2025 - Another Year of Chasing Syzygy

Graduating in 2018 from my careers as an engineer and a scientist, I had but only vague notions of where my journey as a photographer would take me. Here we are 7.5 years later, my sense of photographic direction is as blurred as a hummingbird shot at 1 sec exposure, as my camera continues to capture everything from sun and the moon to people and flowers. But, a method is coming into focus from the madness, and intention is beginning to align with serendipity.

This year, I coined the term celestial cityscape to classify photographs of the sun, moon, stars and planets captured within the confines of a city. Toronto, my home town, boasts a small cadre of dedicated celestial cityscape photographers including the likes of Kurt Wang, Taku Kumade, Michele Thompson, Eddie Chan, Mark Blinch (also quite the accomplished professional sport photog) and Phil Marion.

Celestial cityscape photography is often about alignment. For example, Kurt Wang (and a couple of the photogs mentioned above, not to mention myself) is particularly fond of (and adept at) aligning full moons with notable Toronto buildings such as the CN Tower. By definition, a full moon occurs when the sun, the moon and the Earth are aligned. The alignment of three or more celestial bodies is known as syzygy. Other phenomena of syzygy include new moons (perhaps not so exciting to photograph), eclipses and planetary conjunctions (strictly speaking, conjunctions are near syzygies or, perhaps more correctly, apparent syzygies).

As I continue to chase the sun and the moon in and around Toronto, it is dawning on me that every photograph is an alignment of the camera, the subject and light (not to mention the background and foreground). A crescent moon? Sure, the sun is not in alignment with the moon and the Earth. But the buildings in the foreground, the camera and the moon are. Every photograph can be considered a form of syzygy. Photography is, at least for me and my camera, about chasing syzygy.

Arriving at this revelation has been a significant step forward in my photographic journey. Below are some of my favourite examples of syzygy captured in 2025. Here is to capturing more in 2026!

Flora and Fauna

In 2025, my camera found more flowers and bees than in the previous 2 or 3 years. Many thanks to the City of Toronto as well as various Torontonian gardeners for their green thumbs and hard work.

Redsplendent Sunrises

With a busy schedule, my camera did not venture often from a couple of my favourite spots for sunrises. Nevertheless, as I am fond of saying, sunrises are like snowflakes. Every morning produces a uniquely new one, regardless of where you are.