{"id":5494,"date":"2009-07-14T14:14:26","date_gmt":"2009-07-14T18:14:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=5494"},"modified":"2009-07-14T15:43:15","modified_gmt":"2009-07-14T19:43:15","slug":"fiery-photography-from-up-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/07\/14\/fiery-photography-from-up-high\/","title":{"rendered":"Fiery photography from up high"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Occasionally on this blog, I’ve talked with pride of my 24th-floor balcony view<\/a> in the deep south of Parkdale. Mostly I brag about watching storms roll in<\/a> from the west or the tremendous sunsets<\/a>, but last night the view was of a much different nature.<\/p>\n

As I was finishing off dinner, I spotted some smoke rising into the sky just east of Roncesvalles and south of Howard Park Avenue. Within minutes, huge flames were dancing above the tree line. The Star reports today<\/a> that a residential house caught on fire after a discarded cigarette ignited a backyard blaze. No one was injured but the house is completely gutted.<\/p>\n

I called Spacing Radio host David Michael Lamb (also a CBC Radio News anchor), who lives very close to the scene, to see if it was his house in flames (luckily it wasn’t). He gave me a great on-the-spot report where he pointed out that the scene had already attracted a slew of local photographers including a few professionals he knew. My friend Bouke Salverda<\/a>, a regular Spacing photographer, was on my balcony when we first spotted the blaze and suggested we walk over to take some photos for ourselves. Since we were lazy and drinking beer, we stayed safely away and took long-distance shots of the event<\/a> instead (the photos are 20-second exposures in succession).<\/p>\n

As the night wore on, the fire got me thinking about how dramatic neighbourhood events like this have become a photo orgy of sorts. While people have always captured horrific scenes with their cameras, digital imagery has upped the ante. Instead of a location being filled with concerned neighbours, it can now have just as many photographers or videographers milling about. For instance, the Queen West fire from February 2008 was insanely well-documented by local amateur photographers<\/a>. The current City strike is inspiring a ton of images of stacked garbage bags in parks<\/a>. Even when I went to Newmindspace’s Bubble Battle this weekend, I think there were more people taking photos than actually blowing bubbles<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I’m not concluding this is a good or bad development in our behavioural patterns, but noting that over the last few years we’ve seen a change in how we particapte in these type of events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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