Death of another blog...

This blog isn't getting nearly enough feedback for the effort I was putting into it...

So I'm going to kill it for now...

It'll probably return in another form in the future... stay tuned!

Spidey by Delineated

Spidey
Originally uploaded by Delineated.

It's not my photo, but I love the homage that Carrie did for me:

"It's like Fotograf.416 (Mike), only upside down and with a costume. :P"

It Snowed in Toronto

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Originally uploaded by fotograf.416.

The title pretty much sums it up... I can't say I'm too excited about snow in October. In December on the other hand... LET IT SNOW! Gotta get my board'n on...

Cootes Paradise HDR

Cootes Paradise HDR
Originally uploaded by fotograf.416.

I fuck'n love this shot! One of my best in months. It was produced with two long exposure shots.

If you don't know Cootes Paradise, it's a wonderful place to take a walk around the water in Hamilton...

100k Views!

100k Views!
Originally uploaded by fotograf.416.

That's right fucker! 100 000 Views!

Too bad I missed it rolling over... oh well. I'll make sure it catch it at a million.

Toronto Zombie Walk 2006

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Originally uploaded by fotograf.416.

I've gotten way to lazy with my posts... again. I'm going to try to keep these short so I actually do them!

Toronto Zombie Walk 2006 pics are up! My dumb ass was shooting at way too low of a shutter speed, but I still managed to get a few good shots. Check them out!

Sell Your Soul for a Black DS Lite

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Originally uploaded by fotograf.416.

If you're an avid gamer, or a Nintendo fanboy, you likely know that yesterday North America received the Black (Onyx) and (Coral) Pink DS Lite. I'm definitely not a video game junky, but since receiving my first original gameboy at the age of 10, I've been a portable videogame addict.

Yesterday, over lunch, I went out on a mission to Future Shop to pick up a little black companion to my PSP. To my dismay, Future Shop informed me that they had not received their shipment yet. Upon leaving the store, my mind wondered as to were else I could acquire my latest gadget. Looking up and to my right the answer stared down at me in red, white and blue: Walmart.

Overcoming the sickness building in my stomach and the growing guilt, I entered. Sure enough, in the electronics department, there lied at least 20 of these prized systems. The buying power of this giant is truly astounding.

Europe 2006 - Copenhagen Part3

Copenhagen has some stunning parks that truly come alive in the summer, full of bathing beauties, beer drinking boys and angular architecture. We also stumbled across this fun miniature recreation of early Copenhagen.

Europe 2006 - Copenhagen Part2

Copenhagen has an amazingly modern metro system. Everything is less than five years old, automated, clean... and has lots of wonderful big windows for taking photos.

My Toyz @ 10mm

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Originally uploaded by fotograf.416.

My Toyz with a Nikon D200 + Sigma 10-20mm.

Alley Jaunt 2006

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Originally uploaded by fotograf.416.

I'm feeling way too lazy to write about this...

Read my blogTO post here

Europe 2006 - Copenhagen Part1

Back to the Europe blogging...

Copenhagen is an amazing city! My enjoyment of the city was due, in no small part, to Christine's brother Dave being a wonderful host and tour guide. Dave kicked off an amazing week by meeting us at the airport, Carlsberg in hand!

Much of the first few days in Copenhagen were spend wondering the city, and riding around on the free bikes. That's right, free bike rentals! Just pop in a coin (equal to about $4), ride the bike as long as you like, then return it and get your coin back. What a system!

One of the best part of Copenhagen is a strip by the canals where rich people eat over priced food at stunning cafes, and poor people get drunk sitting by the water. It's a wonderful example of how people of different socioeconomic classes can coexist and share a wonderful space. A scene like this would never happen in North America. Public drinking and rich mixed with poor are both severely frowned upon.

Caribana 2006

About two weeks ago was Toronto's Annual Caribana Festival.

It was pure insanity as a million people crowded the Lake Shore. The floats and costumes were amazing, but based on my view statistics, you guys only seem to care about the lovely ladies...

Who am I to argue? Give the people what they want I say...

Hillside 2006

As another summer passes, so does another Hillside music festival. This is by far my favorite music festival in Ontario. So relaxed. Such great music! And they even have fabulous food!

