Meet the Streets: Street photographer interviews

Episode 4: In conversation with street photographer Daniel Dunlop

• Daniel Dunlap • Season 1 • Episode 4

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Street Photography with Daniel Dunlap

In this episode of 'Meet the Streets', host Keith Pitts talks with Toronto-based street photographer Daniel Dunlap to explore his evolution from capturing skateboarding scenes to documenting street life. The discussion delves into the spontaneous nature of street photography, the essence of capturing genuine moments, and the impact of technology and social media on the art form. Daniel shares his techniques, favorite gear, and the philosophy driving his candid and evocative shots. The episode also touches on the joy of appreciating different creative visions and hints at potential future collaborations, inspiring listeners to find beauty in overlooked details of urban life.

00:00 Welcome to Meet the Streets: Featuring Daniel Dunlap
00:29 Getting to Know Daniel Dunlap: A Street Photography Journey
02:30 From Skateboarding to Street Photography: Daniel's Origin Story
06:03 The Art of Imperfection: Embracing the Unpredictable in Photography
11:20 Finding Inspiration Everywhere: Daniel's Approach to Street Photography
14:09 A Deep Dive into Daniel Dunlap's Iconic Shots
25:06 The Serendipity of Street Photography: Capturing the Moment
35:17 Exploring the Challenges and Techniques of Photography
37:12 The Art of Keeping Your Camera Ready
37:26 Navigating the World of Leica Cameras
38:41 Capturing the Essence of Everyday Moments
39:39 A Deep Dive into Astrophotography
45:37 The Beauty of Simplicity in Photography
47:32 The Power of Narrative in Photography
55:04 Street Photography: Capturing Life's Unscripted Moments
01:01:09 Reflecting on the Evolution of a Photographer's Journey

Thank you for listening! If you want to see the video, go to my youtube channel street photography mentor.
To see my street photography you can go to my instagram @keithmpitts or go to my website keithpitts.com. There you can also get info and sign up for my street photography workshops in Paris.

Keith:

Welcome to the fourth edition of Meet the Streets, a podcast about street photography by a street photographer and for street photographers. In today's episode, we meet Daniel Dunlap, an outstanding street photographer based out of Toronto, Canada. Tune in each week and meet another street photographer from somewhere else in the world. And now, Daniel. So, for those who don't know, this is Daniel Dunlap. If you didn't know who he is before, you're going to now, and your lives are about to get richer. So, Daniel, can you introduce yourself?

Daniel:

Hey, Keith. Uh, Daniel Dunlap, street photographer. Um, I hail from outside of Toronto in Canada. And I've been shooting, uh, dedicatedly on the street for about 10 years and really happy to be here. We've been friends on Instagram for a while and we've chatted several times. It's really nice to actually sit in front of you face to face.

Keith:

I totally agree. That's the, uh, the amazing thing about, uh, uh, technology, everything from Instagram where you get to do what we've been doing for years. I've been following you and, uh, again, just again, mesmerized by your work. And now it's what I get to, uh, see more than just a thumbnail of you. So this is cool.

Daniel:

Yeah. Yeah, you get to see the whole dome effect.

Keith:

Yeah. And I get to see the stash actually moving. Yeah,

Daniel:

actually.

Keith:

Oh,

Daniel:

yeah. And it's, it moves

Keith:

synchronous. Yeah, exactly. With your head. Cause you, you got that thing. Perfect.

Daniel:

Well, you know, that's always the indicator of when to trim it is when I can see it peripherally in my vision. It's time to pull it down a little bit. It's sort of, that's my personal indicator that it's gone out of control.

Keith:

Gotcha. This is, this is all I get. The cheeks are like, I am like follicularly challenged when it comes to the face. Like I've got the uh, like for the most part I think your average like 13 year old boy grows hair faster than I do. So, which, which has its moments where I'm fine with that because I don't really, I don't waste too many, too much money on blades and whatnot. But, uh, yeah, like outside, like, this is a comb over, like,

Daniel:

you know, the comb over chin chunk there, that's what I thought,

Keith:

maybe I can go suddenly it bald. So, yeah, I, I, I can never go by, I can never have a Yeah. If anybody ever calls me a stash, it's just, they're rubbing in the fact that it's good that I don't have a, an actual man's face.

Daniel:

if you got the good hair, you know what, if I had the good hair, I might not even have the stash. You know, one thing was sort of a result of the other, so,

Keith:

ah, I, so, uh, you were saying you've been, uh, shooting, dedicated on the street for 10 years. What were you, uh, doing before that? Well, I

Daniel:

mean, I started out sort of my love of street photography, although I didn't know at the time came from my skateboarding youth. Uh, you know, in Thrasher magazine and you, you know, look through that obsessively and all those photos of the street skating in that that's all street photography. Uh, you know, the people in the background reacting to the skaters, the urban landscape, all of those things. Now, they were usually using fisheye lenses and often flashes, but nevertheless. I came to it for the skateboarding and I left from it with the street photography. Uh, and so that sort of brought me in, you know, because then we would go meet my buddies and you pick up a disposable camera and you try to emulate it, you know, do those sorts of things. And, you know, eventually that became borrowing mom and dad's camera and our buddy's camera. And, you know, that just sort of evolved. You know, and, uh, you know, then of course, phones came along and we were all using those to take pictures of our kids and our families and everything else. And then I wanted those pictures to be a little better, you know, and you go on vacation and you'd see a few things in the street that jump out at you and, uh, you know, all of a sudden, you're like, well, I really enjoyed that scene. I just saw on the street of that thing. I just took her that I can always hear a skateboard coming from. I've got a weird detector for it, like, miles away. I'm ready for it. And so, you Often I'd spin around to get that shot, uh, not again, knowing I was, you know, what I was doing in the sense of street photography, but then it just sort of became less and less of all of the touristy vacation shots and more and more of the street shots. And then it just became the street shots.

Keith:

It's funny because with that in mind, uh, part of it's the fact that I've been a professional photographer for like 28 years or so. You just stop looking for the things that you would normally do. Just the memories of like, uh, just crappily composed family shots, just to have them. I got, I haven't done one of those and I can't think of how long, luckily my wife is quick to grab the things, the photographs that you need as a family person. Like the, the smiles, the, I don't care what's behind you, all that kind of stuff. And she's actually a really good photographer, but she can remove herself from that, that label and, uh, take like the required shots. I can't even see those anymore. Like now, like if I, if I looked at them, like, I don't like the composition. I don't even take the shot. And I'm like, so it was up to me. There'd be like seven pictures of our kids, probably. But,

Daniel:

but, you know, thank goodness for, you know, the, the people that take those family pictures, because I know now. I mean, I love seeing those pop up and, you know, now my, like, my kids are, uh, you know, entering university and university. And so those, you know, all those times seem to go by in a snap, you know, that childhood period. And so anything to kind of grab ahold of that and, and, and get that feeling again is fantastic. It's the power of photography, right? Is that, is that snapshot in time, that slice of time.

