Toronto Christmas Lights 2011 – Little Italy and elsewhere

Toronto Christmas Lights 2011 – Little Italy and elsewhere
After photographing the lights at the DeSario home at 165 Benjamin Boake Trail in North York, I headed off in the direction of my hotel room. I had in mind a couple of spots that I wanted to visit along the way but, at some point, I missed a turn and ended up on a completely different route that included stops at Downsview Park, St. Clair Gardens and Toronto’s Little Italy community.

Downsview Park at the corner of Keele St. and Sheppard Ave W was the first to attract my attention. (Location)

The decorated trees were simple but effective and parking in the strip mall lot across the street made stopping for a few minutes for photographs quick and easy.

My next stop was at St. Clair Gardens, a small city ‘parkette’. (Location)

It was from this point on that I made a major divergence from my intended route. Hindsight is wonderful. I had heard that there were some wonderful home decoration displays on Caledonia which was a short distance from St. Claire Gardens. Unfortunately, when I reached the intersection, I turned right instead of left and, although that was the correct direction to my hotel, it was the wrong direction if I wanted to see the lights on Caledonia. From there on, things got a bit interesting. I wasn’t ‘lost’ but intended to go over to Christie Pits Park at Christie and Bloor where I knew that there was another interesting display. Somehow, I missed Christie after traveling along Davenport and ended up in Little Italy. From the lights on the poles, it was quite obvious where I was :-).

When photographing lighting displays that are constantly changing colour, one can never be quite sure what colour you might be capturing. As this next three photos show, the effect can be quite different each time that you press the shutter.