Pontiac GTO

As we approach the end of another month, I find myself getting ready for the monthly back-up of my hard drive.  Doing so usually entails my going through all of the folders in my photography file and trying to figure out which ones I can remove from my computer and place in the relative safety of the different hard drives I use to back up my photographs.  It's usually at that point where I realize how far behind I am in getting my shots here onto the blog and I dig something out and throw it up on the site right away.  Such is the case of this photograph, taken back in May.  I was at an antique car show and the colour of this Pontiac GTO caught my eye.  I wanted to take a tight photograph of the car logo, simply because I really liked the colour.  I noticed that the sun was reflecting in the chrome around the letters, so I used a small aperture which resulted in getting those little star shapes you see in different locations around the lettering.  This photograph was taken at f/16, 1/60sec, ISO 100 at 59mm.  I hope you enjoyed this little trip to the archives, now go an back-up your own hard drives as well.

Napoleon`s Last Stand

Over the last several years, I've photographed all kinds of strange and wonderful things.  It's time to add to that list.  This update is about photographing a corpse.  Before you all get a little worried, it's a bug corpse that I have photographed.  My Lovely Assistant and I have this little habit of giving names to things that happen to find their way into our home.  For some reason, this guy ended up being called Napoleon, possibly because he was small and rather daring.  He found his way into our home around Christmas last year.  He flew around for a few days before suddenly disappearing.  A few weeks later, I found what was left of our little buddy, and thought that his corpse was so well preserved, it might make for an interesting photograph.  I put him on the window sill and was really impressed with the detail in the body, especially the head and wings.  I took this photograph at f/5.6, 1/160sec, ISO 1600 at 60mm.  Is it a little bit weird?  Possibly, but I also think that it's a pretty cool look at something that I've never seen so close before.  To each his own.

Hockey Night In St. Hubert

The sports theme on the old blog over the last few weeks continues with this little update.  Hockey season has been on for a while now, but I only got my first chance to shoot some game action this past weekend when my good friend Emmanuel told me that his daughter would be playing a game close to home.  Seeing as how I really enjoy shooting hockey games, I couldn't pass up the chance to take some photographs of Florence in action.  Sadly, my one-game winning streak came to an end as Florence's team ended up losing.  Thankfully the family likes my photographs and I keep getting invited back to take more, because I think her team has a record of 1-3, if not worst, when I'm in the arena.  I ventured out of my usual location this time.  I usually try to stick close to center ice so that I can get a good view of both nets.  Mostly because Florence is a goaltender and because I feel that most of the best action takes place around the nets.  This time, I ventured down to the corner of the arena for a period to take some shots closer to rinkside.  I had refrained from doing so in the past because, let's be honest, the plexiglass that surrounds city rinks is not the same quality, or as well kept as the plexiglass you'll find at the Bell Center.  However, lots of the pros shoot from that location, you can often see them in the corner behind the glass when you're watching a game, so I figured I should at least give it a try.  After finally making my way down there and pressing my camera against the glass, I noticed that all of the knicks, scratches and stains don't even show in the final image.  If I get the chance, I'll probably try and head down there again.  The first photograph was taken at f/4.5, 1/640sec, ISO 1000 at 105mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/5, 1/500sec, ISO 1000 at 100mm and the third photograph was taken at f/5, 1/400sec, ISO 1000 at 200mm.  Here are a few more action shots that I took over the course of the game.

f/5, 1/500sec, ISO 1000 at 70mm

f/5, 1/500sec, ISO 1000 at 165mm

f/5, 1/400sec, ISO 1000 at 110mm

Hopefully I get invited back before the season comes to an end.  I need a chance to improve my winning percentage.  That, and it's always fun to take my camera down to the arena and watch Florence play.

No Strings Attached

 I think it's pretty safe to say that everyone is well aware of the tragic events that took place in Paris a few days ago.  I kind of like to keep things light, so this won't really turn into any kind of deep discussion.  One of the ways that cities around the world have been showing their support for the city of Paris has been to light up buildings with the colours of the French flag.  Here in Montreal, both the Olympic Stadium and the Montreal Biosphere have changed their lighting into the blue, white and red colour pattern of the French flag.  Heading out to the Olympic Stadium was a little bit out of my way, plus it was really well done by one of my friends, Marilyn.  So, I decided to stick close to home.  While driving a few weeks ago, I noticed the Biosphere from an angle that I had not yet tried, where we could see some of the buildings of Montreal as well.  I went to take the photograph, but there was this telephone line going right across the frame of my shot, so I kind of 'cheated' and used Photoshop to make it disappear.  The photograph was taken at f/16, 7sec, ISO 100 at 68mm.  I waited a bit past sunset to take my shot, and also waited to get a good series of cars to pass by to get the light streaks across the bottom of my photograph.  I know removing the lines goes against much of what I've said about using Photoshop to alter images, but that telephone line really bothered me.  I'll try and go back to being principled with the next photographs.

