I am in Toronto! I am in the big city!
I was invited by a friend (who decided to stay in the shadow and for me not to disclose anything about him/her). The planning for this travel had been going on for many months with me contemplating photography in the city, shooting street, urban architecture and also models. Having been starving photographically in the past year in Wellington, New Zealand (mainly with regard to portrait, nude and Inner Core sessions which were very difficult to organize there) I had high hopes that it might be easier to shoot in a big cosmopolitan city.
And after 10 days of experiencing the city, of shooting, of trying out and of working with professional models I can confirm that what I had hoped for really, really happened. It has been an amazing and very fulfilling experience.
It seems that people in Toronto are very relaxed with regard to having their picture taken. Working with professional models appears to be easy and shooting people in the streets is a relaxed and cheerful experience. I am more than pleased.
In a city that you don’t know you want to go to the places that tourists are supposed to visit. So we visited museums, strolled through the city center, had a good look at Union Station, admired the Lake Ontario views and drove the 100 kilometers to the Niagara Falls and I behaved as a tourist in this megapolis is supposed to behave.
I realized that in order to go from Toronto to the surrounding cities like Oakville or Missisauga you don’t use country roads (as I had imagined) but huge highways with 5 to 7 lanes in each direction. There is absolutely no romantic feeling if you travel around Toronto in a 50 km radius. If you get further outside you will discover beautiful landscapes, vineyards, hills and mountains and beautiful picturesque little towns (for example Niagara on the Lake) that are worth a visit.
So I had my share in the experience of being a tourist in Toronto and its sourrounding area. But particularly I could experience photography on a new and different level. I will report on particular photo shoots in separate blog articles. So thank you heaps to my friend who made all this possible and who relentlessly supported me and organized so many events and photo shoots.