photos | as I walk Toronto

Posts Tagged ‘photos’

summer in the city

Posted: July 7, 2014 in general Toronto, people
Tags: aquarium, baseball, bikes, downtown, Dundas Square, enjoying, fish, food, food trucks, Kensington, kids, people, photography, photos, Ryerson, street, streets, summer, sunny, Sweet Alibi, T-shirts, Toronto, Uncle Smokes, walking, warm, waterfront

Summer in the city – although the summer feels like it’s only just begun!

A cyclist and his bike are sitting at the edge of Lake Ontario, behind the chain fence. It is evening and the sky is strating to turn pink

Early evening rest at the waterfront

Two food trucks are parked on the street. People are buying food, or sitting on the conrete bench (low wall) that runs parallel to the sidewalk

Ice cream, slushies, hot dogs, chips, poutine…. food trucks on Queen Street in front of City Hall.

Two people are standing behind a table that is covered with a red and white checkered table cloth. The menu is written on a chalk board in front of them. The last item on the menu is love, and it's cost is free.

Uncle Smoke gives away free love! Pulled pork with beans, corn bread and veg will cost you $10 though! Pedestrian Sunday, Kensington Market.

A man is sitting beside a stroller in the foreground. Behind him is a pool of water and then a large glass building. On the wall of the building are black and white images of some famous people including Andy Warhol, JFK, and Albert Einstein

Under the watchful eye of a few famous people – Ryerson Image Centre building.

Some people are walking towards the camera as the cross a street including a couple who are holding hands. He is wearing an orange Tshirt that says Cool story babe, Now Make me a Sandwich.

“Cool Story Babe, Now make me a sandwich.” Any replies ladies?

A girl is standing very close to one of the tanks at the aquarium, she has her hands open and on the glass.

hands on at the aquarium

Dundas Square with many people sitting on chairs, under red umbrellas, watching a band play on stage

‘Sweet Alibi’ plays at Dundas Square

A large group of people, inlcuding many kids, are walking towards Rogers Stadium for a Blue Jays baseball game. Most of them are wearing blue Blue Jays shirts.

game day, Jays fans

******

Bulwer Street

Posted: June 10, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: alley, bird, Bulwer, car windows, chain link, city, concrete walls, downtown, eyes, face, fish, graffiti, lane, photos, reflections, stickers, street art, tags, teeth, Toronto, urban, wall, weeds, yellow bird

Bulwer Street is a short street that runs parallel to, and one block north of, Queen Street West. It is only one block long, running east from Spadina Ave to Soho St.

graffiti on a brick wall on Bulwer St., the angle of the photograph makes it look like there is a large chain link fence in front of the wall.

children behind the fence

graffiti on a brick wall on Bulwer St., children including a larger than life sized boy wearing an orange T-shirt

children playing in the parking lot

white eyes

detail of graffiti on a brick wall on Bulwer St., a large brown hand is holding miniature size city buildings in blues and purples

he’s got the whole city in his hands

rooftop reflections

reflections of a mural in the windows and side panels of a black car

mirrored in the glass

facing the alley

sticker of half of a man's face (cut vertically)

only half the man he used to be

picture of people in blues and reds beside a nondescript grey door at the back of a small parking lot (or driveway)

the back door

bright blue, pink and orange tag on lime green background

tag – suniti? BA Kings?

parts of three tags on a wall

A concrete wall with tags on the lower part. There are hydro wires in front of the top part of the wall, and they are casting shadows on the wall

wired tags on concrete

large paper stencil of the top part of a woman is still there although parts of it have worn away

worn away but clinging on

Uber 500’s little yellow bird shows up on this street too

little fish, big teethfish

graffiti on a brick wall on Bulwer St., with the CN tower behind in the distance

one of the many, many, views of the CN tower

*****

stuck on behind Bathurst

Posted: June 9, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: alley, bathurst st., black and white, brick wall, calzone, decolonize, dog, Dundas, eye, graffiti, lane, line drawings, mug shot, paper, phinite, photos, red eye, scribbled, stickers, strawberry, street art, tags, tongue, Toronto, window

There is an alley that runs behind Bathurst, on the west side. Most of these photos were taken in that alley. All of the photos are of sticker, or paper, graffiti that I saw when I walked that alley a week or so ago.

