Tonight I went a photography heli tour with @normandthegang. 

I took almost 500 photos, including a bunch of aerials of our development sites. And we got lucky with a pretty spectacular pink sunset. 

Here is a photo that I took of the CN Tower with my Fuji X Series (35mm prime lens):

Lake Ontario actually looked like that. This is not post-production chicanery. Follow me on Instagram to see the rest of the photo series.

Thanks again for the invite Norm. That was a lot of fun. 

I am in Tobermory at the tip of the Bruce Peninsula right now. 

Above is a photo of the shoreline along Little Dunks Bay that I took with my Fuji. The water looks positively tropical, but it’s probably about 4 degrees celsius. It was perfect for chilling our ciders after a 2 hour hike through the woods.

Sadly, I forgot the charger for my MacBook Pro back in the city, and so this – some photography – is all you’re going to get from me until I am back at my desk on Sunday evening.

I ordered a new lens for my Fuji X Series camera today. 

For those of you who are interested in photography, it’s a prime lens: 35mm (53mm equivalent) with a maximum aperture of F2.0. I wanted a fixed focal length because I suspect I’m going to enjoy shooting with it more than my current zoom lens. There’s something pure about it. I also wanted a lens that would be versatile enough for street photography, portraits, and so on. Also helpful is the fact that it’s compact and easy to carry around.

Since I picked up my Fuji camera last summer I’ve been slowly but surely returning to photography as a hobby. Part of why I did that is because I felt like I needed to challenge myself creatively. I was also inspired by some of my creative friends, namely Akbar and Evgeny. Both of them take great photos and are far more serious about photography than I am. I’m also an avid follower of Bijan Sabet’s blog. He’s a venture capitalist with an amazing passion and talent for photography.

But the other reason I have been drawn to photography – for my many years now – is that it’s a way to document the built environment. It’s for that reason that I love taking photos when I travel. Everything is new and I’m just trying to soak it all up.

I am mentioning all of this today for three reasons. First, I’d like to incorporate more of my photos into this blog. I’ve also been feeling like this blog needs a bit of a refresh. It’s been almost 4 years of daily writing and I think it’s important to continually try new things. Second, by being public about all of this, it holds me accountable. And third, I’m going to be in Miami this weekend. So expect some fresh photos on my Instagram.