County Fair

The weather just keeps getting a bit warmer by the day, and since I had to work most of it, I knew I had to get out for at least a short while in the evening. That's just what I did. I grabbed my X-Pro2 and 35mm 1.4 lens and took a stroll through County Park. It only ended be being about a 30 minute walk, but I came away with some decent photos. 

I'm noticing more and more that anytime I see a playground outside I am always drawn to it. Of course, when there aren't children around. I think it's the bright contrasty colours of a lot of the outdoor playgrounds these days. I remember growing up, all we had was a tire on a chain and maybe a slide mounted on hard pavement. Kids definitely have it much better then I did. 

Once I made my way through the park I ended up in the County Fair Mall parking lot. There is still a lot of dirty melting snow everywhere so I tried to focus on the details instead, getting in nice and close. One of my favourite spots in this specific parking lot is the old Canadian Tire which has been closed for many many years. I always have fond memories of biking all the way up to County Fair when I was a kid just to buy tennis balls. I'm not sure why I remember that, but I do. Meanwhile, I can't remember what I ate for breakfast 2 days ago. Go figure. 

I didn't take as much time as I usually do during the walk to take photos. I'm still, somehow getting over a month long (and going) cold so I didn't want to spend too much time outside. The walk did allow me to get my fix of photography in for the day. Perhaps, tomorrow I'll feel better. 

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County Fair + Cumberland Street

Since it is my birthday today, I figured I would treat myself to a little photowalk. Since I had just met my wife Anne for lunch on Eddy Lee's, I decided to go down the street and walk around County Fair. There used to be a Canadian Tire there but it has long since shut down. Instead, they opened up a Walmart a few years ago. I always remember going to that Canadian Tire when I was younger to go get some tennis balls or other random things that kids need. It was always a trek to ride my bike all the way there. As you can tell from the photos, it is now just an abandoned building, but you can still see some of the signage. 

Well, me being a fan of run down buildings and anything old, I simply walked around the building looking for things that caught my eye. It is actually attached to the mall which I later checked out. The mall itself, is almost empty as well, with just a few random stores here and there. I'm not sure what is going to come of it but it's really strange seeing it so baron. 

Once I finished walking around at County Fair, I trekked down to the end of Cumberland Street. For those of you who aren't familiar, it is another street with a lot of motels and older buildings. Again, I just looked for random scenes, paying attention to colour and composition. 

For the County Fair photos I used the X-TI with the 16mm and for the Cumberland Street photos I used the X-T1 paired with the 35mm. Both lenses are fantastically sharp and quick to focus. I am just taking photos of stationary objects, but still, the colour rendition is superb with this camera and lenses. Each image, I used the jpg version, with the exception of some of the landscape photos where I need to bring out the sky a bit more. All processing was what I always do. I boost the contrast, selective colour here and there to make it pop and overall sharpness.

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