A window space in a brick wall that was covered over a long time ago. Now there are tags and stickers covering the space as well as graffiti on the walls around the space.

It used to be a window, now it is an ever changing canvas.

black and white line drawing that looks like something you'd create with spirograph

spirograph on the metal pole.

four stickers on a wall. One is a mask that looks either African or BC First Nations. One is a hairy dog like creature with a long tongue that is licking a red strawberry with legs. One has the word 'decolonize' on it along with a picture of a group of men. The last sticker is just the word 'phi-nite' with a symbol.

strawberry man gets licked by dog, a mask looks at you, decolonize and phi-nite, all in a small space

two stickers on a tag & scribble covered space. One sticker is a silhouette of a man on a skateboard. He has large wings coming out of his back. Ths other sticker is a greenish colour geometric design within a greyish white circle.

have wings, will skateboard

a purple and white sticker that has been defaced by the tag 'calzone'. Beside it is a sticker that says 'decolonize history' with a mug shot of a man.

calzone tag unfortunately scribbled on top.

five stickers on the back of a metal sign.

Billy and friends

black ink on brown paper graffiti of a woman's head & shoulders

brown girl on the wall

two stickers on a wall. One is the head of a blue cat. The other is a lacey looking circular design.

blue cat with lace

Someone has placed a red & white circular sticker over the iris of an eye that is part of a black and white eye graffiti picture

red eye

*****

down on the shadowy concrete

Posted: June 6, 2014 in locations, people
Tags: abstract, afternoon, city hall, concrete, diagonal, fountain, groups, lines, nathan phillips square, people, photos, shadows, sun, Toronto, walking, water

From a vantage point over Nathan Phillips Square, we looked down on the people as they passed by. It was late in the afternoon so the shadows were long. Although we were looking for interesting characters, we were also creating compositions with people, concrete lines, and shadows as elements.

Three photographs are shooting from behind a low concrete wall. One has his camera aimed downwards towards the people walking below. The others have their cameras aimed farther out.

hunting shadows

A group of people walking across Nathan Phillips square. They are walking on crete and the afternoon shadows are long.

caught some!

A group of three people walking across Nathan Phillips square. They are walking on crete and the afternoon shadows are long.

on the diagonal

Most of the picture is of shadows on the concrete below. There are partial shadows of the arches over the fountain at nathan phillips square. There are also 4 people (or parts of the people) and the long shadows that they cast.

walking over the shadow arches

A group of young people walking across Nathan Phillips square. They are walking on concrete. Five guys and two girls. Both girls are in short black dresses with black sandals.

with matching little black dresses

A man is sitting at a table outside, on Nathan Phillips Square, late afternoon, with long shadows making patterns on the concrete

Some shadows kept still so they were easier to capture.

photo of the railing that is made of many vertical white bars. The railing is not straight. There are many shadows in the picture, and many patterns, linear and diagonal, made by the white bars and the shadows.

a multitude of lines and their linear shadows

Not all involved shadows. Sometimes, just people in the shadow.

A group of people are either sitting on a bench, or standing beside it, in Nathan Phillips Square, beside the fountain pool

Resting by the fountain.

Two women are walking on the concrete squares

walking between the lines

Pedestrian Sunday

Posted: May 26, 2014 in events, people
Tags: bikes, chalk, chalk chick, colours, eating, enjoy, eye, food, graffiti, Kensington, patio, pedestrians, people, photos, pictures, sidewalk, sights, stores, street art, summer, Sunday, sunny, Toronto, umbrellas, walking

The first Pedestrian Sunday of 2014, Kensington Market, 25th May.

What follows is a collection of sights from that afternoon.

A group of young people are walking down the street, away from the camera. Some are walking their bikes and some of the men are topless.

It was a warm day, the warmest day of the year so far. Time to shed the remains of winter and enjoy the sun and the city.

art and music…..

A young woman is sitting on the sidewalk. She is creating a picture of one of the characters from the TV show Futurama.

