In the Westside Eclipse: Afternoon Turns to Dusk in the Greater Toronto Area
Even leaving home before 2:00 PM (EDT), which was said to be the beginning of the eclipse, I thought was I already too late, but to my relief the sky still remained bright. Arriving at Danville Park 15 minutes later and seeing the amount of cars in parking lot and people walking about the tall hill there, I thought again that I was too late, but to my relief there was still space. Being located in an industrial area in the north part of Mississauga, immediately west of Toronto, the park and the hill is still kind of a hidden secret.
They said that the full eclipse would occur at 3:19 PM so I had plenty of time to set up my Olympus E-M1 II and 12-100mm f/4 on the the tripod. But even from that point on, I could see the shutter speed of my camera gradually declining, from 1/400 sec. to 1/3 sec. The darkness lasted until 3:22 PM during which the clouds immediately surrounding the sun did part a little bit to the delight of everyone. Of course, I was more concerned about the landscape, as I usually am.
People lament the cloud cover, but they made for some dramatic skies, and almost made me feel like real landscape photographer. Being 70km northwest of the Path of Totality, the brightness of the sky was uneven as I looked southwest, the left side becoming very dark, the right side remaining bright, which only further added to the drama.
2:52:51 PM
3:09:01 PM
3:19:42 PM
3:20:09 PM
3:21:00 PM
3:21:50 PM
3:26:43 PM
3:29:02 PM
19 Years Ago, at 19 Years Old: The Beginning of Toronto's Condo Boom
As a teenager, I bought my first camera, the 5-megapixel Olympus C-5060 Wide Zoom, in September 2004 (back when 27mm EFL was considered "wide"). I was inspired to buy a camera to document the high-rise condominium construction boom in Mississauga and the rest of the Greater Toronto Area, which began around this time.
Of course, high-rise buildings have always been a major part of the urban landscape of Mississauga, particular along Hurontario. Not surprisingly, Hurontario Street happens to be the busiest bus corridor in the outer suburbs of Toronto, carrying approximately 25,000 riders per weekday on MiWay buses alone. Before the ongoing conversion to light rail, MiWay's "Local" bus, the 19 Hurontario, operated at 6-minute frequency while the "Express" bus, the 103 Hurontario Express, ran at at 10-minute frequency, for a combined 4-minute frequency all day.
The photo below is one of the first photos I took with my new camera, in December of 2004, 19 years ago when I was 19 years old. It is as much a portrait of Hurontario Street as it is of my childhood. It is the neighbourhood I grew up in from junior kindergarten to grade 12, and even the apartment building where I lived from 9 years to 18 years old can be seen the distance. With the light rail construction combined with the high-rise construction, you can probably imagine how much this street has changed since 2004, as much as how much I have changed as a photographer during that time. It was not just the beginning of a condo boom, but also the beginning of my journey into photography.
