A Visit To Belle Mom's Garden

I guess we're about at the time where I should declare that the Day Lily is the official flower of this blog.  I've lost count of the number of times that I've had one up here for you to see.  This one is a bit different from the others.  It doesn't come from my Mom's garden.  I thought it would be a bit prudent to include some flowers from the other side of the family.  This flower belongs to my Lovely Assistant's Mother, better known as Belle Mom.  We went over for supper the night of the fireworks by Croatia as she lives close to that location.  Before supper, I wandered around her yard and found a group of three Lilies that I thought would make a nice picture.  The only problem was that the sun was going down fast.  I actually had to shoot at ISO 1600, which was actually kind of silly on my part.  Not for using the high ISO, but rather because I had my tripod with me for shooting the fireworks later that evening.  I should have pulled it out for the flowers.  In any event, this flower was shot at f/4, 1/80sec, ISO 1600 at 38mm.  I like how the first flower is fully in focus while the two other behind it are less so, the third one even to the point where its almost just an orange blur.  I suppose that I should start looking at different kinds of flowers, but these just always grab my attention and, in my opinion, make really nice picture.

Another Location Another Story

If I didn't know any better, I'd think that someone doesn't want for me to continue shooting fireworks displays.  Either that, or the mysterious hand of fate has been testing my problem solving prowess by tossing all kinds of strange situations my way and seeing how well I can adapt to them.  For those of you who have been keeping track over the last few weeks, I've had to deal with bad weather, a hill that was about two feet to short, unwanted chain fences and suicide barriers, an incredibly bright parking lot light and all of the fun that I experienced last night.  The new location this time was Rue de la Barre in Longueuil, just a little bit behind the Metro.  As usual, I got to the location about an hour before the show was scheduled to begin.  This may seem extreme, but it gives me a better choice of places where I can put my camera.  Most people don't generally appreciate being shoved out of the way of having a tripod put up right infront of them.  While shooting fireworks, I've learned that one of the responsibilities that photographers need to bear is choice of location.  When I arrived, there were already a bunch of people huddled in little groups, but this didn't really bother me because they weren't where I wanted to be.  I moved about fifteen feet to the right of everybody and lined up in a spot that I knew would give me a clear unobstructed view of the fireworks.  Slowly, people would begin to shuffle closer to where I was, and a couple even told me that they chose to sit close to me as they figured I must know it was a good spot if I was setting up my camera there.  Yes, that was a gratuitous story to pat myself on the back with, this is my blog after all.  I took a few test shots to make sure I was properly positioned, and after the fourth shot I noticed the one thing that every photographer hates to see in their photos.  The dreaded dust spot.  This particularly frustrated me because I had taken great care to clean my camera and lens before leaving.  I was out in the field, and ofcourse, I had left my little dust blower at home.  I did have a cloth with me so I began to furiously rub at the lens and UV Filter hoping to get the offending piece of dust.  I even did the unthinkable and tried to clean the camera sensor by blowing on it.  Many nasty words were said under my breathe, but something must have worked because the dust spot disappeared.  I put my camera back on the tripod and began to take a few more test shots to make sure I had found the original framing that I wanted to use.  I looked at those shots and noticed this strange red light starting at the bottom of my frame and reaching upwards.  I though it might have just been a reflection from the police car that had stopped just infront of my while I was taking the shot, so I took a second, this time making sure that there was no police car.  I let go of the remote trigger and the red light was still there.  A few seconds of trying to figure out what the heck was going on allowed me to find the problem.  While I had been trying to remove the dust from my lens, the police had put some flares down on the road.  It was the light from the flare that was leaking into my shot, much the same way that the parking lot light from the condo had done last week.  By this time, there was no time left to change locations.  We were five minutes away from showtime and most of the green space to the left and right of me had already been taken.  After a few more seconds of cursing my rotten luck I remembered back to last week and how I had gotten around the parking lot problem by pulling back my focal length and shooting at a wider distance.  As with then, it meant more time cropping the pictures once I got home, but it was the only way to be able to get some shots without the red light from the flare bleeding into my pictures.  Luckily, I enjoy experimenting with different cropping sizes, so there was all kinds of fun to be had with this batch of photos.  The first photograph was taken at f/9, 7sec, ISO 100 at 32mm and cropped to 12"x8".  The second photo was f/9, 16sec, ISO 100 at 32mm at cropped at 12"x10".  Photo number three was taken at f/9, 6 sec, ISO 100 at 32mm at cropped to 8"x8".  The fourth photograph was taken at f/9, 5sec, ISO 100 at 32mm and cropped to 12"x12".  Photo number five was taken at f/9, 7sec, ISO 100 at 32mm and cropped to 12"x6" and the final photograph was taken at f/9, 7sec, ISO 100 at 32mm and cropped to 8"x10".  Six photos, six different sizes.  I don`t usually post so many pictures at one time as I like to keep a few in reserve for when my photo vault gets a little dry, but I wanted to show the different variety of sizes that I had to use in order to make up for that pesky little road flare.  Some of those would be a pain in the butt if I were to decide to try and get them framed, but that's part of the fun.  All that`s left now is to wonder what kind of other obstacles will be placed before me come the next show.  I`m curious, and oddly enough, I can`t wait to find out.

