Day 62

Last Night We Were There

I returned to the scene of yesterdays crime, the Milky way lane. I'm somewhat hesitant to feature graffiti in the project because it is someone else art work, and frankly I can't even give credit to them.

but these two pieces screamed out and asked me to shoot them. If it is too small to ready, the bubble over the boy on the triceratops says "Last night they....where here..."

Day 63

The Milky Way

After a night spend with good friends on my favourite patio The Rhino, Bruna and Tyler joined me in the Milky way to capture this shot. It just so happened Ty was wearing his Play Dead gear, so we used their building as the backdrop.

Day 64

Fighting Fire with Fire.

a Young couple scurries across the rush crossing a Yonge and Dundas, Canada's busiest intersection. On the left in the sky light up the AMC building, which we just found out this week is broke. I don't really have any feeling towards the building and really just feel it is a cheap attempt at mimicking Time square, but it is a land mark and thus in the project.

The high light of tonight which isn't captured was down at Harbour Front and a screening of Stop Making Sense, a Talking Heads live concerts, if you haven't seen it do your self a favor and track it down.

Day 65

Life's a beach.

Toronto's water front is one of the city's great contradictions. There is a big old lake with water you can't usually swim in, big green open spaces that are cut off from the city by up to 12 lanes of traffic, and Canadian geese that want to kill you for just taking their photos.

Day 66

A fish out of water.

Aaron joined me this afternoon and we got some really good results. The first shot was taken in High Park and second in Lake Ontario.

Day 67

22 the death of all romance.

Two Muskoka chairs sit empty at HTO water park. In the back ground rain soaks Toronto island, not that it much matters, with the ferry service on strike there is hardly anyone over there. The clouds did part long enough for the Dears to put on a stellar free show, and with the weather keeping most at home it was a very intimate gig.

Day 68


The eureka moment.

Something pretty magical happened this morning on the way to do laundry. I had just stepped out my door and turned the corner on the way to the laundromat and there it was.

My grade 12 final project in photography was to do a 12 month calendar, because Steveston is a picturesque place most in the class did kind of typical beautiful shots of sunsets and the boats in the docks. I took 12 of my stuffed animals I had as a kid and dirtied them up and made them act as if there were homeless begging for food-money-love. The thing was I had to fake it. This morning I didn't.

I was able to get a glimpse back into my 17 year old mind, and it really has made me realize I am exactly where I want to be as a photographer.

Day 69

Welcome to the family

This morning I got to witness for the first time a Canadian Citizenship ceremony. I believe it was 89 people from 29 countries, including my business partner his wife and daughter, all joined our Canadian family.

Today I was reminded how much sacrifice a person must make to come to our country and start a new life, and how lucky we are to have them join us.

Day 70

Toronto Flat Iron Building.


Build in 1892 it was the first flat iron building in a major city in North America. I'm really not too sure if it has a colourful history - but I do know it has a great little pub in the basement that I've been known to shine the bar with the sleeves of my coat.

Day 71

Desperately Seeking Susan.


One of the really fun things that happens in Toronto every summer is on Wed nights they play free movies down at the Harbour Front. Tonight was Madonna in the above mentioned title.

80's cheese combines wit cheap beer and popcorn is always a wining formula, not to mention blast from the past MM vj Erica Ehm hosted the night!

Day 72

The Queen West staring contest.

Living on Queen West lends itself to so many photo opportunities. Even while on a trip to shoppers in search for a cure to my stomach issues I knew I was bound to come across something.

This is the outside of the Cameron House. It is a great little live music venue in the city.

Day 73

The King and Dufferin train track underpass.

The contrast between where I was when I took this shot and 24 hours earlier has really made me realize that I must make an effort to get outside the hustle of the city more often.

I never really did realize just how bad the city does smell .

Day 75

The calm before the storm.

After finding I had spent most of the night cuddled up with a snake in my tent I had a bit of a tough time getting back to sleep. So I got up at 430am and got to catch this amazing sunrise.

Moon River.

Day 75

The calm before the storm.

After finding I had spent most of the night cuddled up with a snake in my tent I had a bit of a tough time getting back to sleep. So I got up at 430am and got to catch this amazing sunrise.

Moon River.

Day 76

Oldest rock on earth.

This was my first attempt at camping, we went to Moon River in Muskoka, which is in the boreal forest, and is part of the Canadian shield.

Moon River.

Day 77

False Advertising

Well I was really going to to try an avoid including the City of Toronto strike in my project but I just could pass up on this blatant display of false advertising.

It is only day 24 but certain parts of the city are getting ugly.

As part of the strike ferry service to Toronto island has been canceled. I can tell you it did not account for half the fun during my weekly excursions to my favourite place in Toronto.

I'm away camping this weekend, so no new updates until Tuesday.

Day 78

1499 Jumbotron central.


Mr
Phillipe Boutin in front of the jumbotron.

Day 79

Little Miss Alley way

Beautiful Bruna was kind enough to be my day 79 subject last night. While celebrating our good friend Vinnie's birthday we snuck out into the back alley to get this shot.