I wish I had better photos, but this really isn't about the photography for me. It was much more about hanging out with my good friends Christine, Laura and Dave.

Good times... I can't wait for next year's festival!

Style In Progress 2006 - Dundas Square

In my humble opinion, the Sunday of SIP in the back alleys of Queen St. is the true Style In Progress. That being said, the Saturday event at Yonge & Dundas Square is always good times with Hip Hop artist, BBoys & BGirls, and of course plenty of graffiti.

Unfortunately the weather was shite, which really put a damper on the event, but the fans and artists still came out in full force. Although some might argue that graffiti on a canvas isn't real graffiti, this festival is about the art form as much as it is about the culture.

I would however have appreciated more of a focus on the current issues the graffiti community faces, but I'll take the party and leave the politics for another day.

Style In Progress 2006

Style In Progress this year was TOO MUCH FUN!

This was my first outing with my brand spank'n new Nikon D200 camera and Sigma 10-20mm lens. The super wide angel lens was everything I dreamed it would be. Never before have I been in narrow alleys and actually been able to capture entire pieces without making love to the wall behind me. What a joy!

Beyond my own personal camera masturbation, the graffiti this year was mind blowing! So many amazing pieces, as you can see from my insane number of photos posted here.

Special props to fucking insane We Kill You crew. I don't even know how to describe their ghost/tv/sticker/mask-wearing insanity besides saying it was brilliant and you need to check the pics.

I normally post the best photos near the top, but with the mind blowing number of photos posted, I've decided to just plop them down here in chronological order. Some of the best pics are near the end of the post, so don't be lazy, scroll scroll scroll...

Toronto Kickball - June 4th & May 28th

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Originally uploaded by fotograf.416.

When you have to scroll back 28 pages, you know you're behind on your blogging...

Photos from the June 4th and May 28th Toronto Kickball games now online.

Style In Progress HDR

This was produced with a 7 Shot Bracket, hand held. I need to go back with a tripod!

It was really difficult, even with a 7 shot bracket, to prevent the sky from blowing out in areas, and having the ground bright enough. It would be really helpful to have a wireless remote so I could meter the shot twice, and take two bracket bursts.

This shot is a little lower contrast (too HDR looking) than I aim for. Regardless, I'm somewhat please with the result.

UPDATE:
I created a Version 2 of this HDR scene, using a different set of 7 photos, and I'm much happier with the result. It's the second photos on your right.

Toronto Kickball July 23, 2006

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Originally uploaded by fotograf.416.

Hey Kickballers, photos from the warm up and pre-game shenanigans from the July 23rd game are posted.

For those outside of the kickball circle, these crazy kids on the right are the Morning After Pills.

These are my frist kickball shots with my fancy new Nkon D200 + Sigma 10-20mm...

Europe 2006 - London to Copenhagen

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Originally uploaded by fotograf.416.

EasyJet is about as no frills an airline as you could possibly imagine. No movies, no free food or drinks. They don't even bother assigning you seats! Luckily I was able to push and shove my way ahead of the pack and grabbed a window seat.

I'm pretty happy with this window shot. I've found that one of the tricks is to shoot as early in the flight as possible. The longer you stay at high altitudes, the more frost builds up. That's my tip of the week ;)

Europe 2006 - London - Stansted Airport

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Originally uploaded by fotograf.416.

After dropping of Christine's incredibly heavy extra bag at my buddy Dan Snaith's house (aka Caribou... that's right, I'm name dropping!), it was time to briefly say goodbye to London and head to Copenhagen.

We flew out of Stansted Airport, which was about a 45 minutes train ride from downtown London. After checking in, we had a good 2 hours to kill before boarding out EasyJet flight...

So I broke out the camera, polarizer and captured some shots which I turned into this HDR.

Distillery District @ Night

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Originally uploaded by fotograf.416.

Way back in February I found myself down at the Distillery District for some video game art show. I got to play me some XBox 360, then got borred and when shooting.

After about 15 mintues extreme hypothermia and front bite started to set in, but I managed to get a few decent hand held shots. I'd love to go back with a trip this summer.

Anyways, enjoy!

First Pic with Nokia 6682

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Originally uploaded by fotograf.416.

I just got me a Nokia 6682!

