Bill Smith's Photography

I did a beer run to Indie Ale House in Toronto's Junction neighbourhood a few weeks ago, I love their beer, especially the breakfast porter and Instigator IPA. Of course a packed a camera and some film because I've been in shooting around Southeast Oakville almost exclusively for the past few months and while it makes for an interesting exercise to find something interesting in what you see every day. I needed a change of scenery. Well,  pre March 15, 2020, I would not have given it any thought, now I was wearing a mask in the street becasue physical distancing, was, well, kinda hard to do on a busy sidewalk. This was my first and last beer run to Indie Ale House in person until a safe and viable vaccine comes out. I have some people in my orbit with delicate immune systems and I can't afford to 1) get sick myself or 2) even worse, become an asymptomatic carrier. Once half a roll of Portra 400 was killed, I got the beer and made my way over to Bloor West Village to fin...

I had an opportunity to do a photo walk with my friend John Meadows from the Classic Camera Podcast in Toronto's Junction neighbourhood. Instead of doing the long subway or streetcar ride, I hopped the UP Express and while a dollar more than the TTC, I got to Bloor and Dundas really quick. John took me to a Pedestrian Overpass popular with Toronto photographers. There used to be  Canadian Pacific Train Station around here and the Canadian used made its first stop before leaving Toronto and connecting with the Montreal section of the train in Northern Ontario. The Canadian still passes through but doesn't stop in the Junction anymore. The Junction itself is interesting,, a major rail yard for Canadian Pacific,  just south of the Stockyards, and  up until the 1990s it was a dry ward in Toronto. Ironically enough with no liquor, very down on its heels. Today this feels more like Queen West of ten to fifteen years ago and is gentrifying quickly with gastro pubs, ...