The Small Things

In the 'real world', flowers generally make me sneeze and insects are winged pests that tend to annoy me when I'm trying to sleep and make me itch when they decide that my leg would make a good meal.  However, mix the two together and I can spend large amounts of time trying to get a nice photograph.  Though it looks rather large in this photograph, the flower was actually not much larger than my thumb, so you can imagine how small that little insect was.  This photograph was taken at f/5.6, 1/6400sec, ISO 1000 at 200mm.  I'll admit, shooting this kind of photograph with a zoom lens isn't ideal, but I was playing with the lens when I spotted the flower and insect combo and didn't want to risk the insect flying away.  So, I backed away from the flower and shot away.  All things considered, things still ended up coming out pretty well.

Not Everyone Smiles

Not everyone enjoys having their photograph taken.  I would tend to fall into this category myself as there is very little photographic evidence of my existence.  Someone else who didn't seem to enjoy having their photograph taken was this little guy.  He was actually found out in the middle of a lake by My Lovely Assistant while she was fishing.  He was brought back to shore in a bucket and was let loose on the dock.  He stuck around long enough to let me snap this shot, but he sure didn't seem very happy about it.  This photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 70mm.  I enjoy taking photographs of these little critters, though in this case, I'm not so sure that the little critter was happy to be photographed.

Catch The Rainbow

I was busying myself taking photographs of some flowers, which at my current rate of productivity should see their debut here on the old blog sometime around 2019, when My Lovely Assistant called my attention to a little rainbow that had appeared on the floor.  The sun was coming in one of the windows and hit one of the reflectors on her bicycle at just the right angle to create this little rainbow you see here on the floor.  Being one who usually only throws himself on the floor if someone has dropped their money, I found myself belly-down on the ground trying to capture this thing at a cool angle.  I took this photograph at f/5, 1/100 sec, ISO 800 at 60mm.  I think I managed to find the cool angle I was looking for, I especially like that little trench near the top of the photograph.  Sadly, despite its size, I wasn't able to find the pot of gold.  It's got to be hiding around here somewhere.  The search continues.

Adventures In Babysitting

Way back on Valentine's Day, I introduced the world to My Lovely Assistant's little niece.  The photographs proved to be rather popular, especially amongst members of both her and my families.  I'd like to think that this was due to the talent and skill of the photographer, but common sense quickly brought me back down to Earth.  Who could resist that smile.  A little while back we got to babysit My Lovely Assistant's Niece.  I'll be honest, preparing baby formula and changing diapers is not really my idea of a good time, but luckily this little girl really liked having a camera in front of her.  I took these photographs the morning after he sleep-over and she was more than willing to ham it up for the camera.  Not only is she a great young model, but she's also a master of advertising, holding up a little flyer for my photography exhibition from back in March.  If I knew anything about advertising, I should have probably released that photograph back in March, but I guess that's an argument for another day.  The first photograph was taken at f/3.2, 1/100sec, ISO 800 at 70mm.  Here are a couple more shots that I took.

f/4, 1/30sec, ISO 400 at 88mm

f/2.8, 1/50sec, ISO 800 at 68mm

f/2.8, 1/160sec, ISO 800 at 145mm

f/4, 1/30sec, ISO 800 at 58mm

We managed to have some fun.  We drew some drawings, crawled around the house and even watched a hockey game together.  A fun adventure for all.

Grand Prix

Those of you out there who live in the Greater Montreal area know that this is Grand Prix Weekend.  So, I can't think of a better way to celebrate than with a photograph of a Pontiac Grand Prix.  This is another of the cars that was in Saint-Lambert a few weeks back for the annual classic car show.  I really liked the red of the car how well the headlight and writing stood out against it.  This photograph was taken at f/6.3, 1/400sec, ISO 100 at 48mm.  I then cropped in real tight on the headlight a logo making for another of those little detail shots that I enjoy taking.

Ready For The Cup

It's June and the Stanley Cup play-offs have just begun, so it might be a good idea to wrap things up with the hockey photographs.  This is the last batch I took my my friend's daughter, Florence, in action with her teammates on the ice a few months back.  There isn't really much more I can add to the story of these photographs that hasn't already been said in either the first group of photographs that I posted or in the second posting.  As usual, I tried to make sure that the puck was in as many of the photographs as possible, and I hope that Florence won't be upset with me for posting a photograph of one of the shots that snuck past her.  The first photograph in this set was taken at f/6.3, 1/200sec, ISO 3200 at 90mm.  Here are the others.

f/6.3, 1/200sec, ISO 3200 at 70mm

f/6.3, 1/200sec, ISO 3200 at 140mm

f/6.3, 1/125sec, ISO 3200 at 200mm

That about wraps things up.  Thanks to my friend Manny, and of course my favourite goaltender Florence, for inviting me out to take some photographs of the action.  Hope to see you all again next season.

Thriller Night

This past weekend saw the annual Festival Classica in Saint-Lambert.  A weekend full of art and Classical Music.  My favourite part of the weekend is usually the Classica Rocks, free outdoor concert.  It usually involves an orchestra and large choir doing classical versions of rock songs.  In the past, the works of Pink Floyd, Beau Dommage and last year, the songs of Queen.  This year, Classica Rock decided to do versions of songs by Michael Jackson.  I almost didn't make it to the show.  There were big rain storms scheduled for that evening, but the skies didn't really open until about twenty minutes before the show.  I thought that my plans for the evening were finished.  The couch was rather comfortable and the Chicago Blackhawks were facing off against the Anaheim Ducks in Game Seven of a rather good series.  But, then the rain came to an end.  About 40 minutes after the show had begun, the sky finally cleared and the rain came to an end.  At the same time, the Blackhawks had jumped out to a rather large 4-0 lead, so I figured, why not head out and see the end of the show.  I managed to make it in time for the big three songs, Billie Jean, Beat It and Thriller, and I even got an encore of Beat It as the guitarist had broken one of his strings during the solo and was happy to get a chance to play the song again.  Photography wise, I once again found myself rather far back in the crowd.  The rain had kept others away, but not enough for me to get very close.  I was thinking that would happen, so I had armed myself with a nice telephoto lens and I also brought a monopod with me.  I tried to capture some shots where the conductor had his arms stretched out as I felt they made for more interesting shots.  I was also trying to a good balance between an aperture small enough to keep much of the photograph in focus, but at the same time using a shutter speed fast enough to freeze the conductor in action while dealing with low light conditions.  Oh yeah, I was trying to listen to the music as well.  There were a couple of fun moments I tried to capture as well.  At one point, the conductor put on the sequined Michael Jackson styled glove, as well as the famous red thriller jacket.  They even brought up a couple of local dance instructors to try and teach the crowd how to do the Thriller dance before the song played.  All in all, it was a fun little outing.  The first photograph was taken at f/7.1, 1/50sec, ISO 3200 at 170mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/6.3, 1/50sec, ISO 3200 at 200mm.  The third photograph was taken at f/6.3, 1/125sec, ISO 3200 at 160mm and the fourth photograph was taken at f/8, 1/25sec, ISO 3200 at 168mm.  Here are a couple more photographs I took during the show.

f/7.1, 1/50sec, ISO 3200 at 70mm

f/9, 1/30sec, ISO 3200 at 140mm

f/4.5, 1/320sec, ISO 3200 at 70mm

f/6.3, 1/100sec, ISO 3200 at 168mm

I like the fifth photograph in this series.  The guy had just jumped up on the shoulders of one of his friends and you can see caught the attention of one of the musicians in the choir.  I also really like the eighth shot with all of the lights coming down.  It was a good show, I'm happy that I managed to get out and see it.