Sunset On The Lake

As the temperature continues to soar, I continue to look for comfort in my photographs, and an air-conditioning unit turned on to the max.  This photograph was taken at the same time as the previous photograph that appeared here on the blog, Front Row Seat For Summer.  It's also not 100% natural.  I've been trying to work on my Photoshop skills of late.  I know, I've been vocal against such things in the past, and I still don't do very much post editing with my shots, but I figured I'd give it a shot with this one because I really wanted to bring out the colours that were in the sky.  The photograph was taken at f/16, 1/200sec, ISO 400 at 40mm.  In order to bring out the colours of the sky, I used the Curves tool in Photoshop.  I'm far from being a Photoshop expert, so the easiest way I can try to describe using Curves would be that the tool allows me to redistribute the contrast and tones.  In this case I was able to push out the colour from the original photograph, at the same time making the mountains and boats a little darker, which I feel looks much better.  The 'Photoshopped' image is much closer to what I wanted to capture than the original file.  Just to show the difference, I've included my original file below so that you can see the difference.   It's a fun tool to play with, so I'll probably keep experimenting with it in the future.

Front Row Seat For Summer

Time keeps ticking away, always moving forward, and we are in the hazy, lazy days of Summer.  If you ask me, Summer days are meant to be spent within the comfortable confines of air-conditioned rooms.  However, a close second place would be in a comfortable chair, taking a long nap on a dock that sits on a lake.  That little story is actually pretty close to reality.  Those chairs really were comfortable and I did infact take a very pleasant nap in the chair on the left.  Sadly, as I was napping away, the sun set a little bit more than I had planned.  It's still bright enough to bring out the red in the chair on the right, and there is a little but of colour still in the sky.  The lake was also just calms enough to reflect all of the trees.  The photograph was taken f/9, 1/500sec, ISO 400 at 28mm.  Hopefully a quiet snooze by a lake is in some of your futures.

Montreal International Fireworks Competition - Recap

A month of loud and colourful explosions in the sky has come to an end.  I'm a week behind in posting this update, though for good reason.  In case you might have missed it, one of my photographs ended up being aired on CTV News.  This is my little end of festival recap.  Older visitors will remember that I usually use this update to display one extra photograph from all of the shows that I saw.  If you found that photograph to be interesting and you missed my original post, just follow the link in the name of the Country and all of my other photographs will be waiting for you.

Our Heroes

f/16, 20sec, ISO 100 at 68mm

Chile

 f/13, 10sec, ISO 100 at 50mm

 

Canada 

f/13, 6sec, ISO 100 at 28mm

 

Switzerland

f/10, 15sec, ISO 100 at 43mm

United States of America

f/9, 8sec, ISO 100 at 24mm

Spain

f/8, 13sec, ISO 100 at 34mm

Sweden

f/8, 13sec, ISO 100 at 34mm

Tribute To Elton John

f/13, 13sec, ISO 100 at 68mm

 

For those of you keeping track at home, Spain ended up winning the Golden Jupiter Award with Sweden winning the Silver Jupiter and Switzerland took home the bronze.  Though I ended up getting smoked out of the second half of Spain's show, I did proclaim it to be my up to that point in the competition.  My photograph that appeared on television came from the Sweden show and my favourite photograph of the competition was the first photograph you see in my blog entry from the Switzerland show.  I guess you could say that I was able to match the performances of the winning countries.  I once again got to photograph all eight shows and most importantly, enjoyed every minute of them, even if Mother Nature blew way more smoke in my direction than needed.

Saturday Night's Alright For Fireworks

Our little march towards the end of the Montreal International Fireworks Competition is nearing the end.  As we previously mentioned, things got a little bit delayed as one of my photographs ended up being featured on CTV News Weather Pixs, and since I enjoy tooting my own horn from time to time, it earned an update of its own.  What's that? You don't remember or haven't seen that update?  Lucky for you, here is a link to the photograph and video!  It can't be said that I don't like to share.  This final night of the competition took place last Saturday.  It wasn't actually an in-competition event, but an extra show that has been added over the last few years and serves as a tribute to a legendary musical act.  It makes sense seeing as how the fireworks are set to music during all of the shows.  This year, the show was put on by Melrose Pyrotechnics, from Kingsbury, Indiana.  Though not in competition, this is the third time Melrose has been at La Ronde and they won a Golden Jupiter Award back in 2006.  The music came from, as some of you may be able to figure out from the title, the legendary Elton John.  Hits like Crocodile Rock, Rocket Man, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Tiny Dancer were featured while the final explosions of the year were fittingly accompanied by Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me.  I took these shots from another of my favourite locations, a small pedestrian overpass that crosses a local urban boulevard.  This place had gotten rather popular over the years.  When I first started shooting photographs here, there was all kinds of place for people to walk, but on this night people were jammed elbow-to-elbow.  I even heard a few people wondering aloud if the overpass was strong enough to handle all of our weight, an understandable request knowing how poorly some of the local infastructure has held up over the years.  I was also joined by My Lovely Assistant, my brother-in-law Phillipe and a potential future Lovely Assistant, his daughter Constance.  She'll need to be able to stay awake during the entire show before that can happen.  She's only three though, so there is lots of time for that to happen.  The first photograph was taken at f/16, 20sec, ISO 100 at 68mm and the second photograph was taken at f/13, ISO 100 at 68mm.  Here are  few more photographs from the show.

f/16, 8sec, ISO 100 at 68mm

f/16, 10sec, ISO 100 at 68mm

f/16, 15sec, ISO 100 at 68mm

f/16, 6sec, ISO 100 at 68mm

And with that final bang, the fireworks festival comes to an end.  But everything is not quite yet over here on the blog.  I've got a few more before, after, and during shots that I took while either waiting for the fireworks to begin, or after they've ended.  We'll try and get them posted up here before the next competition begins in 2017.