‘chalk chick’ – see more of her work at chalkchick.com

A man sitting on a stool on the sidewalk, playing a musical instrument

I am not sure what his name is or what kind of instrument he plays. If anyone knows, please give me a shout!

Two men on the sidewalk outside Sancis store. One man is standing and the other is sitting.

guitar players

food and drink…..

Three women are lined up waiting to be served at a street vendor who is selling food.

one of the many street vendors selling food and drink – BBQ chicken, burgers, fries, sandwiches and coconut sorbet included

The front of Wandas Pie in the Sky restaurant. People are sitting at tables and chairs set up outside the restaurant.

enjoying Wanda’s patio

A number of people are having lunch on a patio.

lunch on the patio!

A group of young people are sitting onthe curb eating food out of stryofoam containers

street food

people watching ……

Some people sitting on steps, three women standing in front of a large graffiti face that is wearing large star shaped sun glasses.

In front of big red starry sunglasses.

giant scrabble!

A couple with a small dog on a leash are standing by one of the barricades used to keep cars off the street

People with animals ….

A woman has a large fake red nose and large white frames sunglasses. She is carrying a green umbrella with a froggie face on it

keeping cool under the froggie

A woman is sitting at a table, under a patio umbrella. Behind her is a large graffiti piece of a young woman's face

two women, one larger than life

A woman is looking at her phone as she waits behind a table where she is selling denim shorts (on the sidewalk). In the background a man is buying something at another vendor's table.

‘This Way’ to browsing, buying and selling.

A pile of large wood blocks are in the middle of the street and a family is building small towers with them - a small girl and boy and their parents.

playing with blocks

Two women, each with an umbrella open above their heads are standing in the street.

Some people bared their skin to bask in the sun while others wanted more protection

under the blade

….. and the sights of Kensington

Detail of messages attached to a telephone pole. They are written on strips of yellow and blue heavy paper. In the background is a painting of a large eye, part of the sign above the door of Orbital Arts on Augusta Ave.

A watchful eye from Orbital Arts looks over Augusta Ave.

At an intersection, lots of people are walking on the street. Across the intersection is a three story burgundy colored brick building with a shop, and awning, on the ground floor. There are murals of faces on the upper level of the outside wall along with the words 'Welcome to Kensington, Romeos'

crowded streets mid-afternoon outside Romeo’s

a man stands in the doorway of a shop that has towels in the window and a lot of things for sale on a table outside the shop

Captain America and the Hulk lurk outside a store.

street scene of the intersection of Kensington and Dundas West. There are people walking on the sidewalk past a boarded up shop.

the corner of Kensington and Dundas West

A man is sitting on a fence reading a book. There are books on the ground in front of him that are for sale. There are also some shirts on hangers that are for sale.

a quiet corner to read on

little people stuck to the wall, sticker street art on Kensington

spring in the city

Posted: May 26, 2014 in general Toronto
Tags: buds, city, flowers, graffiti, ivy, leaves, photos, spring, street art, streets, Toronto, trees, tulips, walls

Spring in the City

Hopeful signs of a new season that I have spotted this week.

A large garden full of orange tulips. In the background is the grass and trees of St. james Park. There is a couple sitting on a bench on the far side of the tulip bed.

orange tulips galore in St. James Park

Tulips and other spring plants starting to grow in front of a wall that has been painted with graffiti

signs of spring in front of the wall

Flowering white tree in front of the entrance of Metropolitan United Church

Even spring can look grey if you look at it from the right angle. Metropolitan United church.

pretty in pink, and purple…. boxes of flowers along the fence, Davenport Road

many yellow and white daffodils are growing in front of a picket fence. There are a number of trees with new leaves behind the fence.

daffodils and picket fence, Riverdale Farm

A row of orange tulips growing in front of St. James cathedral. Close up of the building so only part of one wall, with lower corner of a window, can be seen.

growing in the shadow of St. James cathedral

A tree with pink blossoms is growing in front of brick row houses, one red brick and one that has been painted light grey.

pink on brick, near Kensington

Ivy begins to grow again on a wall that has been painted with beige, blue and orange graffiti. Close up picture of the graffiti so it looks like an abstract shape

almost smiling at the ivy growing on the alley wall

Sonya’s Park

Posted: May 21, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: altered signs, brick, city, defaced, downtown, grass, green space, historical, houses, Kensington market, Oxford St., park, photos, pictures, playground, stickers, tags, Toronto, urban, wall

Sonya’s Park, a small green space on Oxford Street.

