Summer hit with the full force of hot and humid. And while everyone was complaining, I was like, “Yes!!!”  I will take hot and humid over cold any day….preferably all the days. But I digress.

The point is it was hot, I could pull out my floaty romper and head down on my bike to the first Pedestrian Sunday in Kensington *more on that later*. First, I biked down there from my house. On the way, I went down a back alley of garages to find some cool graffiti to shoot against. As I set up my tripod, there was an old man wandering past me.  I waited until he passed, but he veered off and headed right for me. I thought, “Oh great, here we go!”

Usually, it involves some sort of vulgar comments, or it involves a long process of having to explain myself to some indignant dude demanding why I’m here in the public place doing a perfectly legal activity – which I don’t do anymore because I don’t need to explain myself. So I braced myself.

He came over and asked me if I had a studio around here. “No,” I said. Then he proceeded to ask me what I was shooting, but the way he asked seemed to include a sense of knowledge, so I answered. We ended up having a discussion for the next ten minutes about photography, shooting people, and making a living as an artist.  He loved that I didn’t shoot models, but regular people. He thought it was fascinating.  We talked about some photography greats, and he was really interested in my thoughts about photoshop.

It’s rare that I get to chat with some stranger who comes upon me shooting who is so purely interested in talking to people, rather than being creepy or wanting to yell at me.  But all that is to say, that I loved this strange little interaction on the back alleys of Toronto.

Romper – Kivari via Bohemian Love Runway
Kimono – Arnhem
Sandals – F21
Sunnies – Black Daffodil
Bracelet – hand me down
Necklace – Organic Fusion Cafe