Relaxing By The Lake

We took a late summer trip back at the beginning of September to the Réserve faunique Mastigoche.  It is located in the in the Mauricie and Lanaudière regions of Québec and is part of the terrific SEPAQ family.  Created in 1971, the area is the home to 417 lakes, 13 rivers and several streams.  A true nature lovers dream.  We ended up there as part of a big family trip to celebrate the birthday of My Lovely Assistants father.  There were lots of little grand-kids running around, and one adult-sized kid who would break away from the group from time to time or shoot the sights.    While the fishermen and women were off on the lake, I strolled around the beach looking for some photographic fun.  Sadly, it was a cloudy weekend, but the sun did break out on Saturday afternoon, and when they did part, they revealed a beautiful blue sky had been hiding behind them.  The clouds parted like an oval over the lake, so I waited a few minutes for Mother Nature to do her work. The photograph was taken at f/7.1, 1/640sec, ISO 100 at 24mm.  If you're a fishing or outdoor enthusiast, it is definitely a location that should be of interest to you.

The Cult At MTelus

Every week seems to feature the anniversary of a record release, or band anniversaries, like the one that took place at the MTelus in Montreal this past Wednesday night.  The Cult were in town for the first night of their 8424 Tour.  In other words, their 40^th Anniversary tour.  The sold out crowd lined the street in front of the building an hour before show time.  The majority being the young at heart, but there was also a good collection of the truly young as well.  All waiting to either relive a great moment from their past love for the band, or eager to have their first.   The Cult have been together for 40 years and have always been very popular in town.  It’s an honour that Montreal was chosen to be the first show of the North American leg of their 40^th Anniversary tour, and those fans who lined up outside hours before the show were not disappointed as their heroes hit the stage.  One of the most distinctive bands of the 1980s, led by singer Ian Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy, The Cult remain one of the most unique bands, even 40 years after their debut.  The band opened with the one-two punch of ‘In The Clouds’ and ‘Rise’ from their breakthrough album, ‘Love’, before settling into a greatest hits collection that rivals any band out there.  It may have been a cool end of Summer evening outside, but The Cult and all of their fans brought a blast of Summer heat to downtown Montreal.   This 40^th Anniversary tour is a must for not only the diehards, but for those looking to discover The Cult for the first time.  I had to scramble around a little bit to find a decent spot to shoot the band as despite having gotten permission from security and the bands PR company, we were removed from the photo pit moments before the show began.  I rushed up the stairs to the second floor where I knew I would at least have an unobstructed view of the stage.  Though it was disappointing to be removed from the pit, I still kept my wits about me and was able to get some decent shots from a few other spots in the venue.  The Cult's most recent album, 'Under The Midnight Sun', was released back in 2022, so maybe we'll be getting some new music from them  soon after this Anniversary tour wraps up.  All of the photographs were taken at f/3.2, ISO 6400 with various focal lengths and shutter speeds.  Here are some of the other photographs that I was able to take of The Cult on stage.

If you would like to find out more about The Cult and their music, you can do so by following the link to their website,  If you would like to see the photographs that I took of Culture Wars, who performed earlier in the evening, you can do so by following the link.  Much thanks to Monica Siede-Evenson of Speakeasy PR & Marketing and also Christopher Gonda of V13 Media for helping me get a pass to shoot the show.  As always, it is greatly appreciated.  The Cult will be touring North America until the end of September before taking their show across the ocean.  Be sure to check them out when they visit your town.

Culture Wars At MTelus

Direct from El Paso, Texas, Culture Wars was the band picked to open our evening at the MTelus before The Cult were due to hit the stage.  The band, a whirling dervish of energy, might have calmly walked to the stage, but once the music began, all bets were off.  ‘Disparate passions battle within the songs, somehow beautifully making peace’, that is how the band describes the meaning of their name, and they bring that same attitude with them to the stage.  It was only an eight song set, but they managed to set an awesome tone for the night and made a slew of new Montreal fans in the process.  Culture Wars released their first EP, Teche, back in 2021, and have so far released three singles this year, the most recent of which, 'Miley' was just released today.  They will be part of their debut album which should be released before the end of the year.  All of the photographs were takem at f/3.2, ISO 6400 with various focal lengths and shutter speeds.  Here are some more photographs that I took of Culture Wars while they performed on the MTelus stage.

If you would like to find out more about Culture Wars and their music, you an do so by following the link to their website.  If you would like to see the photographs that I took of The Cult, who headlined that night, you can follow the link.  Culture Wars look to have a very promising future.  Visit their website to find out when they will be playing a show near you.

I See You

The whole clan just got back from a three day cottage stay up North and as usual, my camera is full of all kinds of interesting photographs.  No, not of family members, silly.  But rather, insects, animals, landscapes, waterfowl and plants.  The first of these photographs to get posted to the old blog is the head of this little frog who popped up out of the water to get a good look at me while I was trying to track a family of ducks out on the lake.  Up here, The Movie Network has been playing The Lord of the Rings movies pretty regularly over the last little while, so as soon as that frog popped up out of the water, the first thing that came to mind was the voice of Sauron who says, "I see you!" as his eye looks directly at Pippen while the curious hobbit holds a palantir.  The photograph was taken at f/7.1, 1/160sec, ISO 800 at 200mm.  While I don't believe this frog had any evil intentions, or plans on destroying Middle Earth, it was still fun little movie moment that we shared.

Backyard Sunflower

As previously mentioned, the sunflower crop was a little bit smaller than usual, so while I was shooting the bumblebees I took some time to take a few shots of the flowers themselves.  There was this one sunflower that had just bloomed and was looking nice and fresh.  I had to shoot it horizontally, but rotated the final shot for what I felt was a much nicer view of the disk floret and the colours and folds of the petals.  Sunflowers are just full of details and very fun to photograph.  This one was photographed at f/7.1, 1/125sec, ISO 100 at 200mm.  Flowers can be fun to shoot.  All of their parts and colours give them a great deal of character that is always fun to capture and makes for some very interesting photographs.  Backyards are always full of interesting colours and shapes.  Get out there and get shooting.

Buzzing Around

It has been a slow year for my friendly bees around The Head Office this year.  We planted fewer sunflowers than usual this year and they were slow to bloom, so the bees probably found other yards to hang out it.  But, as the sunflowers finally began to open, they bees slowly returned and I was able to follow one around as he went from flower to flower the other day.  He certainly was a busy little worker.  You can see all of the pollen that he has accumulated on his body.  It brings a little peace to my lazy bones to see something so small, working so hard.  I love to sit back on my nice big deck chair and watch them fly and circle around those big sunflowers.  It's very relaxing.  The photograph was taken at f/7.1, 1/100sec, ISO 100 at 200mm.  Bees are an important part of our ecosystem and I just love to watch them.  All hail the worker bee!