Let's Go To the Ballet

I have a subscription to the Ballet. My seat is in the 5.1 ring at the end of row D. I wait for everyone to get to their seats at the start of the ballet and at the end of each intermission because there are no aisles - everyone enters the long long rows from the ends.

So I wait.

All of my tickets are for Saturday and Sunday matinée performances. I didn't choose these shows because I don't like to stay up late or because I don't like weeknight performances - I chose them because they are the ones that kids are most likely to attend. This weekend's performance was a brilliant hilarious interpretation of Cinderella.

And there were Lots of Kids.

Kids who get excited about dancing - and who gasp and ask questions during the performance. Kids who show up in mini ball gowns and costume. Kids who dance in the aisles during intermission.

Kids who race each other up the long staircases during the intermission - like those bottom two... while their parents caffinate.

I saw them gearing up to run and composed my photo - then waited for them to "run into the frame". I'm a superstar at waiting...

I spent all three intermissions people watching in the beautiful glass atrium. The building, itself - is fantastic. Serious engineering went into isolating the building structure from the surrounding subway and streetcar noise and vibrations. It is built on top of millions of rubber "hockey puck" like forms in order to dampen the TTC vibrations and noise - yet it is also physically attached to the subway. The original intention of the design was to make the acoustics so perfect so as to not need any amplification for the Opera... A la the Vienna Opera House.

There are a few notes attached to those photos on Flickr. There is a lot going on in each of them - if you look closely enough.

That bottom photo is during the third intermission. There were huge line ups for drinks during the first intermission (previous photos), less for the second.. almost none for the third.

Probably because people realized that $4 for a bottle of tap water was an absolute rip-off and they weren't that thirsty after all.


/<.

Three Six Five

I've always thought of doing a Project 365 Photography Challenge - one photo a day for a year. Goodness knows I shoot close to that without having a challenge tell me to do it.

I kept trying to think of an angle to make it a bit challenging and interesting for me. Force myself to work under some pre-determined constraint and in the process become a better photographer.

I thought of doing self portraits, or making every photo at F9.0 - something I rarely do. I usually shoot with my lens wide open.

And while I was doing all of this thinking... days were passing by.

Too Thinky.

So I decided to just get on with it.

The only constraints I placed on it were that I had to make every photo with my $120 discontinued Point and Shoot Camera and I had to try and make each photo tell a story of a day in the life of me.

Here are the first four. I'll tell you the stories for these few, but don't get used to it. I started this on November 11, 2010 - and I will end it on November 11, 2011 - 11/11/11.

No, it was totally unintentional.

Day 1/365


I went for a long walk with another photographer friend along the waterfront on Remembrance Day. We wanted to catch the afternoon light - and the sunset did not disappoint. We ended the evening resting our feet and laughing our faces off over dinner on West Queen West.

Day 2/365


It was a foggy, foggy day in Toronto on Friday. Like, crazy fog. I got on the subway in sunlight north of the city - when I got downtown it looked like late evening due to the fog. But way up in the sky I could see signs of the blue sky I saw before I came downtown.

Day 3/365


I spent Saturday on Roncesvalles. Coffee, Brunch, Wandering. Roncy is a mess these days with the construction and many once-popular shops unable to survive with the drastically reduced pedestrian traffic. I had brunch at Butler's Pantry and took off my $30 prescription glasses from Pakistan. I've bought all my eye glasses from this place for the past 5 years. In Canada, my -6.0 astigmatized glasses cost around $250-$300. I can get 10 pairs for that from Goggles4U - and I don't feel so bad when I accidentally sit on a pair.

Day 4/365


Today was my first lame day. I spent most of the day on the computer editing photos and staring out my huge window to relieve my eyes. I bought my place years ago because of the awesome view. I have huge windows that face south over the Humber River. I'm on the top floor of a 19 floor building, at the end of the hall. It's nice. I spend a lot of time looking out of of this window.

My computer screen and some of the artwork collected from my travels is reflected in the view.

A certain friend who is also doing a 365, but is much further along than I am, shoots photos of the contents of her purse when she gets "desperate".

I hope my window shot will not become my desperation shot.

Or maybe I'll have to buy a purse...

/<.

The whole set - as it builds and progresses.. is here. The slide show will automatically update:



Or you can view it full-screen here

Unsupervised

I was running around Toronto all weekend doing photos for various things, people, organizations. I'm kinda feeling over-extended photography-wise right now. I need a weekend off.

It won't be this weekend... but maybe the next one.

I was hanging out in my car between sessions on Halloween afternoon and noticed that the light was kinda, like.. nice. I'd worn contact lenses that day (for no good reason) so I decided to take advantage of being able to see my camera controls without glasses covering my (apparently) giraffe-like eyes - and made some self-indulgent photos.

The vast majority of photos I have of me - were taken by me. There is barely any proof that I have been anywhere or done anything in my life - save for the self-portraits I have taken. The people I do things with are usually not photo-people - so they don't think to take photos with other people in them.

People like me.

Of course everyone I do things with and travel with... comes back with a beautiful portfolio documenting their life.

I need to work on that.

Photographing yourself also helps you figure out how to look your best when other people photograph you. We only really see ourselves in the mirror and in photographs - our friends, family and the other people in our life see us all the time.

A photo other people may love of you - you may think is horrible. But that great photo of you, the one you hate - is you - to them.

Maybe you look like a dork when you're happy.

You need to get over that.

Because everybody sees that dork, except you.

Taking self-portraits helps to meld the misguided image you may have of yourself in your head... with reality.

I also threw in some Brickworks photos from that day, for fun.


/<.

BTW - I am told that having "giraffe-like" eyes is a complement. And that it has absolutely nothing to do with having to dislocate one's neck in order to eat.