Working the Night Shift, New York City

Photographed outside Radio City Music Hall, New York City, October, 2012

Post-Apocolyptic Beach

Actually, it’s Sugar Beach in Toronto. Personally, I find it hard enough to get into the beach-going spirit in man-made sunning spots, where the sand is kept within a neat patch of land surrounded by sidewalks and large buildings. It doesn’t exactly scream “day at the beach.” However, when there’s a large rusty tanker dominating the view from your Muskoka chair it completely kills the illusion.

 

 

The image of people at the beach with the tanker in the background evokes a post-apocolyptic city — a manufactured urban landscape, synthetic, even toxic. The funny thing is, the adjoining park and boardwalk near the Chorus entertainment building, and the building itself, is quite nice. In a city where condo developers (or more recently, enterprising casino builders) circle around empty patches of waterfront like birds of prey, it’s not a bad place to visit on a sunny afternoon. Just don’t turn your head to the right.

Lamps on the Boardwalk

I got lucky here. No tripod. No solid surface to shoot from. Clear evening. The only bench on the Dufferin Terrace Boardwalk that wasn’t occupied. A camera that has a tendency to shoot less than crisp images.

Shot on a recent trip to Quebec City. The city never fails to inspire.

Lollipops on the Train (A True Story)

Photo courtesy of Benurs - Learning and learning... via Flickr (CC)

I saw this really sweet, genuine situation play out on the subway after work the other day and I’ve been meaning to write about it. This is all 100% true, which is why I want to share it:

An upbeat, joyful girl, probably around 22 or so, came walking through our crowded subway car during rush hour, handing out lollipops to strangers. She was sweet and trying to spread a little happiness to us weary commuters. She approached a really timid, somewhat lonely looking guy and asked him if he wanted one. Being that she was very beautiful and clearly very forward, the guy looked away shyly and shook his head.

She moved on, sitting at the other end of the car went and began talking with some other people she just met and gave lollipops to. After a few subway stops the really timid guy got up and walked across the car and over to the girl. In front of all the people gathered around he reached into his jacket, pulled out a large Dairy Milk bar, and handed it to her. She was overjoyed and thanked him. All the people she was sitting with applauded his effort and she was beaming with happiness. You could tell it took all his courage to make that simple but bold move. The guy then went back to his original seat without saying a word to the girl or anyone else. He didn’t stop smiling all the way to his stop, and neither did many of the previously grumpy commuters, including myself.

Two strangers on a crowded train during rush hour in the big city, offering gifts without asking for or expecting anything in return. Brilliant.

Photo by Benurs – Learning and learning…

“What light through yonder window breaks….”

“In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary.” — Aaron Rose

A collection of shots I took in the Distillery District, Toronto

Silhouettes and Cobblestone

 

Shot in the Distillery District, Toronto, 2012

Hot Dog Cart in the Snow

I took this shot from inside a bus shelter as an evening snowfall picked up in Toronto a few weeks ago. I didn’t want my camera to get soaked, and I happened to get lucky that shelter’s glass wall was relatively clean. So clean, in fact, that you can see the reflection of the McDonald’s arches in them.

Focus 365 — Not a Sunset, but a Sunrise

This is the 365th post in my Focus 365 series — a supplement to Bastard Type.

For those not familiar with Focus 365, it was a little project I started on January 1st, 2011 in an effort to share a photo for each day of the year. The idea was to try and put some good vibes back out into the world through art and creativity. Sometimes I missed a day or two and caught up the next day. Sometimes, like in recent months after my hiring on at Zoomer magazine combined with freelance work I’ve been doing, I missed weeks at a time and had to update with multiple photos per day to catch up. I was completely fine with that and it was worth it.

The was certainly a good year to take on the Focus 365 challenge. Over the year I posted photos from Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City, Florence, Rome, Siena and New York City. In that year this blog’s audience grew by the thousands, and I can’t thank everyone enough.

For the record, the top five Focus 365 blog posts were, in order:

Peeling Restaurant (November 21)
The Beautiful Discovery of Henri Cartier-Bresson (February 20)
Bacchus to the Future (May 14)
The Accidental Genius of Eugène Atget (May 12)
Heating it Up with Erin English (July 20)

As the title of this post says, the image above is not a sunset, but a sunrise. I look forward to continuing this blog into 2012, meeting even more wonderful readers and bloggers who I’ve chatted with and even come to know on Facebook and Twitter, and interacting with people around the world through art and writing on this blog.

Thank you all for validating my belief that art grows communities and brings constructive energy with it. This small corner of the internet has seen that happen over the last year, and I look forward to continuing with writing and posting photos on here while watching it grow even more in 2012.

Prayers for blessings and good will in this new year.

Sincerely,

MC
January, 2012

Montreal Graffiti Art

I came across this building while walking through Montreal a few months ago. It’s just off Rue St. Catherine, not far from Rue St. Laurent. I’m not sure if it’s an homage to a specific person or just a beautiful piece of art, but anyone who doesn’t think that graffiti art has a place in civic life is sorely mistaken. I’d take the vibrant colours and creative passion that went into this artwork over the cold, plain, glass and steel walls of the countless condos popping up like acne all over Toronto any day.

In a city like Montreal or Toronto, there’s enough space for the condos and the creative/created space to co-exist (and while codes can be creative, in the great development race that has engulfed Toronto they rarely are) but it seems like we’re being overrun with the former at the expense of the latter.

Whoever created the above artwork, congratulations. You did a fantastic job.

Unicycle (Abandoned)

An abandoned unicycle on the streets of Montreal.

Photographed 2011

Colourful Street

My beautiful girlfriend walking up a street in the old part of Quebec City. She’s wearing my favourite purple dress and it’s as if the colour flowed from her body to the walls and doors as she walked up the hill.

For more images of Kristina and our trip to Quebec, click here.

Laid Back on the Boardwalk

Photographed on the Dufferin Terrace Boardwalk, Quebec City, 2011

Pulling a Sled in Central Park

Photographed in Central Park in December 2010 after the sixth largest blizzard in the history of New York. We arrived the evening before and the city was white with blowing snow and cars were buried under the white stuff — the photos I took of the snow are posted here. This shot was taken between 8:30 and 9:00 the next morning at the south end of the park. As dad pulled junior in the sled, mom trudged along behind them, rounding a mountain of snow in the background.

The City

Photographed on the subway in Toronto after I’d finished reading the paper and was bored.

Hanging Purple Garden of Florence, Italy

Photographed in the Giardino di Boboli in Florence, Italy, 2010

Are they lilacs? I think so, but then again, I think every flower this colour is a lilac. I’d make a terrible botanist.