The geek in me is gitty with joy over this new toy!

The music lover in me is hyped about the built in mp3 player.

The photographer in me is reveling in always having a camera at my side.

And to my surprise, it actually takes decent pics! Check out my first snap with the new Nokia 6682.

The Sky Is Angry

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Originally uploaded by fotograf.416.

A violent storm rolled through Toronto last night... The High Park areas lost power for 9 hours. My first act upon the return of the sweet AC was to upload this photo... which also happens to be my first photo posted with my band spank'n new Nikon D200 + Sigma 10-20mm.

My Account of the Storm, as posted on BlogTO:

"I was nearly hit by lighting last night as the bolt struck less than 100m from where I stood. There was a flash, a fierce crack, a tingling in my feet and then a weird rubber band noise as the electrical grid went down, all in less than a second. The speed at which the storm overtook the area was astounding. Less than 5 minutes before the lighting and violent gusts of wind, I was playing tennis under a clear sky.

The power was out in the High Park / Roncesvalles area for over 8 hours, and my nerves were shaken for at least that long. If you have a good storm story, please share."

Europe 2006 - London - Camden Market

I fuck'n love Camden Market. I'd go their every Sunday if I lived in London. The sheer magnitude of its flowing chaos blows my mind.

Great shopping. So many unique things to buy! Great people watching! I even found me a drum circle and a Japanese girl straight out of Harajuku.

The food areas are a bit much. Everyone yelling at you and shoving food in your face. It's really cheap, but you definitely get what you pay for... and then get it again about 45 minutes later.

The last two pictures on the right are two of my favorites from my European vacation. Both are HDR photos produces with slightly different exposure bracketing, and slight different post processing. Neither are quite perfect, but close enough to what I was going for. I'd really love some feedback from you guys as to which one you prefer. Comments and constructive criticism are always appreciated.

Europe 2006 - London - London Eye

We should have known from the ominous clouds that we were pushing our luck going on the London Eye... but come on, it's London, it's always cloudy!

Unfortunately for us, these clouds were determined to ruin our view of London. Less than 2 minutes into the ride the rain started.

Oh well. The view was still spectacular, but the photos could have been much better. I spent most of the ride looking for gaps between the streaks of water from the freshly falling rain.

Quite expensive (what isn't in London), but well worth it.

Europe 2006 - London - Big Ben & Underground

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Originally uploaded by fotograf.416.

It might be a cheesy touristy shot, but I love it. So many iconic symbols of England in one shot: Big Ben, the Underground, cloudy skies, and a pink mini cab! Awesome.

Europe 2006 - London - Notting Hill Tube Station

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Originally uploaded by fotograf.416.

The tube stations in London are so amazing! So old, so grand, so unique... It seriously puts the TTC to shame.

I could literally spend a year of my life photographing the London Underground... maybe I will one day.

Europe 2006 - London - Carnaby St

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Originally uploaded by fotograf.416.

This year I decided to blow all 3 weeks of my vacation time at once with a grandiose 3 week adventure through Europe. My partner in crime was my friend Christine, on her way back from South Africa...

There are a few hundred photos already online, and I'm just finishing up the last 50 or so from Prague. I'll be writing up a post or two about each city I visited so stay tuned!

Our first stop was London, England. Thanks to far too many business trips, I amassed a massive amount of Marriot reward points, which were blown on 3 nights at a fancy hotel near Oxford station.

After struggling through our jetlag, Christine and I headed down to Carnaby St for a little window shopping. Definitely one of my favorite areas of London! It reminded me of Queen St. W in Toronto. I bought a salmon coloured shirt. It's a tough tough shirt. Seriously.

World Cup

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Originally uploaded by fotograf.416.

Unless you've been living in a closet, by now you know Italy won the World Cup, and not to insult Zidane's mother.

After the final penalty kick I headed over to College St. to check out the celebrations. It was no St. Claire West, but it was certainly wild enough for my liking.

New York City

I've been to NYC four times now, and the sheer scale and energy of the city still wows me each time I'm there. Beyond that, it's an amazing city for photography! I'd never be without my camera if I lived there..

My Sunday in NYC was spending wondering Washington Square Park, SOHO and Times Square at night. The skulls are from a store called Evolution on Spring St.

