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Ricky Leong

Category Archives: Canada

Bringing more life to our downtown cores

30 Wednesday Nov 2016

Posted by Ricky Leong in Alberta, Calgary, Canada, planning, politics, urban

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alberta, calgary, canada, cities, politics, urban, urban planning

Downtown West

Downtown West, Calgary, Nov. 27, 2016. The neighbourhood is home to a forest of residential towers. (Ricky Leong photo)

Skyscrapers are the hallmarks of many modern cities.
But what if our race to the sky was a mistake?
In my newspaper column last week, I shared my thoughts on some of the difficulties facing the City of Calgary as property tax revenues slump due to empty office spaces downtown.
The more time I spent thinking about the subject, the more I wondered about whether the central neighbourhoods in many of our cities were unintentionally set up to fall — and fall hard — with every economic slowdown.

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We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow

11 Friday Nov 2016

Posted by Ricky Leong in Calgary, Canada, history, photography, photowalk, photowalking, random, urban

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alberta, calgary, canada, dusk, memorial, photowalk, random, remembrance day, urban, veterans

Glow and flutter

In honour of Remembrance Day, a portion of the Canadian war veterans’ memorial (photo captured at sunset last summer) near Poppy Plaza in northwest Calgary. The words are from the poem In Flanders Fields by Lt.-Col. John McCrae.

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Press 9 to exit

30 Monday May 2016

Posted by Ricky Leong in Alberta, Calgary, Canada, photography, photowalk, photowalking, random, urban

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alberta, calgary, canada, photowalk, random, telecommunications, telephone, urban

You called me up on a pay phone

Public payphone are getting harder to find. This one, for example, was removed in the weeks since I walked by to capture it.

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Bright bloom

13 Wednesday Apr 2016

Posted by Ricky Leong in Alberta, art, Calgary, Canada, random, urban

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alberta, art, calgary, canada, photowalk, random, street art, urban

Not-so-standard art

This seven-storey sculpture called Bloom graces the public space on St. Patrick’s Island in Calgary. The assemblage of street lights conceived by Montreal-born artist Michel de Broin was unveiled last year.

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Sweet Marilyn

13 Thursday Aug 2015

Posted by Ricky Leong in Alberta, art, Calgary, Canada, photowalking, random, urban

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alberta, art, calgary, canada, photowalk, random, urban

Sweet Marilyn

Simple carbohydrates can make complex art. This cool portrait of Marilyn Monroe, lovingly constructed with dozens upon dozens of jelly beans, is in the front window of a Calgary candy store — appropriately enough.

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Because you can never have too many puns with your coffee

31 Friday Jul 2015

Posted by Ricky Leong in Alberta, Calgary, Canada, photowalking, random, urban

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alberta, calgary, canada, photowalk, random, urban

Better latte than never

Recently spotted outside a coffee shop (where else!) in Calgary.

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Where buffalo once roamed …

30 Thursday Jul 2015

Posted by Ricky Leong in Alberta, art, Calgary, Canada, photowalking, random, urban

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alberta, art, buffalo, calgary, canada, photowalk, random, statue, urban

Animal instinct

… now they’re only found in such pieces of art as painting and statues, including this one behind the old Court of Appeals building in downtown Calgary.

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Walk and talk

29 Wednesday Jul 2015

Posted by Ricky Leong in Alberta, architecture, art, Calgary, Canada, design, photowalking, random, urban

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alberta, architecture, art, bridge, Calatrava, calgary, canada, design, night, photowalk, random, Santiago Calatrava, skyline, urban

Walk and talk

Just another evening on the Peace Bridge in Calgary. It’s definitely a popular place to be: It was around 10 p.m. that day and I had to wait several minutes for the bridge to clear sufficiently for a decent photo.

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Glow and flutter

27 Monday Jul 2015

Posted by Ricky Leong in Alberta, Calgary, Canada, photowalking, random, urban

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alberta, calgary, canada, history, memorial, photowalk, random, urban, war

Glow and flutter

Night falling on one of the war memorials along Memorial Dr. just west of 10 St. N.W. in Calgary.

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Skyward

15 Wednesday Jul 2015

Posted by Ricky Leong in Alberta, Calgary, Canada, photowalking, random, urban

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alberta, art, calgary, canada, history, photowalk, random, urban

Skyward

The sunset light has a cool (or is that warm?) effect on the oxidizing art at Poppy Plaza, Calgary.

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Greetings

Welcome to rickyleong.com and thanks for stopping by. Pictured in the header above is Calgary’s skyline seen from McHugh Bluff.

About me


Journalist by trade, photographer for fun. I help make multi-platform content at Postmedia in Calgary. Opinions expressed here are my own.

More of my sites

  • View Ricky Leong's profile on LinkedIn
  • My personal Mastodon feed
  • Daily Tusk news links on Mastodon
  • Photos on Flickr
  • Videos on YouTube
  • My columns at calgarysun.com

Image licensing

Most of my photos are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Creative Commons License
If you require an image for commercial or other purposes not covered by the CC licence, or if you are in doubt as to how this licence applies, please feel free to contact me: rleong101(at)gmail.com

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