Today’s story belonged to the drywall guys.

There’s something I’ve always loved about taking out an older camera into the streets. Today it was my Sony A200 — that old A-mount DSLR that still makes a beautiful, confident click every time you press the shutter. No fancy eye-AF, no 20-frames-per-second burst mode… just a solid camera and a photographer who knows how to stand in the cold long enough to see a story unfolding.

And today’s story belonged to the drywall guys.

The Street as a Construction Site

Yorkville was waking up slow — decorated lampposts, holiday wreaths, and a UPS truck idling beside the curb. But among all that shine and calm, there was a whole crew of workers hauling sheets of drywall off a flatbed truck and down the sidewalk.

Drywall is one of the most common construction materials in the city — the kind of thing everyone walks past without noticing, but buildings can’t go up without it. Seeing it stacked high on carts and forklifts reminds you just how much work goes into every wall around us.

You could hear the forklifts long before you saw them.

Then the bright safety vests appeared, glowing orange and yellow against the grey December street. The A200 loved that — the colours punchy, the details sharp enough to show the salt stains on their boots. These are the working people of Toronto, the ones who build and rebuild the city while we all walk past.

The Rhythm of the Job

What I love about photographing workers is the movement. The flow.

Two guys pushing those orange dollies across the crosswalk.

Another steering a forklift like he’s been doing it for 30 years.

A guy in a neon hoodie grabbing a stack of panels, guiding them like oversized playing cards.

The Sony A200, old as it is, caught every bit of that rhythm — the small gestures, the teamwork, the weight of the job. This is the real street photography I keep coming back to. Not always people posing. Not always dramatic shadows. Just work being done. Work worth noticing.

Respect for the Craft

One of the crew caught me taking photos and just nodded — that quiet acknowledgment you get sometimes when people understand you’re documenting something honest.

That’s what these photos are: a little slice of Yorkville on a winter morning, where people in hard hats and gloves are keeping the city moving. No camera club judge would know what to do with these shots, but that’s fine. They weren’t taken for a ribbon. They were taken because these guys deserve a frame.

Why the A200 Still Matters

There’s something beautiful about using old gear to shoot everyday heroes.

The A200 doesn’t get in the way.

It doesn’t distract me.

It just lets me look. Really look.

And when you’re photographing working people, that’s all you need — a camera that listens, not one that talks.

Bob’s Street Lesson of the Day

If you want to tell real stories, get out there and watch the people who build your city. The drywall guys. The delivery drivers. The forklift operators. They’re the heartbeat of Toronto — and even a simple stack of construction materials can tell a story if you take the time to see it.