The Blue Maniacs At Saint Lambert En Fête

The second musical act that I took in on Thursday night at Saint-Lambert en Fête was a group of youngsters who call themselves The Blue Maniacs.  When I saw this band advertised on the schedule for the event listed as an emerging talent, I figured I'd head over to where they were playing and give them a listen.  I'm very glad that I did.  As I become closer and closer to being one of those old curmudgeons who sit in the balcony on the Muppet Show and complain about everything, it is refreshing to see a group of kids picking up some musical instruments and playing them well.  Not only did they play cover songs, including very good versions of 'I Don't Know' by The Sheepdogs and one of my personal favourites, 'Pinball Wizard' by The Who, but songs that they had written themselves as well.  Not to bad when you consider that when I was that age, most of my time was probably spent playing Nintendo.  Thursday night isn't the most attended night of the weekend festival, but they had a pretty large group of people gathered and listening by the time that the concert came to an end.  The first photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/320sec, ISO 500 at 59mm and the second photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/250sec, ISO 1000 at 70mm.  Here are some more photographs that I took while they performed.

f/2.8, 1/250sec, ISO 1000 at 110mm

f/2.8, 1/200sec, ISO 1000 at 70mm

f/2.8, 1/320sec, ISO 1000 at 70mm

f/2.8, 1/100sec, ISO 1000 at 70mm

f/2.8, 1/250sec, ISO 1000 at 70mm

f/2.8, 1/250sec, ISO 1000 at 120mm

f/2.8, 1/250sec, ISO 1000 at 85mm

 

f/2.8, 1/320sec, ISO 1000 at 70mm

f/2.8, 1/160sec, ISO 1000 at 123mm

f/2.8, 1/400sec, ISO 1000 at 70mm

f/2.8, 1/400sec, ISO 1600 at 145mm

f/2.8, 1/250sec, ISO 1000 at 70mm

f/2.8, 1/200sec, ISO 1000 at 120mm

f/2.8, 1/100sec, ISO 1000 at 70mm

I was able to get to the stage early enough to grab a place right at the front, and there was just enough people to make for a good vibe, but not enough to prevent me from moving around a little bit to shoot from some different angles.  For a photographic stand point, it doesn't get much better than that.  Add the fact that the band was very good and it made for a terrific show.  Way to go Blue Maniacs.  Keep at it and maybe in a few years you'll be headlining this event.

Jon MacAulay At Saint Lambert En Fête

The end of August means that it is time to head out onto the streets of Saint-Lambert as there are all kinds of activities and free concerts going on at the Saint-Lambert en Fête.  It is a four day end of summer party with a little something for everybody.  I always look forward to when the schedule of performers is released so that I can find out who will be coming to town.  I get to be a concert photographer for a weekend and I generally have a blast listening to the music and shooting the shows.  One name that I quickly noticed on the schedule this year was Jon MacAulay.  I was able to photograph his show here last year, photographs that you can see on my blog at the following link, or even by visiting his webpage.  He was playing on the smaller Green Stage this year, but the music was still just as good.  Joined on stage by his 'acolyte' Jonathan Boudreau, the Sherbrooke native played a wide variety of cover songs, as well as some from his album Solid Ground and some new ones from a forthcoming album that should be released soon.  I really enjoyed his version of Cat Stevens' Wild World, as well as the title track from his album, Solid Ground. The first photograph was taken at f/4, 1/1000sec, ISO 400 at 105mm and the second photograph was taken at f/4, 1/1000sec ISO 400 at 85mm.  Here are several more photographs of his performance.

f/4, 1/800sec, ISO 400 at 150mm

f/4, 1/1250sec ISO 400 at 140mm

f/4, 1/640sec, ISO 400 at 145mm

f/4, 1/640sec, ISO 400 at 145mm

f/4, 1/500sec, ISO 400 at 130mm

f/4, 1/500sec, ISO 400 at 140mm

f/4, 1/500sec, ISO 400 at 102mm

f/4, 1/500sec ISO 400 at 102mm

f/4, 1/640sec, ISO 400 at 120mm

f/4, 1/400sec, ISO 400 at 120mm

f/4, 1/320sec ISO 400 at 115mm

f/4, 1/320sec, ISO 400 at 150mm

f/4, 1/320sec, ISO 400 at 182mm

f/4, 1/320sec, ISO 400 at 165mm

A very nice way to open up my weekend of music.  It was an intimate set of music with only the two of them on stage.  If you're reading this in time and are in the area, he'll be playing again today (Friday the 24th) at 6:00PM on the same stage.  Go and check him out.

Thank You Jon Macaulay

Thanks to Jon MacAulay for featuring my photographs on his website. Got to meet him last night and he was kind enough to offer, and sign, a copy of his CD, Solid Ground. He's playing again today at Saint-Lambert en fête at 6:00PM on the Scène Green. Go and take in his set if you are in the area, and pick up a copy of his CD if you enjoy the concert. You can see the photographs I took of him last year on the blog by following this link, or you can see them on his website, Jon Macaulay Music, where you can also hear some of his songs and find out how to get his CD.

