To the gentleman at Toronto's pride festival (June 26)

[marco_buonocore]

To the ridiculously kind Leica photographer who I met briefly this

afternoon during Toronto's Pride Parade:

 

You had five (five!!) marvellous Leica's in your photo bag, and I had

but a sad little Olympus 35 SP. I asked you if I could purchase a

roll of B&W film off you, and you said you had none, but in turn threw

me a roll of Kodachrome 25 to shoot with.

 

Thank you ever so much; what a bloody lovely gesture. It certainly

made an already lovely day that much better.

 

I hope your photos came out beautifully, and I wish you all the best.

 

Cheers!

[EricM]

Matt, you buy four more? :P

 

Cool story Marco. But Kodachrome 25? wow. How old is it?

[rich815]

Why didn't you thank him then?

[jason]

sorry Matt, that an event that celebrates "Pride" in being what one is and likes, spoilt your drive! For me, who is square and straight, its a wonderful photo-happening. The costumes, the colors and the fun.

This year it was not exactly "only" gays but all sorts of people and ideas..Fetish was there.I snapped most definitely straight couples into Fetish.Organisations that help the homeless and needy..

I saw a guy with at least 3 Leica-M's(all pristine) around his neck.

It was great fun, though I chose to see the building of the floats and arrival of the participants. The Leica M3/6(M-3 minus lots of vulcanite/chrome and sporting many dings but pristine) were great. Friend Eloise worked with her Polaroid SX-70 manipulations.Larry and I with M's. Then we snuck off for beers, Eloise and Larry and my Lady.

Watched it on tv, with the air-condtioner at full throttle!

The few images done on the digital are lost somewhere in the memories!

Rats! I guess film has advantages..and film in a Leica-M great possibilities.

[bernard_frank]

Matt,

 

You think driving in Toronto during the gay pride is a nightmare? You should come to

Montreal, where the nightmare is all year long, gay pride or no gay pride. The City of

Montreal special is to never give advanced warning when a street is closed for some

reason - but mainly because of the thousands of road works - and to let all the cars get in

the dead end, where there is no escape way left.

[johnny massey]

Gay or straight - take THE BUS.

[marbing]

I live within a block of the parade route and so I go every year. It is colorful and lively. I get there early to pick a good spot...lots of shade and not shooting directly into the sun. Without genuine credentials, I stay behind the barricades like the rest of the million people that show up.

 

I also saw the guy with the 3 pristine Leicas...but he was wandering around the parade route as if he owned the place. I saw one old guy with a phony 'Press' ID card that he obviously had done on his computer.

 

You could see the official photographers had 5x7 cards (white with stylized asterisks) issued by the event organizers but that didn't seem to matter as nobody (appeared) to confront the unofficial snapshooters.

 

Many times, any shots that I might want to take from the sidelines were blocked by these guys...so I have several shots of the backs of their heads.

 

I don't have a problem with the working photogs...they never seemed to get in the way...but there should have been better control over the interlopers.

 

I'll post some of the shots later. I started with digital but then put it away because of all the usual frustrations...deadly slow response from the zoom control, difficuly in locking focus on moving subjects, batterys unable to last the length of the event, slow lenses and (subsequent) slow shutter speeds (resulting in lots of motion blur).

 

I got much better performance and more satisfying results from my manual focus film SLR.

[matt_m__toronto_]

John R M - i would take the bus or bike if i lived in the city centre. i live outside, and car is what is needed as the petrol and parking at a friends house is unfortunately more cost effective than taking a go train, then subway. that's a real pity.

 

as for the driving circus, they could at least have detour routes marked or police that could give some informatin and care rather than attitude :D

cheers

[marco_buonocore]

Eric,

 

I believe the straight answer to the Pride parade is, at least in Toronto, the Caribana festival. I'd say there's almost the exact same amount of booty shaking, only it's of the man on woman variety. There tends to be more gun violence than there is at Pride, however.

 

Oh - Richard: I did thank the fellow yesterday. Quite profusely, if my mojito clouded memory recalls correctly. I just felt like reiterating the fact. You don't get many spontaneous acts of generosity in this God awful city.

[frankl]

I saw one leica shooter (looked like an r-series) yesterday at the parade, but I did get a kick out ot this photographer's "uniform" at the parade. shot from the hip into the sun with my digicam.

<P><center>

<img src="http://www.abstrakt.org/828/sm/pride_photog.sized.jpg">

</center>

<P>

Obviously that pride shooter you met knew the value of Karma, and its your job to pass that karma along the next time you see someone out of film. <P>

Cheers.

[m_.]

from another way of looking at things, it probably benefits the giver more than the taker. often time that's what happens.

 

for a small price of a roll of film, he is surely remembered. in my mind, that's a lot to gain from giving a roll of film.

 

remember years ago i was walking in shanghai and handed a couple rolls of b&w to susanna, a girl who happens to be a new yorker and was frustrated for not being able to buy tri-x. i later found myself to have a place to stay when i visited nyc 3 months later, on my way up to montreal. and she drove me into the city and hanged around for two days. my two rolls of film certainly earned me a lot more, even if not counting the friendship.

 

keep up surprising people with good deeds. it will pay off, sooner or later.

 

thank you marco for sharing. it is a very heart warming story. i am glad both of you had a wonderful time, giving and receiving...

[m_.]

frank: the photog. does crack me up. he has to be a digital guy... :)

[john_r._fulton_jr.]

My family and I were in Toronto, Thursday thru Sunday. Had a great time. The M6 & 35 lux

had a great time, too. Plenty of human interest. My boys 7 & 9 thought the people were

interesting. We drove up from Texas via the F1 race in Indy and then to Niagara Falls and

Toronto. In Grand Haven, Michigan right now. Fun to do a road trip with the family. Hope

all's well with everybody. 'Always enjoy the forum.