Rules Are Meant To Be Broken

One of the first things they teach you when you begin to take courses on photography is about the Rule of Thirds.  Stated in simple terms, the Rule of Thirds is a guideline of sorts in which you try to position your model, of whatever you happen to be taking a photograph of, on an imaginary line in order to create a more pleasing image to the eye.  Think of placing a Tic-Tac-Toe board over your photograph.  The most important elements of your photograph should be placed along one of those lines, rather than in the center square.  In other words, the complete opposite of what you see in the first photograph.  So, why did I break this rule?  I did it for one reason.  I really liked the blurred out colours in the lower left and upper right of the shot.  The flower is the star, but I wanted to keep those two other elements in my photograph as well.  I could have tried taking the photograph at a larger focal length, but then there were other flowers that would have found themselves in my shot.  It's not always the right choice to break the rules or step out of the box, but these are your photographs, you should make them how you want.  For instance, let's look at the second photograph.  In such a case, I'd normally make sure to focus on the stems of the flower, but in this case, I found the rain drops to be more interesting so I chose to focus on them instead.  I don't think the photograph is any less interesting because of my doing so, but that might also be because it was my choice to do so.  For an example of what I would have usually done, feel free to check out my photographs of a Day Lily from last year, taken in my Mom's garden.  These came from her garden as well.  The first photograph was taken at f/4, 1/500sec, ISO 1600 at 51mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/4, 1/640sec, ISO 1600 at 51mm.  I took these shots at such a high ISO because it was late in the afternoon and after a short rain shower.  I didn't want to use my flash as I find it to be a little harsh on flowers, although I suppose that might be a little rule I might be tempted to break one day as well.

Fresh Rolls

I've been eating homemade rolls like those that you see here for as long as I can remember.  The first that I tasted were made by my Grandmother, Grammie.  Later in life, the next batch would be made by my Aunt Tootsie.  Finally, this batch you see here was the first one to be made by my Mother.  I figured that such an occasion needed to be captured in digital form as both a tribute to those who have made them in the past, and in recognition of my Mom's first successful attempt.  I really wanted to capture the texture of the rolls, as well as the warm colour of their tops.  I set the rolls on a plate next to the window and used another white plate to reflect some light onto the left-hand side of the frame.  While looking at some shots, I noticed that the sun was creating a little glow against one of the living room walls, so I moved the plate a little bit to catch that rectangle of reflected sun that you see in the top left-hand corner of the photograph.  I think it adds an extra little something to the shot.  I also really like the reflection of the light along the bottom of the plate.  This photograph was taken at f/4, 1/50sec, ISO 400 at 60mm.  The macro lens really brought out the texture of the rolls, as well as the background blur from shooting at f/4.  These rolls have been my favourites for many year, and hopefully for many more to come.

Still Waiting For The Train

Here's another photograph that I took during my Monday night walk with Vincent and Renée-Claude.  As you can see, I'm still at the Saint-Lambert train station.  For some reason, I've always been drawn to railway tracks.  Some of my earliest shots were of either train stations or train tracks in the middle of nowhere.  I've been to this location several times over the years.  There was the photograph in my last update, as well as a shot I posted last February.  You get double links in this update because I forgot to mention the February shot last time.  Always with the links, need to keep up my traffic.  I used a small aperture and long exposure time once again in order to get the star effects on the lights, and I used the train tracks as leading lines in order to draw you further into the photograph.  I took a couple of different shots in order to make sure that the words 'Saint-Lambert' were visible and not blown out.  I grew up in Saint-Lambert so I kind of enjoy giving it some publicity every now and then.  I also like the small little traces of reflected red light on the tracks near the building.  I took this photograph at f/22, 44sec, ISO 100 at 68mm.  The only thing I felt was missing was for a train to pass through so I could get some light trails.  We waited for several minutes hoping a train would pass, but no luck.  A few minutes later after walking a bit down the street, I heard the train I was looking for.  I guess I'm still waiting for that train, although I now have another excuse to go back to the station.

