Out + About | Gail at Large

‘Out + About’ Category

As Close As I Got To Nuit Blanche This Year

October 2, 2011 by Gail

Yonge Street bokeh

I finished second-shooting the Danish wedding late in the evening, and I was debating with myself while enroute to my car parked off College Street whether to check out some of Nuit Blanche while I was nearby or go home and sleep. Last year I shot a wedding until 3am in Liberty Village, and previous years I’ve been out of town the first weekend in October, which is why I’ve never been able to attend Nuit Blanche.

This was as close as I got to Nuit Blanche this year — taking photos on Yonge Street, which was closed off for the event. As you can see, the crowds were thick and non-stop by the time I got there near midnight. I think I’ll have to call it a night, I have the Run For The Cure in mere hours, and then if the sun decides to shine I’m off to the apple orchards to shoot engagement photos.

Yonge Street

Yonge Street

Yonge Street

Yonge Street

I also tried to shoot some video, but it was just way too dark:

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Posted in Out + About, Toronto, Videoclips | Tags: Nuit Blanche | 5 Comments
The Mother Of All Bikes In Kensington Market

September 25, 2011 by Gail

You may remember I posted pictures of The Mother Of All Bikes this summer when I first encountered it on the street near my house. It’s really something while stationary, but I figured it must be even more impressive in action. Today I was at Pedestrian Sunday in Kensington Market on a mission to see man about a horse (OK, I was checking out a friend’s VW van for possible wedding transportation/photo ops next year), and decided to stay a bit longer to get in my churros fix and gawk at the hippiefest that is the market on Pedestrian Sunday.

I spotted the bike at the north end of Augusta Street and shot a bit of video of it with little kids drumming on it, which is the closest I’ve come yet to seeing it in action.

A couple of the tires were a bit flat so maybe it’s moved from Parkdale over to Kensington Market for a longer stay. It made the journey, but I wonder how fast it goes? Maybe next time I see the bike, it’ll be pedalling down the street.

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Posted in Art, Out + About, Urban Life, Videoclips | No Comments
Summer Evening Scooter Ride

August 10, 2011 by Gail

So it’s not quite the motorcycle ride I’ve been jonesing for, but it’s getting there!

I had an impromptu dinner with my friend Austin, who rode his scooter to meet me in Chinatown. I was getting ready to walk home when he offered to give me a lift, and he even had a second helmet. Let’s go!

I got out my digicam and we were off — but I only realized once I started filming that the camera had reset itself to the default clip size, the smallest resolution, and then I ran out of battery juice less than three minutes into the ride. Ah well, I’ll try again once I’m more prepared!

The ride starts off at Spadina Avenue, then a sorta kinda illegal left turn onto Dundas, where we continue until the camera turns itself off at Bathurst Street.

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Posted in Out + About, Urban Life, Videoclips | 2 Comments
An Evening With A Lion

July 29, 2011 by Gail

Roy Thomson Hall

I took a bit of a detour this evening after work, to Chinatown to meet up with a lion.

Queen Street near Spadina Ave

A lion? Yes, we were meeting at my favourite Vietnamese restaurant, Xe Lua, on Spadina Avenue. After dinner, I brought him to Dundas Square.

Dundas Street near Yonge

Yonge-Dundas Square:

There were lots of people at Yonge-Dundas Square, and to my surprise they kept the fountains running.

Yonge-Dundas Square

Yonge-Dundas Square

In the end, I never did get a photo of the lion — dang! His name is Maurice, he’s even got a web page. He’s a stuffed lion puppet who travels with a human named Bret Amazzeing. They travelled from the New York area together to visit Toronto for a week.

with Bret Amazzeing at Yonge-Dundas Square

Bret got in touch with me nearly a year ago, but his original trip to Toronto fell through and since that time he and his sidekick Maurice toured India, Australia, Hong Kong, and a few other places, entertaining children and racking up the air mileage. With WeShareSmiles.com, he’s also toured Sierra Leone, Jamaica, Poland, and Mexico, taking his unique combination of puppetry and magic beyond the English-speaking world.