Keith:

Yeah, and it doesn't yeah, they don't need to be perfect. You just know, it becomes actually, yeah, it becomes like, uh, like crippling in a certain way when you, when you find yourself unable to see the things that otherwise you would have seen. So, yeah, it's something I still have. I need like a. Some kind of 12 step program for photography,

Daniel:

but we have lots, right? You could do it with gear. You could do it with that. Like, there's so, I mean, sharpness. I mean, which kind of, you know, clings into what you're the point you just made, but the critical sharpness is, you know, such a concept. You know, like, does content trump a perfect photo, you know, that whole thing. And I, I mean, I mean, a lot of it is because I just didn't nail it. I'd always prefer a sharp photo, but, uh, you know, if I didn't get a shot, like, I posted one recently of three dogs hanging out of the window of a car, um, and it's not sharp. I didn't get the shutter speed up high enough. Fast enough, you know, a little bit of a pan, but again, it was like it came on so fast, but I was really happy with the shot. The vibe was still there. The energy of three giant dog heads hanging on a window when you're sticking up a tongue going this way, you know? And so again, I thought, gosh, you know, it sort of brought that whole thought process up in my brain again that, hey, you know, critical sharpness. That isn't everything, you know, and someone looking at A photo, uh, you know, admiring it or typically not zooming into 200 percent and you check in an eyelash. We do as photographers, we were horrible for that, you know, and then immediately being like, Oh, it's terrible.

Keith:

Yeah,

Daniel:

but what was the vibe? What did you catch the energy? You know, a hundred percent.

Keith:

Yeah. I'm having a long day, which I won't go into the whole discussion, but it's a discussion with a photographer. I was. I was subbing in for somebody on a job, and so the person I was working alongside had some downtime, and, uh, again, I asked him, I forgot what we were talking about, but, uh, I asked him if he'd ever heard of, uh, I was talking about sharpness and he's like, everything, everything has to be 100 critically sharp. I'm like, no, it doesn't really. I said, but it's more exactly what you said. It's the feel a picture is not made because it's sharp unless for whatever reason it needs to be sharp. And that's, that's not the actual thing you have to be going for. And I mentioned the bourgeois concept, but from Bresson and who's Bresson? I'm like, ah, Okay. So then I'm like, I'm trying to explain to you. So do you think was good? If this person guy, we're doing, we're doing this today with today's sharper cameras and yada, yada, he would say the same thing. I'm like, you've completely missed the point that it's not, but you said it perfectly. It's, it's the content. And again, sometimes by it not being sharp, it's even better than the picture you originally had in your head. And to be able to grasp that and go, Hey, I think let's go, wow, this is better than I wanted. I'm not going to throw it out because if you don't show it to somebody, no one will ever appreciate it. So,

Daniel:

and, you know, I always sort of think like, Hey, life's messy. The streets, you know, streets, messy. That's so, you know, and all of those moments, they come up so fast and that's, I'm not a sit on a spot, you know, and so I have, you know, my, I'm pre focused. I've got all this thing sort of all nailed down. I tend to move, move, move, move, move. And I like when things not jump out at me, but you know, they sort of present themselves and it's because it's sort of like that, but it's been like a fatal, fatalistic approach. Like if I get it, I get it. And if I don't, I wasn't meant to, you know, in the gods of street photography are going to present this thing in front of me. Yeah. And, you know, if I get it, man, it's glorious, you know, fantastic. And if I don't, I've logged it away for, you know, the next time, you know, and sometimes, you know, those shots, you miss the ones that get you out the door the next day.

Keith:

Right

Daniel:

to go back and hunt them. But, uh, you know, but ultimately it is life's messy. Everything's messy. You know, so if we're trying to actually document a period of time and things that are going on, you know, the odd messy photo is okay.

Keith:

So with that in mind, is there anybody, you came from the world of, uh, of skateboarding and again, skateboarding is just outstanding. It's just ready to be shot. Like whenever you run across some skateboarders, I, my, my skateboarding days were, uh, the late 70s, early 80s on a really cheap plastic board that sagged. And then, uh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The stuff that goes on today, I can't even fathom how that would, that terrifies me just looking at it. And if the board doesn't sag to me, it feels like it's got a hump. Yeah. Yeah. So it's too rigid. It's going to stay. I can't do it. Uh, yeah. I'll tell myself whatever I have to do to not try to not look that bad on a board. But it's coming from that. Do you have any, uh, photography wasn't your original thing. So again, having looked at your work and how good you are. Do you have any, uh, particular inspirations or like there are, uh, photographers, like class photographers, current photographers that you, uh, you look to and you go like, just wow. And again, not that you're copying, but that you're inspired by.

Daniel:

Oh, I mean, truthfully, I'm inspired by like everyone I sort of interact with on, on, uh, on Instagram. I'm inspired by you, inspired by You know, Todd, you know that from street badass. It does the, you know, the, uh, the flash photography, which I don't do way out of my element. Love it. You know, again, so there's tons of different people. Truth is, I've never really studied any of the masters. I mean, when I, when I first sort of realized that that could even really be done, I was sort of feeling like I was traveling down a path. It was pretty organic. And I didn't want to sort of influence it in that way. I mean, I have some other friends that are really well renowned portrait photographers, and I was lucky enough to share a creative studio with them and and learned a ton of studio stuff portraits, like proper mechanics, and that was great info. I don't know how much that translate to the street, if at all. But I'm really happy to have that knowledge base. Uh, you know, sort of built into the, you know, into the element elements. But, uh, as far as like people who inspire me, I mean, truthfully, it is stuff I see every day. You know, the people that interact with. That's why I mean, Instagram limits you at 7500 people. I think it's the most you can follow. I'd follow everyone if I could. And, you know, it's impossible to see everyone's work, um, but, you know, I love the fact that I've got, I've got buddies in Paris and France, and I've got buddies in Australia and Japan and England, you know, South America, you know, all through the US, um, you know, Finland, Copenhagen, you know, Germany. I love that, you know, it's, it's so fascinating to see, you know, Everyone else's neighborhood. You know, to me, that just is so spectacular. So that's the stuff that inspires me.

Keith:

That's cool. Truthfully, it's just nice because everybody's got their own different way of, uh, uh, getting to the point where they're at. It's good. And it's some people think that if you, uh. You're inspired by your cop. There's no it's it's almost impossible. Nothing's impossible But I didn't the idea of copying but even if unless you're literally trying to recreate like forge a masterpiece Whatever you are again, whatever you try to do is gonna come out different than the next person anyway, you know Everything we take in is gonna jumble around and come back out shaped Like we see, which is, which is cool. And I liked how you stated that. So just inspired by everything and not nothing in particular, because your work is, yeah, we're going to get to your work very shortly. And, uh, everybody, those that don't know you are going to start following you because they're going to be wowed by what they say. Actually, let's, uh, let's start there. Let me get the share screen thing. And, uh, I love this. Actually, I've seen a lot of the things that you, uh, that you sent and because again, I follow you for a long time. So this shot is, yeah, this shot is gorgeous. Now I'm going to shut up and just let you talk about it.

Daniel:

Um, well, this was actually one shot that I was. Prepared to wait on and I didn't have to, um, like, I was walking into this underpass and saw that like, you know, the faded light sort of where the subject is and and held the camera. I thought, well, there's a shot. That's fantastic. And then looked on the street and this guy. Was sort of buzzing around manic energy. He's carrying a vacuum cleaner, you know, and honestly, I he was within that frame inside 3 minutes and it was just boom. And off we went. So, that is sort of like, again, 1 of those surreptitious, you know, you know. Being presented with a scene and you're like, Oh, spectacular. I'm going to try and capture this. And, you know, you sort of, again, feel lucky enough to have it be presented in front of you and have the opportunity to take the photo. So that's sort of fantastic.

