Somewhere In Toronto

Firsts in 2010 - February

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 22:52:06 GMT

FEB 2 - First time I bought a Money Tree. FEB 7 - First time I broke a tripod. - First time I visited the original Tim Horton's store. FEB 10 - First time I made scouse. FEB 12 - First time I watched the Olympic Games in Canada. FEB 19 - First time I watched the Olympic Games in a movie theatre. FEB 20 - First kids hockey game attended.

Firsts in 2010 - January

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 23:08:41 GMT

JAN 1 - First time I slept over at a friends house on New Years Eve - First time I had lime + sugar crepes - First Cambodian dessert, called Jaet Ktith (Tapioca + Banana + Coconut Milk) - First time I heard a joke in Cambodian (translated into English) - First time I played Cranium JAN 8 - First White Chocolate Toblerone JAN 9 - First time on Toronto Island Ferry with frozen Lake Ontario JAN 12 - First time I replaced a car headlamp on my own JAN 14 - First visit to Moxies Restaurant JAN 16 - First time I had Poutine - First visit to the Drake Hotel JAN 17 - First eCommerce site created - First eBook created JAN 30 - First time ice-skating around the rink unassisted at Nathan Phillips Square

Best of 2009

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 00:18:57 GMT

Every year I try to decide which of my photographs on Flickr are the best ones. It is exceptionally difficult to decide, because I have taken so many. Please let me know if you have any other suggestions. I would love to post more photographs in this category, but I can't include them all! Stay tuned for another website update at the end of January. I will be aiming to post my first edition of "Firsts in 2010". It will document all of the new things I have tried in January. I must admit, it is harder than I thought it would be. Obviously you can't repeat any of the firsts. :) If I had to pick one photo from the entire year, I believe it would be the one below of Rainbow Falls in Watkins Glen. I planned an entire trip to get this shot and it really summed up my 2009 waterfall fascination. To take this photograph I had to wait until all of the tourists were across the bridge and behind the rock. This is a great place to photograph waterfalls. When you have been walking in Watkins Glen for a while, you start to feel like you are in a Lord of the Rings movie on some kind of quest!

Decade of Firsts

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 13:41:19 GMT

As 2009 draws to a close, I wanted to sum up the past decade. I could have listed all of the events that happened (some good, some bad), but instead I went for the list of 'firsts'. Happy New Year everyone. See you in 2010! 2000 First cellphone (Ericsson GA628) First new car (Renault Clio MTV Edition) First suit (Pierre Cardin) 2001 First day at university (Liverpool John Moores University) First visit to Scotland (Edinburgh) First online journal (filled it in every day for a year) 2002 First broadband internet connection 2003 First digital camera (Canon A40) First vacation alone (Toronto, Canada) 2004 First time I photographed baby chicks in a nest First road trip to Scotland (1200 miles of driving) 2005 First time graduating from university First time moving away from home First time moving to another country (Canada) First Canadian bank account opened (TD Canada Trust) First Toronto International Film Festival First Thanksgiving First trip to Ottawa, Ontario First job in Canada (Softchoice Corporation) First apartment / own place First time ice-skating 2006 First time I got fired (Softchoice Corporation + a long story!) First day at Navantis First photos of a World Cup celebration (Italy beat France) First trip to Montreal, Quebec First day at Microsoft First Canada Day (in Canada) 2007 First car in Canada (Hyundai Accent 2004) First time watching all of the Rocky movies First time I watched a wedding ceremony of a friend online First free concert (Chantal Kreviazuk, Downtown Toronto) First time I donated a photo to charity (www.picturethecure.ca) First time I tried Gelato First baseball game (Rogers Centre, Toronto) First time I let a cat into my apartment to stay the night 2008 First time I crashed my car in Canada (Black ice on a hill) First photo sale (Casa Loma photograph, $400) First Permanent Residence card (Canada) 2009 First trip to Vancouver, Seattle, Victoria First autograph by a celebrity (Bill Murray) First time visiting the 54th floor of the TD Centre, Toronto. First white hot chocolate drink (Second Cup, Hamilton).