Not Taking A Chance This Time

Before I get any further, I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone for the nice comments about my last set of photographs taken during the American presentation of the L'International Des Feux Loto-Québec.  I was feeling kind of frustrated with the whole experience so far this year, but the many kind words left by others over at my Facebook Page made me see that I was maybe being a little bit rough on myself.  Once again, my Lovely Assistant was right.  I suppose that I should be used to that by now.  Getting back to the now, there's another show tonight and that means I had better get the photographs that I took on Wednesday night up here.  The Country providing he explosions his time was Croatia.  Despite the previously mentioned kind words, I had already planned on returning to a site that I had used last year to photograph this show.  I guess I wanted to make sure that I'd end up with the immediate rush of feeling good about my photographs rather than waiting to get that rush through the comments of others.  Not that I don't love your comments, keep them coming.  This location provided me with a shot that I felt was good enough to be shown during my photography exhibition last year, but ended up being way more popular than I had thought.  It went home with three people.  For those of you who may not remember, or are new to the blog, you can see that photograph here.   Following that link will allow you to see the photo in question, and also read a little bit about the background behind what led me to taking it.  You'll also find a link there to the website of Bernard Brault, a photographer for newspaper La Presse.  Or you could also follow the links I just provided.  In any case, Bernard Brault deserves a second link, as those of you who read the other story will know.  Theses photographs were taken from a pedestrian overpass that is located over Taschereau Blvd.  I like it for two reasons.  From that specific location you get a great view of the fireworks going off in the sky as well as an impressive light show caused by using a slow shutter speed of the cars that are passing on the road.  It's also a good vantage point to on how bad some of the local drivers are.  Though some of the more outrageous lane changes didn't make the final cut for this bunch of photos, I can tell you that I saw some moves that made me wonder if driver's licences were once again being offered for free in boxes of Cracker Jack.  My nerves were also a little on edge while taking these photos as I kept having this bad feeling that my camera was going to somehow slip off of the tripod and go crashing to the highway below where it would then be crushed by a passing 18-wheeler in a scene right out of a movie as I stood from up high and could only watch.  This did not happen, but it still caused my knees to shake a few times whenever I would accidentally brush against the tripod or if there would be a sudden gust of wind.  Nothing like some irrational fear to get your heart rate going.  Getting back to the photos you see here, they were all shot using a long shutter speed.  In order of appearance, here are the settings that I used.  The first photograph was shot at f/9, 6sec, ISO 100 at 140mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/9, 9sec, ISO 100 at 130mm.  Photograph number three was taken at f/9, 7sec, ISO 100 at 130mm and the final photograph was taken at f/9, 6sec, ISO100 at 130mm.  Shooting at f/9 gave me enough depth of field to make sure that not only the explosions would be in focus, but the road signs as well.  This is kind of important because I learned during my exhibition that to certain people, the names of the places written on the sign can be just as important as the colour or explosions that are show in the sky.  I also did a little bit of cropping at 8" x 12" to tighten up the images a little bit, just to make sure that things were a little more better placed in the photo.  It's something I like to do for photographs of fireworks.  I like to shoot a little bit wider than normal, that way I can crop the image myself later, and at the same time, but shooting wider than necessary, it make sure that I'll get most of the explosion in the frame.  There are still a few shows left before the competition comes to an end for this year so that means there still a little time left for some more experimentation.  I'll head out a few more times and try to find some new vantage points to get some shots, and should that not work, there are still a couple of old locations that I still have up my sleeve.