Keith:

Yeah, that is definitely 1 of those spots. You're like, oh, my God, that way, that way. And then you get that leading line from is that a highway overpass

Daniel:

to highway overpass?

Keith:

Yeah. And, you

Daniel:

know, it was it was high noon. I wasn't even. Photography wasn't completely on my mind. I was actually walking, uh, like, through my workday between jobs. And, uh, that afternoon, high sun was just perfect for this. It just, you know, any other time of day, I've been under this bridge a thousand times and any other time of day, it doesn't do this. And so it's like, sort of that little tiny window that I would have never really thought of because, you know, again, it's like, 12 noon, 1230. You know, I'm not looking for this, but when there was

Keith:

very cool. Let's see, there you go.

Daniel:

Yeah, I get this was a. Like a freak April snowstorm, uh, just sort of coming down huge fat flakes. Uh, and just again, a moment of opportunity, you know, cut, you know, sir, I have a, I have a habit of in street photography. I think the worst thing I picked up is I, I J walk like crazy

Keith:

and

Daniel:

you see something happening and you see, you want to get into the position you want to be in, you know, and like. Cut across and hopefully do it quietly enough that the person doesn't go on. Look at that. What's that weird guy doing walking through traffic? Uh, but anyway, so same sort of situation here was just trying to. You know, capture the really truthfully in my mind. I was like, Oh, I hope he has an umbrella, you know, but I mean, because we all like those umbrella shots. Hey, but, uh, this is just how it worked out. There's those beautiful fat photogenic flakes through rolled up the, uh, uh, the shutter speed to make them freeze. You know, hopefully it's so they'd be fat. Um, you know, get some, get some snowflakes in your lens. Don't worry about that.

Keith:

Yeah. I saying actually, I think the snowflakes on the lens actually help it,'cause it kind of, some, uh, it makes you feel almost more like you're there.

Daniel:

Well, in the tree, like with the one, these kind of snowstorms, I'm not sure where you were from in the US if you were in an area that got snow, uh, from New York.

Keith:

Well, I, I get, I, New York is where I grew up then I was in, uh, Arizona before here. So I, I've, I've gotten both extremes.

Daniel:

Right. So, you know, these big fat sort of out of the blue spring snowflakes, they're wet, you know, they're like, you're soaked, you're soaked in minutes as much as you are in any rainstorm, you know, so, but they're hyper photogenic. I mean, they just sort of Jumper and again for me that, like, the black and white works could to get red streetlights. Like, there's too many colors that are sort of, you know, all the headlights and the glares on the road and everything was serving. There's an orange construction sign down the road. So I thought, okay, I mean, usually 99 percent of the time I'm going black and white anyway, but for sure with this, it was like, that was the only way.

Keith:

So what, I love, I was going to say this before, this is so great, uh, what do you, what do you shoot with? I know you shoot with a few different cameras, I know I've seen, I've seen you post various things, but what's your typical daily shooter?

Daniel:

Uh, well, right, right now it's this Ricoh GR3. Um, this was shot on a Leica M240, the shot we're looking at now, the two shots before that were on a Q2. Um, so this is a, this is a Lake M240 with a, with a 35 mil Sumerit. Um, and so the, and I mean, so this is the Chicago Marathon and this dude, like I, I wanted to get the runners coming at him, so I asked him, like I said, Hey, turn around and turn around. And the cop, I didn't even see until he sort of leaned in to see what I was yelling about. And, you know, it's funny with, again, the sort of fatalistic nature of street photography. Without the cop, it's a slightly humorous photo and you're like, okay, move on. Right? We've all seen people signs like the cop makes the photo without him like it's it's like it's super just average snapshot of a running race and a funny sign. Um, so I was so happy that, you know, the cop did happen to swing and the 1 that I didn't see, like, I didn't I didn't notice him until I saw him through the through the viewfinder. So that's how sort of unaware and hyper focused on the sign. I was. I mean, you should. Uh, range finder, you know, sometimes you're like, oh, I really want to like actually make sure I'm not way off on my focus. You know, look at my range finder patch, you know, and obviously with this one, it's a focus recompose. So on the sign focus recompose and as I recompose there's the cop and I'm like, oh, okay. I hope this hope this turns out, you know.

Keith:

Yeah, but again, the serendipity, but it's also the way, again, I like that you're pointing out again, for those who are going to watch this and, uh, that are going to learn sometimes without the cop, you're a hundred, I agree. If you, if you cover over, it's just not the same thing. The cop kind of balances out plus the look on his face as you're looking back. So just, The, just the weight of him being there, but also the, uh, the, the eyes looking back just totally what's going to make what would otherwise be a humorous photo, just again, award winning.

Daniel:

Well, with him too, he sort of had that vibe, the cop did, of like, am I going, like, this guy's yelling, beating me, and he's like, am I, am I going to turn around and be amused or am I going to turn around and have a deal with something? You know, and so he had a bit of an exhaustion, a bit of exasperation on his face. And then when I snapped, that is just as he was starting to crack a big smile. So

Keith:

yeah, I'm kind of seeing, uh, I don't know if you remember Danny Glover and, uh, what was, what was the, uh, with him and, uh, Lethal weapons. Lethal weapon. He's got that. What's going on? Actually, no, no, it wasn't. Oh, I'm not actually. Okay. I'm getting my, uh, my cops wrong in, in which movie actually, actually, he looks more like the cop in, uh, uh, uh, the crow. Oh,

Daniel:

look that, um, Jason Lee movie.

Keith:

Yeah, exactly. So if you ever watch that movie again, I love that movie again, he has, he looks like the cop and the crow and he's got that, that look that he's going to turn around and just not really be amused.

Daniel:

Yeah.

Keith:

So, okay. All right. Classic. Oh, so

Daniel:

yeah, this is a, um, this was shot with the Q2, uh, this is in Toronto, uh, it's called Brookfield place and there's a huge photography. Um, contest or gallery festival that goes on there. Um, the Scotiabank contact festival. And so this is, uh, it's just gorgeous indoor space that screams to be photographed. And, um, I don't often. Although we've shown 2 show vertical photos, I don't usually shooting vertical, but this 1, yeah, I just sort of hustle down the stairs and. Uh, again, there was enough people going by that, you know, it was probably 2, 3 minutes, uh, and then was able to get this frame and move on. But yeah, this is, uh, just one of those places that just lends itself to, again, for me, to black and white photography, the lines, you know, the textures, the light, all of those things.

Keith:

All

Daniel:

right, so, uh, this was actually shot with a Leica M10R, um, I am lucky enough to where I live 20 minutes outside of the city is a massive community of Mennonites, uh, very much the same vein as Amish in the in the U. S. Uh, you know, they live there. There's different variations or they call them orders. Uh, you know, how, uh, sort of this would be called this would be considered an old order. Mennonite. So we wouldn't wagon wheels, not even sort of rubber wheels on the on the card. Open open buggy. Um, and this is like, 20 minutes outside of where I live the biggest community in Canada. And so I'm I love to go and photograph. Mennonites in, you know, just because it's so photogenic and so sort of out of time, out of place. Um, so it's just

Keith:

about. Minds itself to black and white perfectly also.

