Colourful Vegan Cupcakes

Colourful Vegan Cupcakes, originally uploaded by Christos Tsirbas.

Cupcakes seem to be part of the zeitgeist right now. I can imagine why: these scrumptious treats offer blasts of flavour and colour that can brighten up the greyest of days.

Riding a Blue Streak

Riding a Blue Streak, originally uploaded by Christos Tsirbas.

This stylish cyclist shields himself from the elements with a scarf that matches his bicyles. That's what I call colour co-ordination

Riding High

Riding High, originally uploaded by Christos Tsirbas.

Even in the bitter November cold, this gentleman rode to Kensington Market for a bit of shopping. I wonder how chilled his exposed knee got.

My Award Winning Short Film Smile

Winner Best in Festival, Toronto Urban Film Festival 2008 and Best Animation, Nokia MobiFest 2009

My Award Winning Short Film Smile

Red Windows

Red Windows, originally uploaded by Christos Tsirbas.

A young woman studies the menu at a popular Mexican eatery in Kensington market In the foreground we see a telephone pole rifled with the left-behind staples of hundreds of handbills and posters.

Us Against the World

Us Against the World, originally uploaded by Christos Tsirbas.

There are so many antique and curio stores on Queen Street East. One such store featured a window display of globes. This image perhaps metaphorically undescores how we see ourselves in North America.

Lobster

Lobster, originally uploaded by Christos Tsirbas.

The grimy window display at a fish store in one of Toronto's Chinatown reveals a tankful of Lobsters. I find these creatures to be otherworldly and beautiful and the treatment that they receive to be extremely cruel.

Biker at Night

Biker at Night, originally uploaded by Christos Tsirbas.

This picture was a tough salvage. My camera settings were completely off and I had to go back and boost this image then add massive amounts of noise reduction to extract this glorious shot of this leather-clad rider.

Doorman at Woody's

Doorman at Woody's, originally uploaded by Christos Tsirbas.

The doorman at Woody's, Toronto's best-known gay bar, deals with a patron's question.

Lean Times

Lean Times, originally uploaded by Christos Tsirbas.

A visitor to the Case Goods Warehouse at Toronto's Distillery Historic District takes a moment to pause and reflect on the arts and crafts on view

Camera Operator

Camera Operator, originally uploaded by Christos Tsirbas.

This young gentleman was working on an indie shoot on Church Street with a couple of principals and a sound man.

Keith the Cowboy and Friends

Keith the Cowboy and Friends, originally uploaded by Christos Tsirbas.

The International Gay Rodeo Association annual convention was in town over the weekend. Keith and friend struck a fabulous pose as the cavalcade headed to Woody's

Michael the Barber

Michael the Barber, originally uploaded by Christos Tsirbas.

Michael's Barber Shop is a fixture at the north-west corner of Church and Wellesley.

Pedestrian

Pedestrian, originally uploaded by Christos Tsirbas.

Walking south on Church Street at a brisk pace, i set my camera to manual focus and the distance scale on my 50mm to roughly 5 feet. Perhaps I like this picture because the fellow walking toward me looks kind of like Gerard Butler in 300.

Random Act of Kindness

Random Act of Kindness, originally uploaded by Christos Tsirbas.

This elderly gentleman required assistance to disembark from his cab. With a smile and a gesture, he enlisted the fellow in leather to help him out. This moment was a reminder that civility, courtesy and respect continue to thrive in an urban environment

Rearview Mirror

Rearview Mirror, originally uploaded by Christos Tsirbas.

The red of the starter offers a counterpoint to the black and silver tones of this classic cruiser parked outside a cycle shop on Yonge Street.

Graffiti Artists at Work

In an alley behind the north side of Queen Street, I stumbled across a group of graffiti artists crating a mural with spray cans. I spent a couple of minutes photographing the group and marvelling at the efficiency and skill with which they worked. As you can see in this image, one young man is working from a scrap of paper, transferring what he sees to the larger-than-life artwork in progress.

Coffee Lover

Wandered down to Queen Street West for the first time in months on this glorious Sunday afternoon and decided to do some street shooting. This gentleman was sitting on the stoop of a walk-up enjoying a cup of coffee from the franchise next door.

Closing Time at the AGO

A museum patron or possibly an employee waits under the awning of the Frank Gehry-designed Art Gallery of Ontario last Sunday afternoon. This was snapped with my iPhone, converted to black and white with Photoshop Mobile then adjusted in Adobe Lightroom.

