France D'Amour

After a brief intermission, we're back in business.  My Lovely Assistant and I have been away on vacation for the last several days, and don't worry, lots of photographs were taken.  Sadly, they may not see the light of day here on the blog as I still haven't gotten through all of the Vacation 2014 photographs yet.  Let's not even mention 2013.  One of the fun things about digital photography is the ability to take several photographs without having to worry about getting the film processed or the added cost of having dozens of roles of film taken care of.  The downside is that you get home from a little trip and find yourself with hundreds of photographs to go through.  In the meantime, there are still waiting for their time to shine, including these shots of France D'Amour, taken once again during the big Saint-Lambert en fête concert a few weeks back.  This was probably my favourite part of the concert was I've been listening to France D'Amour since the early 1990's.  She has such a strong voice and good rock songs.  Her popularity was such that her songs were even being played on English rock stations here at the time.  So, it was a cool surprise to me when she was welcomed to the stage for a few songs near the end of the evening.  She rocked the stage for a few songs and had my inner teenager remembering some much younger days.  My fun was increased ten-fold later that night when I had what My Lovely Assistant likes to refer to as my 'groupie moment'.  The concert was over and most of the people of Saint-Lambert had made their way home while My Lovely Assistant and I retreated to a little park behind the stage to relax for a few moments.  We were on our bikes and the feeling was that by letting the site empty out a little bit, we'd have less problems riding home due to people walking in the streets or the large number of cars that were leaving the area.  As we were sitting and I was going through the photographs I had taken on my camera, I heard a familiar voice from a few feet away.  It was France D'Amour and she was talking to a couple of fans who were line-up against the metal barriers that separated the people from the backstage area.  She had come out to say hello to a few people, and after a few moments of indecision, I made my way down to say hello.  I tried not to come off as a geek, not always an easy task, and simply shook her hand and said I really enjoyed her performance that night.  Short, sweet and simple.  In and out before I could make a fool of myself.  Getting back to the music for a moment, France D'Amour also had the distinction of being the only performer that night to be able to get the crowd onto their feet.  As I already mentioned, most of the crowd showed up with lawn chairs and spent the majority of the concert seated.  France D'Amour managed to cajole them out of their seats and move around for a little bit before, one-by-one, they eventually returned to their seated  positions.  You've got to give her points for trying.  The first photograph was taken at f/3.2, 1/400sec, ISO 3200 at 142mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/3.2, 1/640sec, ISO 3200 at 142mm and the third photograph was taken at f/4, 1/320sec, ISO 3200 at 115mm.  Here are a few more photographs I took during her performance.

f/4, 1/200sec, ISO 3200 at 142mm

f/4, 1/250sec, ISO 3200 at 110mm

f/4, 1/250sec, ISO 3200 at 110mm

f/4, 1/400sec, ISO 3200 at 115mm

f/4, 1/250sec, ISO 3200 at 90mm

The hits keep on getting played at Eric Mahannah Photography!  I told you that I ended up taking lots of photographs during this concert.  We're almost through as there only remains one last group of photographs to get through.