During the summer, the Lower Lonsdale Shipyards presents a Night Market each Friday evening. The area hosts throngs of people who come to hear live music, shop for handcrafted items and green goods at the various stalls, and sample amazing foods from a multitude of marvelous food trucks. Just wandering around the area is a delight for the senses. Here are some moments captured from last night's event.
Don't forget to come and join us next Friday evening!
On a recent trip back to Toronto, I was able to indulge in one of my favorite pastimes: exploring marketplaces. Over the years, I have been fortunate to do quite a bit of foreign travel, and inevitably, my hosts always attempt to show me their country's museums and art galleries etc, but my preference always remains to visit the markets. Nowhere do you see "real" life as comprehensively and simply as you can by meandering about a good market.
Wandering an outdoor or indoor market presents one with a multitude of sensory inputs that assail and delight eyes, ears and nose. The rich colours -- patterns and solids -- of clothing and foods capture and delight the eye, while your nose detects the aromas of pungent cheeses, the earthy smell of the butcher's fresh cuts of meat, the unmistakable odor of the fish stalls, and the complex fragrances of aromatic oils, incenses and perfumes at the various esthetic stalls.
In addition to the cornucopia of goods, markets are also stellar places for people watching. This, is also one of my favorite activities, especially as a photographer.
Our excursion started with a morning at the St. Lawrence Market, where we had a breakfast of their famous peameal bacon sandwiches, loaded with hot peppers. Then we were off and ambling through the aisles, doing some shopping, and a lot of sightseeing.
From there, we journeyed to the eclectic and supremely funky Kensington Market. Now here is a place simply made for the senses!
Not just for the characters that frequent the area, but also for the fantastic street art. Whereas I am certainly not a fan of the mindless graffiti that you see scrawled and plastered over much of the urban landscape -- mostly indecipherable script -- I do love to see street art that is obviously the work of truly talented artists. In this regard, Kensington is a treasure, and the eye is constantly drawn from one work to another, their colours, lines and subjects a constant surprise.
Now, of course, I have to plan a trip back to the Granville Market, but at the moment, I'm off down the hill to the Lonsdale Quay, my local neighborhood market, because, as you may know by now, I just can't pass by a good market!
I've recently done some more of what I call "corporate candid" photography. As this might imply, it entails visiting a business and after brief introductions, spending an hour or two as much in the background as possible to capture candid moments of the staff as well as images that help evoke a sense of the business.
Friends of ours in Gastown have a game development business known as Imaginary Games, and were receptive to a barter: photos for them, networking and portfolio for me.
We did a few posed shots, but the majority was simply looking for moments as the staff worked on their upcoming game, Afterland.
I recently ventured out to my beloved Lynn Valley so that I could try out the 400mm Wee Beastie lens I recently acquired. The afternoon was intermittent overcast, with roving patches of diffuse sunlight tracking through the heavier clouds. For the first time, I tried the suspension bridge park, and chose to walk anti-clockwise, and headed for Twin Falls.
The wall of the "punch bowl" that the water has carved from the rock was brilliantly coloured, ranging from lighter umber to dark and vivid maroons and purples, all anchored by the dark greens of the water. Here's where the Wee Beastie brings it right in your face.
I have to note that this is not a trail overly suited for older folk. Regardless of your direction of travel, there are simply a pant load of stairs. Throw into the mix that the trails have many, many tree roots, and it can become a trial, rather than a trail.
The suspension bridge is a bit anticlimactic if one has done Capilano, but what it lacks in scale, it makes up for in sheer exuberance... the slightest movement sets it into prolonged and most exciting motion. (Minimize this by waiting until the bridge is your's alone.)
So, OK, I've done the suspension bridge and I wouldn't do it again for the reasons I outlined above: it tired me out and, really, it just didn't have the bang for the buck as far as being close to the river, which is primarily why we're there. At that point, I drove up to the headwaters and did my favorite Varley Trail which skirts right along the river, with just superb scenery.
And since you've all been so good to get this far, here's a portrait of the Wee Beastie, in situ:
Cheers!
