Friday, July 30, 2010

my Saturday morning

Last Saturday was the third annual World Wide Photo Walk. It is ultimately a competition, but really, I just enjoyed the company of so many other photographers (professional and amateur) getting together for a 2 hour walk along a designated area and then seeing what we all came up with on the flickr site.

Last year we wandered along Ottawa St South; this year it was James St North. This was one of the areas I considered taking you on way back in March when you all chose the Pier 4 destination for a tour. So now we finally make it to Jamesville, or James Street North, not far away from the waterfront park and Pier 4.


It is a gritty area, with many old business and empty buildings

still in need of some new investment


there is some interesting architecture and the main cultural group seems to be the Portuguese, with the requisite old men hanging out at the coffee shops



but it is slowly trying its hand at becoming a bit of an artists' enclave



there is still some old advertising art

I tried to follow along with the conversation between another photographer and a worker from the restaurant in this renovated building while they tried to decide what was here originally

later on, we had an interesting converstation with a local man sitting on his front porch who turned out to be a house painter. he is trying to convince homeowners in the area to at least paint their brick homes in pleasing complementary colours (if they must paint at all). obviously, there is some limited success in this endeavour!

9 comments:

  1. sounds like a very interesting area to explore

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  2. it was a fun walk. I was a little disappointed in how run down the area still was - it is still very early days in its regeneration.

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  3. It's good to exchange ideas with other photographers. Though I am not a rigid person, and I shoot what i think would make a good photo.

    Have you heard that the Tongan pacific islanders are the biggest in the world. The Maori are big too. Their food portions have to be big. This is just a joke, nothing to do with the size of the stairs. Seriously I think they need to be sturdy so they don't all on to the train.

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  4. I've always liked the look of a faded painting on a brick building.

    Just to let you know, I had to change URL's. This avatar links ot the new site.

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  5. I love these photographs. Sometimes the best architecture in the grittiest part of town.

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  6. Great photos taken for a series of a good cause!

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  7. I have no idea why I love pink buildings so much. But I do.

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  8. I love love love these pictures. For some reason the whole "urban dirty" thing appeals to me to no end. Thanks.

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  9. Ann: oh, you can take pictures of anything you want - some people made some strange choices, IMHO. I even took photos after the deadline; just couldn't post them to the flickr site (but I can post them on my blog!)

    SAW: it is interesting to see evidence of older businesses. it was certainly a great way to advertise, in BIG letters and up high.

    Jo: very true. there is a special skill to taking those kinds of shots though, I think - I always try to pretty up all my pictures and that is a wrong approach.

    Bonnie: thanks

    Saj: I have no idea either. and I have no idea why there were so many of them!

    Jazz: me too. I'm not sure what to do with all these photos I took...

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