Fast forward to Thursday evening, trying pho for the first time and a grass jelly drink as I introduce him to Vietnamese food in Toronto, his first time here. We swapped a lot of stories, not just of travel but life in general. Bret’s a decade younger than me, but he’s an entrepreneur with a few companies under his belt, a magician, puppeteer, photographer, videographer, and all-around entertainer. He’s full of stories, and full of verve. People talk to him wherever he goes. It made for an entertaining Thursday evening!

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Posted in Linkage, Out + About, Urban Life, Videoclips | Tags: point-n-shootin' | 3 Comments
Wherein I Explain Why The Sky Reminds Me Of Beer

July 18, 2011 by Gail

beery sky over Liberty Village

I know what you’re thinking.

“She walked home in a heatwave. Dehydration makes people hallucinate.”
“She drank WAY too much beer yesterday.”

OK, first of all, those were 6-oz (0.17744-litre) glasses. And I shared them.

Ever heard of beer lace?

I’d never heard of it until I lived for a few months with two Irish lads in Sydney, Australia, in the years when I lived out of a backpack. They were serious drinkers — one drinking seriously (for taste), and the other seriously drinking (competitively). They introduced me to all manner of homegrown shaken-and-stirred concoctions, and sometimes they’d conduct the drinking lessons out in the field.

One night they brought me to a hotel pub to meet some of their mates and discover more Aussie brews. What I didn’t know at the time was that in Australia, a hotel is really a euphemism for pub, there are often no rooms, but equally often there are strippers. I don’t think there’s an adequate descriptor for the level of awkwardness I was feeling, standing with a crowd of men ogling a woman dancing buck naked only a few metres away from me. Not to mention I was barely 20.

But I digress…

It was during one of those auspicious occasions in my learning the ways of the Aussie that the Irish lads tried to teach me how to “read” lace — the foam patterns on the side of the glass when you take a sip. According to them, the “lacier” the side of the glass, the better the beer. They even went as far as to count the number of sips as evident by the layers of lace. They argued if you couldn’t count the lace, the beer was crap. Such is the wisdom that was imported to Australia and inculcated into the local drinking establishment. I came away enlightened.

Maybe it’s my imagination running away with me, but when I looked at the sky on the way home, I immediately thought of beer lace. And my beer educators — one of whom also taught me how to player snooker-style pool (along with Lachlan). It’s funny how much trivia sticks in the brain after 20 years!

sky over the Queensway

last light over the Queensway

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Posted in Ancient History, Out + About, Raconteurism | Tags: point-n-shootin', walking home | 4 Comments
Things To Do In A Heatwave

July 17, 2011 by Gail

Mill Street Brewery's Tasting Tray #3

I’m not usually a beer-drinker, but on a record hot day? Sure!

Mill Street Brewery's Tasting Tray #3

They go well with a hot pretzel, too. I’m not even a pretzel-eater (David loved them), but these were piping hot out of the oven and — combined with the rock salt — tasted amazing! On the left is seafood sauce and on the right is beer aioli.

hot pretzels, you've finally won me over

And finally, stay cool at the pool:

Sunnyside (Gus Ryder) Pool

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Posted in Food + Drink, Out + About | Tags: point-n-shootin' | 3 Comments
Wheat Lookalike? In Downtown Mississauga?

July 16, 2011 by Gail

Do my eyes deceive me? I had some business to take care of in Mississauga today, and found myself taking a wee detour on a side road to get back onto Hurontario Street. Looming before me was what looked to be a short wheat field but in downtown Mississauga, of all places? Or is this some sort of grass that just looks like wheat?

And if you’re wondering how close this field really is to the centre of Mississauga, you can see the shaped buildings in the background across from Square One (are those condos?).

These shots were all taken with my phone. I had my point-and-shoot with me, but I left the memory card in the card reader. *pfffffffft!* Don’t you just hate when that happens?

