Mark Kamstra

@markkamstra.com

1904 Followers 49 Following

Economist, econometrician, empirical finance focused, photographer.

A sunset view of the Toronto Skyline, looking south over Vic College. Not a cloud in the sky, buildings reflecting burnt light, with the foreground in deep shadows.
A carpet of cherry blossoms flooded with sunlight and shadow from the overhead trees dominates this scene. An iron wrought fence, too tall to leap, with sharp points, cordons off a green lawn. The fence covers the right top to middle, converging in the top middle of the frame, until obscured by the trunks of distant cherry trees.
A swamp - flooded land - probably courtesy of a beaver. This is midday, sun to the right, out of frame, clouds so bright they are blown out. The rest of the sky is filled with high, thin clouds, thinning to blue skies top left. The water, a mirror image, darkens to black on the bottom of the frame. Two tall trees, looking like goal posts on a football field, dominate the center of the image, the one of the left bereft of branches, neither hosting a heron nest. The nests are deep in the pond, so far away and tiny that they look almost like squirrel nests. There are some traces of green, hinting at the warm weather still weeks away.
The view is split in half in this landscape. On the top are heavy clouds, beginning to be lit up from below by the setting sun, as it finds a hole in the cover of the sky. Light beams across the clouds close to the water below. The water is not rough, but not calm either, and the shore cuts through on a shallow diagonal from the bottom left to the lower middle right. A second diagonal is provided by a rock wall, laid down from the bottom right to the lower middle of the shore.
A view of downtown Toronto, taken from above Victoria College (now University). The sun is minutes from disappearing, lighting up only the tallest buildings. The glow is a deep red-orange, the clouds in the sky a deep blue, textured enough to look like ocean waves.
An early sunset view of downtown Toronto's cityscape, high, thin clouds painting the sky.
A view south west over Toronto's downtown, Victoria College and its residence building illuminated with reflected light. The still point in the middle is a fast-moving helicopter.
This nighttime view of Toronto's CN Tower has the CN Tower peaking out from behind a condo building, steam drifting across the roof of the condos. The CN Tower glows golden,, both the elevator column and the concrete shaft above the main observation and restaurant deck.
A winter scene, in Yorkville, Toronto. This small storefront, next to a subway entrance, is a Toronto institution.
A winter scene, in Yorkville, Toronto. A sidewalk is being cleared on fresh snow by a man running a snow blower, with a wide and high snowbank separating the walk from the road, itself even more deeply covered by snow. Snow globe lights illuminate the walk and road.
Snow-covered black squirrel high up on a branch of a cherry tree, munching on frozen cherries, tail curled over its back.
A Blue iguana resting on the ground, viewed from his eye level, tail lifted and blurring into the distance. His blue is not arresting, colouring mostly his mouth and head spikes like he was made up for an evening out.
A nighttime view looking pass palm trees to a distant coastline, speckled with bright lights, above we see a collection of bright stars. The palm trees are caught betraying strong breezes, the fronds bent and blurred by the motion, and a few low clouds suggest the shape of the island below.
A view south west over Toronto's downtown, minutes before the blue hour, the low sun illuminating the undersides of lines of clouds, the shadows a deep purple hue, the distance horizon all yellows and oranges.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
crypto bro with bling, reacting to the idea that gold is overvalued
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.
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.
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 view across a field and Victoria College toward downtown Toronto, with the downtown tinted purple, blue and gold.
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!"
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.
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.
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.
A view across a field and Victoria College toward downtown Toronto, the moon, partially obscured by clouds, orange from wildfire smoke.
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.
A stream filled with moss-covered boulders, deep in shadows.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A landscape photograph capturing distant rain showers to the south and east, streaming like fingers off a cloud over a stretch of land across a large lake. To the west the sky lightens near the horizon but promises more rain. In the foreground are tiny driftwood branches, glowing white on a sand beach, and a little ways into the lake is a small island on which a swan sits in her nest, her mate on the water nearby. The water itself mirrors the sky, a mix of dark patches and bright white and blue highlights.
A gleaming aluminum facade above a fast food restaurant reflects the bright neon of a sign directing customers to a takeout window. The view of the scene is angled from the side, with the facade fading into the distance, sloping from the top right to the bottom left.
A view across a field and Victoria College toward downtown Toronto, a sharp diagonal storm cloud bisecting the sky and darkening the city. Streaming ribbons of rain add texture, to the discomfort of pedestrians in a narrow laneway below.
A view of downtown Toronto with Vic College in the foreground, dark shadows concealing details of the scene below but the city towers and high clouds pick up the pink glow of the setting sun. Between the city and the high clouds are the stormy remains of a thunderstorm moving out over the waters of Lake Ontario.
A snowy day looking out to downtown Toronto, but everything a block away or more is hidden in a whiteout of heavy snowfall. The two towers of Vic College are close to as far as you can see. The field immediately below our window is buried in snow as are all the rooftops in view.
A view of Victoria College looking south towards downtown Toronto, the city obscured by snow, large flakes of which are visible in the sky near to the camera. A light dusting of snow covers the field below, the road adjacent slick with water, soon to turn to icy snow.
This is a portrait of me (Mark Kamstra) behind Harry Markowitz in his office at the Rady School at UCSD in 2017.
Late night, looking down at a laneway lined with waist-high lights, trees, and a low office building, of which one large room is lit, brightening up a wide exterior window frame. The window, broken into segments by frames into tall panels, partially reveals a large portrait of Margaret Atwood. The laneway and distant lights of Vic College's dining hall are blurred by a heavy fog.
The CN Tower in Toronto at night, lit green with a red maple leaf.
This landscape captures an early spring scene, dominated by deep blues, with blocks of ice pushed up against the near shore, dark clouds reflecting the icy bay and the low hills in the distance, all covered by snow.
A landscape close to my heart, a view of downtown Toronto with Vic College in the foreground. Snow dominates this nighttime scene, brightening the college. High clouds, a little threatening, float above the city as low puffs of steam from University of Toronto's power plant arc over the city.
A couple perched on a lifeguard tower leaning against the frame on the parapet, looking west out to the ocean while speaking animatedly. Above them, a sign telling people to keep off of the tower, below them a slope, steeply dropping from the tower to a broad, flat beach, and a child framed in the distance on the beach, out-of-focus, looking pensively at their hands.
Night time view of snow-covered downtown Toronto viewed with Vic College in the foreground, dark clouds over the lake and light white clouds over the city. The CN Tower is red and white in honour of Heritage/ Family Day today.
Mural on tunnel wall, between Wellesley and Hart House. Snow bank from snow plow partially obscuring the mural. Two figures and can still be observed, waving.
A flock of tiny shorebirds in flight, perhaps 100 of them in tight formation, lifting up as they pass from over-water to marshy vegetation. The colours are all pastel yellows and browns, and the photo has been altered from the original to produce a dreamy, painterly effect.
A nighttime square panorama of downtown Toronto viewed from the backside of Bloor. Low clouds glow with reflected city lights and blue-coloured fireworks from the waterfront are peeking out between the towers of downtown.
Thick green leaves form the backdrop to branches sparsely populated by the bright red leaves of fall.