A Couple Of Love Bugs

Well, I guess it was bound to happen.  Most photographers know that the easiest way to make a little money with their camera is through pornography.  I figured if I'm going to go porn, I might was well go hardcore right from the start.  Someone warn my mother not to look at this update.  Not only will she not be impressed with the content, but she'll be upset knowing that between takes these bugs are eating her plants.  Being my first experience with dirty pictures, I tried to remain professional.  I tried to make sure the models were warm, didn't have more people on the set than was necessary and tried to keep my suggestions to a bare minimum.  I even tried to make the scene a little artistic by cropping the left hand side of the photo after the jagged edges of the leaf, allowing up to see the blurred background there, as well as in the other holes on the leaf.    I shot this photograph a f/11, 1/60sec, ISO 1600 at 60mm.  Yes, the ISO was an error and this photo was shot at the same time as my Day Lily photo from last week.  And so it begins.  I guess I'll try and book a few local models and see how this porn thing works before I book he next flight for L.A.

Third Time Is A Charm?

I'm having a hard time trying to decide if the 2013 Fireworks season has been a success or a failure for me thus far.  We're halfway through the competition and so far I've missed out on the first two shows due to bad weather and the three last shows have been kind of a frustration as the locations I have chosen to shoot at haven't been as glorious as I thought they would be.  I suppose that choosing a good location involves lots of trial and error, but so far it feels more like error and error.  My Lovely Assistant tells me that I'm being too hard on myself, that I still end up with several nice photographs when all is said and done.  She's probably right, but it's still a bit frustrating to me to find what I think will be a great spot to shoot the shows only to be met with an obstacle once the fireworks start going off.  One plus is that it's been forcing me to be a bit more creative in my cropping.  I generally always try to stay in the 12" x 8" range with my crops because it's an easy size to frame.  Last year I began to play around with the 12" x 6" range as I liked the panoramic look that it gave my photos.  With these photos, which were of the fireworks show put on my the United States for the L'International Des Feux Loto Québec, I ended up using ever more different crop sizes.  The main reason being because where I was located, an overpass on Rue Saint-Charles over Taschereau Blvd, ended up having a condo building with rather bright parking lot lights which ended up bleeding into my photos.  Most of my shots ended up having this annoying yellowish streak of light in the left-hand side.   I had figured that by using my 70-300mm lens I'd be able to bypass that problem as my lens would be focused on what I wanted to be shooting, mainly the Jacques Cartier Bridge, the Cross on Mt. Royal and the fireworks going off in the sky.  All of which were several kilometers away from that condo building and it's annoying bright lights.  However, it was not meant to be.  Thus, the first photograph that you see on this page was cut to a rather unique, by my standards anyway, 7" x 12".  The third photograph is cut to 9" x 12" while the other two I ended up being able to use the more traditional 8" x 12" that I was earlier talking about.  Even with my complaining, it doesn't mean that I don't like the photographs that I took.  You wouldn't be seeing them here on the page  if I didn't like them.  I really like the second photograph you see here.  The big blue bursts in the sky along with all of the other smaller blasts happening along the bottom of the shot.  I also like the silhouetted skeleton of the Monster roller-coaster in the bottom left-hand side. Though I hate the reasoning that brought me to using the odd cropping, I enjoy the simplicity of the first shot.  The single blast going off over the bridge with the cross on the mountain in the background is, oddly enough, the very look I was hoping to get.  I just needed to take a different road to get there.  The third photo I enjoy as the fireworks appear to me to be like large red flowers, complete with white stems left by the trails of the rockets as they went up to the sky.  I also like how clear the bridge is in this shot due to the light of the fireworks reflecting against it.  In the fourth photograph, I like how the strands of light look almost like silk, spread smoothly across the sky.  Almost like a spider web blown loose by the wind.  I also liked the pattern of white light left by the blasts.  The shots were all taken in Manual Mode using a remote trigger so as not to cause any camera shake.  In order of appearance, here are the settings that I used to for each shot.  f/9, 6sec, ISO 100 at 70mm.  f/9, 6 sec, ISO 100 at 70mm.  f/9, 5 sec, ISO100 at 70mm and finally f/9, 10sec, ISO 100 at 70mm.  If you are wondering, it's not an accident that all my the shots were taken at 70mm.  I shot them all at that focal length when it became quite clear that I couldn't avoid the dreaded lights from the condo building.  By shooting at 70mm, it gave me more room when it came to cropping the photographs, and also allowed me to get the higher blasts that were going off in the sky.  It's the same trick I used last year when I found myself in a similar situation.  As it would happen, I came home from that night of shooting certain that I had wasted my evening and would find nothing of use in my camera.  Instead, the photo that you'll see if you follow the link, ended up being one of the 25 that were part of my exhibition last fall.  One of these days I'll learn that my Lovely Assistant is always right.  I need to stop thinking the worst, and concentrate of finding the best.

