College St. Before Christmas
Wow, a month ago, I was in Toronto to do some shopping and I did a solo photo walk along College St. in Little Italy into the north end of Kensington Market. The game plan was to connect with a few other members of the Classic Camera Revival and Toronto Film Shooters in the Distillery District Christmas Market. Well, best-laid plans, I met up with James Lee at Downtown Camera we drove down to the Distillery District. Tip one, don't do this during rush hour if you value your sanity, just don't. There's a reason why I take public transit when in Toronto. Thankfully it was James doing the driving.
Tip 1.5, parking around the Distillery District will be at a premium during special events and during the Soulpepper Theatre Season. This is when you start to see the worst in humanity when it comes to the last parking spot. Believe me, it gets feral. I was riding shotgun with James and he was driving a BMW X5, not a small vehicle we wound up parking on Front St. behind the new Globe and Mail building. Take the 504a to the Cherry St. Loop, the sanity you save will be yours.
Tip #2 Even if it's a Tuesday night, it is the Tuesday night before Christmas and 1.5 million people decided to check out the Christmas Market at the same time we did. There were two-hour lineups at every entrance snaking around Distillery District. Those who got in were having a blast. James and I cut our losses and walked up to Betty's on King St. and got a table, and waited for everyone else to join us. Moral of the story, if you plan to do some night photography at the Christmas Market, do it early in the season before half of Toronto decides it wants to experience it too. At least I got my solo walk in.
All considered I chose the right camera for this walk, my black Nikon FM, such a nice workhorse. I have a chrome one too but the shutter has gone bad, and I have another shutter assembly on order. Once that comes in I'm sending the Chrome FM off to Service Camera Pro in Quebec City for a shutter transplant. Rene does such great work and he's one of the good guys out there.
Camera: Nikon FM, Nikkor Ai 50 f1.4 and Ais 28 f2.8 lenses.
Film: Kodak Tri-X 400, HC110 B.
Tip 1.5, parking around the Distillery District will be at a premium during special events and during the Soulpepper Theatre Season. This is when you start to see the worst in humanity when it comes to the last parking spot. Believe me, it gets feral. I was riding shotgun with James and he was driving a BMW X5, not a small vehicle we wound up parking on Front St. behind the new Globe and Mail building. Take the 504a to the Cherry St. Loop, the sanity you save will be yours.
Tip #2 Even if it's a Tuesday night, it is the Tuesday night before Christmas and 1.5 million people decided to check out the Christmas Market at the same time we did. There were two-hour lineups at every entrance snaking around Distillery District. Those who got in were having a blast. James and I cut our losses and walked up to Betty's on King St. and got a table, and waited for everyone else to join us. Moral of the story, if you plan to do some night photography at the Christmas Market, do it early in the season before half of Toronto decides it wants to experience it too. At least I got my solo walk in.
All considered I chose the right camera for this walk, my black Nikon FM, such a nice workhorse. I have a chrome one too but the shutter has gone bad, and I have another shutter assembly on order. Once that comes in I'm sending the Chrome FM off to Service Camera Pro in Quebec City for a shutter transplant. Rene does such great work and he's one of the good guys out there.
Camera: Nikon FM, Nikkor Ai 50 f1.4 and Ais 28 f2.8 lenses.
Film: Kodak Tri-X 400, HC110 B.
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