Brooklyn's North American Invitational Kickball Tournament

Last weekend Brooklyn Kickball held their first ever North American Invitational kickball tournament. We might not have brought home the championship, but we won a few games, made a lot of friends and definitely proved that Toronto can kick it!

Thanks to our wonderful organizers Andrew & Sarah, Toronto made an epic entrance to the Brooklyn fields. The Canadian flag, matching uniforms (thanks to American Apparel) and a rather boisterous rendition of Oh Canada were all it took to make a few hundred Americans stop in their tracks and jointly say "check out Canada!".

Toronto fielded two teams, Toronto 1 and Toronto 2... Also known as the Rough Riders! Toronto 2 ran into some, shall we say, technical difficulties in the way of Brooklyn and DC's finest. So we'll just brush over those loses and move on to Toronto 1.

Toronto 1 came out of the gate strong with a near perfect defeat of Providence by a score of 7-0! Props to the Providence kids! They were good sports and kept the game light (Even if they did give everyone pink eye).

Toronto 1's second game was against some thugs from DC called the D-Block. These guys could learn a thing or two about chilling the fuck out and playing by the rules. We beat these losers 5-4, but thanks to some crafty cheating, only came away with an official tie. It probably didn't help that our referees were hammered at this point...

On a personal note, kicking a homerun against DC was one of the highlights of my weekend.

Lastly we faced Brooklyn 3, and, well, it didn't go so good... We were all a little too tired and sun stroked at this point to put up a good fight. Oh well. It hardly hampered what was without a doubt one of the highlights of my summer!

Brooklyn Bound

The drive from Toronto to Brooklyn / NYC was full of adventure. Things started off sketchy with a MacGyver style reattachment of the rear view mirror involving massive amounts of duck tape and superglue... unfortunately the sun was a little too hot, the glue melted, and we were rear-view-mirror-less...

As if Christina's 10 year old Blazer wasn't having enough issues with the mirror, a flying piece of shredded tire took out her right turn signal just outside of Toronto...

But alas we made it!

We decided to take a detour through Times Square which was both mesmerising and horrifying! Christina, get off your cell phone! OMG! AHHHHH!

Gay Pride '06

This year's Gay Pride parade was as wild and crazy as ever!

One thing that has struck me attending the parades year after year, is that increasingly the floats are Corporate in nature: Air Canada, Royal Bank, etc...

On top of that, it seems to be a political stage for everyone from Mayor Miller, to federal Liberal candidates. I'm torn on the issue. On one side it's wonderful that politicians are willing to come out with their support for gay issues. On the other side, it seems like too much like the politicians are simily whoring themselves for votes and using the parade as a stage to be seen...

I must compliment Mayor Miller for handing out water bottles throughout the parade. Truly a live saver. Even if it was one hand with the bottle, the other hand with the classic political hand shake...

Dyke March '06

This years Dyke March was small but entertaining. Best described via pictures...

The Dyke March will never be able to compete with the Gay Pride Parade, but I think it's wonderful that Toronto has parades for both sides of the movement. Very view cities around the world support lesbian issues in this way.

Pride '05

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Originally uploaded by fotograf.416.

In preparation for this years Dyke March and Pride Parade, I finally got around to posting last years Pride pictures...

King Khan @ The Comfor Zone NXNE

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Originally uploaded by fotograf.416.

One of the most entertaining and lively shows I've ever seen. A definite highlight of NXNE.

Full review posted at blogTO.

Malajube @ Lee's Palace

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Originally uploaded by fotograf.416.

Thanks to the blogTO connections I scored some guest list action to see Malijube at Lee's last week.

Amazing show! The guys blew my mind!

Read my blogTO review.

...and check out "Fille a Plumes" on their myspace page.

Ladytron @ The Opera House

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Originally uploaded by fotograf.416.

Ladytron kicked some serious ass!

Read my blogTO review.

Missing from the review is my undying love for Mira... or maybe just my temporary infatuation. Not only was she hawt, but she had the more intense stare. She quite literally eye fucked the crowd for an hour and a half.

Ciao Jenna

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Originally uploaded by fotograf.416.

Our good friend Jenna is off to Van City until July. We shall miss her...

...that is, after we recover from the drunkest party in recent (barely function) memory.

