Bill Ford-SmithDistant seagulls
Posted on February 11, 2016
This image was a result of an assignment from the class I’m currently doing; the idea was to produce more of an environmental picture of seagulls, giving a sense of the open and quite harsh conditions in which they live in the winter (even a mild one as we’ve had this year).
Having the Toronto skyline looming out of the mist in the background gives a reminder of the encroachment of the man-made environment upon the natural one.
Toronto Skyline At Night
Posted on September 14, 2014
Raccoon at night
This was taken from Hanlan’s Point on the Toronto Islands, utilising an ND filter to allow a longer exposure; Toronto at night is almost verging on pretty…
Unfortunately, I’d missed that last ferry back from this end of the islands and had to walk back to Centre Island to catch a later ferry, with a scavenging raccoon (who seemed especially keen on pizza) to keep me company whilst I waited.
Seagull against the Toronto skyline
Posted on September 10, 2014
This image was taken on a beautiful sunny afternoon in the middle of March last year; I had done a walk along the lake-shore to Rattray Marsh and was heading back to the car – although it was beautifully sunny and the water was crystal clear, it was also d**n cold (to use the technical meteorological term) and strategic bits of me were starting to freeze.
Seagulls were out and apparently having a lovely time swooping around and catching the occasional hapless fish in the lake; I walked to the end of a small breakwater to see if I could get a half decent shot.
A mixture of bad technique, slow reactions and a slightly basic autofocus (mainly the first two!) meant that my hit-rate was lousy, but I did get this image, which I rather like.
Toronto from the CN Tower
Posted on September 7, 2014
A regrettable oversight by the builders of the CN Tower was their not using non-reflecting glass for the windows (!), which can make it harder to get shots from the viewing decks at night without at least one light-bulb reflection in shot. There are other possibilities, however: this shot was taken whilst descending in the lift; the red light comes from the tower’s own illumination.
Bill Ford-Smith 