Toronto

My photography came to a complete stop when I arrived in Toronto a week and a half ago as I got sick. It was a shame as I felt like I was wasting my time here. I guess too many early rises with 4 hours sleep finally caught up with me! 

Once I was feeling better I started to explore the city, I had already done some research online and sort had an idea of where I needed to be, which is on Toronto island. This is the standard Toronto spot to get skyline in all it's glory which meant I needed to do something different so I spent an afternoon exploring the island on a dull cloudy day so I was ready with my location when the sun was out. 

The next day was that day and I hopped on the ferry to arrive at my spot at 3.30 for the best light on the scene, it's was a perfect day and I got a great shot.

I was lucky because just as I was setting up the shot a couple wondered by looking for somewhere to sit and were happy to be in my shot. 

Then it was the waiting game for me as I also wanted to get the skyline after sunset which meant 5 hours of sun bathing and book reading as there wasn't anything else on the island I wanted to shoot. 
Although whilst lying down I spotted this shot, which just happens to be the same tree in the shot above.

It was worth the wait as I got this shot, again there was a couple also watching the Sunset and kindly agreed to pose for the shot. 

Niagara Falls

On my way to my next stop I visited Niagara Falls, it's a shame it's such a tacky place with Casinos but the falls are impressive, I arrived too late to go on the Maid of the mist but plan to go back again before I leave Toronto. 

Parking here is expensive if you come alone at $18, but luckily I managed to find some free parking. 

I've never understood why the border police are so aggressive and rude when you pull up to enter the USA, it made even less sense when I now wanted to come back into Canada to be greeted by the same attitude, even when I have a work visa. It makes you wonder if they want you to spend money in their country. 

Washington DC

My trip across the states wouldn't be complete without visiting the capital. 

It's a funny place being such a small square mile or so, apparently crime is a big issue in the surrounding areas which is crazy when it's so close to the White house. 

There isn't much to shoot in terms of cityscapes here but some interesting monuments and buildings, most of which I shot on 617 film so I will have to wait and see how they turn out. 

The nice thing about the area is that all the historic buildings are very clean which is nice change from London but then London is much more historic. 

There is also the annoying no tripod rule at most monuments which is very restrictive for my style of shooting but I still got most of the shots I wanted to get. This shot would have been great on my 617 camera but instead I had to shoot it handheld on my panasonic gf1. 

It was close to 40 degrees during my stay here which made shooting quite unbearable at times, especially walking around with my heavy gear. 

Road Trip days 19-25: New York

It's been a while since I've had the time to blog, but also pictures on this leg of the trip have been very sparse as the weather took a turn for the worse. 

New York is a crazy city, the roads are the worst I've ever driven on, the drivers are terrible, it's noisy and dirty. It made me realise how nice London is. 

I arrive to a rainy New York on a Monday afternoon, not one to waste time I headed for downtown to explore. 

I soon realised this would be a hard city to photograph, all the buildings up close are a bit boring and it is a very messy city with lots of street clutter meaning getting a shot in the city very hard.

I then set about looking for a great view of the whole city to take and after lots of driving around along the east side river I could see it was a shot everyone had that included the Brooklyn bridge in the foreground. It's a great shot but I need to try and get something different. 

I wondered if there would be something interesting to be found on the Brooklyn bridge as there is a walkway across the middle. 

I was right, there was a great spot looking down the bridge with the city in the background, a shot no one seems to have, so now I have to wait for a nice sunrise to get the shot. 

Finally Saturday morning was forecast to be a clear morning so I set my alarm for 4am and headed for my spot on Brooklyn bridge and discovered why no one had this shot, because everytime a car passes over the bridge it wobbles making it impossible in this low light to take the shot and a 24hr city like New York cars cross at all hours. 

Luckily for me half the bridge was closed so there were small breaks when I could take a shot, but then sometimes at a perfect moment a cyclist or runner would go by ruining the moment. But I got it! As the sun rose some mist floated across the water for a perfect scene, I was so happy as this was the first hot I had taken after 5 days here. 

This was by far the moat painful shot I have ever taken, I was there for 3 hours waiting for small lulls in the traffic to take a shot just to make sure I got it as I didn't want to walk away to find the shot was blurry from the wobbly bridge. 

I got a handful of other shots that weekend wondering around the city, but didn't see the sun again.  

Central park certainly comes alive on the weekend with Baseball games going on. This is the busiest city park I've been to and not even on a sunny day!