... entertainment, events, fairs, exhibitions, charity events

... pop, rock, urban, jazz, country

...Toronto theatre listings and reviews

... and blues listings, World Music

... chamber, quartet, solo recitals

... modern and classical

... choral music and solo vocal performances

...  gallery listings, art exhibtions and shows, design news and events

...  and ticket sales outlets

JANUARY 2006

Torontowide is a site dedicated to exploring and documenting the city of Toronto, Canada at the turn of the new century through a technique , digital panoramas, unique to it's time. We're archiving an extensive record of life in one of the most vibrant and diverse cities for transmission on the world's most far-reaching medium of communication - the internet. .

We're also committed to promoting the excellence within the city's performing arts community through our city events listings, broken down into several distinct categories that allow visitors to connect directly to many notable Toronto entertainment events and sites of interest, and our download wallpaper calendars that come complete with an entire month's activities at a glance.

This site is optimized for viewing at 1024 x 768 resolution, High Colour 16 bit setting. All imagery on the site is digitally watermarked and is the exclusive copyrighted property of Torontowide.com. Any unauthorized use of imagery from Torontowide.com without the written consent of the author is prohibited and illegal under Canadian and International law..                             

Douglas was also Head Photographer for one of Canada's first e-commerce sites producing tri-annual print and online catalogues for several years. It was about this time that his work in VR imaging led to an interest in experimenting with the technique for the print medium, or in the case of online usage, a static image. " I did VR work for many years, and often felt the thumbnail images were equally interesting. I noticed that a lot of times a unique image that engaged and challenged the mind as a thumbnail,  became something more ordinary in the VR viewer. It's as if the unswerving 'reality' of the VR panorama can drain the image of creative vitality. VR has it's uses and is a fascinating tool, but I prefer to think of my stitching program as an infinite wide-angle lens, and shoot accordingly. Released from the structure of shooting in VR, I find you can often focus the photograph more by leaving out the blank, the boring, and the unassocited areas sometimes found in virtual panoramas."
He has written articles on digital photography for both Luminous Landscape and MyFourThirds.com.

This site is powered by the superb CANON EOS system and EF lenses matched to the Canon D60 camera for event and photojournalism work, and the Olympus E10 when near silent operation is required during live performance.

A good example of why we use CANON equipment is the lakeside panorama at the top of the first Gallery page. Using the EF 20-35mm zoom lens, this shot was taken from a rooftop on a bright clear day. Looking almost directly into the sun, the sequence of overlapping shots exposed the lens to direct light at several different angles. Yet there wasn't the slightest trace of flare in any of the images. See example

In an another situation, the panorama was literally saved by the use of an IS (internal stabilized) EF lens. The shot in Gallery 2 of the Scarborough Bluffs was taken in the dying light at the end of the day. Handheld at approx. 1/4 sec. with the EF 28-135 IS lens, the internal stabilizer in the lens allowed us to record a tack sharp image under very challenging circumstances that would have overwhelmed an ordinary lens design.  See example

A lot of our recent work has been done with the Olympus E10 camera with fixed apochromatic 35 - 135 mm (35mm equivalent) lens. With the optional WCON wide angle converter this camera will go as wide as 28mm in a very robust and weather resistant package. It's 4 megapixel file size belies the amazing quality of this camera's output and I cannot say enough about the ergonomics and easy workflow of this camera.

We rarely scan from prints anymore prior to stitching, but when this is necessary use the CANON 600 x 1200 dpi  42 bit N650U scanner

Although many of the panoramas in the Galleries were taken handheld ( yes, it is possible), for the majority of subjects we prefer to attach the camera to a Kaidan KIWI VR tripod mount. It's sturdy, functional and, fingers crossed, hasn't broken down yet despite it's permanent home through all seasons in the trunk of the car.

Our stitching program of choice is the old and reliable PhotoVista program. However many of our panoramas are now a combination of sticthed imagery and hand assembly in PhotoShop.

© Torontowide.com 2002 - 2006