Don't Cross The Line

One thing that I don't do nearly enough of is having little photography outings, or photo walks, with friends.  This is mostly due to the fact that the few photographer friends that I do have don't really live that close to me, and also because I don't play well with others.  That last part may or may not be true, but I got a message from my friend Vincent a few weeks back, asking me if I'd be interested in doing some night shooting.  Vincent isn't the photographer, but his girlfriend, Renée-Claude is.  She doesn't have a website or anything up yet, but hopefully she will soon so that I can put up a link to her images for all of you out there to see.  Being short on ideas, I suggested we walk around Saint-Lambert and check out the non-existent night life.  The fun thing about Saint-Lambert for photographers, the streets are empty by 8:30PM.  We started over at the train station, which is where I took this photograph.  The writing on the sidewalk caught my eye and I went about trying to create a photograph out of it.  I set up my tripod close to the ground and used a small aperture and long exposure time to make sure my camera would register enough of the available light and to create those cool star shapes over the lights.  For those of you who are curious, the writing says "Pour votre sécurité, attendez derrière la ligne jaune", or "For your security, stay behind the yellow line".  While you can read the photo in my personal version, I'm not sure you will be able to in the low resolution photo that is posted here.  This photograph was taken at f/16, 25sec, ISO 100 at 34mm.  I took a couple more photographs over the course of the evening, and they should find there way onto this page in the near future.

Chocolate Friends

I was among the lucky people who were visited by the Easter Bunny last night.  He left behind this tasty little family and a bunch of tasty little chocolate eggs as well.  Before they all meet their horrific end, I figured they might enjoy one last little family portrait together.  I got out My Lovely Assistant's throw cover as I find it makes a very nice background and then went around placing the bunnies in different spots.  I then took a handful of the eggs and sprinkled them over the scene, letting them fall where they may.  The sun was a little shy this morning so I took out my flash and bounced the light off of the ceiling and onto my little chocolate scene.  I took this photograph at f/16, 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 34mm.  I like to treat these little scenes like practice for when I have to take similar group shots of real people.  It's a good way to get used to using your flash, which I still need lots of practice with, and also to properly frame a shot.  The eggs and bunnies were then returned to their holding cells, I mean basket, though I can't assure their safety for very long.

Freeze Frame

It's nice to get a little bonus every now and then.  Such was the case with these photographs.  I got a phone call from My Little Brother the other week letting me know that there were a whole bunch of geese sitting in the Chambly Basin in the mornings and that I might be interested in taking some photographs of them.  There was only one catch.  They're only there in the morning, resting up and making lots of noise.  Though all of the early morning photographs you see on this site may make you think otherwise, I'm not much of a morning person myself, but sometimes I can't resist a good photo opportunity.  My Lovely Assistant was working at 7:00AM again the other day, so I quickly followed her out the door and made my way out to Chambly to try and shoot some geese.  Photographically speaking.  I filled my memory card with geese, but on the way back to my car, I came upon these leaves that had been caught in a recent spring freeze and ended up getting frozen into the puddles they had fallen in.  The morning sun was hitting the leaves just right, so I reached into my bag of tricks and pulled out my Macro lens.  I got a little muddy taking these photos, but sometimes you've just got to get a little dirty to get a nice shot.  The first photograph was taken at f/4, 1/500sec, ISO 100 at 60mm.  I really like all of the details in the leaf.  The second photograph was taken at f/4, 1/320sec, ISO 100 at 60mm.  Again, I really like the detail in the leaf, but also the little water bubbles that are in the ice.  We'll get to those geese photos soon.  At my current pace, it will probably be sometime in 2015.  Keep watching.