Zoi Zoi

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Originally uploaded by fotograf.416.

So many photos, so little blogging...

An old pic from back in March at one of Chris's fine Zoi Zoi parties. Ronda's give'n Chris the stare down. Way to go Ronda; you keep him honest... or at least as honest as an asian man trapped in a white mans body can be.

Lots of drunk pics in the flickr set.

Kickball Spring Training

Kickball Pre-Season hasn't even started yet and I've already got 66 photos online! This could get a little rediculous by the time the season is over...

If you live in or around Toronto, you're over 19, and you like to act like a kid and kick ball then come on out!

Pre-Season starts this Sunday!!!

TorontoKickball.com

The Andreas Turn 25

Last Friday night we celebrated the Andreas turning 25 with a rock'n karaoke, twister, glow-in-the-dark-glasses, tiaras, bubbles and more jello shotters than I can remember party!

It's all a bit of a blur so I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...

Oh yeah, and I was punched for taking this picture. I'm still not sure why this is the "most unflattering angle ever". I think the picture is fun. Leave a comment you lazy fucks...

Happy Birthday Andreas!!!

Andrew

Andrew's my homie... he drove me to The Opera House for CYHSY.

Then he kicked Christina and I's asses at connect 4. I want a rematch!

No we're not gay... Not that there's anything wrong with that...

CYHSY @ The Opera House

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah rocked The Opera House this past Saturday. Great show! Tones of new tunes, most of which sounded great. The new songs were generally along the same lines as their previous album, but slightly more refined, as one might expect as they mature as artists.

My one complaint about the show was the sound system. Maybe it was just where I was standing (front-right), but the levels seemed totally off. Alec Ounsworth's vocals weren't nearly loud enough. Take away the vocals and CYHSY sound just like any other indie-pop-rock band.

Opening for CYHSY was The Brunettes from New Zealand. Initially I was very impressed with these guys. The general consensus was that they sound like Architecture in Helsinki. Unfortunately as time went on, they began to sound a bit mediocre and my attention started to wonder... They quickly grabbed it back with a very odd song, involving creepy masks, about Mary Kate & Ashley. It's beyond words; check the pics...

Oh yeah, the pics... Not really as good as I was hoping for. Really tall people shouldn't be allowed to stand front row centre.

Toronto International Air Show 2005

This is my last large photos set from last summer that I've been meaning to upload. I took about 300+ photos and managed to cut it down to 65. The photos were a lot harder to edit than I expected. Auto Leveling caused the sky to go some funky colours. Auto Contrast cause the sky to go either too bright or too dark, and usually caused the planes to become very dark and lose all detail. Needless to say, many hours were spent with photoshop manually editing levels until I just didn't care anymore... so some of the photos could probably use a re-edit.

I can't wait to try again this year now that I've got UV and Circular Polarizer filters for my camera. I have a feeling they will be very helpful in capturing the true colour of the sky, and reducing glare. The UV filter should also help reduce the atmospheric haze that killed a lot of the detail in my shots.

Cherry Beach

Here's another hella old photos set for y'all. At the end of last summer Laura, DC and I finally made it down to Cherry Beach for their final party of the summer.

The fire and glow stick play made for some really fun photos.

Besides that it was just lots of techno and dirty hippies...

Pro-AM World Hip Hop Conference 2006

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Originally uploaded by fotograf.416.

We the bloggers of blogTO get a lot of invites, so I to finally take advantage of this. A few emails and a phone call later and Lenny-D hook up a media pass to the Pro-AM World Hip Hop Conference 2006.

I had to work for my free pass though. My friend Erica and I spend about an hour on the red carpet taking pictures of "celebrities", most of which were just bboys and relatively unheard of Canadian R&B artists.

Eventually we started to crack for the sheer torturous boredom of it all, so we bailed on the red carpet and went and watched the bboys and bgirls who had started a large circle in the middle of The Opera House.

By the time the show finally got started we had to leave for a friend's house party... You gotta put your real homies first.

NewMindSpace Happy Birthday Lori Subway Party

Lori of NewMindSpace celebrated her birthday in style a few weeks ago with a wild Dr. Seuss themed subway party!