Reach For The Sky

It's hard to believe that a month has already gone by since I made the claim back on June 21st that the blog was going to be going green as I began to post a whole lot of pictures taken in my Mom's backyard flowerbed.  I guess you could say that I got a little bit sidetracked in between the July 1st concerts (Guitarz feat. Matt Laurent and Girls Wanna Have Fun Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3) and some fireworks displays (China and Spain).  This has resulted in a large backlog of photographs that I have yet to share with all of you.  In an effort to get back on track, here is one of my Mom's Day Lilies.  I've taken photographs of them before, but I've sent you on enough link trips today.  Though, feel free to search around here and find them yourself.  Back to this flower, it was positioned at kind of an angle that led me to think it would look good being shot vertically instead of horizontally, which is how I have traditionally shot this kind of flower.  I am pretty happy with the result.  I like how the stems appear to be reaching out to the sky and the use of the Macro lens really brings out the pollen.  This photo is also an example of being a failed lesson and a lesson learned.  Failed in the sense that I once again found myself shooting at ISO 1600 because I once again forgot to reset the camera after my last set of photos.  That's why some of the green in the background may appear to be a bit grainy.  A lesson learned in the sense that I shot at f/11 in order to make sure that more of the flower would be in focus, knowing that the Macro lens would take care of blurring out the background for me.  Luckily, the background noise isn't all that visible, some of you out there may not have even noticed if I hadn't pointed it out...I hope.  This photo was shot at f/11, 1/80sec, ISO 1600 at 60mm and it's rapidly shooting up the chart of favourite photos taken in my Mom's garden.

They Used My Spot

If this photo seems familiar to you, it means you've been following my page here for almost a year.  In that case, thanks.  If you haven't been to this page before or have not been following me since the beginning, then maybe this scene seems familiar to you because you saw it on the 6:00PM CTV News (go to 7:47 of the video).  This is in relation to the tragic events in Lac Megantic.  I suppose it might seem a bit rude to be drawing attention to myself, especially considering the subject matter, but that's not really my goal.  Rather, I find it cool that a location where I've been taking photographs for the last several years was also chosen by a major media company to position their reporter.  Am I reading to much into this chance happening?  Ofcourse I am, but it still gave me a warm fuzzy when I saw it on the television.  This photograph is different from the one I used last September.  It was taken in 2008 for one of my photography courses and was shot at f/3.2, 1/100sec, ISO 400 at 58mm.