Facade - Part One

The curtain has come down for the last time on the latest production by the Choeur Vives Voix, Facade.  The same can be said for my rather long editing process.  When last we last spoke about the show, I mentioned how I had made my way home with a little bit over 1400 photographs of the show.  I kind of thought that the number was high, especially since during the show I tried to be more selective.  Based on past experience, I knew that the scenes where the light was very low would result in zero photographs, unless the actors were not moving at all.  So, I cut back in what I shot at those moments, trying to focus more on the scenes that were brightly lit by the spotlights.  I went back into my archives and discovered that I had been a little more choosy that I had in the past.  For the Romeo vs Juliette show from last year (Part One & Part Two) I came home with over 1800 photographs.  Yeah, 400 less photographs to go through!  I really enjoyed my experience shooting the show this year.  Last year I had that little episode where I filled my memory card to almost capacity, which resulted in some well documented problems when I got home and tried to transfer the photographs to my computer.  In order to prevent that from happening this year, I decided to use two different memory cards for the show.  One card for the first part, and then at intermission I switched in a second card.  Lesson learned and another heart attack avoided.  I was also disappointed with some of the shots that I ended up missing last year because I just couldn't get enough shutter speed to freeze the action in the low light.  My camera only goes up to ISO 1600, but last summer while spending some quality time with camera's user guide, I learned that my camera had an Enhanced ISO function.  Essentially, it meant that my camera could actually go up to ISO 3200.  This gave me a little more shutter speed, but I found that the shots had a bit more noise (kind of static that you notice in parts of the photograph) than the photos that I took at ISO 1600.  I kind of switched back and forth a bit during the show.  I figured it would be a good exercise to work on my finger speed, which it was.  I also generally took all of the shots at f/2.8, except for one.  That would be the third photograph you see in this group.  A little while before the show, I had read a blog post from my friend Pierre, explaining how to get star shapes in your photos.  I was already aware of this technique while shooting at night, but had never thought about doing it during a show.  There was one scene where an actor was singing a solo and he had a bright spotlight on him.  I figured that this was the ideal time to do a little experimentation.  I knelt down to a point where I was right in line with the spotlight, keeping the actor between us.  Going all the way to f/16 wasn't possible, but by using my quick fingers, I was able to see that shooting at f/8 was going to give me a fast enough speed to shoot without worrying about having any excess blur in the image.  There's a little bit of noise due to the high ISO, but I really like the way that the light falls on his hat and shoulders.  Not to mention, up there in that top right hand corner, the spotlight with a star effect on it.  I was so happy when I pressed the 'Play' button on my camera after taking the shot and seeing the result show up my screen.  I couldn't wait to get back home and see it in a larger format on my computer.  I also had to quickly focus on what was happening on the stage because the first half of the show wasn't finished yet.  The stage had a second level to it, so I also tried to take lots of depth of field shots where I'd have the one actor who was on the stage in focus, while having the second actor who was on the second level be out of focus, but still be in the photograph.  I really like those kinds of shots as I find them more interesting than just one actor with an empty background behind them.  I also tried to get shots of as many of the actors as possible, which wasn't really that hard of a task thanks to the many large musical numbers that happened over the course of the show.  Unlike myself, these people actually enjoy seeing themselves in photographs so I aim to please by getting as many of them as possible into my photographs.  Time to get a little technical, for those of you who enjoy it.  The first photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/60sec, ISO 1600 at 24mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/80sec, ISO 3200 at 24mm.  The third photograph that we previously discussed was taken at f/8, 1/50sec, ISO 3200 at 35mm.  The fourth photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/250sec, ISO 3200 at 24mm and the final photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/80sec, ISO 3200 at 32mm.  The curtain finally dropped to signal the end of Act One and as I said earlier, I quickly switched my memory card and took a couple of moments to catch my breath.  I guess this is a good time to do the same now, but I'll be back with a few more pictures from the second half of the show in Part Two.  I guess you could say that this post is To Be Continued....

Have Some Cake

It's been a while since anything new has been posted here at the blog.  I've been busy going through all of my photographs taken during the Facade show, trying to edit them down to a size that will fit onto a CD for the actors and producers of the show.  However, it has meant that this page has sadly been neglected for the past week.  Being the good host that I am, I figured you all deserved a little treat.  I can't think of a better treat to serve than this awesome chocolate cake.  This cake was created by My Lovely Assistant for my father's birthday and was enjoyed by all.  I managed to smuggle a chunk of it home so that I could grab a picture or two.  I can't claim total creative license for this shot.  I had been having some bad luck grabbing pictures of cakes lately so I figured I'd try and keep things simple by trying to just re-create the photo that was used in the cookbook that the recipe was found in.  To do so, I asked My Lovely Assistant to cut a small slice off of the side of the cake to give it a smooth look.  I then placed it on the kitchen table so that the sun would properly light up the smooth side that had just been cut.  In order to get some light on the other side of the cake, I asked My Lovely Assistant to hold a white plate near the back of the cake in order to reflect some light onto it to better see the texture of the frosting.  As you can see, My Lovely Assistant was rather involved in this project.  I shot this photograph at f/5.6, 1/50sec, ISO 1600 at 60mm.  I used a high ISO because I wanted to avoid using my flash, and I used the Macro lens in order to make sure that the already impressive cake filled up most of the photograph.  I think this one turned out pretty good.  It tasted even better.

