Toronto Street Photography: A Photographer’s Journey in Downtown Toronto

There’s much to love about Toronto, and if you are a Torontonian like myself you know what I’m talking about. Summer is almost here, and we are all happy to be coming out of hibernation, ready to enjoy everything that the city has to offer. This past weekend (on Saturday) I decided to embark on a photographic journey, a journey that could showcase what you can expect when you truly open your eyes and let the whole experience soak in. Follow me, as I start describing the route with images. I hope I can inspire a few of you to view our beloved city in a new light.

My photographic trip started at Union Station, the first point of entrance to the city if you are coming by train. Union Station terminal connects to the Yonge-University line of our subway system (Toronto Transit Commission – TTC).

The architectural detail, and the way the light falls through the windows makes Union Station by itself a very interesting photographic subject. I didn’t stay there very long though, as with the upcoming G20 summit, a guy with a large camera taking a whole bunch of images makes for a suspicious individual.

From Union Station I proceeded onto Skywalk, which is a connecting path between the station and the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Rogers Centre (formerly known as Skydome, home of the Blue Jays baseball team), and other attractions such as the CN Tower. Once again, the light falling through the windowed ceiling of the path was magical.

You don’t have to walk too far outside Union Station to find a street performer during the summer, and this guy was working hard for the money.

After enjoying the drum beats outside Union Station, I proceeded to walk East towards Yonge Street with my mind set on revisiting Dundas Square. Little did I know that I was in for a myriad of photography opportunities. It all started with a drummer:

Just when I thought that the performance of the drummer was good enough for a single photographic study, out of the corner of my left eye I saw someone standing a few feet over everyone else. As I turned around to see what was going on, I saw a juggler propped up on a unicycle, tossing some swords around. Like I kid who just found a cooler toy at Toys R’ Us, I ran over to the crowd that had gathered around him and captured a few frames of the last minutes of his performance.

It doesn’t hurt when a couple of cute girls smile for the camera for no apparent reason, other than the fact that they are being photographed.

At this point, I could’ve stopped taking pictures and being content with the fact that I had grabbed a few good images, but my luck had not run out yet, and right across from the Street at Dundas Square there were the guys from Planet Earth performing live!

The guys were performing for a cause though, a spinning event called Race for Dignity, so I took a few frames of the people participating as well.

At that point I truly thought I was done for the day, and just stayed there for a couple of minutes listening to Planet Earth’s funky sound. However, just to make sure that I wasn’t missing anything, I turned around towards the Eaton Centre, and much to my surprise I saw a caravan of vintage Volkswagen beetles. How cool is that?! I made my way across the street at the intersection, where I caught this frame:

On my way back to photograph the Beetles I saw this guy. Do you remember him? If he looks familiar is because he was the subject of my Clocking Out image a few weeks back. This time I caught him right at work.

Now, how often do you see a caravan of vintage Volkswagen beetles stopping in the middle of a city? They were also there for a reason, raising funds for Sick Kids Hospital. These were the last images of my photographic journey this past Saturday, I hope you enjoyed watching as much as I enjoyed taking them. Have a great week!