Montreal International Fireworks Competition - Sweden

We've fallen a little bit behind here at the old blog.  The fireworks competition actually wrapped up on Saturday.  However, I've still got a couple of updates left in the docket, waiting to be unleashed upon the world.  There's a very good reason for the delay.  Everything got pushed back because one of my photographs from this show ending up on the evening broadcast of CTV News.  Go ahead, take a moment to go back and relive the moment by following this link.  As previously mentioned, it was Sweden that put their explosives on display on this night.  More specifically, it was the Göteborgs FyrverkeriFabrik AB company.  They were making their third appearance in Montreal, and have a second place finish here in 2010 among their many credentials.  The site I chose was on the same bicycle path where My Lovely Assistant and I parked ourselves a few weeks back for the American portion of the competition.   It did offer a different angle of the fireworks, so I figured I'd try shooting from there.  Once again, the path was full of people there to see the show, further proving my point that it is essential to show up early in order to get a clear view of the fireworks.  This doesn't always go over well with My Lovely Assistant, though she was fortunate enough to run into one of cousins while we were waiting.  Their chatting helped pass some of the time away (allo Noemie).  There were once again some smoke issues involved, but it wasn't as bad as it had been for the other show.  There was also someone with a radio who was broadcasting the soundtrack of the show.  Something that really helps when you're trying to time your fireworks shots.  When you know that a high point in the song is coming, the odds are very good that there will be a big bright explosion to go along with it.  The first photograph was taken at f/7.1, 8sec, ISO 100 at 32mm and the second was taken at f/7.1, 4sec, ISO 100 at 24mm.  Here are a few more photographs that I took during the show

 f/7.1, 5sec, ISO 100 at 30mm

f/9, 6sec, ISO 100 at 30mm

f/9, 6sec, ISO 100 at 30mm

f/9, 6sec, ISO 100 at 30mm

That last photograph wasn't actually part of my original update, but I ended up having a spare spot due to the photograph that appeared on the news getting an update of its own.  It's a little different from the traditional fireworks shots I've taken with the straight lines taking the place of the arcing blasts of light.  I thought it was kind of unique and so bumped it into the rotation when the opportunity arrived.  Hope some of you like it too.

Look Ma, I'm On TV

My Mom keeps telling me that I should send my photographs in to the local newscast more often.  As they say, 'Mother is usually right', and I guess that she was this time as well.  I had gotten an email from her late last night.  I read it after having gotten home from photographing the latest fireworks display as part of the Montreal International Fireworks Competition. She had included the email needed to send weather photographs for the nightly forecast.  I finished uploading my latest photographs and I figured 'what the heck, give it a shot'.  I quickly went through the photographs and chose the one I thought was the best of the bunch, did a little editing and sent it off.  I then waited through the six o'clock newscast and tah-dah!  There it was.  I thought the photograph looked a little darker than it really is on television, so I've included it here with the update.  It was taken at f/7.1, 15sec, ISO 100 at 32mm.  Thanks to Lori Graham and all at CTV News, and ofcourse, thanks Mom.

Montreal International Fireworks Competition - Spain

As we near the end of July, it also means that we're near the end of the annual Montreal International Fireworks Competition.  This past Saturday, the skies over Montreal were brightened by Spain, or more specifically, the RICASA Company of Valencia.  The family run company have been turning night into day for 135 years, including being featured at various Pan-Am Games, presentations in New York and the Olympics.  This was their third appearance in Montreal, earning third place finishes in 1998 and in 2005.  With those amazing credentials, it shouldn't be a surprise to say that this has been my favourite show to date this year.  Sadly, the elements once again decided to play havoc with things.  The skies had opened earlier in the day as a couple of downpours left everything rather wet.  As we approached show time, the sky had begun to clear, but there was still a chance of rain so I decided to stay a little bit closer to home and returned to the same spot I had shot at two weeks ago.  Things started out fairly well as there was only a slight bit of cloud cover which I always feel adds a little bit of texture to these photographs.  However, about fifteen minutes into the show the wind once again began to shift  and ended up blowing all of the smoke from the fireworks right back into my location.  It slowly crept over to where I was as I watched it slowly shroud everything along the way.  As the show was near an end, the smoke was everywhere, as you can see in the second photograph.  The difference between the first photograph, taken at f/8, 10sec, ISO 100 at 34mm and the second photograph, taken at f/8, 4sec, ISO 100 at 34mm, is quite remarkable.  Here are a few more photographs I took before the smoke swallowed everything.

f/8, 5sec, ISO 100 at 34mm

f/8, 6sec, ISO 100 at 34mm

f/8, 8sec, ISO 100 at 34mm

f/8, 8sec, ISO 100 at 34mm

After these last two shows, I've spent more time in a smoker than certain sandwich meats.  I returned to this spot because I wasn't happy with my positioning.  Ends up the spot I had used previously has been rendered useless as a large tree has been planted directly in the sight-line to the fireworks.  I liked this spot a little better than the previous one, except for that annoying road sign at the bottom center of the frame.  Hopefully none of you noticed it, but it bothered me all night, until the smoke became a bigger issue.  It's been a kind of unlucky run this year so I'm hoping that the tide will turn for these last two show.