Facade Preview

It's a little after 1:00AM and I really should be in bed, but I'm going through the over 1400 photographs that I took at the final dress rehearsal for the show Facade on Thursday night.  Yes, you read that right.  I came home with over 1400 photographs during a two hour show.  Kind of overkill, but I was shooting in low-light conditions and there was lots of movement during the show so I wanted to make sure that I'd get some good shots.  I think I may have worn out the trigger button on my camera.  In any event, this is the third year I get to work as the photographer for the Choeur Vives Voix and even if I wanted to go to sleep, I wouldn't be able to because I want to look at all of my photographs.  Last year I put up a little preview, like this one here, but didn't post any other photograps of the show until after the production had ended.  I didn't want to be responsible for spoiling the show for anyone.  I may follow that same route this year, but if any of you live in the general area of Longueuil, I'd really suggest you go and check out the show.  It's really funny and the group is full of talent.  You can find out all the information you need about where the show takes place and how to get tickets but following the link I put up for them in this update.  In case you missed it, here it is again.  As for these photos, I took the first one at f/2.8, 1/60sec, ISO 3200 at 24mm.  The second photograph of the group at the end of the show was taken at f/2.8, 1/50sec, ISO 1600 at 25mm.  On that note, I guess I really should get to bed, but I'm still a little bit excitable.  It's a shame that my 'day job' doesn't have me feeling like this after getting home.

What A Save

A couple of weeks back I mentioned that one of my friends, Steven Beaulieu, had passed away.  At the funeral, I ran into my friend Emmanuel and we chatted for a little while about friends and family.  At one point in the conversation, Manny mentioned that his daughter, Florence, was playing a play-off hockey game in Brossard the next morning at 8:00AM.  Getting home after the funeral, I was still a little bit down, and a choppy night of sleep didn't do very much to ease my mind.  My Lovely Assistant was working at 7:00AM that morning, so I ended up being awake early myself.  After sitting at the computer for a little while, wondering what I would do with my day, I remember the conversation with Manny from the night before.  I packed up my gear and headed down to the Complexe sportif Bell in Brossard to catch some early morning hockey action.  Knowing Steven, he would have wanted me to get out and do something that I loved.  There were some surpised smiles on the faces of my friends as they saw me walking towards them.  This isn't the first time that I got to photograph Florence in action.  I had a similar outing last year, and you can see those pictures by following this link.  Florence played goal this season with the Brossard Grizzlies, an all-boys team, and had a great season.  Sadly, they lost this play-off game and it marked the end of their season.  I felt kind of bad because this was the second time shooting her in action, and both times her team ended up on the wrong side of the scoreboard.  I hope that I'm not a jinx because I always have fun getting to shoot some hockey and I hope to get invited back to do so again next season.  The best part about shooting a goalie is that it's not that hard to follow the action.  You know that eventually the puck will find its way to that spot.  Shooting hockey, having the puck in your shot is a big bonus.  Getting the puck in your shot also means that you need a fairly fast shutter speed to freeze that little bugger.  I decided to play around with my White Balance this time, as I figured I'd turn this shoot into a learning experience as well.  I set my White Balance to White Fluorescent Light, bumped my ISO up all the way to 1600, set the camera into AV mode and shot away. The first photograph you see here was shot at f/2.8, 1/800sec, ISO 1600 at 70mm.  The second photograph was shot at f/4, 1/500sec, ISO 1600 at 70mm.  The third photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/1250sec, ISO 1600 at 70mm.  Photograph number four was taken at f/2.8, 1/1000sec, ISO 1600 at 55mm.  I also chose to make turn it into a black and white shot for two reasons.  One, to give it a kind of old-school newspaper feel, and two, to try something different.  Why not.  Here are a couple more shots to round out this update.

f/4.5, 1/400sec, ISO 1600 at 95mm

f/4.5, 1/500sec, ISO 1600 at 105mm

I ended up using two different lenses during the game.  My 24-70mm and 70-300mm Canon lenses.  My 24-70 allowed me to get some faster speed as it allows me to shoot at f/2.8, compared to my 70-300mm which limits me to apertures of f/4.5 & f/5.6 depending on the focal length I used.  I also learned a valuable lesson about trying to edit on the fly.  I tried to edit out some of my less than stellar shots during breaks in play, or when the puck was at the other end of the ice, but hockey is a fast game and I ended up missing a few saves because I was busy looking at my other photographs.  Also, in my rush to try and edit during the game, I ended up deleting one of the photos that I really liked and had intended to keep.  That's what we call a learning experience.  Either that, or it was Steven playing a little trick on me, getting even for all of the jokes I'd played on him over the years.  I still managed to get a good number of shots.  The six you see here and enough to fill a few more updates should I get lazy and need some filler photos over the course of the year.  Congratulations on the great season Florence, I hope to see you again next season as well.