Day 80

Hangin' out with the ducks in Chinatown.

Day 81

Everyone's a critic

A pigeon takes a peak at the crowd during the final day of the outdoor arts festival at city hall.

Day 82

Day becomes night, where the lake meets the land.

Day 83

Never a frown with golden brown.

On a lazy summer Friday evening the sky turned golden as it set for the night. The is the Royal Ontario Museum or ROM with the new Crystal addition to the building.

Day 84

The world is flat.

Cherry beach, Toronto.

Day 85

The Art Gallery of Ontario or AGO.

A little look a t the out and inside of the magnificent job Frank Gehry did in retrofitting the building.

Day 86

Poi fire dancer at Bellwoods.

Thanks to John(the human tripod) for helping me out this evening as we captured a shot of a poi performer at the Drummers in Exile at Bellwoods. Every Tuesday during the summer 200-500 people come together in the bowl at bellwodds and bang on anything they can and dance their asses off until 11pm.

Day 87

It's gonna rain.

Just a moment in time on Queen Street West.

Day 88

1812 we won.

Canada is what it is today in part because of the victory in the war of 1812. This is a sculpture by Vancouver artist Douglas Coupand. It stands at the corner of Fleet and Bathurst here in Toronto, just meters from Old Fort York, the staging ground from where British forces held off the American invasion .
This sculpture depicts a British toy soldier standing over a defeated American toy soldier. History books are presently being rewritten south of the 49th claiming victory for the War of 1812, but we put up a cute memorial first- so we win yet again.

Day 89

I'm constantly amazed at the size of some of the sky scrapers in this city. Not necessarily for the engineering involved to construct them, but simply the crazy complexity it must take to coordinate getting all the thousands of people in and out of them everyday.

Day 90

My apartment's entrance is off an alleyway, on the opposite side there is a collective of guys that have reclaimed an abandoned hotel. They scavenge for materials, fix them up and resell the stuff. One of their more odd items are these recycled paper mannequins, as you can see they don't hold up t well in the rain.

Day 91

The weather cleared up for me this afternoon, John was nice enough to join me at bellwoods for a quick couple shots, even after last nights marathon drinking session to celebrate Canada day.

Day 92

Canadian BJ.
spent our nations 142nd bday with the boys in blue..errr red, the Blue Jays were actually wearing red today. Good crow, great win. I climb to the 500 level to try to capture this shot of the skydome just as the fireworks ended.

Day 93

Rain drop keep falling on my head....well not really, it is really a hack job at my first attempt to catch a water drop, I guess it is kinda in homage to all the wet weather we're having yet again this summer.

Day 94

With the amount of rain we're getting lately in this city I almost feel like I've moved back to Vancouver already.
Stuck in doors I grabbed my go-to model extraordinaire, I present to you "the faces of dale"

Day 95

Wow only 5 days into the assignment and I'm already realizing how tough this may be.

After a long days of work and some poor weather that stopped me from getting anything done at sunrise, I made it home and headed out down towards the lake. This is a shot of the Princess Gate, it is the entrance to the CNE ( for peeps in Van it is basically the PNE on steroids)

Glad I got the little flare rainbow in there, it'll be my little "happy Pride" symbol for all you celebrating this weekend.

Day 96

This is my friend Olivia. For the last couple years in Toronto she has been a constant a we've traveled through the same circles of friend just often at different times. She has a heart of gold, and made my job as a photographer pretty easy.

Taken in High Park.

Day 97

This is a shot of my new cat Dale in his favourite spot in the window. Sure he is a bit of a jerk, but over all still pretty awesome.

Day 98

Ireland Park.

After having a big old summer storm this afternoon I was a bit stumped as to what I was going to shoot today. Luckily the skies cleared so I hopped on my bike and headed towards the lake. I actually expected to take a T.O skyline shot, but stumbled across the somber park.

Tucked away at the foot of Bathurst street right on the lake, it is called Ireland Park. I couldn't get any hard information but from a conversation I had down there, it is a monument to all those who suffered through the potato famine, and fled Ireland for Canada.

Day 99

Trinity Bellwoods Park.

This is the main entrance to Bellwoods park on West Queen West. It is the closest thing I would have to a "yard" here in Toronto, it has been the scene to many a lost night of park drinking, frisbee playin, nuit blanch trippin and drums a banging.

Day 100

The Cuban Alley

This is Ernesto my good friend and business partner at QSQ. We met working side by side in a photo lab a couple years ago and hatched the crazy idea to open our own business together. Little did we know at the time that this was basically like getting married.

Through the ups and downs, and there have been many i couldn't have asked for a better person to go through it with(even if his hair is a bit Side Show Bob'esque)

The Last 100 Days Photo Project

June 23rd 2009 started the 100 count down until I move back to Vancouver.

I have been living in Toronto for the last 9 years, during those years I've met some great people, seen some great things and developed my skills as a photographer. I hope to over the coarse of this project to be able to show you Toronto through my eyes.

The boundaries are very loose, and I'm really not too sure what I'll end up with each.

All I know is 1 photo each day, taken on that day for 100 days.

thanks for watching