The party goers and pbloggers met up at Finch station around 11:10 pm. The last car on the subway was boarded and the party very quickly kicked into high gear complete with costumes, drums, decorations, candy and lots of blasting techno. These parties are definitely turning slightly more rave focused.

Unfortunately the emergency bar was pushed accidentally once. Not too bad considering how overly crowded the subway was. Seriously, it was brutally hot in there. There was zero oxygen. I was getting intoxicated from carbon dioxide.

When the subway high St. George station the cops decided to finally step in and tried to put an end to the party. This was my last stop so I took off and didn't see how things panned out. From other peoples pictures it appears that party eventually continued...

Happy Birthday Lori! So what are we going to do for Kevin's bday? Capture the flag?

Akron Family @ The Music Gallery

Back in March Akron Family returned to Toronto as part of their North American tour heavily weighted with Canadian venues. These Brooklyn boys are quickly becoming Toronto favorites. At first I was apprehensive about seeing such an exhibitionist band at The Music Gallery, a church, where I thought there antics might be stifled. Fortunately for us, Akron showed how versatile a rock band they are.

Entering through the back of the church, they started off by the show with a little jam session involving some acoustics and a lion on stick. Yeah, you really just had to be there. Unfortunately they were suffering from a colds, but luckily someone in the friendly Toronto crowd came to their rescue with Vicks, and was promised non-drug-related compensation at the end of the show. A highlight of the night was during one of their long psychedelic rock outs, they moved from the stage to the grand piano, and then added the church's organ.

The night started off with the lovely Laura Barrett. This was my first time seeing her live and I was extremely impressed with her charm and witty lyrics. Truly whimsical. It's amazing what she can do with that kalimba. I was also quite impressed with her side kick Richard on the standup bass. They are by far the freshest sound I've heard come out of Toronto since Final Fantasy.

Don Bridge Queen St E HDR

I guess I've officially jumped on the HDR bandwagon now. If you don't know what HDR is, you basically combine multiple images at different exposures to give you detail in both the bright and dark parts of your photos. It's all pretty complicated, and it's kind of cheating, but it's also the way of the future. Maybe I'll write more about it later. I used a program called Photomatix, but there are lots of great HDR tools out there, including built in support in Photoshop CS2.

It was about -30C the day I took these photos, and extremely windy. I literally almost got frost bite. It took 20 minutes in my car with the heat on high and my hands in front of the vents before I could drive home. Well worth it in the long run, but damn that was painful. Gotta suffer for the art, right?

Heather's Jogging Pants Party

Heather throws kick ass parties! But when I read the evite for her jogging pants themed party, I was a little skeptical. Shame on me. Goooood frick'n times!

Props to Evan for bringing the homemade over sized jenga game! Soooo much fun! They really need to start mass producing these.

And double props to Heidi and Jo for letting me takes pictures of their cleavage. These are far and away my most popular photos. Come on, everyone loves boobs. And these sweeties have some lovely lady lumps ;)

The Constantines @ The Opera House

As part of my on going "let's upload all those old pictures I never got around to uploading" series, I've FINALLY got my Constantines pictures online from their show back in November.

It was a fabulous show! The Hold Steady opened with some solid rock. Their keyboardist was frick'n hilarious! Dude had a mother fuck'n handlebar mustache and was drinking from a 1.5L bottle of wine (or maybe it was a magnum of Champaign).

The Constantines rocked out hard. It was a flawless set with lots of cameo's. I was already a huge fan, but this solidified things. These guys are frick'n awesome...

Tenth Annual 416 Graffiti Expo

I took these graf pics last summer at the Tenth Annual 416 Graffiti Expo. If yah don't know, this is a yearly event held in the big parking lot between Spadina and Bathurst on the south side of Queen St, and the back allies just south of Queen.

The 416 Graffiti Expo is a blast every year, and this year was no exception. The graf was stellar, the hip hop was fresh and the bboys and bgirls busted some phat moves for hours in the blazing heat...

This is one of my last sets from '05 to be posted. I put off editing these for a while simply due to the sheer number of photos. When it was all said and done, the graffiti pics alone took up 14 flickr pages! It also took up about a week of my free time spent editing these photos in photoshop. For most of the photos all I did was adjust the levels and added a bit of saturation. I can't even image how long this would have taken if I'd really tried to tweak every foto.

