Local Protest

Coming home from the Day Job this afternoon I noticed an unmarked police car parked on my corner.  A smile came to my face as I thought that he was positioned there to possibly catch some of the people who keep driving past the school bus that drops little kids off from school just across the street.  It was only a few minutes later when I noticed there was a much larger police presence than usual in my neighbourhood.  It seems that there was a conference going on at CEGEP Champlain where the Quebec Liberal party was holding a forum on education in the 21st Century.  However, outside is where the action was happening.  Several teachers unions had gathered outside of the building to protest the fact that they weren't invited to the forum.  Since this was happening all just down the street, I figured I'd grab my camera and see if I could awaken my inner photojournalist and grab some interesting shots.  I tried to key in on the signs and the crowd, shooting the moments when the crowd was a little animated or if their flags or sign could be seen.  The first shot was taken at f/8, 1/200sec, ISO 100 at 165mm and the second photograph was taken at f/6.3, 1/320sec, ISO 100 at 100mm.  Here are a couple more photographs that I took while walking around.

f/9, 1/500sec, ISO 400 at 123mm

f/10,1/200sec, ISO 400 at 70mm

f/10, 1/640sec, ISO 1600 at 105mm

f/4, 1/1600sec, ISO 1600 at 200mm

f/8, 1/320sec, ISO 1600 at 145mm

After the speeches, things began to break up a little bit, so I continued to wander around until I was stopped by one of the aforementioned police officers who asked if I belonged to any media.  Figuring it was probably not a good idea to lie to the police, I simply said I was a local photographer who runs a blog and was just there to take some photographs for myself.  They took note of my name, and I took note of the fact that it probably meant that it was a good time to leave.  So, if you don't see any updates here for a while, please take up a collection to help cover my bail.