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Whether you use it or not, chances are that every time you leave your home you have some sort of camera on your person. If you are reading this article, it is most likely being done on a phone, a tablet or a laptop – most of which house built-in cameras. In fact, that camera is probably pointed at you right now, and it would take little more than the flick of a switch or the push of a button to activate it and broadcast images of you and/or your surroundings around the world. Rapid innovations in digital camera technology have made photography accessible to the masses and the automation and demystification of the art has bred a generation of amateur photographers not bound by the traditional constraints of manual photography. As one of the newest amateur photographic contributors on the UT Forum, this week’s selection for Photographer of the Week was an easy choice. For this week’s pick, we selected Forum member “Indrid Cold”, known beyond the Forum as Michael Taylor.
A long-time downtown resident, Michael has always been fascinated by development and construction. When he moved into his current home in the late 1990s, the view out of his window over the Entertainment District was completely unobstructed, but over the last several years he has had a front row seat to several construction projects, and his once unobstructed view has now been replaced with that of a high-density vertical community.
While Michael doesn’t consider himself a true photographer, his contributions to the Forum do an excellent job in illustrating the mindbending volume of construction projects currently inundating the Entertainment District.
With dozens of projects in his immediate vicinity, and many more within walking distance, Michael combs the area with his Nikon D40 DSLR and Canon PowerShot point-and-shoot, snapping photos of construction projects and then sharing them with likeminded development enthusiasts via the UrbanToronto Forum.
Michael looks forward to sharing more photos over time as high profile projects continue to rise in his neighbourhood, including Pinnacle on Adelaide, Studio on Richmond, Theatre Park, Picasso, Peter St. Condos, The Mercer, Tableau and Queen Richmond Centre West.
We will return next week to feature another photographer from our Forum. Think you've got what it takes? Grab a camera or mobile device and get to work, then post your content in the Forum and you just may find yourself featured in next week’s article!
