First day of summer in Toronto

Oh yeah. Summer is finally in Toronto, and it arrived with style.

First day of summer was hot and heavy around here (mostly because of the famous Canadian humidity in the air).

Even though the weather forecast announced storm and rain all Sunday long (forecast is always wrong when I'm making plans and I'm used to it by now), the day was beautiful.

Toronto-style cloudy (kind of cloudy where sun is never behind actual clouds), hot and breezy.

So, instead of staying inside and watching movies I've already watched before, I actually enjoyed being outside most of the day.

First I made a mistake in the morning (well, because I do listen to the weather forecast after all) and went for a walk in my tennis shoes and pants and almost died of the heat.

People are out there taking walks, kayaking, sitting in shade and talking, sleeping on the benches, doing photo shoots, eating ice cream, sunbathing on the beach, looking at dead fish at the beach and pulling their kids away from it, playing with their dogs, barbecuing and fishing.

They also wear flip flops and shorts because they don't listen to the forecasts like I do.



So, after I realized there's not going to be any rain that day, I changed to flip flops and bikini and I actually went to the beach... just to be there.

To lie on the sand, to walk barefoot and to soak up the sun.

Nothing better on a lazy, first day of summer afternoon.

I was just about to start enjoying the sounds of kids and dogs playing around when I noticed the dead fish right in front of me. It was huge, half eaten and I still don't know how it got there.

I even got into the lake, which was freezing - still around 16 C.

There were some people actually swimming, but mostly dogs and little kids enjoyed the water. I was surprised how many children were there standing and playing in the lake, and even more surprised by the parents who let them do that, or actually encouraged it. I mustn't forget, I am in Canada though, and the kids are apparently born and raised to be little polar bears.

The kids seemed to be happy in the lake though.

The dogs seemed to be happy in the lake.

The surfing (or whatever he was doing) guy was happy on the lake.

The view on a dead fish was spectacular.

The only thing better than the sun was the hot wind blowing. That's the real thing. That's when I know the summer's really here. Hope it'll stay for a while. Or at least till end of July, when I'm leaving to feel some real salt on my skin at the Adriatic Sea.

Shooting Shelly, the perky hamster

I don't have any models to shoot. I only have a cat and a hamster at my disposal.

And while the cat - Mischief - is obviously annoyed with me clicking around him, he still finds a grain of patience and works with me. Sometimes.

Shelly the hamster, however, has no clue what's happening and keeps mingling around like she has a pair of Duracell batteries in her cheeks. 

She is so vivid and perky and it's impossible to have her still.

I tried to take a photo of her when I first started to use this camera and I thought it can't be that hard. Little did I know how fast does she move. 

The fact that she doesn't understand me makes it all even harder. I guess that's why people have dogs.

So, anyway, I took her out of the cage, set up a white background and placed her there. I lost her a few times while adjusting my camera cause she's gone in a blink of an eye.

After I chased her for a while and finally caught her, I placed her on the spot again and lost her again in a few seconds. Then I realized I need a bait. First lesson, checked.

I had an apple so I figured that will be a nice treat for her and will keep her busy. It turned out I was right, and while I somehow managed to keep her on the spot, she was still fast. 

She was biting off those chunks of apple like there was no tomorrow.

Actually, she was eating some, and storing some in her cheeks. It was all good at the beginning, but after two minutes she was already so full of apple that I had to stop. I don't know if hamsters have some kind of  sensor to know when to stop eating, but I swear if I'd let her eat some more, she would die afterwards. So then I learned that the hamster shooting sessions can last only for a few minutes at the time. Second lesson, checked.

I tried to photograph her again the next day, and then again a few weeks later. I also tried today to see if maybe I'll do it right this time. I can't seem to find the good way to capture her, have the sharp photo and properly exposed, without noise or blur.

Today, I did it outside but as she keeps moving fast and running away it makes it complicated to have settings right every moment. I normally use the manual mode to shoot, but perhaps in this situation I should have used one of the semi-automatic modes instead. Yeah, the shutter priority mode definitely might have helped. I'll try that next time. Third lesson, yet to be checked.






It's pretty challenging, all in all, to get her right, since I don't really have studio conditions and my background consists of a piece of paper which is relatively small, especially for her jumping around. Even when she's eating and is pretty much still, her movements are shaky.

I tried with other treats too. Don't ever get her a carrot, cause she'll store the whole thing and won't be able to move. I had to take that carrot away from her.

