Mark Kamstra
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markkamstra.com
Mark Kamstra
@markkamstra.com
1.8K followers 47 following 1.9K posts
Economist, econometrician, empirical finance focused, photographer.
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Remembrance Day, Queen's Park Toronto. The soldiers represent lost souls from WWI, ghosts who don't interact with us but remain.
This vertical panorama displays a memorial to World War I soldiers, bathed in the setting sun, framed by large trees, yellow and burnt red coloured. At the base of the memorial are six steps and a cluster of soldiers, in period dress, volunteers honouring the lost souls of WWI conflicts. They stand or sit on the north end of the base of the memorial, facing Avenue road, quiet, indifferent to the rest of us. They are ghosts, gone but not forgotten.
November 23, 2025 at 4:00 AM
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Toronto's Distillery District, with the annual holiday season celebration already in full swing. We thought we might have less trouble parking and smaller crowds last Sunday with the Grey Cup championship game on, but with the Argos on the sidelines, no such luck.
A tight view of a lineup at the entrance to a building, the lower center of the photo filled by a young woman, staring down at her hand and phone, brown hair backlit. The background beyond her is framed by a row of small cabins on one side, a red brick building on the other, filled with a crowd of people, all thrown out of focus separating and isolating her. Above it all is a neon sign "Naughty or Nice", which is a themed holiday bar at the Distillery Winter Village.
November 23, 2025 at 3:47 AM
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I don't know why we have so many bushes and grasses growing on rooftops and gutters in the neighborhood, but here is the proof. Most weirdly, the bush/tree on the roof below us was dug up, roots exposed, then repotted. Is this a "green" roof initiative? I kid, but someone help me understand this.
A bush, brightly lit by the setting sun, partially dug up on a roof, exposing long roots, roof-top insulation (torn up to expose roots). The bush/tree seems to be mostly in a root-top drain, but the roots are clearly invading the insulation. The same bush/tree, with a worker in the frame carefully covering the roots leaving the bush in place. A neighboring roof top of the Vic Collage food hall, with a substantial bush/tree growing robustly in the gutter. Another shot of the nearest roof top (it is the McKinsey building) with more bushes and grass growing, undisturbed.
November 5, 2025 at 3:18 AM
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Enjoyed another lovely sunset, fall colours and a Halloween vibe. Now about to watch the bottom of the ninth, Blue Jays down but not out.
Toronto skyline as day turns to night. The horizon bisects the scene from side to side and the CN Tower bisects it from top to bottom. It is sunset, and the sky is dark purple with pinks and purples shading the fall colours of the city below.
November 1, 2025 at 3:08 AM
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It was a good day to do the CN Tower Edge walk. It was a better day to be in my apartment and photograph other people dangling over 1,100 feet above the hard, hard ground.
The CN Tower looms over an apartment building in the foreground, with little in the frame apart from the main pod of the tower. A little off-center is a small group of people walking around the edge of the CN Tower (the activity is appropriately called the "Edge Walk"). They have just rounded the north-facing side of the tower, now brightly lit by the setting sun.
October 27, 2025 at 12:33 AM
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An annual tradition in Toronto is lighting up the CN Tower with jack-o'-lanterns come October.
A view of the CN Tower in Toronto, blue light shining on it and a jack-o'-lantern visible on the lower end of the main pod (over 1,110 feet up). Part of the tower is obscured by an apartment tower on the left (east) and both buildings are seen only partially, from hundreds of feet above their bases.
October 26, 2025 at 5:43 PM
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On the corner of Yorkville Ave and Avenue Rd sits a long delayed construction project, now humming with activity. I caught it on a quiet day, and I was startled by the tangle of plastic piping being threaded through the steel rebar of the parking garage.
A construction site on a quiet day, revealing a tangle of plastic piping being threaded through the steel rebar of the emerging parking garage. The view is through a wire barrier, blurred out of focus, and then through a wooden fence, more of a railing, functional if not elegant. There is no view of the street or surroundings; the steep angle of the shot permits only an impression of the deep hole that this building is rising from, grey concrete holding back the earth and buildings beyond.
October 24, 2025 at 2:53 AM
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Fall is creeping up on us, the nights are getting longer, the breezes getting more and more crisp.
A view across a field and Victoria College toward downtown Toronto, moon rising to the east, sun just about down, the sky traced with contrails and high clouds. Deep shadows obscure the spaces between the sunlit west-facing turrets and towers. Another view of downtown Toronto, this one tighter with the turrets of Vic College dominating the scene and the parliament buildings stacked like leaves behind. It is earlier in the day, later in the month, with more colour, a few sharp reds and light yellows. Low clouds topped by light blue skies remind me that a lake the size of an ocean is just beyond the city.
October 20, 2025 at 12:11 AM
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The 40th VegTO festival ran this weekend, at Nathan Phillips Square. Here are few few views of it, emphasizing the setting, nestled as it is in the center of the city.
A view of Nathan Phillips Square, foreground full of tents and people, background dominated by the old city hall and high-rises, blue skies and light clouds framing it all. A view of Nathan Phillips Square, in the foreground are people at picnic tables and people eating, background dominated by the old city hall and high-rises, blue skies and light clouds framing it all. A view of Nathan Phillips Square, foreground full of tents, people and the Archer sculpture by Moore, background dominated by the old city hall and high-rises, blue skies and light clouds framing it all.
September 21, 2025 at 9:59 PM
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crypto bro with bling, reacting to the idea that gold is overvalued
September 11, 2025 at 10:33 PM
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Toronto's annual film festival is underway, with the weather cooperating for art performance of Jess Go jessgo.com
A Toronto artist, sunlit on an open stage mid-day on a street in Yorkville, twirling a large painting she is in the middle of completing as she dances toward the photographer, smiling for the camera.
