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  1. High Park Cherry Blossoms: The Preview

    April 10, 2012 by Gail

    cherry blossoms in High Park (1)

    I took a little time-out this morning — from my scheduling squeeze that is most of April — to see how the cherry blossoms in High Park were doing. There’s been some fierce wind recently, and I didn’t know if there would be anything left on the trees by the time I got down there. Thankfully the trees haven’t yet fully blossomed, because the light was very in-and-out this morning. After about 10 minutes of shooting, the light went completely flat, which is my cue to pull a Snagglepuss and exit, stage left, and try again in a couple days.

    (This is just a preview post of all the cherry blossom photos I took, so I edited these two photos a little hyper-real and in the full post the colours will be more real. Click the pics to enlarge.)

    As soon as I spotted this elder-couple, I started taking their pictures. It’s a good thing they didn’t turn around, they might’ve thought I was stalking them.

    cherry blossoms in High Park (2)

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    Posted in The Great Outdoors | Tags: , | 2 Comments

  2. Dumplingpalooza

    April 9, 2012 by Gail

    I’m in a food coma which is competing with delirium from too many hours with my eyes open. I will let the (Instagram) photos speak for themselves so I can drift into dreamland.

    The photos were taken at Ding Tai Fung in Markham. These dumplings were worth driving 71kms roundtrip for.

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    Posted in cameraphone, Food + Drink, Friends | 5 Comments

  3. Caterpillar On The Camino De Santiago

    April 8, 2012 by Gail

    GEF_2671

    I’m back from Ottawa, and I am beyond ready for ZZZZZ-ZZZZZ-ZZZZZ-zzzzzz…

    But before I squeeze in my four hours of sleep, here’s one of my favourite pics from the weekend (well, until I go through the rest of them), which included a four-hour walkabout in Gatineau Park with four friends. By the shuffling and limping in the home stretch, you would’ve thought WE were on the Camino de Santiago. That’s what working a desk job will do to you! This tiny caterpillar was showing us all up.

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    Posted in Critters + Creatures | Tags: , | 6 Comments

  4. Have You Got Any Grey Poupon?

    April 7, 2012 by Gail

    image

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    Posted in cameraphone, Critters + Creatures, Mobile Blogging | Tags: , , | 1 Comment

  5. Instagramming

    April 6, 2012 by Gail

    Office Easter

    Office Easter

    The free mobile phone image filter company Instagram finally got their Android version live this past week, which means millions more people worldwide are pissed off with fellow diners taking photographs of their meals and uploading them to every social media platform available.

    Me, I just like the square format and less typing. I’m a photo maker, after all, this is just one more way to make a smartphone picture look less terrible.

    Church Street

    A sign for all those lost souls, I guess.

    Distillery District

    Distillery District

    lamb, fig, and sweet potato shepherd's pie

    lamb, fig, and sweet potato shepherd's pie topped with Gouda

    Thompson Landry Gallery

    Thompson Landry Gallery

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    Posted in cameraphone | Tags: | 1 Comment

  6. Walking Home: The Spring Edition

    April 4, 2012 by Gail

    reflection

    Bathurst Street reflection

    I’ve kept the same route all winter because it’s the safest one to take in the dark; it follows well-lit streets more than my summer and autumn routes, which took me through parks and under bridges. Great when there is plenty of light, but not so great when it’s nearly pitch-black. Now that it’s light and bright again on the way home, I’m thinking of switching the route back to parks and bridges.

    neighbourhood forsythia

    neighbourhood forsythia

    Here’s some complete randomage before I try for an “early” night (I’m driving patients at 7am *ouch*). I walk by a dog park on the way home every day. This is what I imagine…

    Human thought bubble: my duty is to walk the dog
    Dog thought bubble: my duty is to make sure the humans get walked

    we're here for a good time, not a long time

    King Street West shop

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    Posted in Blah Blah Blah, cameraphone | Tags: | No Comments

  7. The Last Day Of March

    April 3, 2012 by Gail

    Quebecois and city skyline

    my first time to see the ship Quebecois undocked

    Oh so verrrrry slowly catching up on the photos and getting them edited and online. April is a GONZO month this year — it will be an absolute miracle if I can keep up the blogging over the next few weeks. I love it, though, and after nearly 10 years of switching my brain to blogging mode on a daily basis I reckon I’ve built a neural pathway through both hemispheres just for blogging.

    My last day of March was devoted to photography-related business (picking up prints at the lab, scouting) mixed in with hanging out with my friend Neesa. We ate our fill of Thai food at the newly-reopened Salad King on Yonge Street before hitting up the Distillery District for my errands. Thankfully, she enjoys the photography part and indulges me in my picture ideas, including jumping. I have photos of Neesa jumping in Quebec City, in the Cheltenham Badlands, at Union Station, playing hacky-sack in the park… I don’t think I could find a more willing person for airtime than Neesa — she’s a natural.

    Some photos from the Distillery District:

    GEF_2510

    GEF_2513

    before the development begins...

    GEF_2519

    GEF_2517

    GEF_2528

    GEF_2533

    lots of construction happening in the West Donlands

    lots of construction happening in the West Donlands

    GEF_2536

    And then I introduced Neesa to Polson Pier, one of my favourite spots in the city to shoot.

    GEF_2551

    GEF_2542

    Of course, I had to make her jump:

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    Posted in Friends, Out + About | 2 Comments

  8. You Miss 100% Of The Shots You Don’t Take

    April 1, 2012 by Gail

    behind Queen Street

    behind Queen Street

    Two meetings and several scouting trips later, I arrived home in the late evening with piles of low-grade pics from an otherwise gloomy-weathered afternoon, still undecided on which to write about. My eyelids are now buckling under the weight of the day and I’m going to cave by posting a selection with captions instead. If only I wrote as fast as AviatorDave, but alas, I’m slower than molasses in January.

    jailbirds behind Queen Street

    jailbirds behind Queen Street

    These pictures below are of the current state of the Jamie Bell Playground in High Park, which was set on fire by an alleged arsonist on March 17 (currently, a 19-year old has been arrested and charged). I’m glad the police caught someone, because the locals are very connected to this playground and its history. I’ve shot family and engagement sessions here, and I was gutted when I saw the pictures of the main structure engulfed in flames. Since then, volunteers and companies have stepped up to fundraise and rebuild it, which goes to show how much people want to have it functioning again — they won’t wait for the City to do it.

     

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    Posted in cameraphone, Culture + Society, Urban Life | No Comments

  9. Jumping At Polson Pier: The Preview

    March 31, 2012 by Gail

    Neesa

    Another placeholder while I continue to edit.

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    Posted in Photography, Urban Life | 2 Comments

  10. Jane Borden On New York City

    March 29, 2012 by Gail

    wedding portraits in Times Square

    This city may praise individuality, but its residents are a herd. When one walks up Seventh Avenue, she is stepping behind one person, in front of another, around a couple holding hands, underneath a window washer, over a heroin addict nodding off, and between two piles of poo. New York offers only a prepositional life. No action exists without a modifier.

    –except from I Totally Meant To Do That by Jane Borden

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    Posted in Books, Urban Life | 1 Comment

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