Photo essay: CNE 2017

The Canadian National Exhibition (CNE, or The Ex, as we locals call it) has marked the unofficial end of the summer in Toronto since forever, and I haven't missed one since I moved to this city 15 years ago. It's crowded, it's loud, dirty, and everything is a cash grab, including the over-the-top food selections like fried butter (?!), but none of those are really why my wife and I go visit every August. It's our yearly chance to walk around the grounds like a pair of 8-year-olds, with a corn dog on one hand, cotton candy on the other, and ignore that you're an adult with responsibilities for one night, because definitely–most definitely–you totally have a chance to win that giant Pikachu.

Summer Festival 2017 at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre Toronto

Macro Monday - January 9, 2017

I'm really not into macro. Actually, that's not true. I'm at awe when I see macro photography masters—individuals with significantly more patience and curiosity than myself, not to mention longer attention span—showing us the wonders of the microscopical world, with all the details that we are unable to see with our naked eyes. I just don't like shooting it, because of the just mentioned lack of patience. I'm like that dog from Up, when it comes to photography (squirrel!)

Having said that, when you visit Allan Garden's in Toronto for their annual Christmas Flower show (or any time of the year you decide to visit, really), you can't help to indulge your inner botanist and attempt at some shots of pretty flowers, leaves, and bugs.

I haven't owned a dedicated macro lens since I sold my Olympus 60mm f2.8 a few years ago. That one was a killer lens, but I ended using it mostly for portraits. It was great at that—but it  just wasn't bright enough for low-light use, and the focal length was too awkward for events and performances, which is what I really shot at that time. 

All photos in the gallery at the bottom were taken with the Olympus E-PL7 and  the Panasonic 42.5mm f1.7 lens, coupled with the VF-4 viewfinder from Olympus. But can we talk about this lens for a minute before we move on, please?

Panasonic Lumix G 42.5mm f/1.7 ASPH. POWER O.I.S.

This fast portrait lens is probably one of the best things I bought with my hard earned money that I can attach to a camera. Everyone keeps raving about the Olympus 45mm f1.8, but this Panasonic equivalent offers just as sharp, if not sharper photos  in my opinion, and image stabilization—important for people like me who shoots with a non-stabilized GM5. Granted, it's a bit more expensive than the Olympus, but it's totally worth it if you buy it when it goes on sale, like I did. More importantly to the subject of macros, this lens focuses as close as 31cm. Still not real macro range, but it comes in more than handy in a pinch, or when you can't justify spending on a dedicated lens when you shoot macro twice a year (on a good year). There's nothing much to add in terms of how well this lens performs when shooting portraits, it's that good. If you were debating between this guy and the Olympus 45mm, I wouldn't doubt for a second and get this totally underrated Panasonic gem. I've been buying/selling/trading a lot of gear in the last five years, more than I'm willing to admit, and this is one lens I don't intend to part with anytime soon.

 

 

Honest Ed's final days: Part 1

Three days left before it closes its doors for good, Honest Ed's already looks like a ghost town. Most of the stock is gone, its iconic hand-painted signs are up for sale, and there is a general feeling of gloom and sadness in the air as you walk the isles.

Like many who made Toronto their adoptive home, Honest Ed's had a special place in my heart not only as a landmark of the city, but as one of its most iconic, almost living and breathing, characters. This is the place that I bought my first rice cooker in Canada for a cool $9.99 (this is an essential item for any Asian) and its unavoidable, giant neon sign will be sorely missed.

All photos taken with the Panasonic Lumix GM5 and the 14mm f2.5 lens.

UPDATE: Some of the photos in this series have been picked up by Toronto Star Touch, Indie88, and Lululemon Toronto's Instagram Feed.

Project 52: Week 52

Boy oh boy, does a year go by fast. Twelve months ago, I started this little personal project that didn't know would take over so much of my free time like it did. I started it out of sheer frustration with many less-than-stellar things happening in my life at the moment, and a need to put some of that energy into a personal project, with no expectations whatsoever, but I'm glad to be able to say I actually did learn a lot by doing something like this for an entire year.

The obvious thing would be to say I am now a better photographer, having shot with one camera and one fixed focal length lens for 52 weeks (although not exclusively with this camera), and very cheap ones at that. With all the limitations that came with this cheap camera setup, also came problems that needed to be solved and that is what I enjoy doing the most in life. So here goes, some of the things I've learned, in no particular order:

  • It really isn't about the camera, it's whomever is behind it.
  • But a good camera really, really makes it so much easier...      
  • It's all about practice. The more you do it, the better you get at it. Nobody is born with a photography eye—you train it.
  • On that note, not matter how frustrating and counter-intuitive is to operate a particular camera, you get used to it and it becomes second nature. Habit is a tremendous thing. 
  • A tripod and a little patience at night is better than all the image stabilization technology in the world
  • Most times, you don't need 5 lenses and 3 bodys. You only need one camera and one lens—the one you have it you (and this includes iPhones). And the smaller the better.