Whatever. It's done now. If you love graf check these pics out cuz some of this graf is just amazing! My personal favorite is the foto where a little girl ran in front of my camera. Her dad must have apologized to me 10x; little did he know she made my day. I think my favorite thing about these expos is how it gives me the ability to take fotos of incomplete graf still being worked on. It gives me much more of an appreciation for how these amazing pieces are created, and the time, effort and skill that goes into them.

...almost time for next yeas Expo!

Going Up

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Originally uploaded by fotograf.416.

One Thursday night in February, after playing poker at Dave's place, I started my walk down to The Speakeasy to see Anagram play... Despite the fact that it was about negative ten billion degrees, I couldn't resist breaking out the camera and trying to get a picture of this building. The reflection off of the building behind me producing an upward arrow was just too perfect. Hand held shots weren't working out (possibly due to frost bite), so I did my best to use a fire hydrant as a tripod... and this is the result.

Henry Rollins @ Convocation Hall

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Originally uploaded by fotograf.416.

Henry Rollins in totally insane and a complete masochist. He's also pretty much the closest thing I have to an idol (yes, me to Alain). This guy jumps into things head first and NEVER backs down from a challenge. I fuck'n love his outlook on life! He'll bring you to stitches and scare the crap out of you at the same time. Fuck'n brilliant! Or insane. It's a bit of a gray area.

If you ever get the chance to see him live, DO IT!

Alley Jaunt

Back in August I spent a day biking around the back allies near Trinity Bellwoods checking out random art displays in random peoples garages... and what an amazing day it was!

They basically went door to door asking every house owner in the area if they could use their garage for a weekend. If I recall correctly, there were about 16 stops, with chalk marking the path between exhibits. The plush city was my favorite! There was also some cool blown glass work and photography.

Just north of Bellwoods I found some huge and very colourful flowers swarming with bees. Me not having much sense, got right up close for some crazy macro shots. Seriously, check out the full sized images and prepare for your mind to be blown.

Goin' Steady @ The Boat

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Originally uploaded by fotograf.416.

A few pics from the last Goin' Steady 50s party at The Boat have been posted. There's another one happening this Friday. Check it out!

There are also a few pics from The Constantines show at The Horseshoe in this set. Good show, but I was way too far back to get a decent pic. I've said this a million times and I'll keep saying it. I hate The Horseshoe.

Anagram @ The Speakeasy

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Originally uploaded by fotograf.416.

Not quite as bitch ass late as the Meligrove pictures, but pretty frick'n late none the less...

Anagram were awesome as always. People moshed, lead dude smoked cigarettes, then moshed, then smoked some more... many bottles were thrown. It was anarchy, and that's what we came for...

Meligrove CD Release Party @ The Mod Club

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Originally uploaded by fotograf.416.

These pictures are crazy late... I'm a lazy fuck, sue me.

Many many thanks to John for lending me his memory card after my dumb ass forgot mine!

Basically, Meligrove kicked ass... I see a bright future for these boys.

Happy Birthday Michelle!

Last Saturday, or somewhere close to that, was Michelle's birthday. If you don't know Michelle, well, then that’s your loss cuz she's pretty frick'n awesome. She's also got some kickass friends who brought lots of treats, gifts, games, and of course, the love...

The evening started off with a birthday pre-party at the Markham house. Cake was eaten, pin the horn on the unicorn was played (apparently donkey's aren't hip anymore), and much alcohol was consumed.

Then it was off to Zoi Zoi at the Boat for some French pop, dancing and further consumption of alcohol. Generally good times, although the vibe at The Boat seemed a bit off. I can't tell if it was the lack of people there (they got busted down by the fire martial, so now they actually have to adhere to their capacity limit of 120-150), or if it was due to the advertising in the dreaded 905...

After I left the birthday partying crew, I walked up to college for Sophisticated Boom Boom at Rancho Relaxo... And all I can say is "wow, what a party!!!". Scottie was all over the map with the music, but somehow managed to lay down crowd pleasing trax after crowd pleasing trax. The dance floor was jumping all night! I'll definitely be going to Scottie's next event!

Loser Curling

New Loser Curling photos posted.

