Sometimes the stars just align, you know? As I headed to work along Thurlow Street one morning, the air was crisp and the sun was bright. It had rained the night before, so things were extra shiny. Behold: a little stream of water in Jepson-Young Lane off Thurlow. Incidentally:
- this is another one of those shots that look nice but no more, but somehow get a lot of likes. At this point I figure I’ve been doing this long enough and I need to trust my Inner Photographer to know what he’s doing. A lot of the magic of photography does not work on a conscious level.
- On the other hand, I can consciously make the magic happen, and I’m learning more about that all the time. For example, it’s only last weekend I learned my phone’s camera has a Golden Ratio grid setting, and I’m also learning about what that means.
- The West End is full of lanes, which I think might have been full streets back in the day. They remained nameless until a month or two ago, when they all got named for local activists and notables. For example, Dr. Peter Jepson-Young, a.k.a. Dr. Peter. Fittingly, it’s right behind the Dr. Peter Centre.
History aside, you just can’t beat fall foliage in this weather. True, those leaves are kind of brown and crackly now, but brown leaves in the morning sun is still all kinds of neat.
Exhibit B: the following Sunday I tried to drop in the Competitive division, and didn’t make it. Having a couple hours to kill before trying again for Advanced, I decided to take a little stroll in Jericho Park. The last time I did that, a year and a half ago, the weather was grey and dull. This time? Duckies and crows and herons and geese and more crows and the mountains and it was amazing.
But hey, life isn’t all about natural beauty. Sometimes you have to enjoy the artificial beauty of drag queens. I hadn’t gone to a drag show in a while, and this was hella fun. Plus, as awesome as the queens on Drag Race are, we need to support our local talent!
And then, the Monday after gay church, going to a real church. Or at least walking across the street from it. It’s funny, I’ve taken a couple photos of St. Andrew’s-Wesley from the side, but never in front. I guess because during the day the shot would be too full of people and cars. But it’s beautiful, isn’t it? The stained glass, the light around the doors, the trees beside the doors which, though off-centre, do frame them quite nicely with their branches.
Friday I saw some weird thing on the way to work. It’s still there, no matter what the sign says. And it’s time for some real talk, kids:
I don’t think it works.
I really struggled with this one. I wanted to capture the ice cream thing and the words, but also balance it out with a bit of the neighbourhood. But after discussing it with my Taiji teacher (who’s also a graphic artist), the problem is that it’s exactly balanced, and that’s not good. There’s nothing here that really draws the eye, not even the ice cream thing. It’s two incomplete halves that don’t add up to a whole.
Meh, I can’t get too torn up about it. They can’t all be winners. I’ll take what I’ve learned here and move on to better photos.