I have never posted the same photo more than once, but as I said earlier, I just love love love this photo. Here it is in sepia which especially gives it that painted feel.

Which one do you like more?

I love love love this photo. I love that the plain of focus is so thin that it has an almost painted feel to it and the subject matter in the background is completely indiscernable. No photoshop filters or effects were applied to give it this oil painting look – this was just how the photo was taken!

Welcome back! It’s been a while since my last post. Truth be told, it’s been a while since I’ve held my camera, but I’ve been busy busy busy doing the one thing that has been at the top of my bucket list for the past two years: designing my website.

Designing this website completely from scratch has been my sole focus and unfortunately I haven’t done much photography because of it. Now that it’s finito, I can back to doing the things I love! Went to the botanical gardens yesterday and took some ‘interesting’ shots to say the least. You’ll see them in the next few days.

So welcome to my new website and online portfolio. It’s taken three weeks of hard work, a sore neck, and I actually have a few bruises on my wrists from using the mouse on a hard tabletop so rigorously. I hope you guys love it, and I’d love to hear your comments and critiques!

Canada Day marked the one year anniversary of the photoblog! This year you saw 121 posts and 144 photos. It’s been a fantastic year of photography, and it’s only getting better with a new summer of possibilities.

Last year, I tried to capture the fireworks on my own and I got some neat up close shots of the fireworks, but nothing exceptionally breathtaking… though it was a great way to start the blog.  So to celebrate the 143rd birthday of Canada and the 1st birthday of my blog, I wanted to capture the Canada Day fireworks from the most fantastic and unique view of Calgary I could find. Of course, for those of you that know me, I am severely directionally challenged (thank you two x chromosomes!), but my brother, Fouad, is a walking Google Maps. So I set the mission upon him.

And he delivered. I truly have the most patient and supportive brother in the world. He took me to a part of Calgary I had never been before, and up this random, somewhat sketchy, hill on the opposite side of the Elbow River which bounds the northern aspect of Calgary’s downtown. We braved a plague of mosquitos (which are undescribably attracted to Fouad’s blood… sorry!), throngs of cars then people, and a steep hillish escarpment which felt horribly unsafe to rest my tripod and camera upon. Worth it - the view was fantastic!

But the photos… FAIL. What we didn’t see coming was probably the worst Canada Day fireworks display in the country. Seriously, Calgary does not believe in ’go big or go home’ and is probably saving all its good fireworks for the Stampede (fantastic fireworks every night!). The fireworks were not of the classic grande exploding variety, but these disappointing streaks that barely exploded, nor did the majority even clear the height of the smallest buildings in Calgary downtown (and they launched from the top of a building, not the ground!). Worse, from our view there was a tree blocking whatever we could see! The above photo is the best of the bunch – the highest and brightest Calgary had to offer. Tsk tsk Calgary.

But my oh my how Calgary downtown has grown since I left for university over six years ago.

Saturday, June 26, 2010. This past weekend downtown Toronto became a police state. A $1.2 billion police state to be exact. On Saturday, the police were restrained and a violent few took it for granted ruining the peaceful efforts of so many more. On Sunday, the police were less forgiving – both the parties involved and unfortunately even innocent bystanders found this out the hard way. Over 800 arrests were made by the conclusion of the weekend. A startling number as only ~150 had been made by Saturday evening!

This concludes my G20 coverage. To quote a friend from facebook: “What, oh what, was the point? Way to go protestors – destroy your own city, tarnish the reputation of Torontonians, and damage the police property that you paid for. That’ll show them.”

Saturday, June 26, 2010. Out of nowhere the line of riot police in front of the coffin prop (previous photos) decided to march south and reposition their riot line to disallow the crowd from heading south towards King St. where a much larger mob had formed (see earlier photos). They marched; we moved. Out of the way… fast!!

Saturday, June 26, 2010. Notice the prop in front of the police – a coffin with a cross cutout and the word “democratie” written on the front – meant to symbolize the death of democracy and strategically placed to incite the police. But this is what I call restrained and this is what I call democracy. There was a large mob of people behind me -  jesting, chanting and some truly trying to instigate a reaction from the riot police. One character even placed this prop in front of the police, but the police did not waver. They did not remove the prop nor knock it down – something we were quite surprised about - and they let the mob have its fun and, more importantly, have its voice.

Saturday, June 26, 2010. I have to say that the G20 protests had it all. There were peaceful protesters that had legitimate causes they were demonstrating for. But honestly, I have to say there were also a lot of walking contradictions on the streets that day. Our sentiments while walking the streets were literally at times: “This doesn’t make sense!” “Do they know what they are protesting for?!?”

I think one of the best examples is the poster seen above: “THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE”. But this is a fantastic show of democracy! If you truly think about it, it’s because of democracy that people can freely protest like this and have the police idly observe as long as it remains peaceful – and the police were idle for quite a while even after the black-bloc violence struck. Moreso, the police even escorted the peaceful protests through the city and closed off many streets to accomodate their proposed routes.  Compare this to communist and fascist states where the protests are crushed and the people involved are immediately massacred, I’d say this truly is what democracy looks like!

Saturday, June 26, 2010. Aboriginal rights and the oil war were just some of the legitimate causes that people were peacefully protesting for. The peaceful protesters had a very relaxed atmosphere which is what drew me to join the walk.

Saturday, June 26, 2010. A mob of people wandering down Bay St. merely two hours after the original protest had already passed through. By this time, the main protest which was getting progressively violent was blocks displaced at the Yonge St. and College St. area. It was the original protest that had resulted in the burning of the police vehicle mid-afternoon as well as in the vandalism and breaking of glass windows of corporate offices and private businesses. From what I witnessed, the majority people above were the curious bunch, such as myself – mainly spectators, gawkers and photographers, visiting the locale after the fact when it was safer. The center of the mob, however, at the intersection of Bay St. and King St. did have the spark and excitement of a live protest to it, for we were merely two blocks away from the first burnt vehicle, and thus this area was an epicenter of energy and curiosity. Notice carefully, the BMO Nesbitt Burns logo has also been vandalized!

From my firsthand experience on Saturday afternoon, the police were incredibly well restrained and reserved. In fact in talking to a few officers myself earlier that day, they referred to the protest as the ‘parade’! They were quite relaxed and jovial about having a peaceful movement of people through the downtown core. This was, of course, before a group of individuals started their violent black-bloc tactics.