On the east side of the park there is a brick wall that had a number of scenes painted on it. The pictures depicted a trip to Kensington market, circa 1885. Some of the murals remain intact while others have been defaced.

A play structure with slide is on the left of the picture, a woman is sitting on a bench on the right side. Row houses on the opposite side of the street can also be seen. There are some large trees too.

Oxford St., from the park.

Spring plants are growing in front of the wall on which there is a mural on a brick wall depicting a scene from a visit to Kensington Market circa 1885. A small girl is standing beside a cart.

Trip to Kensington market, circa 1885. The first of the murals on the brick wall on the east side of the park.

Large white tags obscure part of a mural depicting Kensington market in the past

Once upon a time there was a mural there. Sadly, taggers have made their presence known.

mural on a brick wall depicting a scene from a visit to Kensington Market , people buying fruit and vegetables from a street vendor. Spring plants are growing in front of the wall.

buying fruit and vegetables, circa 1885

a large tag over another mural. Someone has then written large red letters that say Stop not taggin art

stop not taggin art & watch yourself

A brick wall that runs across the back of the park. It is covered with graffiti. There is a metal gate in the center and you can see that there is more graffiti on the walls of the alley behind.

at the back of the park

A chain link fence in front of a piece of graffiti in oranges, yellows and purple

diamonds of colour

A city of Toronto sign that has had four stickers attached to it.

Plea no the, Elder abuse, and Don’t worry CAMH is only a block away, all on one sign

508

Posted: May 21, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: bathurst, city, clandestinos, colourful, graffiti, house, murals, painted, photographs, photos, shalak, smoky, street art, Toronto, urban

One house in the city.

The number 508 is above the doorway. An eye, part of two different murals, is on either side of the door.

508 in the middle

View of the front of a two storey building taken from the street in front of it. The exterior of the house is covered with paintings. Two faces cover what once the front windows.

eyes on the street

large painting of a red and blue bird on the side of a house. Hydro wires are also in the photo

bird contemplating a wire

A white toilet sits on a sidewalk outside of a house. On the side of the house, just behind the toilet, is a painting of a an old house.

outdoor plumbing

A large mural on the side of a brick house.

characters on the north wall

laid up and cradled

Posted: December 18, 2013 in locations
Tags: boats, clouds, compass, covered, cradles, gecko, grey sky, harbour, hibernation, ice, icicles, national yacht club, nyc, photos, resting, ropes, sailboats, serenity, snow, storage, stored for the winter, tarps, Toronto, white, winter, yacht club

Tarps, ropes and metal cradles.

Lovingly and carefully stored boats, asleep for the winter awaiting spring and the start of a new sailing season. Canada, where the sailing season is short.

National yacht club, sailboats in their cradles, snow on the ground. In the center of the picture is a blue and red boat with the name Gecko written on the side. There are a number of other boats, most of which are white.

Red and blue Gecko in hibernation.

National yacht club, sailboats in their cradles, snow on the ground. In the center of the picture is a yellow and blue sailboat. On the right is a dark blue hull in which there are reflections of the boats around.

A chilly trio in white, blue and yellow.

The bows of two white boats, one on top of the other. The sun is trying to break through the clouds in the background of the picture, making for interesting lighting conditions.

Whiteness on a winter afternoon when the sun is trying to shine through the clouds.

close up of a red, dark green and off-white striped hull of a sailboat. A knotted white rope is in the photo too.

All tied up and radiating griminess.

In the background the sun tries to shine through the clouds. There is enough light that rays of sunshine bounce off the yellow hull of a boat that is in the foreground.

Rays of sun try to brighten the day.

Perched on shore and looking out over the lake, but stuck behind barbed wire.

Although snow and ice are an integral part of a Canadian winter, it is always interesting to find them in different settings. For example, icicles forming along the seams in the hull of a boat that is up for the winter.