Daniel:

Yes. Yeah, absolutely. And this would be, um, this was after a wedding. So there's actually hundreds of, not hundreds, 50 to 75 horses and buggies coming out. That's why he's dressed up the way he is. Um, normally, I mean, they're farmers, uh, you know, and mind you, if they're out in their, in their horse and buggy, they're usually going to church or going to, so they're semi dressed up and not this dressed up. Right. Um, so I was pretty happy to sort of, like, you know, get the open car. And in this one, again, the seat, uh, is quite fancy. Uh, often they're not that fancy. Okay. So, you know, all of those little, and the horse actually is, abnormally large. They're not normally this short. Like you, I could see this horse coming for a while. It was so, it had to be a, at least a foot and a half taller than the average one coming down the road.

Keith:

Yeah.

Daniel:

Yeah.

Keith:

Yeah. With actually only one hoof is actually on the, actually, actually not a single hoof is on the ground.

Daniel:

No, and often that is the way, often, and I don't know why that often is, but all four will often be in the air when you snap that like little slice, that millisecond.

Keith:

Yeah,

Daniel:

it's fascinating.

Keith:

Yeah, because that one that I thought was on the ground is actually I see shadow underneath it So it's actually just that far from uh from getting ready to hit. Mm hmm. Cool Yeah,

Daniel:

so this is again one of those the reason I include this is because I'm not sure if you ever have this as well but I actually You know, within 100 percent honesty, I didn't see the, this is off the wall above this guy's head. When I took the picture, I was sort of coming towards him, but I was hooking left to cross the street. Uh, and I guess he just didn't like my proximity, turned around to see what I was doing and I snapped it, never even looked, didn't look at it until later. And I, so that's again, I'm the one of those fascinating little gifts from the street photography gods that he's staying under the speech bubble, you know, with that look on his face, he's Uh, you know, and I just, uh, it's one of those really endearing sort of fatalistic things that I love about street photography that keeps me coming back, you know, because even you can plan things to the nth degree, and there's still going to be this. Fantastic little element, you know, you didn't see until you put it up on the computer in front of you.

Keith:

And the things that you do plan don't necessarily come out as well as the ones that you just, that one seemingly throwaway shot, like, ah, bam. And you walk, I'm like, oh my God, this is, this is the one shot that made it worth going out for.

Daniel:

Yeah. Absolutely.

Keith:

Yeah. This

Daniel:

is

Keith:

almost menacing.

Daniel:

Yeah. Yeah. He was super intense. So this is, again, one of my, uh, one of my sort of jaywalking on the angle stunts. Um, and he was coming up the road and he got to the stop there for the light and he was just sort of doing that in the spot, but he looked like he, you know, he had a Rambo vibe almost like he was. Absolutely. You know, growling and everything. And I didn't know he'd be sort of doing this, but he looked at me right before I got to him and sort of gave me a growly sort of look. And that's sort of the end of that on his face right now. And then I didn't know, but honestly, he was going to tell me off, you know, or be confrontational. That's sort of how vibey he was. But thankfully, he just took off like a bullet. He waited for the little, you know, the walkie guy to come up. You know, on the street signal and boom, and away he went. So again, just one of those little, you know, little tiny click and it, you know, you pull that little slice out of the, uh, of that, you know, period of time and it, it's, it tells this fun little story.

Keith:

Nice. There's a lot going on here, which is cool.

Daniel:

Yeah, and this is one that I, this is in a little village. Um, you know, so it's not just called the village variety. It is the village variety. Um, it was just a huge rainstorm. And yeah, there was just something about that, you know, the motion of the everyday, uh, you know, the, the, you know, the elderly mom who was just out sort of telling her to how to sweep off the rugs. You know, and she's saying, I can get the, I can do the rugs mom, you know, and so mom's going back in and, you know, so it's just sort of like this fun little, you know, it's fun little scene. Like you see, she's actually the one rug on the road. Because it was so wet, you know, she was trying to get them to drain into that, you know, into that storm sewer and, um, you know, she just sort of chucked her broom down and I don't know, so it's just one of those little slice of life moments, you know, it's just an everyday, no one would even think twice about this, but you freeze this in a photo and, you know, it also, you see there's sort of beauty in everything.

Keith:

Exactly. Which is, again, the beauty of street photography is that what you, this is not, uh, what you're, if you go to a photo school, they're not drawing this scene up for you to, uh, to go recreate. This is, this is real. This is people walk by it all the time. But 20 years from now, you walk back and suddenly this is, uh, becomes historic record. Yeah. It looks good now, but I'm like, as things like, that's the other reason not to throw anything out. Cause sometimes you, even within your own files, you go through like, Oh, things pass by the first, even second pass. And then a year later you go through, I'm like, how did I miss this? Like the best shot in this entire thing was just sitting there would have been thrown out if I was the type to throw stuff out.

Daniel:

Yeah, absolutely.

Keith:

Uh, I love how you got that woman, right, that just a one patch, like everything's so dark in general, but you got, she's just framed so well.

Daniel:

Oh, I was so blown away by the, the elevated train platforms in Chicago. Uh, they're just so photogenic, you know, they screened, you know, photos taken of them. And then this is, you're pouring rain and rain was in the forecast. And so I went to my local camera shop and I actually. Uh, rented a Fuji Xh one and the little 35 millimeter F two WR, uh, for the rain.'cause I knew that was gonna rain and I'm actually staying right side of the famous. Um, Chicago camera shop, whose name is slipping my memory right now, but it burnt down in, uh, through those, through the riots in 2020.

Keith:

Yeah.

Daniel:

Um, and I'm, I'm, it's like right to my left. It's like the, it's like the oldest photography store in the continental U. S. Wow. And so I saw a few people pass here and then she was hustling up the stairs. And it just sort of gave me time to, you know, hit a focus point and, and expose for that little area. And, uh, and then, yeah, thankfully she popped out and the, uh, you know, the, I, you know, for 20, I don't know if you do this, but I'm like, Oh, I really wish that upper left streetlight wasn't burnt out. I don't know. You know, but you

Keith:

know, it's, it

Daniel:

sort of makes it real. The fact that it's not, you know, exactly. Yeah.

Keith:

Yeah. Yeah.

Daniel:

Yeah. But yeah, no, I mean, Chicago is so photogenic. It's so gritty. It's so real. You know, I love the way it presented itself.

Keith:

So you're saying, well, your local camera shop, were you living in Chicago at the time?

Daniel:

No, no, no. I'm sorry. My local camera shop here.

Keith:

Oh, okay.

Daniel:

In Canada. I was going to Chicago. Okay.

Keith:

I gotcha.

Daniel:

Yeah, yeah. For a trip. Yeah. Sorry. I apologize for that. No,

Keith:

no, no. I'm just like, huh. Then I was going to get into that. Oh, so how long were you in Chicago? Okay. Nevermind. And this is, yeah, again, I know you've got this, like the other, like, this is one of the ones you have pinned to the top. It's just such a classic shot.

