Friday, February 6, 2009

PDP #2: A Streetcar Named Blur

One of my hobbies as far as this neato-keen digital camera goes is transit photography. Most of last year I spent adding photos to Wikipedia articles relating to the Toronto Transit Commission, and today if you go to an article about a specific subway station in Metro Toronto, there's a very good chance that the photo in the infobox is one of mine. Stations are easy to get, though. They stay where they are.

Streetcars, y'know, are entirely something else. There are eleven streetcar lines currently operating in Metro Toronto, the pulse of the downtown core's surface transit and pieces of history preserved for the modern day. Over time I gathered photographs of streetcars working most of the routes, all but one - the 508 Lake Shore. This one is a particular challenge because its cars run only during rush hour, which respectively find me stone asleep (in the morning) or at work (in the afternoon).

One fine day in December last, I'd gone out to brave the cold for what ended up being my most recent photographic expedition. While waiting for the streetcar to take me home, an elusive 508 rolled up on the eastbound track, and I had more than enough time to ready my camera and capture it in zeroes and ones.

My camera which has never been particularly good at taking decent shots in low-light situations.

I was not particularly pleased to find how the photo below turned out - mostly because I really wanted a photo of a 508. As a blurred and disjointed artistique image, I think it works pretty well.


I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. This applies worldwide. In case this is not legally possible, I grant anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.

Woo!

(The first Public Domain Photography piece, if you're wondering, was Guelph Sunset from January 11th. Check it!)

3 comments:

  1. That's definitely a striking image.

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  2. May not be the best photo, but ya know what? railfans will like it nonetheless.

    - Joseph

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