As much as I've enjoyed doing this project, and the tremendous things I've learned this past year, I wouldn't do it again any time soon. It has taken too much of my time, and in the end, I'm not sure if intentionally crippling my photography workflow is really a good thing. I have been more frustrated than not. This old hunk of metal had the worst menu system I ever experienced, the loudest and clunkiest shutter ever (DSLR or mirrorless), and its rather less than acceptable low-iso performance. 

For my last week, and in the vains of shooting things I never shoot, I decided to do a self-portrait. Well, of sorts: My ever-present wife was the one who pressed the shutter. As with most photographers, I rarely am in front of the lens, so it seemed a fitting ending for this project for me to be on the other side for once. It only made sense that I included City Hall as the background, a regular subject of my street shots, and the real highlight of 2015 in this city—the Toronto sign, left over from the Panam games.


Project 52: Week 49

For the few weeks that I have left in this project, I wanted to try my hand on some stuff that I usually never do. Long exposure, day or night, is something I NEVER do, mainly because I'm just too lazy to carry a tripod. It's the polar opposite of street photography. It requires patience, trial and error, and visualizing the final photo in your head in a very specific way, unlike the quick shoot-and-run that is street.

If anything, this project is forcing me to try things that I would have never even considered in the past. This is definitely not the best long exposure that I could have taken, but I know now what to do next time to make it better.

It really helps to have a light, compact tripod. Carrying a big chunk of metal in a cold December night is a bit less painful when you can tuck it in your messenger bag.

The Olympus camera rig however...

It really produces some very sharp images (at least in the centre), but it is really a pain to use. Shooting long exposure means shooting in manual mode almost exclusively, and changing even simple settings requires too many button presses. The low-light capabilities of the old sensor is particularly not good with the dark skies. However, it's tiny and light, always a plus when it comes to portability.

Project 52: Week 46

It's been the warmest November ever, but Toronto had the first taste of winter in the form of light flurries. Which means I will need to find ways to shoot indoors, because cold. I hate the cold. In the meantime, here's a shot of Christie Pits while the temps were still in the double digits.


Project 52: Week 42

When your crappy toy lens has a fixed f8 aperture, and your crappy mirrorless camera can barely handle 1600 ISO, you really need get resourceful when shooting in low-light. Looking for the bright spots, searching for some dramatic hard lighting, finding those solid reflective surfaces, and wasting a lot -a lot- of shots, until you get a decent one.


Project 52: Week 40

City Hall must be one of the Toronto spots I've shot the most. The obvious way to shoot this iconic building is the classic postcard pic - straight up front (now enhanced with the Toronto sign leftover from the Pan Am games). But the real beauty starts when you walk around the block that surrounds Nathan Phillips Square, and start looking at it from different angles. There's always an interesting way to shoot this building.

Project 52: Week 39

Definitely hit my all-time low this week with this project: I haven't taken a single photo with the "el cheapo" Olympus this week. Not one single one. Nada. Blame it on the new job, I say.

Instead, here's another reject from a few weeks past. As a Torontonian, especially living in downtown, you take for granted all the great art in the city because they just become part of the landscape after long enough, like this installation by multi-disciplinary Canadian artist Michael Snow. One of the things about these projects is that it forces you to see everyday objects and places in a different light.


Project 52: Week 38

I've spent a LOT of time at Sugar Beach this summer, and taken more shots that I could care to share. It seems adequate that this is the shot of the week, since I will likely not spend as much time there as I did in the last six crazy months.

As photographers, we often forget the reason why photography even exists in the first place. It's easy to get lost in pixel-peeping, technical perfection, and obsessive composition, when the original purpose of taking pictures is to capture moments and preserve memories.


Project 52: Week 36

One of my favourite spots to shoot in the city is Chinatown. In fact, I make sure I visit the local chinatowns when I'm travelling. They usually hold a wealth of history and culture, unique to each city and country, not to mention cheap and amazing food.

Toronto is fortunate to have not one but two Chinatowns. This shot was taken in the oldest one, in the east end of the city - now far from its heydays and overshadowed by the bigger and more vibrant one in the west end. Who knew a bunch of piled up vegetables would make a good photo?