Purple People Eater

Yes, I suppose that 'Purple People Eater' is kind of an odd title for a photography blog post about fireworks, but allow me to explain.  The show last night was put on by the United States, and was themed 'Fright Night'.  The soundtrack to the show featured all kinds cool songs by Alice Cooper, Michael Jackson, Meat Loaf, The Doors, CCR and the Bobby Pickett song, Purple People Eater.  I haven't heard that song in ages and I knew right away that it would be the title for this set of photographs.  Speaking of 'fright', the location I wanted to use for this site was a vacant lot of land just off of a bicycle path in Longueuil.  I had the feeling that there would be lots of people there, so My Lovely Assistant and I left a good hour and a half before showtime to make sure we would get a choice spot.  When we arrived, much to my dismay, the place was already packed.  I nicely asked a couple if I could set up my tripod in-between where they were sitting and their parked car, and they were nice enough to accept my request.  Out of curiosity, I asked what time they had arrived in order to get that spot and they told me that they had been there since 4:00PM that afternoon.  I like fireworks as much as the next guy, but I don't think I would have been able to sit and wait 6 hours to watch the show. I was very happy to be where I was.  I knew this would be a winning location, crazy traffic aside, and I wasn't disappointed.  I have dozens of what I feel are some great shots.  I really like having the reflections of the fireworks in the water at the bottom of the photograph, as well as the silhouetted boats.  My favourite part is being able to have the Jacques Cartier Bridge in my shots.  I really like having that bridge in my photographs of fireworks.  I just feel like it adds a little bit more detail to the final image.  I even managed to get a couple of La Ronde rides in there as well. The first photograph was taken at f/16, 7sec, ISO 100 at 34mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/16, 8sec, ISO 100 at 34mm.  The third photograph was taken at f/16, 10sec, ISO 100 at 34mm.  Here are a couple more photographs from the show.

f/16, 7sec, ISO 100 at 34mm

f/16, 9sec, ISO 100 at 34mm

f/16, 7sec, ISO 100 at 34mm

It was another adventure leaving the site as it is very evident that people don't understand the difference between a sidewalk and a bicycle path.  Here's a hint, if you're walking on a bicycle path, you probably shouldn't be surprised if a bike comes close to you because you and several other people are in the wrong place.  The same can be said for some car drivers on the road, but I suppose that that is a topic for a different kind of blog.

Smoked Out

We're at the point of the summer where the fireworks come at you twice a week.  It was Canada's turn to light up the sky and, in my honest opinion, they put on the bets show that I've seen so far this year.  Sadly, I didn't have the best vantage point to capture it.  My original location ended up being no good due to three new trees that were not there last year and ended up blocking my shot.  I ended up using a location close to where I was for the first show of the year.  I really like to find a way to get the Jacques Cartier Bridge in my fireworks shots, so that was a my first priority.  Sadly, there ended up being a traffic light in the way which ended up taking up more of my shot than I had thought it would.  Also, the wind ended up blowing the smoke right at us a few times pretty much making shooting anything impossible.  It was still a fun night.  The first shot here was taken at f/18, 8sec, ISO 100 at 24mm.  Here are a few more shots.

f/16,10sec, ISO 100 at 24mm

f/16, 5sec, ISO 100 at 24mm

f/16, 22sec, ISO 100 at 24mm

f/16, 11sec, ISO 100 at 24mm

f/16, 8sec, ISO 100 at 24mm

That wraps up another update.  I was happy to finally get some shots with the superstructure in the bridge, but in order to get those, I had to sacrifice some of the shots on the right side of the image.  I'm also a little annoyed by those trees, but they take up less of the shot than the trees in my original location would have.  Still having fun though, and that's what matters.

An Extra Bonus

No fireworks for me this week, I was out of town visiting family for the 50th Wedding Anniversary of my Uncle Fred and Aunt Norma (hello to everyone in Cobourg, Ontario!).  However, I do have something fireworks related for all of you ou there.  This is a test shot that I took last week while trying to make sure that I was in a good position.  While going through my shots, this one really caught me eye.  I decided to crop it down to 12" x 4" for a panorama style of look.  I was really focusing on the sky when I took this shot as I wanted to make sure that I had left enough space in my shot to get the explosions that would be taking place over the bridge.  There's also still a fair amount of blue in the sky and some police cars were nice enough to pass by, giving me a bit more colour in the shot.  This photograph was taken at f/16, 26sec, ISO 100 at 24mm.  I don't usually keep many of my test shots, but this one really did end up being an added bonus.

Good Looking Weeds

Here are some words that those of you who have been following me for a while have heard before.  I like to photograph just about everything and anything.  I kind of find it to be a personal challenge to take things that we see as part of our every day lives and turn them into interesting photographs.  Well, I find them to be interesting and I certainly hope that those of you out there who take the time to visit do as well.  Today's model are some simple little weeds that have managed to find a way to grow between the rocks that form the walkway that leads from my house to the parking lot.  Little green leaves that I walk by every day.  I happened to catch a longer look at them as I was outside taking some other photographs of more candies and some fruits.  Photographs that will likely find their way to these pages at some point as well.  I happened to see the way that the sun was hitting the leaves so I left my table full of treats to bend over and snap some shots of the weeds.  I like how I caught the sun on the few leaves near the front of the photograph and how the entire background is in the shade.  Shooting with a large aperture also helps to make the greens at the front of the photo stand out.  I also really like the small shadows in the lower left-hand side of the shot.  The lower right-hand side I like as well as the other weeds in the shadows are completely blurred out thanks to the chosen aperture and make a strange kind of design.  This photograph was taken at f/4, 1/800sec, ISO 400 at 60mm.  Nothing really fancy, just some sidewalk weeds, but I had fun shooting them.  Hope you liked looking at them. 