Daniel:

Yeah. I mean, the truth is this shot is sort of responsible for my entire follower base on Instagram, truthfully, or a majority of it. Um, this shot sort of took off. Uh, this was taken on a Fuji X Pro2, which was the first camera I ever fell in love with, uh, shot that for three years. Um, and this was taken on the 23 F2 WR and I just. Got it. I just went and got it from the camera store that's outside of this subway station. I just put it on and, uh, Queen Street station in Toronto is extremely busy, just constant. And this late, I wasn't really looking for a shot. She just sort of sidled up. Reading the newspaper and when I looked up, I thought, oh, my gosh, look at that. And there was people sort of mashing through and there was like the 1 shot, the 1 sort of millisecond with nobody else in the frame. Um, but I mean, it's funny because it was so is a cacophony of sound. It was jammed with people. Um, there's probably. Three or four frames before this one, where I tried to get her alone, and there'd just be all these people just mashing through it, you know, and sometimes that's a cool shot too, but it would, you know, block out the queen or block out her or block out all those things. And this is a, this is just sort of one of those shots again, that sort of screen to be done in black and white. The, the queen, the word queen is actually a very strange shade of blue. The walls are like a sort of tooth plaque, yellow grimy, you know, which, I mean, that can be cool in its own way, but none of it sort of worked. It, we all just sort of, you know, looked terrible. Um, so it, and it sort of felt more classic in black and white.

Keith:

To this, uh, makes me think there was my, uh, one of my favorite expressions was, uh, told to me by, uh, an old teacher of mine, that luck favors the prepared, like this is, uh, the shot you're prepared, then you caught it at the exact right time, because like you said, everything before, if you look at the contact sheets, if there were still such things, and, uh, you'd see, uh, Again, other good shots, but the perfect shot was there because you were ready for it. And if you didn't have the camera ready to go, if you didn't know what to do, I didn't know what you're looking for, then yeah, you, you just would never have had this one awesome shot. So, yeah, I always think with that expression in mind, the most unlucky thing in the world is to be. Able to do something but not ready to do it.

Daniel:

True. So true. Absolutely. Yeah. There, there's a, there's a, a guy in Toronto who, um, was a photography professor at, uh, a school that was called Ryerson University Song called, um, Toronto Metropolitan University. And he documented the punk scene through the eighties in Toronto, uh, named Dave Green. Uh, Dave Green, 63 is actually his handle on Instagram. He's spec his work is just off the charts. Uh, and it's real. It's like, it's, you know, and I know you know what I mean, but I say that it's real. And he, for the longest time, I'd be posting stuff and he would comment and he'll say, wow, you know, fantastic graph or something like that. And I'd say, oh, just pure luck. And he finally said something like that. He's like, yeah, you know what? Sure. But you had to be ready to get it. Yeah. So you had to see it and you had to be ready to get it. So it kind of isn't. Just lucky.

Keith:

Well, yeah, that's when anybody says that's lucky. There's a certain amount of serendipity involved, but if you're not, if you're not good at what you do, you might get one, you might get two, but you don't get consistent results in situations where, especially in street photography, where you have to be on, you don't really get second chances rarely. Uh, so as, as genres go, I think it's one of the more difficult genres because to be able to consistently put out. Work is, uh, is there's a lot going on and not the least of which is actually knowing what you're doing.

Daniel:

Right? Yeah. No, you're totally right. I know you, uh, you, I was going to use the word preach that a lot, but you, I know you state that a lot in your, you, in your, your mentor work, uh, you know, and I've seen that in your posts, uh, when you just sort of, uh, you know, you, you say a little more than just a caption, which I always like, uh, Um, and I, I mean, I think the person that said F8 and B there, was that, am I right on that?

Keith:

I can't recall who actually said that, but I remember that's, it was an old F8 and B there. I remember when I first got into photography, I was like, like everybody, I'm like, it has to be, I need minimum depth of field. It's gotta be, everything has to be blown out and blah, blah, blah. And my first boss is like shooting at F8 all the time. I'm like. How boring that F8 and B they're like, blah, blah, blah. And now you recognize the, uh, the, the benefit of it. Think about almost every Pulitzer prize winning photo you've ever seen. Very few, if any, that I can't recall one personally that had, uh, like a blown out background. And the more you have in focus, the more difficult it is to make it look like a good shot. Cause you really have to place everything. If you can just blow the background out, well, suddenly it can be, it can be a pretty shot, but it becomes a bit easier.

Daniel:

You don't have to take that faith and be there. You sort of expand on it. Sure. You know, FAB there, you know, f you know, F you know, F 8 1, 500 per second. You know, auto iso, if you're, if that's the way you roll or if you've done your ISO calculations, like that's sort of the end of that statement, right? F eight and B there, and have your shutter speed ready and have your. And so, and have your camera on, like that's the biggest thing I always, you know, to tell people that, you know, I'd rather you invest in a few batteries and put them in your pocket and leave your camera on when you're walking down the street and try to get it on and miss the shot.

Keith:

Yeah, no, I can't. And that's the, again, I shoot Leica these days. And, uh, my one Again, no, no cameras are perfect. I mean, I just use it cause I, I, it, it speaks to me. But the thing that occasionally gets me is it's a, I keep it on my side. It's on all the time. And sometimes I'll go to pick it up. And if I haven't been tapping, I have a habit as I'm walking to just tap the, uh, lightly to keep it awake because every now and then I forget. And all of a sudden I whip the camera out for that one quick shot. And nothing happens. And then all of a sudden I watch the shot go away because it doesn't black out. The shot goes away and suddenly I get the thing saying, okay, I'm kind of ready to go. Like, ah.

Daniel:

That was my biggest pet peeve with the M10R. It drove me absolutely insane how slow it woke up. Uh, how slow it was to turn on and be ready to fire, like that, that just completely drove me nuts. And so I know that I know the tap. I did the tap to constantly just

Keith:

as if you don't, you're guaranteed to just want to like use it as a weapon.

Daniel:

Oh, I missed so many shots with that camera because of that same thing. I'm like, Oh, um, yeah.

Keith:

So I'm glad I was not only

Daniel:

that, but this wasn't just a simple, it was just something very graceful. I found something very graceful about this shot. It was just as simple as that. It just, uh, it's high, like the ice was cranked. Um, it's super grainy, which I, I kind of dig. I have no issues with that.

Keith:

Yeah, I like that. I'm, I'm a big fan of, uh, of grain.

Daniel:

And I like all the redacted graffiti, you know, on both poles, on the little, like the little flat part of the top of the incline. I like those sorts of things as well. Um, anyway, this one just sort of jumped out at me that, that it's just, it was very graceful. There was a lot of strength in her movement.

Keith:

So is this the same underpass as the, uh, with the, the shaft of light? Yeah.

Daniel:

No, uh, same town, different underpass.

Keith:

Gotcha. Okay. Cause the, uh, there's certain aspects of it that look similar. The

Daniel:

vintage would be, the vintage would be identical.

Keith:

Okay.

Daniel:

Yeah.

Keith:

Very cool. This was

Daniel:

my one stab at Astro that I ever did. Um, this was taken with a Nikon D750 With the Tamron 15 to 32. 8. Uh, so that bridge you see there, this is where I grew up. This was my childhood village and that bridge was getting removed in a sense, been removed and replaced. And so I was having this really nostalgic sort of. period of time with this bridge. Because for me, you sort of come down a hill into town and this bridge was like, you're home. There you are. You cross over the bridge. You know, you're you're it was almost like, uh, come on in for a hug. You know, you're you're home. And so I really wanted to sort of capture This bridge in a way that it hadn't been captured. Um, there was a, there's a footbridge behind me, like an elevated, it used to be an old train bridge. They, they redid it into a nice elevated footbridge. So there was construction happening on that, and there was actually a floating dock on the river and just sort of these plastic, you know, interlinked squares. And it moved with the, with the water. And I went out at like 3 34 in the morning, jumped the fence, trespassed, snuck out on the docks. Uh, set my little tiny tripod up, you know, wait until everything stopped, you know, floating and took a few frames. Now again, being an astro newbie, I should have went out, uh, when the moon wasn't where it is, because that was impossible to get an exposure on. Um, you know, again, what can you do with that? It is what it is. Uh, overall, I

Keith:

knew nothing about astrophotography other than I can see it. I recognize it when I see it.

