Simpson Street in the Early Hours

I ended up going to bed super really early last night, which meant I got up fairly early this morning. So it was a good excuse to get out and take some photos before cars were parked on the street and the sun was too high. Even though I always hope for clouds, I’ve been pushing myself to work with sun and shadows. That was the case this morning as the sun was low, but shining for the most part. Once again, I brought my Canon EOS R and the 50mm 1.2. It’s a great combination.

I like photographing in the streets before businesses open because it means there aren’t a lot of cars parked. That way, if I see interesting store fronts or buildings, I can much more easily create sim simple scenes. As with most of my personal walks, I don’t really have a plan in place. I just follow what my eyes see. A lot of times if I see something interesting down an alleyway or a street, I go that way and end up on a totally different route. I’m not against working my way back through the same area as well, because I’ll see the scene completely different going in the opposite direction. Plus, the sun and light is constantly changing.

Another thing I often utilize in my street photography are reflections. Whether I’m shooting into a window or using puddles to create interesting scenes, there are always opportunities to try something different. The time just flies by when I go on these walks. I narrowed it down to these favourites but after about 1.5 hours of shooting, I ended up with approximately 250 photos. I’m trying to get out as much as I can while the cold winter comes.

A Walk Down Memory Lane

Admittedly I have been doing a lot of video lately, both paid and practice, so my personal photography has taken a bit of back seat. I find it a little hard to do both at the same time, unless of course it’s a paid gig. The thing with video is that it’s a completely different way of thinking, at least for me. Well, I finally got outside and walked around, with no goal other than to photograph whatever caught my eye.

My camera of choice was my beloved Canon EOS R. Man, what a fantastic camera. I do not understand the initial hate that camera got. Especially for my professional work, the ability to quickly switch from photos to videos has been priceless. For this walk, I paired it with my favourite Canon lens, the 50mm 1.2. I am sucker for almost always shooting wide open so you can guess what aperture I’m using 90 percent of the time. That, and it renders beautifully. I can only imagine what the RF mount version looks like. But I digress.

Up until this past spring I worked around my Mazda dealership and used to always go for walks around the area on my lunch break. Seeing as how I have been fully home-based for the past 4 months, it had been a while since I did my route. So, after dropping off my car for a check up, I went off exploring. The first stop was the garden area right beside the police station. I had driven past it various times over the last few weeks and noticed how tall all the plants were so it was the perfect opportunity to go there and see how it looks.

It would have been nice to have a macro lens but I still managed to get some nice flower photos and other interesting shots as well. The grass was wet so my feet were kind of water logged after a while but it was worth it. From there I started to make my way through Lakehead University. Instead of the paved path I took the side dirt trail that runs along the river. I brought my ND filter with me just in case and I’m super happy I did as I got a couple long exposure photos of the stream.

Since I didn’t want to carry my coffee with me when I left the house, I made my way to the Starbucks in the University and treated myself to a flat white. Super tasty. I soon got the phone call that the car was ready, so I made my way back and that was that. It felt really good to be out walking again. I truly do find it therapeutic.