I got some sweet ass motion blurrs with these shots. The subject has a fair amount of sharpness and detail, while the background has an intense blurr. Check out the full size pictures to see what I'm talking about.

I used my wide angle lens for most of these shots. For a few of the later shots I added a polarizer filter. It's still hard to tell how much the filter helps.

Never Forgive Action @ Gypsy Co-op

If you love the hip and/or hop, don't miss the next Never Forgive Action! There is no night in Toronto with better old skool hip hip....

...and fine ladies. but i've got a girlfriend, so you check out the fine ladies, and I'll check out the hippen and the hoppin.

...and ghost djs! OMG!

this post needs to end. now.

for a more coherent review of Never Forgive Action @ Gypsy Co-op: blogTO: Never Forgive Action @ Gypsy Co-op

Toronto Kickball Fundraiser

The Toronto Kickball Fundraiser was an amazing success! Not only did the party kick some serious ass, but we raised over $400!!! Ryan, Michelle, Alex and everyone else involved in throwing the party did an amazing job!

Girlfriend Material started off the night with their first and last show ever, due to a fitting name change to Shitt Hottt. That's right, count the T's, 5! They're that eff'n hottt!

Boyfriend Material came on second and rocked out hard! Alex was give'n'er on the mic!

Beth in Battle Mode had a great sound and an awesome stage (basement) presence! I see big things for this band...

The Code Name Laurentians were amazing as always. You rock Royal!

Wide Angle @ Eaton Centre

Back in late January I went on my first urban adventure with my new Tiffen Wide Angle 0.75x lens.

I took this opportunity to finally get some pictures of Michael Snow's "Flight Stop".

It was difficult to get well exposed shots without over-exposing the skylights. John recommended using HDR, but that would have required a tripod, lots of time, and actually knowing how to produce HDR images (one day soon I'll learn).

I'm pretty satisfied with my photoshop edits now. I was able to brighten the images without maxing out the high-ends or losing too much detail.

I'll probably go back to the Eaton Centre soon and give it another go with a tripod and my circular polarizer filter. I'm very curious to see if this helps produce a higher dynamic range.

Oh yeah, I also got some fun pictures of the high rise attached to the Eaton Centre, and I really like the picture of the water fountain taken from a level above.

Code Name Laurentians @ The Bagel & Sneaky Dee's

If you love the Code Name Laurentians (and why wouldn't you), jump on over to flickr and check out two new photos sets from their shows at The Bagel and Sneaky Dee's.

The set from The Bagel was a long time in coming, as the show was from back on November 17th. This was the first time I saw Royal and the gang, and I instantly fell in love with their sound. The Bagel on the other hand is frick'n puny and left no room for rocking out, but the beer was $2.50 a bottle, so I'll let it slide...

The set from Sneaky Dee's was taken on January 14th. This was the best turn out I've seen to a Code Name's show, and Sneaky Dee's is a fabulous venue for both rocking out and photography. It wasn't the best performance I've seen from the Code Names, but quite enjoyable none-the-less.

Oh yeah, and I got some fun pics of a disco-ball type light at The Bagel... ewwh, trippy.

Kickball Bowling @ Bathurst Bowlerama

The Toronto Kickball Crew met up Sunday for some off-season shenanigans at Bathurst Bowlerama for some wicked bowling fun.

Yumi edged out Alain and myself with a 10th frame spare-strike combo to secure her victory with scores of 114, 113 and 112 (yeah, we suck).

Jenna, Graeme and John got a slew of style points with their unconventional 360s and granny style bowling.

I'm not sure who organized the group shot, but the matching of bowling balls to shirt colours was a brilliant idea! Once again, the kickball kids make for amazing subjects.

This was one of my first outings with my new Tiffen x0.75 wide-angle lens. I've been really happy with the results so far. The lens produces crisp shots, with minimal barrel distortion, and allows lots of room for cropping.

I was less impressed with my new polarizer filter as it reduced the light intake far too much and required a shutter speed far too slow for such high motion photography. I should have tried combining the filter with a flash. Oh well, live and learn.

UPDATE:

I added a few more pics:
- more bus pics
- the pics john took of me... i do have good form. thanks for noticing andrew.
- pics of graeme's crazy 360 moves