I do not like photographing anything – especially landscapes – through any kind of window or glass. It not only distorts the color temperature – makes the scene look cold when it’s supposed to be warm, add green when there shouldn’t be green, and don’t get me started about cloud colors – it’s a nightmare when it comes to editing these photos in Lightroom.
Sometimes though, I can’t say I have a choice like unless I suddenly sprout a pair of wings, there’s no way I could photograph in the open air more than a hundred stories above ground. I took these with my phone, by the way, in RAW before uploading them to Lightroom and stitching them to make a large panorama. If I remember, each of these images are made up of 9 to 11 images stitched together. The smaller focal lengths of the phone’s camera really helps sometimes.
I thought these came out great except for the bit of reflection, which as hard as I tried, I couldn’t get rid of them.
As much as I don’t like it, sometimes, it is the way to go and I got a few favorites that were taken through the window while the car was moving or through a plain old window.
As of Sunday evening, I was home again, in my own bed, enjoying a quiet night rest. No more sharing a bed with Mom, no more listening to her snoring, and no more having to listen to her loud YouTube playing all night long. The trip has ended at last.
For date reference, day 4 is referring to September 23 and day 5 is September 24. I think this is more for me than for anyone in particular.
As I wrote in this post, I felt like the trip had gone downhill after day 3. Even with the spectacular views from CN Tower on day 4, I can never compare those views to that of the Niagara Falls.
After CN Tower, we took the street car up to Toronto Chinatown. I have been to only two other well-known Chinatowns so far – Los Angeles and San Francisco – and I’ve come to expect rowdy behavior from the senior residents of Chinatown. Still, it was a bit disorienting and with Mom constantly wandering to God-knows-where, I had to be on my toes every second.
Can you tell my anxiety level has been pretty high during this trip?
After finally grabbing a bite, we walked a few blocks down to Toronto City Hall. It was my idea because I needed a photo of the Toronto sign in the Nathan Phillip Square to prove I’ve really been to Toronto. I don’t know about you but have you ever had to prove to someone that you’ve really been to a certain place?
I have. From then on, I’ve always photographed the sign of the place I’ve been to.
That afternoon, on the way back to the hotel, I received a call about my car. At first, I thought they were calling me to notify me my car was ready to pick up but it turned out they broke something while dismantling the car door. So now, new parts will need to be orders and who knows how long that’ll be. I became so anxious after the call. I know I should had been but I was.
Day 5 aka my birthday was spent driving from Toronto to Ottawa. Mom drove while I sat back and enjoyed my birthday drink from Starbucks – Iced Matcha Latte. I was thankful she allowed me to connect my phone to the rental car so I can play some music instead of listening to the hum of the road and our pathetic attempts of trying to make small talks with each other despite our small talks so far lasted less than a minute before Mom either got angry and started shouting or she got bored.
She also wasn’t feeling well that day and she had to exit in a random town and take a nap behind a Tim Horton (Canadian coffee franchise) while I just sat there, earbuds in, and listened to my music. I volunteered to drive but she wouldn’t let me, most likely still worried about my driving skills after my accident.
We finally arrived at the Ottawa motel at a little after 4 PM. As soon as we had a small meal, mom took some cough medication and went to bed.
The theme for this week’s SundayStills is all about road trips, whether it’s recent or long past. For the last few years, I’ve had at least one road trip each year. They were all memorable in one way or another and I still find myself reflecting on them from time to time.
I was experimenting here in this photo. I have been watching YouTube videos, trying to learn photography technique. One of the many photographers I’m following on YouTube suggested instead of taking a general landscape or a macro, why not shooting a photo from a certain perspective? So there I was, attempting to capture the view from the flowers’ perspective.
Week 2 topics for Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge include: truck, mural, octopus, whale, animal, painting, orange, black, water, lighthouse, ocean, vivid, vintage, and blue. I think I have just the pictures. Continue reading “Week 2 Topics – Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge”→
Cee has started a new series for this Fun Foto Challenge! And she challenges us to use the little details in her photo for topic inspiration. This week’s possible topics include: geometry, bushes, window, brick, curtain, green, tan, wall, building, dark red, tree, etc. Here is mine: Continue reading “Week 1 Topics – Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge”→
This is Another Story 