September 7, 2025 at 3:20 AM
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Strange things happening in Toronto. One plane upside down with something under the fuselage, pointing up because it is upside down, following another, with its wheels down, flying east over the city today.
Two planes flying east seen between buildings in the Toronto downtown, in front of low clouds lit by the setting sun. The plane following is upside down, the plane in front is right side up, wheels down, nowhere near a runway.
August 29, 2025 at 2:36 AM
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As August melts into September sunflowers planted on the grounds of Victoria University are ready for harvest, and the locals have noticed.
An American Goldfinch sits on a large sunflower shaded by a large leaf, a seed in its mouth, head tilted away from the photographer. The image is almost blown out, bright yellows, and pale greens dominating and an arc of sunflowers adds depth and context. In the background upper left to right a silhouette of a window frame betrays the urban setting. A youthful female squirrel, probably still nursing her pups, sits confidently on a large sunflower, a seed in her hands visible near her open mouth. The sunflower is half-eaten, as is another visible in the lower left of the photo. Mirroring these two half-eaten sunflowers are smaller flowers in the background, bright yellow and untouched.
August 24, 2025 at 2:15 AM
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Smoke from wildfires cleared today, and the clouds cooperated too.
A view across a field and Victoria College toward downtown Toronto, with the downtown tinted purple, blue and gold.
August 18, 2025 at 1:41 AM
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Long ago promised, finally delivered. A migrating warbler from this past spring, appropriately enough, warbling.
Amid budding leaves which look more like flowers than greenery, is a yellow warbler, mouth open, calling to their people, something like "Lots of bugs here, come quick!"
August 17, 2025 at 12:53 AM
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Mountains of brown sugar. Doors Open reveals hidden treasures, in this case the inner workings of Redpath. It is a little disturbing seeing a front-end loader moving sugar around. The activity that day was mostly theatre, showing what they could do. Very enjoyable. As was the cotton candy outside.
A front-end loader in the foreground is seen pouring a bucket of brown sugar into a pile as deep as a snowbank after a blizzard. In the background is a literal mountain of brown sugar under the lights of the cavernous warehouse.
August 16, 2025 at 2:50 AM
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A recent trip to Paris included a visit to Musée d'Orsay. Among the wonders there is a popular selfie stop, in front of the back of one of the magnificent clocks that adorn the building. Here is a photo, inspired by Impressionist works. No photoshop, just old-fashioned out-of-focus photography.
An out-of-focus photograph of a couple, posing in front of the back of an enormous clock. The frame of the clock, supporting the mechanism that turns the hands, is a large cross, forming an X. The bright light pouring in through the front of the clock facing outwards has blown out the highlights and put the couple and much of the interior into dark shade. The wooden floor reflects the form of the couple and provides diagonal lines drawing the eye to the couple and the clock.
August 16, 2025 at 1:34 AM
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Toronto's Doors Open (back in May) was loads of fun. Just got around to looking at some photos I took. Here is one taken at University of Toronto's school architecture.
A blank beige wall and a bleached wooden floor frame a stained glass window. The only glass that is coloured are small triangular panes, each at the edge of a semi-circle of glass, each semi-circle arranged around an inner circle of paned glass. Above this composition is a triplet of nearly complete circles of glass framing a small inner circle. Partially obscuring this window is a woman crouched on the right and looking back at the photographer, her beige jacket complementing the wall and floor, her faded blue jeans contrasting and emphasizing the reds of the stained glass.
August 15, 2025 at 2:20 AM
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Another night, another amber-coloured looking glass.
A view across a field and Victoria College toward downtown Toronto, the moon, partially obscured by clouds, orange from wildfire smoke.
August 6, 2025 at 2:48 AM
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The wildfires continue in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and while Toronto has not seen the worst smoke, it has been oppressive. Here are a few photos that give you some idea of it.
A view across a field and Victoria College toward downtown Toronto, inky blackness dominating, with the moon and the city lights dimmed and orange under the influence of wildfire smoke.
August 5, 2025 at 2:34 AM
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Our last trip to Hawaii, which seems like years ago but was just this past January, had us exploring hidden spots as well as headline views.
A stream filled with moss-covered boulders, deep in shadows.
August 2, 2025 at 2:30 AM
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The air has been humid and heavy, and a line of thunderheads has formed. Smoke from wildfires has coloured the sky golden, and thunder now rumbles.
A view across a field and Victoria College toward downtown Toronto, with the downtown golden and framed by a bright sky below a line of thunderheads.
July 25, 2025 at 1:04 AM
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The scene a few weeks ago at Musée Matisse Nice.
A wide panorama of a balcony of the Musée Matisse Nice, against the wall a handful of treasures, paintings by Van Gogh, Matisse, and others with a thin line of admirers, and one middle-aged, blonde woman staring at the photographer. She looks almost angry, but is probably just an American, adrift in Nice.
July 8, 2025 at 1:03 AM
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Had a lovely trip to France, a mix of business and pleasure. Among the pleasures was people watching in Paris. Caught an Emily-in-Paris moment at Place Vendôme.
A photo of a woman in a green dress and high heels, looking at the camera as she swings a purse and walks across the paving stones of Place Vendôme in Paris, France. The photo was been altered to a painterly style, with colours streaking and blurring, soft pastels and soft blues. A green-tinted window behind the woman plays off her dress, almost as if by design.
June 29, 2025 at 9:03 PM
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Sunsets have been lovely lately, the upside to many cloudy days.
A view across a field and Victoria College toward downtown Toronto, with the downtown illuminated by the setting sun, dark shadows hiding much of the foreground and middle ground. The sky is stormy, with a break to the south and west, clouds touched by a rosy glow.
May 29, 2025 at 2:56 AM