These Apples are Delicious ...

and in season too. Snapped with my iPhone at MacMillan Orchards
outside Toronto over the weekend. The great thing about Apple's
wundergadget is that nobody notices me snapping pictures with it
because they're distracted by the bulky DSLR hanging from my neck.

Waist-level shot of dogs walking their humans along Toronto's Cherry Beach.

Filling the Well

As creators we sometimes forget that we are also consumers of others' creative output. Indeed, we all started out as admirers of the work of our favourite artists and in aspiring to be like them we too embraced creativity as a way of life.

But all too often, when we are in the midst of an extended or otherwise demanding project, we forget to balance output with input. That is, we are so focused on finishing a work in progress that we forget to make time to take in the work of others.

This can often lead to creative burnout.

Creativity expert Julia Cameron suggests that our creative reserves are like a well that needs to be replenished by rain. To maintain the creative energy we put out, we need to restock it with the creative output of others. She calls this filling the well and it's as simple as taking an afternoon off for a gallery crawl or a movie.

Too often we forget that we draw inspiration from the work of others–not just the works that have influenced us but anything that entertains, delights or even challenges us. If you find yourself in the midst of a project that's stalling, the best thing you can do may be to simply take some time off and enjoy some art. Your output will be the better for it.

Obsolete Tech

A few years back, independently owned telephone booths were a hot
business opportunity. Hundreds of them sprung up overnight but now
most are battered derelict, victims of vandalism and the ubiquity of
cell phones.

Political Correctness Goes Down the Hole

Dreaming

Multiple exposure using the coloured flash on a Holga 120 CFN

Windows

Not a photograph but a poem I wrote to accompany a series of John's images:

windows


open wide
lean out
look around
take in the world
and smile

shut the curtains
lean back
imagine
what’s outside
make a plan
stick to it

you
are
here

Violinist

I snapped this young man rehearsing for a public dance perfomance just off Trinity Square in the Distillery District. This was one of those moments of perfect. The colour harmony is pure chance. He happened to be wearing a green army-surplus jacket and his skin tone and the colour of his violin happened to mesh perfectly with the brick background in the fading sunlight.

Mission Control

It's not all play. The fabulous life of a freelance writer/photographer also involves mundane (and much-feared) administrative tasks. On this rainy day I've spent a good chunk of the morning on the phone and online taking care of things like domain-name renewals, invitations to our upcoming photography shows Industrial Symphony and Heavy Water, equipment rentals, restaurant reservations (for an entirely different event) and bill payments.

This is the perfect time to look back to a brighter day. A few weeks back I snapped this observation tower on Cherry Street that looks out over Lake Ontario. I love its design. The staircase is also the support pillar and this reminds me of the sci-fi inspired structures I used to scribble in the margins of my notebooks as a child.

Cherry Street Bridge

It's a gorgeous day here in Toronto and it will be a balmy 27 degrees Celsius, which would be a fine temperature in mid-July but it's way too hot for the end of April. But hey kids, there's no such thing as global warming, it's just a commie myth designed to guilt you out of your God-given right to consume. Here's some detail from the Cherry Street Bridge taken on a similar (but much cooler) sunny day, a few weeks back.

When Spring Rolls Around...

My thoughts turn to motorcycles. In an ideal world (i.e. free of pollution and road rage), this BMW 1150 GS would be my transportation of choice. I would like nothing more than to spend long lazy days exploring the twisting back roads of this and other continents.

Where Have I Been?

These past twenty days, I've been to Montreal twice (for Marillion Weekend and Greek Orthodox Easter), taken close to 900 photographs for my upcoming Industrial Symphony exhibition, written web copy, ad copy, artist statements, researched the documentary I'm writing, attended an Artscape tenants' meeting and even had time to socialize . Where I haven't been is Buffalo to see the Dead (who still rock despite the absence of Jerry Garcia) or the inside of a cinema. So, here's a completely random shot that has nothing to do with any of the above:



Taken in Mexico, this young man had a Socrates quote tatooed on his right shoulder and the smoking baby from Van Halen's 1984 album cover on his left. Talk about cultural range! I believe his name is Jordan but I could be wrong. (This is why one should always complete a trip diary while one is travelling and not two months after the fact.)

Deplaning

Landing at San Juan International Airport in Los Cabos, Mexico in early February was quite the experience. Not only did we go from cold grey skies to a sunny tropical clime, but we also deplaned on the tarmac, which I'd never done before. Being so close to a row a airliners absolutely thrilled me, after all, I'm a kid when it comes to machines that go fast. I snapped this shot of our jet as we were entering the terminal and scanned it from film. I just love how shiny the plane is. I realize I'm being silly, but so what? Airplanes are just plain cool.

