Author: Tom

A Day at The Toronto Zoo

by Tom

I’ve got to say ever since getting the new teleconverter extender for the 70- 200mm lens I’ve really been itching to use it. The Air Show was a good opportunity but it was a bit of a failure on my part because I wasn’t prepared with my batteries.

American Flamingo
Brightly coloured American Flamingos

In August, my girlfriend and I had agreed that we were going to go to the Toronto Zoo but unfortunately mechanical issues with my car forced us to change our plans. We then decided on date in mid-September which was good for both of us, as it turns out the weather on this particular day was perfect, the sky was blue and there was plenty of bright sunshine with virtually no cloud cover and it wasn’t overly hot so the animals were active.

 

I was super excited because not only is the zoo interesting from an educational standpoint but many of the animals are exotic and have brightly coloured fur and feathers.

 

Blue and Yellow Macaw
Blue and Yellow Macaw

The first problem that I ran into almost immediately was that I tried to use teleconverter all the time even when it was utterly unnecessary. I had to kick myself in the head a few times to actually detach it from the 70 to 200 mm lens. Once I removed the teleconverter I was able to lower my f-stop number but still keep my subject matter crisp and in focus and I really did learn where to use the teleconverter and where not to.

 

While the outdoor exhibits were relatively easy to shoot they did provide their own unique challenges, for example some of the animal enclosures have fairly tight metal meshing which meant I had to get the lens right up to the fence to see through the metal otherwise it would’ve provided for an ugly photo.

 

Some of the outdoor enclosures were also heavily shaded and some of the animals such as the Tigers wanted to sit in the shade. Not only did this put them relatively far away from me but it also meant I would have to use a much slower shutter speed with the extender while still trying to keep everything in focus without shaking the camera and creating motion blur.

 

Arctic Fox
Arctic Fox – taken looking through metal fencing & thick glass
 

Lastly some of the outdoor exhibits had very thick glass which naturally distorts light and also creates a very hazy look to the photos. The only way around this was to look for parts of the glass that were clean (no dirt) and focus the best shots looking straight through the glass at a 90° angle.

Without a doubt the indoor exhibits at the zoo proved the most challenging to photograph. Many of the exhibits had a mixed system of plexiglass and metal fencing somewhat obstructing the animals and the lighting was also very dim compared to the outdoors. One of the exhibits which housed naked mole rats and a number of various types of bats had virtually no light; I had to force the camera and lens to its limit in order to achieve usable photos.

 

In another case the lemurs were relatively easy to photograph since they weren’t obstructed however due to lighting conditions I was forced to use a lower shutter speed and unlike the other animals these guys were just crazy hyper, they would not stop moving for one second, I think I took about 200 photos only to achieve six or seven which are actually usable that I was happy with.

 

I had some similar frustrations with the North American river otters, between distortion from the glass barrier and the fact that they were moving at what felt like supersonic speeds underwater I had to take a plethora of images only to achieve a handful that I was satisfied with.

 

Baby Kangaroo & Momma
Mother Kangaroo & baby Joey in her pouch
 

Out of all the exhibits at the zoo that I saw one of my favorite moments was at the end of the day. The zoo was technically closed and my girlfriend and I were slowly making our way out when we stopped by the Australian Kangaroo exhibit. I noticed a rather large kangaroo standing not overly far away and I began taking photos and realized when I was reviewing them that this kangaroo had a baby Joey tucked into her pouch. It was one of those photos that simply make your heart melt.

 

All in all I had a great time at the Toronto Zoo it was fun working with the numerous challenges presented but it was also great to see all these animals out and about and make use of my photographic tools to their fullest extent. The Zoo is also a world class facility, all the animals are well taken care of and the zoo grounds are massive so you get a good workout too!

 

American FlamingoBabirusaBabirusaBabirusaMandarin duckMalayan tapir
Lion-tailed MacaqueLion-tailed MacaqueLion-tailed MacaqueLion-tailed MacaqueSumatran TigerSumatran Tiger
Sumatran TigerLake Malawi cichlidsLake Malawi cichlidsEgyptian Fruit BatEgyptian Fruit BatEgyptian Fruit Bat
Naked mole-ratNaked mole-ratRed river hogRed river hogRed river hogAfrican elephant

Toronto Zoo, a set on Flickr.

The complete set from my trip to the Toronto Zoo

Street Festivals

by Tom

I can’t say I’m the biggest fan of street festivals; in fact I probably would not go out of my way to find a street festival but on a weekend with nothing to do, they can often fill the void.

Scot Free 1
I gave Scot a few dollars for his wonderful  performance

A couple weeks ago my mother said “hey let’s go to the Polish festival”. Now it was not a totally random thing, we were planning to meet up with some family friends who are polish. We had them over for a BBQ and they wanted to repay us for the favour. Unfortunately, things did not pan out, our friend who is a real-estate broke ran into an emergency and needed to quickly close a deal, so my mother and I found ourselves wandering the streets of Roncesvalles on our own.

