Scenes from my balcony – no not a Romeo story

Scenes from my balcony – no not a Romeo story

by | 27 Aug, 2017 | photos | art | design

I’m going to start a new series titled “Scenes from my balcony”.  Every week something chaotic, silly or fascinating seems to play out below and I have a perfect perch to watch the drama unfold.  A notification went up earlier in the week warning Yonge would be blocked Friday night and Saturday for a construction crane installation across the road. Didn’t think much of it beyond I might get a few cool photos. Last night when the equipment was moved into place I took a few ok shots. In the wee hours of the morning I briefly stuck my head out the door to see what the “beep beep beep” was about. Workers were already rustling about down there. I thought way too early for this, crawled back into bed and threw a pillow over my head.

When I woke up and stepped out onto the balcony, I had a “HOLY SHIT” moment. This greeted me:  Photo of a construction worker hanging off crane hitting it with a sledgehammerI’m pleased with that shot. Not at all bad for a little Canon Powershot.  It did a servicable job on the photos throughout the day. It’s weak spot is night light so most of the night photos are a wash. I’ll likely end up tossing them. I still came away with some great photos.

Attaching the last piece on the crane

I guess this is what happens to the kids who play with building blocks and Lego – they grow up and find bigger Lego kits to play with.

Photo of crew waiting for concrete blocks to be lowered onto crane The crew was still climbing around when the sun began to set.

Photo of late evening sunset over the workers on the crane. It’s 9:30 pm now, the sun has set and the workers are putting away the equipment. The crane is completed and Yonge street should open up by 10:30pm. I can hear banging and motors still going, so they’ll be a while yet. Long, long day for the crew. Fascinating one for me.

 

Filters on Flatiron building – Classic Toronto architecture

Filters on Flatiron building – Classic Toronto architecture

by | 15 Aug, 2016 | design

I was back downtown, around the St. Lawrence Centre and the Flatiron building last week. I have dozens of photos of the Flatiron, none really turn my crank and I don’t post many of them. But I love the building. I took a few more photos when I was down there, sweltering in the heat and looked at them over the weekend. I have a nifty filter on my phone that applies some great special effects (I’ll review the app this week) and made me start thinking about what filters would bump up a rather mediocre photo into a posterworthy one.

I really like photos that have slightly over saturated reds and the Flatiron lends itself beautifully to this: Toronto Flatiron building - filtered and posterized

I upped the reds along the building using a NIK filter first.  I focused the saturation on the right side between the 4th and 5th and 2nd and 3rd floors. I pulled the orange on the sign way down so it didn’t stand out like a sore thumb. I tossed in a filter to bump up the edges and then posterized it a bit. Then used a couple of Photoshop tricks like multiply and overlay to get the effect. I especially love the little tourists at the foot of the building.  They lend something to the photo, giving it a bit of life. I’m playing withg throwing in a large TORONTO along the bottom or on the left side. So far, I haven’t found a satisfactory font, I think it needs to be a classic older one. I’ll let you know if I wander down that particular path and show you the results.