I don't think she liked that red plum. And she ain't a fan of the celery either. She took a few bites and start running away. Or maybe she was just distracted. I believe shooting outside makes her more curious and she just wants to wander around. Good thing the space is limited, cause I'm shooting on the rooftop, so there's nowhere she can go, but definitely a big place for her to run around and make me busy chasing her.

She liked the walnut, but the piece was too small so she ate it in a heartbeat and by the time I got my camera it was already gone. The best piece of fruit turned out to be an apple, because she enjoys it and she bites of piece by piece, so that gives me time to actually make couple of photos.

In the normal session, I make maybe 30 photos in total, before she gets full, and that's it. Time to sleep and see you next time.



She doesn't care at all.
I really need to find some human models.

Music day in Toronto Music Garden. Or not.

Last night, I remembered how there was the time in my life when I couldn't imagine to fall asleep without music in my ears. 

I had a few playlists only for that purpose and it was impossible for me to go to bed without listening to sweet sounds of Pink Floyd, Knopfler, Metallica or Vangelis (among others). 

Weird bunch, I know, but they all have one thing in common - smooth, soothing sound that regularly helped me calm and fall asleep.

I guess I was thinking about it because Steve Vai was in Toronto this Saturday, and I missed it. 

I was kind of sad-ish for not seeing him, but thinking about his music made me remember so many other, nice stuff from past. So I listened to some of it last night and I was nostalgically happy. 

Therefore, to continue the music vibe, this morning I went to visit the Music garden in downtown Toronto. 

Instead of being in the good mood (cause there was no reason for otherwise), I somehow didn't start my day right. Maybe I got up on the wrong foot, or something.

Not that I need a special reason for it (I am a woman, after all), but I did something and I said something and I killed the music day mood. Totally.

On the bright side, I did get some nice shots of the park and spent the morning in the beautiful waterfront environment. 

The garden is actually quite small and it consists of six different, little parts (Prelude, Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Menuett and Gigue).



The whole garden represents Bach's Suite No.1 in G Major for unaccompanied cello, BWV 1007. 

During the summer, there are free concerts held in the garden, twice a week, and I can only imagine how cool would it be to listen to Brazilian choro on a lazy afternoon in early August Sunday, which I won't hear - I'll miss it, of course, cause I won't be in the city at the time.

I'm also missing Ron Bumblefoot and Joe Perry tonight, just because I feel meh about the whole day and I don't feel like going out. I'll be whining about that tomorrow. Or maybe not.

In the meantime, I'll be listening to some sweet sounds again this night, and hopefully, tomorrow is going to be a more pleasurable day.

Rock on and sweet dreams.

Black and white walk

The weekend was cold and rainy. Black and white kind of weekend, no colours outside, all damp and grey.

No sun, no reason to get out of the house.

However, camera in one hand and film in other made me go outside to see if there's anything worth capturing.

Actually, I needed more practice with film developing so I bundled up and stepped outside.

Sprinkles of rain somehow made me think of home, because I know that my friends are experiencing sprinkles of sea right now, sunbathing at some beach, somewhere on the southern part of Croatian coast.

Meanwhile, here in Toronto, I'm doing my best in this Canadian weather. There's a place close to me with a little marina. Kind of a hidden place with no people, perfect for a short walk. Always lots of animals around. No walkers, no bicyclists or runners. Just boats and birds.




Couple of weeks back I've been there, for the same reason, and there was a swan, sitting comfortably in a nest, guarding the eggs.

This weekend, she was still there, at the same spot, with her little offspring. Reminded me of an "Ugly duckling" story. There are more eggs there, maybe next time there's going to be a whole bunch of little cygnets.

Also, lots of ducks and geese. As I was walking, on my left side there were geese with little goslings, nibbling on grass and enjoying the peace which was broken only by the sound of my shutter. 

While I was trying to shoot the goslings (with the camera, just to be clear), I've became aware that there's whole army of other geese on my right side, waddling toward me, making sure the moms and little ones stay protected. Canadian geese are huge, and I was obviously outnumbered, so I picked up my stuff and carried on, leaving them at peace. 

The mean birds are everywhere, and I watched them messing with the swan and fight each other for food. Or for something else, who knows.

Black and white walk, among black and white boats, stepping into puddles and thinking about black and white stuff in life. And how white can become black easily. And the other way around. 

I kind of felt black and white myself. 

It looked like it's going to start raining again (and I finished the film) so I decided to turn around and go back home to my black and white cat.