Birds On A Wire

I was out on an assignment this evening trying to capture a photo of the front of a building (as per the daily shoot assignment). I decided to capture the municipal Hydro building as I really love the architecture and think it looks beautiful especially at night. While clicking away, I was distracted by a commotion across the street. I looked up into the dusk sky to see THOUSANDS of birds flying around in a large group. There were so many that it literally looked like a black cloud floating across the sky. Upon closer observation, I noticed the telephone wires and lamp posts were covered with birds as well. Feeling like I was in an Alfred Hitchcock movie, I attempted to capture this phenomenon. It was difficult to capture clear photos of the birds as they were very unpredictable and and would take off in a flash. I wanted to post this photo as it was one of my favourites. I loved the dark silhouettes of the birds against the sky.

Oh, and the photo of the building front I was supposed to capture? Check it out here:http://magneticmags365.tumblr.com/. It's titled "Night Lights"

Mags.

Desperate

Today's challenge was to make a photograph that uses the rule of thirds composition in a very obvious way. 

But what is "the rules of thirds"? The rule of thirds is a compositional rule of thumb in visual arts such as painting, photography and design. The rule states that an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines, and that important compositional elements should be placed along these lines or their intersections. Those in favour of using the technique claim that aligning a subject with these points creates more tension, energy and interest in the composition than simply centering the subject would.

Desperate, and with dusk almost turning to darkness, I started to snap away at anything in hopes I had a half decent shot to post for today. Not sure if this shot accurately captures this rule, but I was really drawn to the colours in the sky and liked how the sunset reflected off of the house across the street from me.

Mags.

Reflections

After some late afternoon showers threatened the possibility of an evening photo shoot, I was glad when they passed through quickly. I made my way over to the Brampton Soccer Centre in hopes to capture some interesting shots of the unusual architecture that forms this building. I captured this shot as the sun setting was reflecting on the glass.

The Brampton Soccer Centre is a community soccer facility that opened in June 2007. Located on the southwest corner of Dixie Road and Sandalwood Parkway, this landmark building was created at a cost of $26.9 million dollars. The initial concept for the building was to have it host Ice Hockey, Basketball / Volleyball and Soccer. Feedback from the community resulted in a change of plans, thus rendering the inside of the building as a soccer only facility.

Mags.

Chinguacousy Park Fire/Life Centre

Tonight I tagged along with my friend Scribe as she zipped around to a few local landmarks around the city that we live in. Once of our stops was to the infamous Chinguacousy Park which, as seen through the lens of a camera, can be quite beautiful. Dusk was fast approaching so we needed to be quick. I snapped a few shots of this "house" with this week's architectural theme in mind.

Located near one of the park's entrances, the Fire/Life Safety Education Centre is a hands-on learning facility for training children about fire hazards in and around the home.  Upstairs, Stephanie’s Place models an average home with kitchen, living room, bedroom and bath. Children have the opportunity to find hazards and learn where to go when fire strikes and locate safe escape routes out of the house.

 

Vowing to come back, I've marked out a few other spots to photograph in and around the park. Stay tuned....

 

Mags.

Cheltenham Badlands

Tonight I decided to try my hand at sunsets. I know....this doesn't look like one. This was a "detour" on our way to scope out a good sunset view.

 

“Badlands” is a geologic term for an area of soft rock devoid of vegetation and soil cover that has become molded into a rolling landscape of rounded hills and gullies. Such areas are rare in Ontario and this is one of the best examples.

 

They exhibit the reddish hue of the Queenston Shale that forms them; the iron oxide in the shale produces this colour. The narrow greenish bands that can be seen throughout the shale are due to the change of red iron oxide to green iron oxide brought on by the circulating groundwater. The relatively soft shale is essentially clay and is easily eroded by water.

 

Vibrantly red, and totally at odds with a county typified by pastoral meadows and gentle streams lined with majestic black willows, The Cheltenham Badlands probably started to form with the erosion of soft, iron-rich Queenston shale when cattle grazing stripped a protective layer of vegetation from the site in the nineteenth century.

 

The Cheltenham Badlands are located on Olde Base Road in Caledon and are one of the most striking examples of badlands topography in Southern Ontario.

Mags.

Dusk

I took this photo just as the sun was almost finished setting. The street lights just came on and had an amber glow to them as they were warming up. I loved how the lighting cast a warm glow on the leaves of the tree which contrasted against the grey sky as the ominous -looking clouds were rolling in.

Mags.