Daniel:

And I, I'm really actually, I'm super pleased with the way this turned out. Uh, I've had a lot of other people that grew up in town, uh, that fell in love with this for the same reason that I did. And for the same reason that I wanted to go take it. So that to me was, uh, you know, everything. That was amazing to me. It just felt, it, it, uh, it felt not like validation, but I was so happy that other people got the same sort of warm, you know, vibe from it. That, uh, that bridge always gave to me. So they,

Keith:

they replaced the bridge with something else. What?

Daniel:

Yeah. Flat, modern. Mm. You know.

Keith:

Yeah.

Daniel:

No, no sort of character at all.

Keith:

Gotcha. I hear you. Cool.

Daniel:

Alright, so this is another one of, uh, the Mennonites. Um, they, they're so hardy, so they'll bike, uh, that's the other main mode of transportation and they'll bike in all weather, doesn't matter. Um, I'm all like, he's about to turn out onto a highway, you know, with transport trucks and all of that sort of thing. And I also like. Uh, the actual firm, the background, it's almost like a rural skyscraper, uh, you know, like that, you know, the silos and the barns and the now we sort of enjoy that against the background. But this one was mainly just, uh, you know, the. You know, I was just so blown away by how industrious. you know, industrious they are.

Keith:

I mean, I, I was with my daughter the other day in, uh, in the Netherlands and everybody's on a bike. Like they totally discourage, uh, cars. And I remember we were in Denmark once and, uh, again, just blown away by how many, how many bikes are there. And it's insane. So I'm assuming they, if they get the same kind of weather conditions, they must do the, they must do the same thing. Of course, the rest of their days are more modern, but

Daniel:

yeah,

Keith:

yeah, it's crazy.

Daniel:

And there's other, like, there's, I'm

Keith:

way too lazy. There's,

Daniel:

there's newer orders of Mennonites that have cars and they have, like, this one has hydro. And well, uh, I can't quite tell. So often we'll have hydro to the barn, but not to the house. Um, you know, so I can't quite tell where this. You know, electricity lines going, but, um, there's other ones. Those older ones will have no electricity anywhere at all. Uh, and they live that sort of older sort of existence. Uh, anyway, fascinating people.

Keith:

I, uh, years and years ago, I took a class on, uh, wet plate collodion in, uh, in upstate New York with this guy, John Coffer was interesting about him is, yeah, and he's not a bad night. He has no particular allegiance to anything, but for some, I forget what the story was. But he, uh, he didn't have, uh, electricity. He literally, he went off the grid. He got out, he got himself a horse and got him a buggy. And he just went across the country a couple of times selling wet plates out of the back, got himself a wife. She wanted her, she wanted a house. So he said, okay, I'll build you a house. Now she didn't, she wasn't specific enough. He didn't build that house with electricity. Or anything else, and like he did the whole thing by hand, like, and so she left him. So fully off the grid, and he was like, he was so off the grid, he, when I met him, he had one electrical appliance, he, he, he had a battery, like a recharge, a car battery that he could get recharged, and he would hook one light bulb up to it. And that was it. And it went. So he sounds like eccentric. He's very eccentric, but he was the perfect person to learn colodian from, because at the time, it's become a, again, it's not like it's a huge thing, but it's become a lot more popular. At that time, there was almost nobody in the country teaching this stuff. And he was the most authentic teaching it because he, he was like, He got the old, the old manuscripts and yeah, it was, it was, you felt like you were in the 1800s when you're on this guy's farm learning the stuff. So it's just, it was a lot of fun. But yeah, yeah. And again, he's not doing it for any religious reasons whatsoever. He just went off the grid and that was that. It was a really, really interesting guy.

Daniel:

Yeah.

Keith:

And here we have a cover.

Daniel:

This was hard to resist in color, uh, and again, you know, it's just a simple scene. I get this, you know, you just got the mail, um, you know, and again, yeah, this is like no great, uh, sort of philosophical things with this, just, it was a nice little pop of red on the, the, the wintry white and the blue sky,

Keith:

you know,

Daniel:

it just sort of jumped out. And I think often a photo can be simple like that. Yeah. It doesn't have to. You know, have any sort of great message always, you know, sometimes this can just be a beautiful scene.

Keith:

Yeah, sometimes it can literally be by just the color and the simplicity.

Daniel:

Yeah, um, this was actually taken in the same town that, uh, the bridge shot was. I took this with an original Leica cube, uh, and, uh, again, it was just sort of playing with night exposures. And, you know, again, this is a, would be one of those, you Photos that, uh, I sort of dig. I like the red and the blue, the golden sort of off the middle of the silhouette. Um, you know, other people might go, yeah, great. But for me, for whatever reason, uh, I really enjoyed this shot. It's just, uh, simple.

Keith:

It's simple. What I like is it's kind of got a heaven and hell kind of thing going on. And you're and you're right. Yeah. And you're and you're deeming right in the middle was for guarding that guarding you the door.

Daniel:

You know what? That is so funny. There's there's the beauty of applied narrative right there. Because that's something I'd never thought of. You're 100 percent right. You know, the porch light, Hell's Kitchen, you know, the door guardian, I never put that together, Keith.

Keith:

Yeah, again, like you said about photography, everybody can come up with their own narrative and nobody's right and nobody's wrong.

Daniel:

No, 100%. That's the beauty of it. You attach your own nostalgia

Keith:

to

Daniel:

it, right? Actually, somebody once

Keith:

told me what's going on, and again, I like the caption. And depending on what kind of mood I'm in, they can be long, they can be whatever. Yeah. But I was told by somebody once that the downside to a caption is you then lead people to, to believe what you want them to believe versus giving them the freedom to come up with their own narrative. So I'm not sure. I'm not sure where I fall on that. Like, there's some days I'm just feeling like I don't really feel like captioning. Done, come up with your own thing. And then other ones where I'm like, I'm so worried that they're going to miss what I saw that I have to guide them there.

Daniel:

It's funny you say that because that last, my, my most recent post, I actually did originally put titled it, I originally put untitled and then, uh, posted it and then edited it to twos and fours, uh, cause there were two things. Two groups of two subjects and in the windows and in which was originally what I was looking at. And I thought, you know what, choosing for us. There we go way off. It goes, you know, and, but you're right. I mean, I prefer applied narrative. I love hearing what people see. I am so blown away by it. Sometimes, you know, the depth of nostalgia. Somebody can attach to this little thing in your photo. And it's just, uh, you know, that itself is a gift. It feels like a gift. When someone tells me those things, I'm like, wow, that's amazing.

Keith:

Yeah. And this is, yeah, you see things in, somebody else will see something in your own shot that you didn't see, and then it makes you think of your own shot in a different way or and just, yeah, it's a hundred total agreement.

Daniel:

Yeah. This is just a simple shot again, of the, I just thought it was funny. The three Spider-Man, they're coming from. Dundas Square in Toronto, which is sort of like our little tiny Times Square area, and that's where people go and, you know, in costume, and you sort of flog photos with tourists and that kind of thing. I

Keith:

thought this was Times Square. It's not?

