Italian flag ingredients

Italian flag ingredients - #280/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

I cook Italian food quite often at home. The family enjoys pasta dishes and enjoy cooking with simple fresh ingredients. I set the shot up using Nikon's built multi-flash Commander mode. I hand held my Speedlight flash above and to the left of the subject and I lowered the power of the pop-up flash.

After choosing my favourite shot which was this tighter composition I noticed the distinct colours and was pleased that the composition coincidently matched the colours of the Italian flag.

Simpson's reflection of Old City Hall

Simpson's reflection of Old City Hall - #279/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

I'm finding it challenging these days trying to find new subjects and angles in the vicinity of my office building. I glimpsed this reflection of Old City Hall in the bronze windows of The Simpson Tower on Queen Street. I like how the mirror's grid lines appear to mimic a viewfinder's grid.

Don Mills boy ghost

Don Mills boy ghost - #278/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

It was the first time I rode the Sheppard subway line today and took a few shots of Don Mills station. The colours were rather subdued but the lighting was quite sharp and I liked the pixelated patterns.

I slowed the shutter speed down to 1/15 sec to capture some motion and got lucky as I snapped the fast little boy in the frame.

Tree foot

Tree foot - #277/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

I see many old trees like this one when I'm walking my dog around our neighbourhood. I tried a few different angles, but I wasn't that pleased with the results. This shot was a rather simple straight on shot from across the road, but the way it turned out I think it kind of looks like a big tree foot. I used a medium f-stop to make sure detail of the whole tree was sharp and the front of the yard was in focus.

Happy early birthday Mom

Happy early birthday Mom - #276/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

My Mom is in town for the theatre and as I won't be with her to celebrate her birthday in a few days, I took her shopping with a stop in Yorkville for a little lunch and some people watching. I walked across the street to capture a telephoto pseudo-paparazzi shot and caught her as the wind picked up and messed with her hair. We had a lovely time and I think the shot captures her youthful looks and attitude.

I had a few challenges with this shot and keeping it "in-camera". The shot was a little overexposed and Nikon's D-Lighting feature couldn't help. Although I "trimmed" the shot in camera I still wanted to capture a full length shot of my Mom, but my backpack was rather distracting as it is bright red. Nikon's in-camera monochrome conversion to sepia came to the rescue. It got rid of my red backpack distraction and it seemed to help slightly with the exposure (although I know that's not possible, but it "appears" to have helped perhaps by some subtle sepia contrast effect).

Handcuffed police

Handcuffed police - #275/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

I had my tasty and filling carnitas burrito as usual for lunch in preparation for my evening ultimate game at Chipotle Mexican Grill which is nice and close to my office. I noticed quite a few police officers in line for their Mexican lunchtime fix and when I came out I saw all their bikes locked up safely with their handcuffs.

Wired and green cityscape

Wired and green cityscape - #274/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

I used to walk this way to work everyday when I lived close to Casa Loma over 10 years ago. I stopped by today hoping to get a shot of the storm that passed by but my timing was a little off. But I did find this angle which shows the typical Toronto skyline and our lovely city trees, with some wires and cables which I thought created some unusual lines.  I often get annoyed with the amount of overhead wires ruining the shot in Toronto, so why not focus on the wires instead.