Three Speed

Went to three speed on the spur of the moment with @Evanjerred on the same rainy night of shooting the dufferin mall. I had no expectations of the place but I like it there. Pretty laid back, pretty lights, good crowd. And bonus, it's a five minute walk from my house. Here are some photos I took of the place.

I definitely had Waupoo's cider and seem to remember getting something else, but I forget.

drinks

Great lighting, and you can just see "three speed" in the right of the frame written on the brick wall

The crowd

 

Snowfall shoot

Appropriately I am writing this post today on the snowiest day this winter so far about shooting on the night of one of our first snowfalls in Toronto. It was a spur of the moment thing. @Evanjerred was enjoying the snow coating on the trees, but in my end of town that had already disappeared. As a result of that and the rain, we took a lot of our shots in the covered parking lot of Dufferin Mall. Great colours, great lighting.

Drink Development at R2

Last monday saw a few of the R² baristas brainstorming and shopping for the ingredients of possible specialty drinks. I photographed some of the process. 

Ingredients: result of shopping

We ended up developing two drinks, the orange mocha, and the chocolate chili latte. The orange mocha is currently being served at R², and comes with the lovely garnish of a chocolate-coated sliver of candied orange peel from Delight on Queen West.  

Chocolate-coated candied orange peel slivers

Ingredients of the orange mocha

Me on the phone

Chris, an esteemed regular

Evan, making a free-pour swan

Evan, pleased about something, possibly my photo of his latte art

We will be serving the chocolate chili latte later this fall. 

Chocolate chili latte ingredients

New family member to the Art Dept!

Welcome to the Canon EOS XSi DSLR! Complete with a "nifty fifty" lens. It feels great and liberating to be able to record things that inspire me, that I create, which are beautiful, and which I think are noteworthy. I only had about forty minutes to play around with the camera today but it's very exciting! I've wanted to join a photography meetup group ever since I got to Toronto but only lacked a camera with which to take photos. Next steps will include taking full advantage of the Nifty Fifty, and in the future getting wide angle and zoom lenses. I leave you with a few of my first shots from this afternoon. 

Decorated doorknob

Windowsill and self-made curtains

Dried orchid flower from RSquared Cafe

My door and shabby-chic ceiling

Antique iron meant to be placed in the fireplace to be heated up. Found on the side of the road while biking home

Camera Trouble

Immediately before my trip to Europe, my >8 year-old Sony Cybershot died. It displayed only a white screen and would not take snaps! Up until then nearly all my pictures were done with that camera, as poor as its low-light performance and stability were. When I got back from Europe I decided to see if I could fix it at all. There had been a previous problem a couple years ago when I got a lens error which I fixed by smacking the camera on my knee (thank you, internet). This time it suggested resetting the screen by pressing all the buttons at once. I was sceptical, but it worked! The lens however started making the most horrible buzzing noise. Hitting it against my knee didn't work this time, and the internet suggested there could sand or hair stuck in the lens casing. I found a camera mod that allowed remote shutter control, which also happened to have instructions on taking the camera apart. I am always for taking apart electronics! 

 
Here is the result, which unfortunately doesn't involve the lens behaving afterwards. I think it is time for a new camera. Meanwhile I will have to rely on my Milestone camera (I used it for this picture), which has flash and zoom but only takes decent pictures in high sunlight situations.