Adding A Little Colour

It's been a rather grey couple of days, both locally and globally, so I thought it might be good for my morale, and maybe the morale of some others out there, by adding a little bit of colour.  It's a Daylily, always my favourite flower to photograph.  This particular photograph was taken in the late afternoon as the sun was setting in the mother of my Lovely Assistants garden.  I managed to grab a nice angle and shot away.  This photograph was taken at f/4.5, 1/500sec, ISO 400 at 68mm.  Also, in the spirit of friendship, there is a little friend hidden near the tip of the petal on the far right.  I'm not sure how well it appear in the small resolution I'm using here on the website, but there's a tiny little spider.  He's so well hidden that I didn't even notice him until a few hours ago when I decided to put this photograph on the page.  After watching the events of the weekend unfold, it's was nice to have a little surprise.

Musical Hands

Earlier this week I posted up several photographs that I took at the Aphasie Rive Sud fundraiser that my friend had organized.  I left one photograph out of that set because I wanted it to show it by itself.  Maybe I'm out to lunch on this one, but I really liked it.  These are the hands of Emilie Lecavalier, a pianist who has been playing with the Choeur Vives Voix for the last couple of years, and who my friend got to play for the fundraiser.  After getting several shots of the singers, I found myself in a position where I had a clear shot of her hands as she played and I thought that it made a very cool shot.  So, since this is my blog, here it is.  This photograph was taken at f/3.2, 1/250sec, ISO 1250 at 68mm.  I was afraid that in order to properly expose her hands that I might have overexposed the sheet music, but I was very happy to see that all of the notes survived.  Though I feel that I may not be properly expressing my thoughts on this photograph, which is probably why I tend to prefer photography over, say, public speaking, I still feel that this was my favourite photograph that I took that night.

Poppy

Remembrance Day is once again upon us, and the symbol for this very important day is the poppy.  I wasn't able to attend any of the weekend Remembrance Day ceremonies this year, nor will I be able to attend on on the 11th.  In my 'Perfect World', Remembrance Day will become a National Holiday so that everyone can take the time to pay their respect to those who gave their lives so that we can live in freedom today.  However, since I'm nowhere near able to pass laws at the moment, I'm going to have to dig into my archives and pull out this extra photograph that I took at a ceremony I attended last year.  This photograph was taken at f/11, 1/250sec, ISO 400 at 52mm.  I didn't want to entirely blur out the background of this photograph, so I positioned myself close to the poppy, and used a small aperture.  This allowed me to focus on the poppy, but not throw the rest of the photograph out of focus entirely.  Don't forget to take a moment out of your day to remember those who made the most important sacrifice there is.

Aphasia Fundraiser

A couple of Saturdays ago, a good friend of mine organized a fundraiser to try and raise some money for Aphasie Rive-Sud.  It's an organization that helps people affected by and families dealing with Aphasia.  Aphasia is a condition that reduces the affected persons ability to communicate.  The ability to read, write, speak and understand are diminished, though the intelligence of the person in question doesn't change.  Aphasia is usually caused by an injury to the brain, most often either a stroke, a trauma or a tumor.  My friends father had recently been diagnosed with the condition, thus her deciding to try and raise some funds, and some awareness, for the condition and this group that helps people deal with it.  She organized a spaghetti supper and a musical show, with all of the money raised being given to Aphasie Rive-Sud.  She brought in several of her friends to sing some songs, people some of you may remember as they belong to the Choeur Vives Voix, and I've photographed their shows for the last several years.  They all donated their time, others workers donated their time in the kitchen, and I donated my time as well by going in and photographing the show for them.  At last count, the evening had raised over $4000 for the organization, money that will be used to help people and their families to adapt to their condition.  The first photograph was taken at f/4, 1/100sec, ISO 1600 at 30mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/4, 1/320sec, ISO 1000 at 70mm.  Here are some more photographs of the show.

