Remembrance Day 2013

I'm a firm believer that Remembrance Day should be a National Holiday.  There are very few things more important than taking a moment of our time every November 11th to remember all of the fallen soldiers who sacrificed their lives so that we can enjoy the freedom we have today.  Until that day comes, I try to book one of my weeks of vacation to coincide with Remembrance Day every year so that I can either go in to Montreal for the service there, or at least attend one of the many ceremonies that take place closer to where I live.  I skipped the Montreal service last year, so I decided to hop into a Metro car and make the trip downtown.  The ceremony used to be held at the Place du Canada in downtown Montreal, but was moved to the lawns of the campus of McGill University a few years back due to renovations.  It seems that McGill has become the new home of the ceremony, though I preferred the former location as it was easier for me to move around.  As a result, I was stuck near the back of the ceremony and missed seeing the laying of the wreaths.  In the middle of the ceremony, I decided it was in my best photographic interest to move around.  The first order of business was to go to where the canons were being fired.  I got some good pictures of that, which you'll be seeing in a future blog post here on the site.  Afterwards, I knew that I had to find a better position than the one I had been in before if I was going to get some shots of the parade as the Veterans and others made their way from the site.  I managed to find a good spot just outside of the gates, right behind a police utility vehicle.  This provided to be a great spot for two reasons.  One, how could I find a more secure spot than right behind a police car?  Secondly, it was kind of chilly outside, so the feeling of the warm exhaust against my leg was kind of comforting.  After everyone had left the site, I returned to the make-shift cenotaph and took a few pictures of the wreaths that had been left behind.  I really wanted to take a picture of a balloon that someone had left behind.  Written on the balloon was "Thank you our brave heroes, we remember" in English.  I felt that it best summed up the what the day should have been all about.  The first photograph was taken at f/4.5, 1/400sec, ISO 400 at 42mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/5.6, 1/320sec, ISO 400 at 24mm and the third photograph was taken at f/5.6, 1/250sec, ISO 400 at 35mm.  Here are a few more photographs that I took, with the settings I used written underneath.

f/5.6, 1/250sec, ISO 400 at 62mm

f/7.1, 1/400sec, ISO 400 at 27mm

f/7.1, 1/400sec, ISO 400 at 24mm

f/7.1, 1/400sec, ISO 400 at 59mm

f/7.1, 1/320sec, ISO 400 at 40mm

I know what those long-term readers of this site might be thinking.  "Eric," you're thinking to yourselves, "all of your pictures were taken at ISO 400.  Did you forget to reset your setting again?"  Fair question, especially since I have been guilty of doing so in the past.  Nope, I was shooting at ISO 400 on purpose because it was really cloudy outside and I need to raise the ISO in order to have enough shutter speed to capture the movements of the people marching in the parade.  Taking a few moments out of  my day to pay my respects was the least I could do on this day.  I hope that most of you out there did so as well.