Daisy Day 2018

Daisy Day, for those of you who have been long time readers of the blog, is my yearly tribute to my departed Grandmother.  The story has been repeated several years now, but long story short, she was always very supportive of me and my photography.  Daisies always remind me of her, so each year I try to find some and post them here on the anniversary of her leaving us.  I was having problems finding some earlier this year, but I located a bunch of them during one of my bike rides.  I delicately put them in a little bag and rode home, hoping they wouldn't get destroyed by the wind.  I then put them in a little vase, put them in some sunlight and snapped away. This photograph was taken at f/6.3, 1/800sec, ISO 100 at 70mm.  I hope you like your flowers Grammie.  Keep watching from up above.

2018 Montreal International Fireworks Competition Recap

With all of the concert photographs last week, the final installment of fireworks photographs ended up getting pushed to the side of the table.  It was a successful fireworks season for your friendly neighbourhood photographer.  I managed to take in seven of the eight shows, all from different locations and only got wet once.  For those of you interested, the 2018 Jupiter Winners were as follows.  The Gold Jupiter went to the Philippines, the Silver Jupiter went to Austria and the Bronze Jupiter went to The United States of America.  You can view the photographs that I took of each of those shows by clicking on the name of the respective countries.  I have to agree with the judges this year.  I thought that the display put on by the Philippines was really beautiful, though I think that I might have given the Silver to the U.S.A.  Here is a little reminder of the year that was.  You can revisit all of the fireworks that I took of each show by clicking on the links in the technical details.  The first photograph at the top of the page was taken at f/16, 8sec, ISO 100 at 51mm and was presented by Canada.  The second photograph was taken at f/16, 30sec, ISO 100 at 27mm and was presented by Austria.  The third photograph was taken at f/16, 25sec, ISO 100 at 24mm and was also presented by Philippines.  Here are the rest of the photographs.

f/16, 13sec, ISO 100 st 59mm

(Canada)

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

(United States of America)

f/16, 13sec, ISO 100 at 70mm

(Italy)

f/16, 10sec, ISO 100 at 27mm

(United States Of America - James Bond Tribute)

With that, another year of bright lights and loud explosions comes to an end.  If I may make a general comment though, those of you who go out to the shows, please learn to pick up after yourselves.  I often return to the spots where I take these photographs while taking a bike ride and the amount of trash that gets left behind is terrible.  I don't think it is very hard for you to pick up the bag of Cheetos or the can of Coke that you brought with you and take it back home.  With that bit of social commentary taken care of, it's only 11 more months until the 2019 edition of the competition begins.  See you then.

Ryan Kennedy At Longueuil Est Culture

At then end of the last update I mentioned how shooting the musical performances at the Festin Culturel in Brossard was lots of work but that I would gladly do it again.  It only took four days for me to again find myself in front of a stage.  This time I was in Greenfield Park where Ryan Kennedy was performing as part of a weekly series of outdoor concerts called Longueuil Est Culture.  I arrived a little later than I usually do for these shows, but everyone was seated so I was still able to grab a good spot next to the soundboard.  After a few songs though, I began to notice that there was a little bit of room to walk around by the stage so I decided to followed the advice of My Lovely Assistant.  I always try to not be in the way of the people who are watching the show, but she said that as long as I didn't stay in the same place for a long period of time, they wouldn't care.  So, with camera in hand and a serious business look on my face, I walked around a little bit and grabbed some photographs from a few different spots around the park.  As for the music, I discovered that Ryan Kennedy first entered the public spotlight by being on the fourth edition of the popular singing competition, La Voix.  His covers of songs by Bruce Spingsteen and Bob Dylan were said to be big hits that year, and he has since released two albums, including Love Is Gold, which was released late last year.  He played several songs from his album, including one dedicated to his home town of Morin Heights, as well as some covers, all of which were well received by the audience. The first two photographs were taken at f/2.8, 1/200sec, ISO 400 at 200mm and the third photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/200sec, ISO 400 at 150mm.  Here are several more photographs that I took during the performance while walking around. 

f/2.8, 1/200sec, ISO 400 at 140mm

f/3.2, 1/160sec, ISO 400 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/320sec, ISO 1000 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/320sec, ISO 1000 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/250sec, ISO 1000 at 142mm

f/2.8, 1/250sec, ISO 1000 at 120mm

f/2.8, 1/500sec, ISO 3200 at 150mm

f/2.8, 1/320sec, ISO 3200 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/500sec, ISO 3200 at 165mm

f/2.8, 1/320sec, ISO 3200 at 135mm

f/2.8, 1/80sec, ISO 3200 at 165mm

f/2.8, 1/80sec, ISO 3200 at 58mm

f/2.8, 1/125sec, ISO 3200 at 135mm

f/2.8, 1/400sec, ISO 3200 at 200mm

The crowd may have been small as forecasts of bad weather probably kept people away.  I was a little iffy about going too, but My Lovely Assistant did another great job of pushing me out the door, and I'm glad that she did.  I got to take in a great show, and I got to bring home some pretty good looking photographs as well.  Don't forget to visit Ryan Kennedy's website to find out more about him and his music.