f/4.5, 1/100sec, ISO 1600 at 60mm

f/3.5, 1/125sec, ISO 400 at 70mm

f/4.5, 1/125sec, ISO 1250 at 68mm

f/4.5, 1/80sec, ISO 1250 at 54mm

f/4.5, 1/100sec, ISO 1600 at 60mm

f/3.5, 1/125sec, ISO 400 at 28mm

I'd say that the evening was a success.  Everyone seemed to really enjoy myself, and from a personal standpoint, I had a great times as well.  The stage was kind of small, but they had rented a huge spotlight, which allowed me to use an ISO a little lower than the usual ISO 3200 that I use for the Choeur Vives Voix shows.  That meant less grain in the photographs.  The evening also gave me a chance to practice my shots using flash, something that always gives me a headache.  These, I think, came out pretty well.  I didn't have any flash created shadows in my photographs, and everyone seems well lit.  It was a fun night for everyone involved.

 

Red Pepper

It's been quite the while since I've played with my food.  So long, infact, that while digging through my hard drive during my monthly back-up, I found this lost pepper.  It was fresh from the store and the bright red colour instantly caught my eye.  I threw open the curtains in the kitchen and let the sunshine in.  I had to work fast because if my memory is correct, this pepper was scheduled to become part of supper that night.  Seeing as how the first  photograph was taken on a window sill,  I tried to get as close as possible for my shot and I used a large aperture in order to blur out the less than spectacular background.  For the second photograph, I still stayed close to my subject.  I tried to focus on the texture of the inside of the pepper because I found that it was really interesting.  I also played around with the positioning of the slice of pepper in order to get a nice shadow effect on my plate.  The first photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/1600sec, ISO 400 at 68mm and the second photograph was taken at f/4, 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 60mm.

There are all kinds of colourful things that you can find in the kitchen.  As an added bonus, this one had a nice texture to it as well.  It made for a tasty addition to supper than night as well.

The Final Whistle

The local Champlain Cavaliers football team was playing a Quarter-Final play-off game last night,so I decided to make the trek down the street one last time this season to see the team in action.  It ended up being one heck of a good game.  Things were looking pretty bleak at halftime as the team was down 22-9 and their starting quarterback had been taken out of the game in the middle of the second quarter after taking a hit.  Thinking I had a good selection of photographs, I almost headed for home at the half, but I'm really happy I didn't because I would have missed one heck of a comeback.  The team scored two fourth quarter touchdowns to take the lead 23-22 with a less than four minutes to go.  Things were looking fairly bleak when the opposing team took the ball all the way down the field and scored the go-ahead touchdown with a little bit more than two minutes to go on the following drive.  However, despair quickly turned to elation when on the ensuing kick-off, Champlain returned the ball all the way down the field and scored what would be the winning touchdown.  Final Score - Champlain 29 vs Ahuntsic 28.  Sadly, even in victory this game marked the end of my football season, photographically speaking.  Though Champlain won the game, their next play-off game will be played in Thetford Mines, and should they make it to the finals, that game will be played in St. Jean.  A bit far off for me to make the trip.  Still, I had much fun attending the three games that I made it out to this season, though I wish that one of those games would have taken place in the afternoon to provide me with a bit better light to take my photographs.  I could also use a bit of better luck.  I only got a good shot of one touchdown during the three games that I attended.  For the most part, the scores always seemed to come at the other end of the field from where I was positioned.  I only have myself to blame for this past game though as three touchdowns were scored in my end zone, but I missed the first two when I wasn't fast enough to adjust my focusing while the action was taking place and I ended up with two out of focus scores.  That really ticked me off.  I'll have to practice spinning that focus ring a little more quickly to build up my finger speed.  The first photograph was taken at f/3.2, 1/400sec, ISO 3200 at 200mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/3.2, 1/400sec, ISO 3200 at 200mm.  The third photograph was taken at f/3.2, 1/200sec, ISO 3200 at 200mm and the fourth photograph was taken at f/3.2, 1/400sec, ISO 3200 at 200mm.  Here are a few more shots of the action that took place on the field.

f/3.2, 1/400sec, ISO 3200 at 200mm

f/3.2, 1/800sec, ISO 3200 at 110mm

f/3.2, 1/500sec, ISO 3200 at 200mm

f/3.2, 1/500, ISO 3200 at 200mm

f/3.2, 1/160sec, ISO 3200 at 200mm

f/3.2, 1/160sec, ISO 3200 at 200mm

That last photograph ended up being the winning touchdown.  Congratulations to my former school on their great season, and here's wishing them much success in the semi-finals this weekend.