Daniel:

No, this is Toronto.

Keith:

Wow.

Daniel:

Yep.

Keith:

Yeah. Again. Yeah. There's no reason to tell anybody it's Times Square, but I, yeah, I will bet you that most people will look at this who aren't from Toronto. I've never actually been to Toronto. I lived close enough. And for some strange reason from New York, I really went north. I usually, I don't know. Yeah. Fair enough. Let's see. This is hard. This is hard hitting. Like this, this. Yeah. Again, this. I love the shot.

Daniel:

So this is an interesting one, again, for that implied narrative. Um, everybody almost all assume that this man is destitute. Um, that seems to be the general feeling and you, truth is, it's not the case. He's not destitute. Uh, he would be like, you know, uh, middle income retiree. You know, he's just a really nice old fella. Um, but that's what the thing I love about this 1 is the, it gives you that great chance to have your applied narrative conversation. Uh, you know, people would put comments and they put the crying face and so sad and other people would be, you know, just. They go, great shot and so it sparks conversation, which is. Which is always a good thing.

Keith:

So, I'm trying to think, what is his name? Kevin? Are you familiar with, there was a shot, again, speaking earlier, we were talking about, or I mentioned, what surprise shots. And applied narratives. Uh, Kevin Carter. Do you, are you familiar with it? It was a shot years ago. It was, uh, it was a photograph of a little, uh, uh, this small African child with a, uh, with a vulture. So it looked like the, the, the child was, uh, starving alone and this vulture, again, it just appeared that this vulture was just waiting for this child to die. Now, so it was a super powerful shot. It won the Pulitzer Prize. It got all sorts of, uh, acclaim, but, uh, what ended up happening was it was actually at a feeding, like a UN feeding camp. There are people everywhere. Kevin Carter had had circled the entire thing and got from all sorts of different angles. We got that one shot that just. lit everything up and made him super famous. Unfortunately, it was sort of so many people read that narrative that he was there that they were like, well, why didn't you help this child? And they were thinking that the child needed help. And it got so bad that there was so much criticism about him as a, as being what's called inhuman for not helping this child and thinking of the photograph first. The poor guy actually ended up committing suicide based on that shot. Oh, yeah. And the reality is nobody bothered to care beyond that momentary thing. What they read in that picture as what they, again, it was very successful. It, it got tremendous amounts of money to be donated to the, uh, the refugees and to the famine. I wasn't even refugees. Actually, there were refugees because of the famine. But it got a lot of attention, but I got a lot of bad attention as well. And the poor guy was obviously, uh, a bit, let's go ahead and fragile. And, uh, and he had seen a lot of really, he was an amazing photographer. So a lot of really tough stuff and finally got this being helpful. And, uh, it will pretty much was the last nail in the coffin and, uh, literally, but again, to your applied narrative, thinking that this man might not, uh, that he might be down on his luck. We have no idea. You're just looking at it and you look at it, especially across from what it says on the, uh, the left. And you, you place your own worldview into this, into the shot and it has no, it doesn't matter at all. If it's true, we're all, we're all internalizing this.

Daniel:

And the funny thing is for me, when I first looked, walked up on that, I'm like, Oh, I am in my happy place. I'm taking street photography. Right. So like, so there's that other side of that, you know, which is a very shallow sort of approach to it. But that was the truthful one. I'm like, Oh, that's a fun photo. Because I'm in my happy place behind my camera.

Keith:

Right. Yeah. Yeah. Again, but it's, that's a great conversation over there about the, uh, that you brought up the implied narrative. I'm like, yeah, exactly. But maybe you think of, uh, Kevin Carter, but that's the thing about photography. It's true and it's not true all at the exact same time. Yes. Like it can be a complete lie depending on how you're interpreting. It doesn't lie itself. It's it's a photograph is literal. It's how you, how you, uh, how you look at it and as a photographer, how you might want to lay it out to guide people to look at it. But anyway, in the end, yeah, it's like everybody, there's no such thing as a, I think there's no such thing as a, as a completely objective photograph because everybody is subjectively looking at it.

Daniel:

Yeah, absolutely. And if you think about, you know, how much is omitted from the frame, you know, like this is, uh, this is 28 millimeter. I'm standing like not, not very far from him, but I mean, there's an entire world on both sides of me behind me. You know, there's so much other things that I'm omitting, you know, so you're, you're a hundred percent correct.

Keith:

Yeah. This is cool.

Daniel:

It's just simply, I, I super dig the, uh, this building fascinates me, the angles on it. Uh, it's, it's sort of in a horseshoe shape, um, and it was just simply one of those pleasing sort of moments. And that was a D eight 10, um, with a, uh, old Vivitar 28, 2. 8, uh, vintage lens. But nothing, yeah, nothing beyond symmetry and, you know, composition.

Keith:

And a little pop of blue.

Daniel:

A little pop of blue. This is,

Keith:

this is

Daniel:

the example I normally use for applied narrative.

Keith:

Yes. I, I can see exactly why.

Daniel:

Yeah. And I usually let people, again, this is in Toronto, and I usually let people tell me what they think. Uh, you know, because we'll jump past that right now and I'll tell you that, you know, He's giving the cab,

Keith:

before you say that, let me, let me, let me just let me take this having grown up in, in New York City. My thought is the cab behind him is honking at him and he's flipping him off, but at that same point, you see the gentleman on the other bike and then you start bringing in. Implied racial narratives and all sorts of other stuff. But yeah, that's right.

Daniel:

You're 100 percent right? Yep. Absolutely. Yeah. He's having a beef with a cab. They've been beefing for 30 feet. Um, yeah. So, no, you're, you're absolutely 100 percent correct. And for me, I saw the cab and the guy beefing coming. This is the point where I decided I was going to take the shot because that's sort of where I was and the other fell on the bike. He wasn't even there when I first sort of came across, you know, to get it almost like the cop in that other photo. Um, and it's just again, an element that adds to the photo, you know, exponentially, but it's an absolute accident, you know, and again, I was just thankfully there to pull the, you know, to press the shutter.

Keith:

Again, it's kind of a Gary Winogrand moment. If you see some of Winogrand's work. Yes.

Daniel:

Yeah, and actually Winogrand is one of the few I've, I have seen and watched a few documentaries and I use his sort of like, you know, oops, I don't know how to run my camera stumbling sort of thing every once in a while. I've been willing to do that. Yeah.

Keith:

It works. It does work. Ah, excellent.

Daniel:

Yeah, so this is, uh, this is in Guelph, Ontario, outside Toronto. This was an old building, uh, that is now, it's been completely refaced, which is part of why I started to sort of put it in my route, because I knew they were going to be completely redoing this whole thing, you know, just going to like a stucco beige. And this was a, you know, there was another one of these, Window panels, and they've been there as long as my memory could go back. This sort of unique design had existed, and it always been sort of barred up. Never really felt like it was open. This fellow here's a lawyer, and he's super dapper, but he's so put together. He's got the little tiny, you know, beard, everything's super tricky, so precise. And I was just happened to be usually when I get something like this, and I want to get a shot, I'll put it on my route, and I'll just. And I'll just start to go buy it daily. You know, different kinds of day or if I have a particular time of day where I like the light, I'll just start to as opposed to sit on it. I'll just start to put it in my travels. And, uh, you know, the yellow shirt and the, you know, this tie kind of jives with the, uh, and then the yellow behind the iron door. And I sort of like the iron door as well, because it's sort of that, you know, that whole thing was closed off, you know, and it's a window into a different world, you know, with Mount Fuji in the background. And it was completely out of place. There's a train station behind me. Um, the street's a little derelict, you know, so it's, it's just sort of like this little window of pristine beauty among the grime,

Keith:

you know, it looks like he literally dressed himself knowing that he was going to be standing by that picture.