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Posted in cameraphone, Out + About | Tags: point-n-shootin' | 3 Comments
Summer In The City (The Point-and-Shoot Edition)

July 12, 2011 by Gail

lifeguard at the Sunnyside Pool

As you can probably tell, I’ve been buried under a mound of work lately. I’ve got so many photos to show you, but so little time!

The House of Fielding went from a gruelling 5am-up-and-at-’em, full day + go home to more work schedule last week to the regular half-day + late-night editing crash-and-burn-at-6am this week. Is there any wonder I don’t get jet lag? It doesn’t happen in the absence of a circadian rhythm. I have to get my nose back to the grindstone now, so I’ll leave you with some point-and-shoot photos taken with the ancient Canon A520 last Sunday, when I took my Dutchie couchsurfer for a walk in my neighbourhood by the lake. I live in the city, but I love living in Roncy, close to everything I need, and the recreational feel of living near a big body of water!

volleyball at Sunnyside Beach

Humber Bay Arch Bridge

fishing in the Humber River (Lakeshore Blvd and Gardiner Expressway in the background)

(more…)

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Posted in House of Fielding, Out + About, The Great Outdoors, Toronto, Urban Life, Videoclips | Tags: point-n-shootin', summer, Toronto, YouTube | 1 Comment
Friday Evening In Nine Frames

June 24, 2011 by Gail

Sigrid's new mini Diana camera

Sigrid's new mini Diana camera

KAMA Indian restaurant, King Street West (a la carte this time)

KAMA Indian restaurant, King Street West

TD Toronto Jazz Festival

Jordon John & the Blues Angels, TD Toronto Jazz Festival

Jordon John & the Blues Angels, TD Toronto Jazz Festival

Aretha Franklin, TD Toronto Jazz Festival

Aretha Franklin, TD Toronto Jazz Festival

What’s missing is showing Sigrid (from Norway) around downtown after work, and then five hours later the serendipity of bumping into a local photography contact at the streetcar stop on the way home — someone I’ve been wanting to meet for years. Then reaching my house and joining the next-door neighbours’ backyard party at 11:30pm. A fine way to end a summer evening, I must say.

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Posted in Food + Drink, Out + About, Urban Life | Tags: Aretha Franklin | 2 Comments
At Large Around Halton

June 4, 2011 by Gail

I enjoy the city, but I equally enjoy escaping from it, and today was no exception. I had two locations to scout, one in Oakville by the lake and the other further north in Milton by the 401. I was happy to take the opportunity to visit both before heading to a barbecue this afternoon back in the city.

I didn’t know until today that Oakville is also part of Halton since it’s south of the QEW, but apparently it’s the same municipality. I was there to scout a church, but when we arrived it there was not a soul in sight and one car was in the parking lot. I figured we’d missed the services for the day, but to my utter surprise ALL the doors were unlocked and we walked right in. We’re definitely not in the city anymore! I thought. There wasn’t even a priest in sight. We surveyed the building interrupted, though I was half expecting someone to walk in and ask us why we were there but no-one didn’t, not even the two people who exited just as we were trying the front door.

The church is unusual for an historic area, since it’s not brick but whitewashed wood. It’s also just meters from the lake, and the water was inviting — there’s even a recreational trail along the water’s edge.

I could’ve hung out by the water and watched geese all day, but it was time to head north to Milton to the Halton Regional Museum, the site of my next wedding. Once we found it (with no help from my GPS that was missing part of a road), my wedding photographer brain kicked in and I started thinking about how I would stand and where I’d take the group shots. The grounds are lushly green (thanks, rain!) and the buildings are rustic — from the pioneering days of the area — which gave me plenty to work with, photo-wise. I just hope it doesn’t rain, but if it does, I have a rain plan like always.

Next up: a family shoot in the morning up in Caledon

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Posted in Out + About, The Great Outdoors, Working Life | Tags: location scouting, Ontario, rural | 1 Comment

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