These Boots were Made for Walking...

I made this picture a couple of summers ago at a Queen Street West shop/gallery. Art? Footwear? A little bit of both? You tell me...

Go, Joe!

Just for fun (and because action figures don't protest when you spend too much time lighting and posing them), I took some shots of a G.I. Joe this afternoon resulting in this formal portrait of an action figure....

Dress Accordingly

This helpful sign in a College Street bike shop cheerfully enforces the local dress code.

Talking Business

The proprietors of a Queen Street West coffee/sandwich bar have a chat about the day's business.

Smoking on Humber Bay

Hanging out and smoking on these boulders seems to be a popular pastime. This is one of two groups that stopped by to chill on the rocks while we were walking the dog along Humber Bay on Sunday.

Skateboarder

A skateboarder enjoys the sunshine outside the Wychwood Art Barns on a Sunday afternoon.

Drama

It's a bit of a cliché but this frame from a British crime drama--captured as I was testing a recently acquired lens--caught my eye for the way the scanlines frame the protgonist, who seems to be making an impassioned plea of some sort.

See, Spot, Run

The family dog snapped on a pedestrian walkway in one of Toronto's ravine parks. The angles and textures of the walkway and overpass provided an interesting opportunity to play with composition but were not interesting subjects in and of themselves.

A Fetching Image

Oblivious to the cold, this canine fetches a tennis ball hurled into the freezing water of Lake Ontario on a cold and gray Sunday afternoon.

Having a Ball

This fellow isn't afraid of the cold and in moments, he'll jump into the freezing waters of Lake Ontario to retrieve a tennis ball thrown by his owner.

Explorers

The spring thaw is underway. A group of children hops from one chunk of ice to another while exploring the shore of Lake Ontario along Cherry Beach on a grey March afternoon.

Seeing Things

It is a natural human impulse to impose order on what we see. When we were looking at this image of a mineral slab taken last Sunday, John remarked that it looked like an old map. I agreed, thinking that it looks like one of J.R.R. Tolkien's hand-drawn maps in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Microcosm

I just find it amazing how patterns repeat in nature. The mineral slab below looks like it could be a view of the Earth from orbit. This is another shot taken this weekend at the Mineral Gallery in the Royal Ontario Museum.

Copper Formation

I spent Sunday afternoon at the Royal Ontario museum, splitting the time between the Asian and mineral galleries. At first I thought that the copper formation below was petrified wood of some sort because it curves like bark. It was one of the many wonders on display that made me think about the wondrous and beautiful things that arise through random geological processes. I was overwhelmed and awed by the dazzling minerals that I saw and reminded that there is so very much to explore in this world of ours. I felt like a kid again, which is exactly the effect that a trip to a museum should have.

Canoes at Portage in Haliburton County

Taken last summer while visiting friends' in Haliburton County, Ontario.

Dragon Boat in Winter

I went out looking for something completely different, but found a dragon boat atop a trailer in a snow covered parking lot next to Lake. I have no idea why it hasn't been put into storage, but I'm sure there's an interesting story behind it. (Maybe this will serve as an inspiration for an interesting piece of fiction.)

Victor Shovelling Snow

Victor is in his seventies and operates a crane rental business. I chanced upon him as we were driving around various industrial sites along Lake Ontario looking for interesting things to shoot. He was shovelling the entrance to his equipment storage yard and we got to chatting. As it turns out Vic is from the Gaspésie region of Québec and a fellow Francophone. We spent a few minutes chatting in French in the sub-zero temperature, while I made several pictures.

Vic shared part of his life story and asked me to come back to photograph some of the equipment in his compound. I think I'll take him up on the offer.

Safety First

Ralph Schiavone opens up a neck razor of the type now used by Ontario barbers to reveal a disposable blade. Due to health concerns in the wake of the AIDS crisis, straight razors have been replaced by these, which are so similar in appearance their traditional counterparts that many patrons haven't even noticed the switch.

Gus the Other Barber

A black and white version of this picture was published in the National Post on December 28, along with an article I wrote for blogTO about Toronto's best barber shops.

Gus's shop is a colourful and chaotic place and I took the picture below on a busy Friday afternoon when the place was packed with clients.



You can read the entire article and view all the pictures here.