Daniel:

Totally. I know. I know. It was, uh, although I'm actually really glad that he didn't, um, he probably would have. Thoroughly chewed me out. He's got a bit of a reputation for being a little bit curmudgeonly, but I mean, by all accounts, a great guy. That's that same bridge, the one, the star, the starry night bridge. This was taken with a Fuji X T3, as you can see, I've shot a lot of cameras. And this one, I saw that person coming and I was coming into town. There's a parking lot. I wheeled myself over. I got out in such a hurry to get the shot that I stumbled out of the car, almost dropped the brand new camera. This is about the 3rd frame I'd ever taken on it. Um, managed to get myself up and get just out and got 1 shot. And it's with the. 56, 1. 2, um, and which is, you know, 85 equivalent and I take the shot and I look down and it's wide open and I'm like, oh no, but, uh, it turned out okay. We hit the focus point and, uh, the compression helps with that, you know, and away we went and had a nice little heart shape sort of in the, you know, in the light has a bit of a new water feel.

Keith:

Yeah. Very cool. And

Daniel:

again, it's part of my sort of. love affair with that bridge.

Keith:

Yeah, which again, when throwing the heart shape into it with the lighting, which it kind of, uh, it illustrates that narrative.

Daniel:

Yeah. Yeah. Not again. Accident. Happy accident.

Keith:

And that's the last one we have of, uh, your work for today. That's awesome. So good. So actually I want to follow up on something that Jimmy hit this stop share here. So there we go. So, uh, when you said a minute ago or a few minutes ago, uh, about your roots, did you plan out like various roots like, uh, that you walk repeatedly just to see things, how they evolve or what?

Daniel:

Yeah. I mean, I'm a bit, um, you I get a bit obsessive. Uh, so I will, but again, not to the point where I'll sit on something and camp out. Uh, but yeah, certainly I will have my roots, you know, and if I go to a different city, um, like the city where I took the picture of the yellow building, uh, it's about 25 minutes away. I'm often there for work. And so when I'm there, I've got, yeah, a little route. I like. And then, you know, I've got a route that I walk daily, uh, in my sort of home neighborhood. And, uh, so, yeah, depending on the time of day, the, the, you know, the weather conditions that will change my route, you know, all those things. But, um, yeah, for sure. I, I, I certainly cycle the, you know, in the same areas, but I do like to get lost sometimes. Because how else are you ever going to find something new? You know, I guess when you get bored of it, you're like, Okay, I'm bored of this one.

Keith:

It's one of those things you can say, but again, everything has its pros and cons. If you do the same route, like, okay, you don't see other stuff. But, what you do get is the evolution of things, and you get to watch, you can see, you can literally document something that you couldn't document if you were a cons Like, I tend to just I've got zero idea. I just kind of walk out my feet and I'm actually guided a lot by my ears, which is sad considering as I'm getting older, they're not working as well as they used to. But let's go to, uh, frequently I I'll hear something and I just randomly start walking off in that direction and sometimes it pays off and sometimes it doesn't, but like, I, I, I might have to play with the idea of, uh, of developing a route here and there, even if it's like once a week to do a certain thing, so I can kind of, I like the idea where you can kind of watch the, uh, evolution of, uh, Of an area. So that's I might have to borrow that. So thank you in advance.

Daniel:

And you bring up a good point to about, uh, headphones. Like, I never ever wear earbuds or headphones when I'm shooting the street because like you said, I use my ears all the time. You know, if I try to hear if there's a commotion over here, if there's a skateboard coming, if there's something happening, your ears can. Can lead you to a good shot, you know, all your senses going.

Keith:

Yeah, I've, I've, I've got a number of shots throughout, uh, the years and it's not like, okay, every single shot, the majority of them aren't laid by my ears, but there's a number of shots that actually I considered substantial in my, uh, my evolution that were, that I was attracted to 100 percent because I heard something. And then I walked over and, uh, and it then ended up being a whole bunch of other things, none of which would have been seen had I not heard it. Like if I've been sitting there listening to a really nice music and just working with just the eyes, something else would possibly happen, but I would have missed out on that. So everybody's got their own way of doing things. Like I, I, I advise when people ask, and even when they don't ask that I recommend having your ears, uh, free. But however, anybody, whatever makes people happy and whatever gets them in their zone, more power to them, just

Daniel:

a lot of it for me is I don't want to get hit by a car because I do kind of get, uh, I know if I have got, if I've got headphones in and I see something and I'm locked in on it, that like, I might very well step out in front of a bike coming or in front of a, you know, something, you never know. So a lot of it's a safety thing.

Keith:

A good point. Cause I, yeah, once I started to kind of zone into something, everything else just kind of like. I'm like, okay, I could probably get just run over by a bike or a car, especially I think in, uh, in Paris here, you're more likely to get hit by a bike than you are. They're everywhere. They don't care about lights. They don't care about anything. The cars, yeah, they have defined patterns. Bikes now. Yes.

Daniel:

No, and they're so fast. And people on bikes now, like they just seem to be moving so fast, especially the e bikes and the e scooters.

Keith:

Yeah.

Daniel:

Uh, like wild speeds. Yeah.

Keith:

Well, Daniel, thank you so, so much for, again, for everything I got for one, for putting out such good work. For, uh, and, and so consistently and, uh, and more pointedly for now agreeing to come on this and, uh, I get a chance to actually see and hear you. And now I can, I don't just have to look at the, uh, the very nice thumbnail you've got, but now I've got something more real. So,

Daniel:

but I, I, I'm honored to be on. I'm really humbled that you asked me and I've always enjoyed our interactions on Instagram. I love seeing your shots. I love Paris and, uh, I would shoot the sort of very same things like that's what I find often when I'm looking at your shots is, is like that would have drawn me in as well, like guaranteed. I seen you just shot. I would have been zero grading on that as well. So that's kind of fun. It's fun to see if you, cause it almost feels like I'm there, which is sort of fun. I enjoy that.

Keith:

I think it's what I enjoy again, but you, you come across things I'm like, wow, I might have to move to Toronto or something like that. Cause like, there's just, again, But that's the beautiful thing about how people see it. Somebody else is not making Toronto look the way that you make it look. I look at the things that you shoot and I'm like, I would have, that's not what I associate with that. And, uh, again, they're great. And so, yeah, it's, uh, I appreciate the fact that you, uh, you bring an entire, like, things I might've just overlooked completely. And, uh, yeah, so it's, it's a beautiful, uh, art that we, uh, that we share. And we just went after pursuit.

Daniel:

Yeah, absolutely.

Keith:

So thank you again. Uh, yeah, who knows maybe when one of these days we can do like a part two or something, but, uh, if, if, if you find yourself, not if, when you find yourself in Paris, cause everybody has to come to Paris is awesome. Then, uh, please look me up.

Daniel:

Oh, a hundred percent. Absolutely. Yeah. Thanks so much, Keith.

Keith:

My pleasure. And I enjoy the rest of your day. Thanks. Cheers.