For a change, I was up early the day the Police decided enough is enough with the occupation of St. James Park in Toronto. After seeing this on the news, I decided to head downtown and see if I can grab a first hand account of what is going on. Protesters said that they will go peacefully, and they did. There was no violence at this tear down. The news claimed that tensions escalated, but I was there and other than some paused voices, there was no pushing or shoving. I arrived down at St. James park around 2 PM, and stayed until they disassembled the last structure.

After entering the park, you notice the massive clean up efforts of the city staff. The people of Occupy Toronto were mostly localized in the last two strongholds, the gazebo and a small hut they had build which was chained from the outside, with protesters still inside. I had arrived the the park technically late because there efforts to clean up the park had begun earlier that morning at around 8 AM.

Protester packing up what I can assume is his own belongings, otherwise it would placed in the trash along with what else was left behind by the occupiers.

The occupiers held up in the massive gazebo in the centre of the park. They kept their sprits up by chanting and playing drums. There was a massive police line going around the entire gazebo so you had to shoot from a pretty far distance. I had taken the train down cause I think it would of been impossible to drive down there with all this action. I managed to grab these shots with my 70-200 f/2.8 VRII and a 2x teleconverter on my D700. I wondered for a minute if I should mount these combo on my D300s or D700 because I would be able to get even more magnification from the cropped sensor. I decided against the magnification because the sun was setting soon, and pushing ISO was going to become a problem soon enough. The park wasn’t the best place to change lenses either.

With a tele on the 70-200 and with the size of the D700 sensor, I had 400mm at my disposal, but at the sacrifice of f-stop. The tele converter doubles everything so I’m stuck at f/5.6. That is why I mounted that combo on my D700, because at around 3 PM, I was pushing ISO 1000 to make sure when I take the shot, it will be sharp and free from blur. Most of the shots here were at a shutter speed of 1/125 sec. I left my 24-70 on my D300s where f/2.8 would allow me to keep my ISO around 800.

This is the police line around the gazebo. This line was not to be crossed for any reason. I did not test it, but a home less gentleman did and he was quickly kept out. Inside the gazebo were the remaining protesters, one photographer, and the negotiater for the police. As you can see, the ground is nothing but mud, there was no grass to be found. More than once I almost fell running around trying to get shots of what was going on. This photo was taken with the D300s and the Nikon 24-70 lens.

The Police negotiator finalizing the eviction of the gazebo.

As they emptied the gazebo, some protesters kept their spirits ups by chanting and playing drums. These shots were taken with the 70-200 plus a 2x tele. Because of the police line, we all had to stand way back. I really wanted to capture the emotion of the protesters, and the only way to do zoo is to get in really close.

It was cold and raining the night before. If you weren’t wearing come heavy boots, you would be out of luck, like I was. I almost fell numerous times and my feet were freezing after about two hours. Things got a little exciting after the fall of the gazebo so the pain went away pretty quickly.

A camp behind the gazebo.

This protester was the sole defender of the last stronghold. Scary character but he did his best to keep the protest peaceful and safe for everyone. Inside the structure he was standing on were couple more protesters chained inside. The key was never given up so the police cut the lock and continued to dismantle the structure.

Two other protesters held up inside the structure. Incredibly hard to get this shot cause it was a tight huddle of photographers and guys with huge video cameras, and on top of that there was a tight police line.

For these tight shots you honestly have to wait for a parting in the crowd. I’m a little lucky then it comes to shooting in a crowd because I tend to be a little bit taller than everyone else there, well not everyone but the majority. A little bit of high allows me to clear most of the heads in front of me, but not everyone. I begin with choosing my subject and keeping them in my signs through the lens until I see an opportunity to grab the photo I want. That day I had 8fps with me, I don’t even this it was enough because someone always manages to get in the photo. I rely on the bokeh to help viewers concentrate on the subject at hand. In post-production i add a little more contrast to the subject so they stand out, even if they are in a pool of bokeh.

The police making their way into the last standing structure from Occupy Toronto. Most of these shots were taken blindly by holding the camera up and putting the camera on continuous focus. That way the camera focuses on anything in the centre or around that area thats moving. Spray and pray tactics.

I can only guess that this woman is a protester. This photo was taken following the fall of the last structure. The only thing I wish I did physically was bend down and take this one from a lower angle. It would of helped to isolate her more.

This is just a photo of something I never knew existed. Three tour busses filled with policemen and women are a lot of police for anything. There is no shortage of security. Below are some photos of EMS and police officers from the days event, along with some randoms. Thanks for taking a look.

* I do not watermark my photos because i feel that is ridiculously tacky and ruins any pleasure a view would receive from viewing any of my images. For the purpose of conserving all elements of the photo, I do not watermark. These photos are my property, if you would like to use them again elsewhere, please email my first at baldeot@gmail.com.