... 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

  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 Toronto'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.
  Links to articles written by Douglas Brown include:

  An article about panoramic shooting click here , covering the chaos of L'Oreal Fashion Week click here , a user report on the Olympus E3 click here , and a review on the Sony A700 click here

  This site has used a variety of cameras over the years. Currently we use Olympus E5 and E30 cameras with superb digital Zuiko lenses in focal lengths from 9-300mm, which combined with the Olympus 1.4 teleconveter gives us a effective focal range of 18 - 840mm ( in 35mm terms) most of it through an f2.8 range of maximum apertures.
  The E5 is used for both stills and video.
  For more discrete shooting or video recording we are also using Micro Four Thirds cameras and lenses - EPL2, 9-18mm, 14-150mm, and 17mm 2.8.
  Our Olympus equipment produces beautiful out-of-camera JPEG's to speed up workflow, and almost all of the DSLR equipment is heavily weatherproofed allowing us to do photography in nearly any conditions.

  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.

____________________________

©  Torontowide.com 2002 -2012