Author: Paul

  • Sunset walk to Woodbine Beach Park and Ashbridges Bay Yacht Club

    Sunset walk to Woodbine Beach Park and Ashbridges Bay Yacht Club

    The light on Sat­ur­day evening was beau­ti­ful. The sky was clear of clouds from the west, and the sun­light was gold­en and mar­vel­lous. I took advan­tage of the sit­u­a­tion and packed sev­er­al new and sel­dom-used lens­es, just in case. Now that Lily and I are walk­ing Porthos using his new dog stroller, I can com­fort­ably…

  • Aftermath: Porthos sprained his wrist, and receives new dog bike trailer

    Aftermath: Porthos sprained his wrist, and receives new dog bike trailer

    The injury to Porthos’s right wrist, which short­ened our last camp­ing trip to Geor­gian Bay, is a sprain. We vis­it­ed a local vet the day after it hap­pened but could­n’t get any X‑rays of the injury because her tech­ni­cian had already gone home by the time we arrived. After some dis­cus­sion, we decid­ed going to…

  • One Year Later: A Short-Lived Adventure on Franklin Island

    One Year Later: A Short-Lived Adventure on Franklin Island

    Ear­li­er in the year, Lily and I start­ed flirt­ing with the idea of a major road trip lead­ing up to our fif­teenth anniver­sary. We bought a new car in Jan­u­ary, and the time seemed right to stretch its legs while relax­ing ours. My ini­tial sug­ges­tion was to dri­ve west across Cana­da, then head up through…

  • An Old Camera, Dream Lens, and Black Dogs

    An Old Camera, Dream Lens, and Black Dogs

    Lily and I spent a night at my par­ents’ place this week­end. Our dog was over­due for a hair­cut, and my mom hap­pened to be his groomer. My folks have two dogs—Black Russ­ian Ter­ri­ers. Over the years, my mom has become deeply involved in Ontar­i­o’s BRT com­mu­ni­ty. She par­tic­i­pates in dog shows, where her younger…

  • Day trip to Burlington’s Spencer Smith Park
  • Snapshot Showcase: Best of 2023

    Snapshot Showcase: Best of 2023

    It’s embar­rass­ing to admit that I’m a lazy pro­cras­ti­na­tor regard­ing per­son­al goals and endeav­ours. I’ve strug­gled with this aspect of myself since high school. This is espe­cial­ly true regard­ing men­tal efforts and intel­lec­tu­al pur­suits such as writ­ing (blog posts, essays, scripts, etc.), doing tax­es (🤢), plan­ning trips, etc. After describ­ing these qual­i­ties to an AI…

  • Experiencing the Total Solar Eclipse in Prince Edward County

    Experiencing the Total Solar Eclipse in Prince Edward County

    I’m not an umbraphile; I don’t have the will or the funds to globe-trot every six months dur­ing eclipse sea­son­ing, attempt­ing to catch the best clear-sky view of the Moon’s shad­ow. And despite not try­ing, I’ve been in the pres­ence of four solar eclipses: the annu­lar eclipse of May 10, 1994, the total eclipse of…

  • Snapshot Showcase:  September 2023 in Pictures

    Snapshot Showcase: September 2023 in Pictures

    Sep­tem­ber 2023 was one of the warmest and most pleas­ant Sep­tem­bers I’ve expe­ri­enced in south­ern Ontario. Was it a fluke or a sign of cli­mate change? I’ll leave that debate to cli­mate sci­en­tists. It’s always hard say­ing farewell to our short Cana­di­an sum­mers. As some­one who spends more than half the year wear­ing a coat,…

  • Early October Beach Day in Toronto
  • Photowalk in Toronto’s Portlands, Oct 2023

    Photowalk in Toronto’s Portlands, Oct 2023

    In Jan­u­ary of this year, I start­ed orga­niz­ing month­ly Toron­to pho­towalks as part of my expan­sion of Expo­sure Ther­a­py’s hands-on pho­tog­ra­phy edu­ca­tion pro­gram. The pho­towalk I host­ed last met in The Beach­es on the after­noon of Sep­tem­ber 30th — one week ago today! These pho­towalks have been rea­son­ably suc­cess­ful at attract­ing a mod­est crowd of…