I lived in Toronto for about 8 years of my life. This was back in the 2000’s when it was somewhat more affordable. Sadly, I didn’t really take photos back then. I went to school for Graphic Design and that’s what I did there, I worked at a variety of ad firms. It wasn’t until I moved back to Thunder Bay around 2006. I just think back to all the stuff I could have been photographing but didn’t. The good news is, that I have been taking photos not stop for the past 7-8 years. So you could say I have been making up for lost time.
Suffice it to say, I was excited to get back to Toronto for business, knowing that I would have time to walk around with my wife Anne and explore the city. I’ve been make more than a few times since living there and I have had the chance to take photos there in the past too. I was still super excited to capture yet another trip though. The big question for me was, what camera do I use. You’d think I would go small and portable right? Well … nope. I used my Canon 5D Classic for all the photos. I did have my Canon EOS R with me, which I did use for the conference I was shooting, but I figured I would go retro with my street camera. I paired it with the awesome 50mm 1.2.
We actually got to walk around quite a bit. The conference I was covering was pretty much a 9-5 type gig, sometimes end earlier. The great thing about Toronto is that once you get to around 5:00pm the light is so nice. You get a lot of reflections and interesting shadows throughout the city. Plus, being in such a busy city compared to Thunder Bay, was refreshing. Although, sometimes I felt overwhelmed in that there was too much going on. That quickly passed of course and I embraced the chaos that is Toronto.
As you can see from the photos below, we saw quite a bit of the city. From meeting up with a friend from Thunder Bay who had a condo there, to walking up and down Yonge Street, it was so much fun. Even though the Canon 5D Classic isn’t the lightest camera, it didn’t bother me. I used to shoot with the the Nikon D700. Anything is light compared that camera.
We have another trip to Toronto coming up this Christmas and another conference next year so I can’t wait for that.