Happy Halloween 2009

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 23:13:20 GMT

Bought a pumpkin and did some research on pumpkin carving techniques. I think I did better than last year's attempt. This year I actually gave it a nose! :)

Victoria, BC

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:25:46 GMT

I have added some more photographs to the British Columbia photo set on Flickr. The link below takes you to the end of the previous upload, so you can continue to navigate through the new ones. I caught a cold when I was visiting Victoria, so didn't take as many shots as I would have liked. However, I did manage to drag myself off to see the tall Douglas Fir trees and the Cedars, which were amazing. :)

Seattle 2009

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 23:26:27 GMT

This year I visited Seattle, WA as part of my trip to the west coast. I was only there a short time and was having some trouble finding good spots to take photos of the city skyline. I spoke to my friend Caroline and she recommended a great spot up a nearby hill. From there I was able to get the 'postcard-style' landscape shot of the skyline. I was there for several hours, the lighting at each stage made for some very interesting variations (early evening, dusk, night). I also found the original Starbucks location and took some photos of people feeding seagulls by hand at the local fish 'n' chips shop.

Toronto International Film Festival 2009

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 21:37:20 GMT

I took over 600 photos this year, more than ever before. The best of these are on Flickr. I was also tried for my first autograph. I recently bought Ghostbusters I & II DVD. Bill Murray was in town, so I asked him to sign the DVD insert. He did! I normally don't care about this kind of stuff, but this one was special because I was hooked on the movie as a child. I have a photo of Ivan Reitman too, but it never occurred to me to get him to sign Ghostbusters at that time. This year started off fairly slowly, with the recently popular Megan Fox and Jennifer Connelly at Roy Thompson Hall. I got to Roy Thompson Hall later than I had hoped, so all of my shots of Jennifer are from far away. A lot of great stars, like Penélope Cruz were at the Elgin theatre location, which I know from experience is a terrible place to get good photographs. Roy Thompson Hall is a good venue, but this year they changed the set up. Luckily it turned out to be about the same as normal (maybe a little better). The second day was looking good, based on the schedule, and I got photos of George Clooney, Ewan McGregor and Jeff Bridges. Bill Murray was in the crowd and was asking people for directions to the film festival until someone realize it was him and he had to run inside! The third day was the day I got Bill Murray's autograph. Robert Duvall was there too with Sissy Spacek. The fourth day was looking crazy from a scheduling perspective, with lots of running from one venue to the next. I decided to focus on Drew Barrymore and attended the Whip It roller-derby at Yonge & Dundas Square. After waiting for about three hours, I heard Drew Barrymore talk about the movie from the stage. I was too far away to get any good shots of her from here, so I ran up to the Ryerson location, just in time for Drew Barrymore to arrive with Ellen Page! I got shots here and then ran back to Roy Thompson Hall to try and get photos of Mariah Carey and Oprah Winfrey, but it was impossible to get there in time. The fifth day allowed me to get photos of Naomi Watts and Edward Norton. I waited outside the Elgin (back door) to see Ricky Gervais and Jennifer Garner come out, but wasn't happy with the shots I got of Jennifer. The sixth day I saw Keanu Reeves and Robin Wright Penn. This day was also the day I went to a 'secret location' to take photos of all of the stars that were left in town. I got some unusual celebrity photos here, including Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York as well as the girls from the cult movie, Bitch Slap! The seventh day was a big let down. Lisa Kudrow turned up with 'reverse raccoon' make-up which didn't photograph very well. Even George Pimintel (A WireImage.com photographer) looked disappointed with his photos of her. Natalie Portman turned up too, but she was shielded by bald bodyguards who were very close to her. She also didn't smile much. :( The eighth day was foreign language movies, so I skipped it. The ninth day was really just a change to see Colin Farrell, but he didn't show. Instead Christopher Plummer and Verne Troyer showed up for the Heath Ledger movie, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Overall, this year was really good. I just noticed I forgot to mention a bunch of stars too! Danny DeVito, Marcia Gay Harden, Willem Dafoe and lots more... Enjoy the photo gallery!

Toronto Lightning - August 2009

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 23:07:20 GMT

Just experienced a very powerful storm in Toronto! I took most of these shots from my balcony, but realized later that I might be able to get a shot of the CN Tower. I managed to get one shot of the tower, but I know I will do better next time now that I have the location worked out. :) This was probably the best lightning storm I have ever witnessed!