No big deal though, there was plenty to do and see. The first act we saw was by a street performer called Scot Free who not only was witty and entertaining but did some things I can only describe as daring. Between juggling knives, torches and chainsaws, he also insisted that watch him swallow fire. What made Scot the perfect subject for some photos was that he was very energized, he had tons of facial expressions, physical actions, bright high contrast clothing and was surrounded by awed onlookers.

Scot Free 6
Scott Free – ISO 800, f/3.5 @ 1/800th of a second

Catching this action required some camera settings I don’t often use. I took a few photos at ISO 100 f/2.8 1/150th of a second, which was fine when Scot paused for a moment or I needed some motion blurring of his action. I also set the camera in multi-frame mode for speed shooting, this way I could bang off 6 – 9 shots in 1-2 seconds if I really wanted to capture those key millisecond moments.

IMG_3584.jpg
The glasses make this shot!

Once Scot really got into his act, I needed more shutter speed to freeze time. I’ve heard photographers say all they need is 1/200th of a second to capture the motion of any living creature. I call that a bunch of BS, if you really want to freeze time 1/500th of a second is only scratching the surface for slow things. You really need to be around 1/800th of a second or faster once you get people/animals/objects that are really moving and 1/1000th of a second and faster to start freezing inanimate objects like speeding cars, airplane props, explosions and very fast land creatures like birds diving and cheetahs running or horses galloping.

For Scot, 1/800th of a second at ISO 800 with an f/3.5 shutter for added sharpness was perfect. I was able to catch him in the act quite literally as he busked.

Moving on, street festivals bring out not only professional performers like Scot, but they also seem to attract the more interesting people you probably would not otherwise normally see. While enjoying a Polish band playing some traditional English disco tunes, I spotted a blue and orange, well dressed, retired hipster dancing up a storm. I had to grab a photo and truth be told, he seemed to care less; he was having a good time and dancing up a storm!

IMG_3667.jpg
Tom Jones – unofficially

A little further down the road, I heard the echoing voice of Tom Jones blaring. Sadly, it was not the real Tom Jones, but a cover act doing a good job of reproducing the melodic tunes he’s known for and just like before, it was quite a show with the crowd getting involved.

Lastly, beyond all the people at street festivals, performers, singers, and entertainers alike, these places seem to provide plenty of opportunities for macro food photography and even some generic street shots.

While walking we found this Mexican dessert stand (yes, at a Polish festival) and boy was the chocolate filled pastry delicious! The whole pile of it sitting on a basket at the vendors table also made for a cool macro shot. The owner was curious as to why I wanted a photo of a bunch of pastry in a basket, I guess he was just perplexed since most people seem to want to just eat it. Don’t get me wrong, I really wanted to it too but I just wanted a macro photo before I did so.

IMG_3576.jpg
Mexican dessert, yummy!

The Scarborough Bluffs at Sunrise

by Tom

Scarborough Bluffs Sunrise by Vaughan Weather

Looking through some of my older images yesterday I found two photos from the Scarborough Bluffs.

For those who might be wondering, the Bluffs are a natural geologic cliff feature on the east side of Toronto primarily composed of sand and in some places leading to a 90 meter drop straight into Lake Ontario. The bluffs were a product of the last ice age and the draining Don River. They look very similar to the limestone cliffs of England in some places because of their white appearance.

One of the best overlooking shots of the bluffs can be achieved from the foot of Cecil Crescent where it officially ends at Scarborough Bluffs Park. For other perspectives, specifically looking up from the foot of the bluffs, Brimley Road becomes Bluffers Park Rd at the edge of the lake; from there it’s a 10-15 minute walk west to the Cathedral Bluffs, the most stunning vertical piles of sand and cliffs.

I’ve seen many brave photographers climbing, cliff hanging and boating up to the edge of some of these pillars. I’ve also seen the “less brave” using drones, kites and other tools to achieve what I can only image are some spectacular images.

My images overlooking the Bluff’s are a product of circumstance and opportunity rather than planning and choice.

Scarborough Bluffs by Vaughan Weather

I was there to cover a news story about a man who had fallen down the bluffs to his death (yes that happens semi-frequently) and only the week earlier a group of teenagers who tried to descend the bluff became trapped and spent the night. People often make the mistake of trying to descend some of the cliff sides, only to realize going up is often harder than heading down and this is further complicated by dew and overnight moisture which makes the grasses very slippery.

While I was wondering around just outside a small portion of the park which was taped off for the crime scene, I saw the glow from the soon to be rising sun in the east. I quickly knew I had an opportune time to grab some images of the sun. A low hanging stratocumulus deck reaching out to the horizon provided a wonderful converging line to focus attention on the sun and offset the blue sky. I also used the dense plant life around, most of which was green to balance the perspective and offset the strong red/magenta and yellow/orange hues from the sun.

The end result was more tropical than I could have imagined and provided a full pallet of subtle colour ever increasing towards the sun.

As crazy as it sounds, I’ve actually taken a few images from this general area in the past, none of which I really cared for. They were either later in the day or evening images where shadows from the setting sun washed out the shoreline. So, the lesson learned here is to take full advantage of any photo opportunity and southeast facing cliffs look best at sunrise with lots of colour!

I would like to return in the future on another hazy morning and see what I can gather from the ground for an alternative angle.