by name or at least know who I am. And hopefully I will remind myself for the ten thousandth time how truly lucky I am. Be it ever so humble.... well, you know the rest.

                                                 ...more later