Photographing a Friend and 10 Tips for Taking Better Portraits

My friend Leslie needed a head-shot for her business website, so she and I met on a recent afternoon to take pictures.

I knew that we'd find some great backgrounds, plus have an interesting walk together on that beautiful autumn day in Toronto's King Street West neighbourhood, so we met at Bathurst and King. From there we headed east, into the back alley and behind the buildings on the north side, then going south on Portland to the park. We walked westward along the north side of the park, along Wellington, back to Bathurst. We turned north there and walked back up to Bathurst and King.

The whole thing took about an hour and a half and included 13 different stops to shoot. In all, I took 250 pictures (including some of the buildings and scenery) and ended up with six choices that would work for her needs, plus a whole bunch of other pictures, just for fun.

So, today I thought I'd share some of the photographs and ten tips for taking portraits. I used a Canon Rebel DSLR with a 18-55mm lens, however decent pictures of people can be taken with any form of camera.

Here is the one she chose to use and a runner-up ...

Our Anniversary Dinner : La Palette on Queen Street West

Nick and I celebrated our 17th anniversary on the weekend!

We met on a blind date one year, almost to the day, before we got married. This was before internet dating and before digital photography, so we had to describe what we looked like and what we'd be wearing in order to recognize one another when we met at Future Bakery that sunny Sunday afternoon, November 20th, 1998. Unbeknownst to us, our lives were about to change forever.

At the time, he shared a house with a bunch of people, about 5 minutes from where we live now in the Queen Street West neighbourhood, and I lived alone in the upstairs apartment of a house on Concord Avenue, near Bloor and Ossington.

A couple of weeks after we met we went to his company Christmas party together, which was held in one of the event rooms at The Rogers Centre Hotel, which was called "The Dome" back then. It was a dress up affaire so I wore my one little-black-dress and had my hair styled at a salon, into a very pretty up-do. (This was at Angel Hair Salon which is still there. I'm reminded of that early date every time I pass it, which is relatively often because it's on the way to the thrift store I go to.)

The party was lovely and as fun as a corporate gathering can be. After dinner and dancing we slipped away to go to a loft party that I'd been invited to over at College and Bathurst. While there a piece of wood hit me on the bridge of the nose, in a freak accident when one of the hosts was trying to fix the big sliding door to their bathroom. It was one of those barn-door things on rollers, and he was standing up on a chair attempting to jam the wood in there, in such a way that would make the rollers work. I happened to turn the corner just as the wood slipped out of his hands, hitting me in the face. I fell to the floor, where Nick found me after being called from the other room. It was pretty dramatic and I ended up with a couple of hospital visits, a broken nose and six weeks of very black eyes. But in the end, I came out of it fine, albeit with a small scar and a great fear of flying wood.

So, I spent our first couple of months together looking pretty bad, but feeling terrific emotionally because I was in the midst of falling in love with the man that would be the one I'd be having celebratory dinners with 18 years into the future.

We went to the French restaurant, La Palette, on Queen Street West near Portland. We decided on it after finding it near the top of the list when googling Best Romantic Restaurants in Toronto. In addition to their very high rating on Yelp, there was the added benefit that it was close enough to walk to on that balmy Sunday evening, made special by the bright light cast by the super-moon overhead.

The place is great. We really had a wonderful time, with delicious food and wine, and warm friendly service.

A Beautiful Building Bites the Dust

The number of cranes overhead, plywood tunnels enclosing sections of mucky and broken sidewalk, and noisy construction trucks everywhere, are clear indication that we're in the middle of a massive building boom in Toronto right now. There seems to be a new condo building going up on every block.I have to assume that careful analysis has preceded all this new development and that city planners are monitoring what is going on, so, for the most part I support it. I want to live in a city that is vibrant and exciting, and understand that it takes people and places for them to live to achieve this.Being a lover of history and vintage things though, it always pains me to see one of our old buildings torn down to make room for the new. Today I write about one such victim, a grand old dame of a structure that I wish could have been saved.Last summer, luckily, I took some pictures of this three story brick building located on the south-east corner of Bathurst and Niagara Streets, in the belief that I was capturing what would become the "before" pictures for a post about its restoration. What led me to think that it was set to receive some loving attention was a sign I saw in an adjacent lot, stating that a Farmers Market would be opening where it stood. I envisioned something charming like the St. Lawrence Market, over here on the west side of the city, housed within some beautifully restored red brick walls. No doubt, I was looking forward to seeing that happen.So, you can imagine my shock upon passing the corner not long ago, to find that the building had been obliterated -- completely gone with no sign that it had ever been there. There isn't even a whisper from its ghost on the internet .... well, until now, that is.Considering the age of a couple of other buildings located a very short distance away, that very much appear to have been built in the same era, I estimate that this one was built in 1899 or 1900, making it over 115 years old. Granted, this might be considered young in most major cities around the world, but Toronto is a relatively new city, so anything over 100 years stands out as being old.The other buildings I compared it to age-wise are this one, located just to the west on Niagara Street, built by The National Casket Company in the late 1890s, and one located a block to the north at 49 Bathurst Street, built in 1900 by The American Hat Frame Company, photographed at the end of the post. Both have been classified as heritage properties and are therefore protected from demolition, but it seems nobody was looking out for this one.

Art Gallery Gifts : The Pop Up Shop for Mystical Landscapes at AGO

I recently posted about the wonderful exhibition that is currently on at the AGO, called Mystical Landscapes. Today I thought I'd give you a look at the lovely gift shop that the gallery has set up to accompany the show.To back up a bit, this exhibition includes works from great masters we know and love, Van Gogh, Monet and Gauguin, and many we’ve never heard of because the paintings have never before left the countries of their origin. In all, 37 artists from 14 countries are represented, in 90 paintings and 20 drawings, created over the 50 year span from 1880 to 1930. Each reflects the artist’s desire to capture the spiritual presence they sensed out of doors — in woods, on mountain tops and in the night sky.The paintings in the exhibit were chosen because they demonstrate or promote feelings of calmness, relaxation, wonder and optimism and many of the items selected for the shop aim to do the same thing.While looking around I had the good fortune of meeting the AGO's Assistant Merchandiser, Kierin, who was part of the team who made the shop happen. She told me a bit about the concept.

At a Friend’s Book Launch

My friend Julie just released her second book of poetry and Nick and I were at the event to help welcome it to the reading world. The book is called Lady Crawford and was published by Palimpsest Press.

The brief description of it reads, "Between imperial dinners and managing investments, Lady Crawford offers a rare glimpse of the inner-life of a woman who has married into a royal lineage. Chronicled in a series of metamorphic poems, Julie Cameron Gray reports from a world filled with parties and art before revealing the cost of an identity shed, as so many married women before her. Heartbreaking, drunken, and lavish, Lady Crawford is a powerful second collection from one of Canada's finest poets." 

(In case you're having a feeling of déjà vu, I recently wrote about another friend Nyla's poetry book launch in this post -- I have two friends who are gifted poets and they both launched a book last month.)

The event was held at one of Toronto's few remaining independent bookshops, Another Story, located on Roncesvalles Avenue.