Idéealiste Dancers

My camera got quite the workout yesterday.  A concert featuring two musical groups in the evening, and another in the rainy afternoon.  However, if anyone else worked as hard as my camera did, it was these dancers from the Idéealiste Agency of La Prairie.  While The Lost Fingers were playing on stage, these young dancers were shuffling their feet, doing Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' dance and pumping out the jams as the Lost Fingers played their version of the Technotronic song, Pump Up The Jam.  Also, they were doing all this while a steady rain poured down on them.  I decided to take a few photographs on them in action as I was impressed with their moves, and their terrific attitudes.  The first photograph was taken at f/7.1, 1/100sec, ISO 320 at 85mm.  Here are some more photographs of them in action.

f/7.1, 1/100sec, ISO 320 at 80mm

f/7.1, 1/100sec, ISO 320 at 85mm

f/7.1, 1/100sec, ISO 320 at 70mm

f/4, 1/200sec, ISO 320 at 160mm

f/5 1/125sec, ISO 320 at 115mm

f/7.1, 1/100sec, ISO 320 at 85mm

The crowd that did show up in the rain for the event seemed to really appreciate their efforts, as did My Lovely Assistant, who is responsible for my finding out who they were as I thought they were just part of the event.  I was only planning on including a photograph or two of them into the future Lost Fingers update, but felt that they deserved a dedicated update of their own.

Unwanted Visitor

I walked into the bathroom the other day and noticed this guy hiding in the shower curtain.  There is nothing I hate more than spiders, and as the 'Official Spider Killer' of the house, I knew what needed to be done.  I smacked the curtain to get the little guy into a more squishable position, but he landed on the window sill in such a way that the photographer in me took over.  I grabbed my macro lens, it was really the size of a finger nail, and snapped away.  It was late in the afternoon and the sun was going down, so a high ISO was needed, but I also played with the exposure a little bit afterwards to brighten the wood, which I really like and the spider itself so you can see his beady little eyes.  The photograph was taken at f/8, 1/60sec, ISO 1600 at 60mm and then the spider was smooshed.  Not every blog entry get to have a happy ending.  Sometimes the model gets squished.

Slayer Lights At The Metropolis

A few weeks back I attended a concert by the bands Death Angel, Anthrax and Slayer at the Montreal Metropolis.  Despite my location in the venue, I was still able to come home with what I felt were some pretty good photographs.  If you happened to miss those photographs, or just feel like visiting them again, the first group of photographs taken of Death Angel and Slayer can be found at this link, while the second set of photographs taken of Slayer can be found at this link.  As mentioned in the original posts, I wasn't sure I'd be able to get many clear shots of the band in action because of the low light and my distance from the stage.  Fortunately, I was able to get some, but in case that I wouldn't, I also took some other shots during the concert where I focused more on the lighting.  Instead of adjusting my camera settings to capture the action on the stage, I played around with different shutter speeds in order to capture both the colour of the lights while also trying to get some silhouettes of the fans into the shots in order to provide a bit of mood to the photographs.  I really like the second shot of the green lights washing over the crowd, as well as the photograph of Slayer guitarist Kerry King being surrounded by orange spotlights while the lit up background seems to watch over him as he plays.  The first photograph was taken at f/1.8, 1/160sec, ISO 1250 at 50mm and the second photograph was taken at f/5.6, 1/320sec, ISO 1250 at 50mm.  Here are a few more photographs.

f/5.6, 1/640sec, ISO 1250 at 50mm

f/2.2, 1/200sec, ISO 1250 at 50mm

f/5, 1/2000sec, ISO 1250 at 50mm

This was probably one of my most fun outings of the year.  Not only was the concert excellent, but I ended up getting a large amount of cool photographs out of a situation where I thought I would probably get nothing at all.  I'm glad that I didn't listen to that little voice in my head that was telling me to keep my camera at home.

Shelter From The Rain

During a summer visit with the family of My Lovely Assistant the sky suddenly opened and the rain began to fall to the ground.  We all made our ways inside, but we weren't alone in trying to find a little shelter from the storm.  Upon taking a quick glimpse out the patio door, I noticed this soaked robin standing on a stone underneath one of the trees in the backyard.  I grabbed my gear and crept as quietly as I could to the patio door and snapped a couple of photographs.  This one was taken at f/5.6, 1/125sec, ISO 3200 at 300mm.  I can't explain why, but I just really like how disheveled the poor thing looks.  The little gleam in his eye is another of the little things I like.  Soon after, the rain let up, away he flew and back to the Out-Laws, err I mean In-Laws, I went.

Whatchoo Lookin' At

This past weekend, My Lovely Assistant and I made the trek into Montreal to take in the annual World Press Photo Exposition, which takes place every year in the Old Port of Montreal at the Marché Bonsecours.  Afterwards, we usually take a leisurely stroll through the Old Port and this year we came upon a flock of geese who I assume were resting before making their flight South for the winter.  We ended up taking a seat on a bench just behind this guy who was trying to take a nap, but was obviously keeping an eye on us at the same time.  It took me a little longer than I should have, but I eventually pulled out my camera and took a few photographs.  This one was taken at f/5.6, 1/2000sec, ISO 400 at 70mm.  The sun was falling just right on his feathers, showing off the nice pattern across his back, and I waited for his eye to be open before taking my photograph.  I hope he has a nice flight.

Looking Forward To 2017 - Bonnes nouvelles pour 2017

Some good news to start the weekend. I just found out that my photographs have been selected for what will be my third solo photography exhibition. The exhibition will be taking place from March 23rd to April 23rd 2017 at the Greenfield Park Library. There will be more information as the big date gets closer.

Des bonnes nouvelles pour commencer le week-end. Je viens d'apprendre que mes photos ont été sélectionnées pour ma troisième exposition de photographies. L'exposition commencera le 23 mars et durera jusqu'au 23 avril à la bibliothèque de Greenfield Park. Il y aura plus d'informations ici prochainement.

Sailing The Seas Of Blue

After all of the excitement of the loud guitars and bright lights, I felt like it was a good time to take a step back, relax and take it easy.  A quick little trip through the archives found this forgotten photograph from a summer vacation a few years back.  It was a clear blue sky and this boat was sailing away over the horizon, floating on an equally blue sea.  Blue has always been my favourite colour, and all of the blue immediately interested me.  The little splash of white provided by the sailboat give you something to focus on before you end up succumbing to the seasickness caused by my crooked framing.  Yes, it was done on purpose, I thought it would look different.  The photograph was taken at f/9, 1/1250sec, ISO 400 at 180mm.