Lighting Up The Sky

L'International des Feux Loto-Québec continued last night with a display from Italy.  I hadn't really intended on using this location for the show, but it was rather windy and I didn't want to go to far from home and end up making the trek back with nothing but zig-zagged photographs because the wind was so strong that it was blowing my tripod around.  So, I went to a large parking lot that's a few short minutes away from where I live.  Better a short disappointing walk home than a long one.  Ofcourse, I was once again overreacting.  I had a little ace up my sleeve.  Back in the month of May, I took some photographs of the Biosphere on a windy night.  I managed to take those photographs by using an umbrella to block the wind so that my tripod wouldn't be sent swinging, thus ruining my shots.  So, on a clear July evening, if you happened to be close to the Jacques Cartier Bridge and noticed a guy with a camera holding an umbrella, he wasn't crazy.  There was a method to my madness. I placed myself  in a spot where I knew the fireworks would be going off in the sky, while leaving part of the bridge in the foreground.  I also managed to include some of the highway in the shot so I could get some light trails from the passing cars.  I still really like the shots when the police cars pass by.  Adds some nice colours to the bottom of the screen.  The final thing I tried to get into my shot was the road sign pointing out the Jacques Cartier Bridge.  I thought it was kind of fun to have the sign there, pointing at the actual bridge.  The first shot was taken at f/10, 11sec, ISO 100 at 24mm and the second was taken at f/10, 13sec, ISO 100 at 24mm.  Here are a couple more shots from the show.

f/10, 11sec, ISO 100 at 24mm

f/10, 16sec, ISO 100 at 24mm

f/10, 9sec, ISO 100 at 24mm

f/10, 17sec, ISO 100 at 24mm

I didn't notice this while I was taking the photos, but if  you check near the bottom of some of my shots, you can see someone standing near the highway, watching the show.  Fun little surprise.  I hope you enjoyed these photographs.

Cleared For Take-Off

There are going to be lots of photographs in this update.  As in more than 20.  I took this photographs earlier this Spring.  I got a call from my brother telling me that there were thousands of geese in the Chambly Basin, just waiting to be photographed.  I got there early in the morning and sure enough, the water was covered.  I tried to photograph them as they would take flight.  I even kind of learned to know when a group was about to take off by the sounds that they would make.  Sadly, I found myself on the wrong side of the basin and the majority of my shots were overexposed from the sun.  I still took several photos, but had packed up my gear and began walking back to car when I noticed that the lens cap for my telephoto lens was missing.  I slowly began to retrace my steps back to where I was and on my second trip, I found it laying in the grass.  I was so happy that I almost missed the group of four geese that were swimming almost next to me.  I unpacked my camera as fast and quietly as possible, but still missed the first two take flight.  I did manage to catch the final two as they took-off for the day so I'll try and present to you here what I guess would make a cool flip-book of the geese in action.  The first shot on this page was taken at f/5.6, 1/640sec, ISO 100 at 300mm.  All of the following photographs were taken at f/5.6, 1/800sec, ISO 100 at 300mm.

Are there any brave souls still there?  If you scroll down the screen fast enough, you can kind of get the feel of movement, though it obviously would look better if they were printed out and displayed as a flip book.  I took these photos using the continuous shooting mode, which on my camera is about 5 frames per second.  I waited for the familiar sound I had learned from watching the other birds take flight and began shooting as soon as the birds began to move.  I'm sure the photos would look better is the geese were looking at me, but I still like the angle I ended up getting and I really like the shots of the birds as they're running on the water.  It was a fun morning of bird watching, and I really like the action in these shots.

Parliament Hill

When I was growing up, I was often told by my parents that I was leaving things to the last minute.  Things would always get done, but they would get done with about 10 seconds to spare.  It is with my parents in mind that I proudly announce that this post has been ready and waiting to be used for about 10 months now.  That's right, I chose to leave the Mr. Last Minute name behind and try on a new moniker.  Mr. Planed In Advance seems to have a nice ring to it.  I took these photographs last September while My Lovely Assistant and myself were on vacation in Ottawa for a few days.  As is often the case, I took these shots and couldn't wait to share them with you all here on the blog, or as I like to call it, my virtual art gallery.  However, other photographs were taken and posted, seasons began to change and next thing I knew, we were already into 2014.  I didn't really want to post these pictures in the dead of winter and then I had a flash.  Last year I spent a good amount of time going around town trying to photograph a Canadian flag.  That was the perfect example of how Mr. Last Minute would operate. I figured that posting these photographs of Parliament Hill on Canada Day would be a nice touch.  Seeing as how I was so ahead of schedule, I actually did a little playing around with these photos in Photoshop.  I fiddled with the Levels function a little bit and added a bit of blue using Colour Balance to add a little more colour to the sky.  I like the effects I got.  The sky looks much better in these than my original shots, and the building itself seemed to get a little bit of punch from my fiddling as well. The first photograph on the page was shot at f/2.8, 1/4000sec, ISO 100 at 24mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/18, 1/100sec, ISO 100 at 24mm.  Here's another shot to round out the set.

f/2.8, 1/2500sec, ISO 100 at 24mm

If I could turn back time, I'd probably try shooting the first and third photographs with a smaller aperture.  There was all kinds of natural light that day and shooting at f/2.8 really wasn't necessary.  Though I feel the photos are still rather sharp, shooting at a smaller aperture might have made them a little sharper still.  I really like the way that the buildings stand out in the photographs, and I'm really happy with the sky in all of the shots.  With that, I leave you all to celebrate Canada Day, Dominion Day, Moving Day, Free Agent Frenzy Day or simply Tuesday.  I'm sure I'll find something to do at the last minute.  Shoot, I guess the Mr. Planed In Advance name isn't going to stick after all.