Out For A Swim

What a difference a week makes.  Seven days ago it was -1 Celsius and snowing.  Today is the second day of hot and sticky over 30 degrees Celsius weather.  If you ask me, the only way to spend such days is in air conditioned comfort.  If that's not possible, the next best thing would be a cool swim, like this little guy is doing.  He was found swimming with a couple of his friends the little pond outside of my brothers house.  The other guys were a little camera shy, but this frogger was more than happy to show off his green skin and golden eyes.  The photograph was taken at f/8, 1/100sec, ISO 100 at 300mm.  Though the water wasn't very clean, it was still early in the season, I was happy to find a setting that got me a good view of the frog both in and outside of the water.  Now, I just need to find a pond of my own to cool off in.

Pontiac Star Chief

As you regular readers should well be aware, this past Sunday was the latest edition of the Classic Car Exposition held in the city of Saint-Lambert.  I try to attend this show when I can because I like to look at the old cars.  This year, despite the fact that there were more cars on display than ever before, I began to run into a little problem.  Most of the cars on display had already been photographed by yours truly.  After walking up and down the streets a few times, I was able to find a few new models that had yet to be featured in front of my lens, so I was able to get home with more than just a sunburn.  This first car is a 1954 Pontiac Star Chief.  Back in '54, the Star Chief was considered to be Pontiac's prestige model of car.  There is a bit of a Canadian connection to this car brand and model.  The name 'Pontiac' was taken from a Native American war chief of the same name from the Great Lakes Region, who gained fame by leading an attack of Fort Detroit in May of 1763.  The logo on the front of the car, though it may not be seen as being very politically correct today, was known as 'Chief Pontiac'.  When the lights of the car were turned on, the head of the logo would light up as well.  Politically correct or not, this detail of the car is what caught my eye.  I took a tight horizontal shot of the hood ornament, but my I stuck around to also take one vertically because I really liked the lines that were leading from the ornament away to the windshield.  The first photograph was taken at f/4, 1/640sec, ISO 100 at 45mm and the second photograph was taken at f/4, 1/1000sec, ISO 100 at 38mm.  These are the kind of things I focused on this year.  Hood ornaments are something that is missing from modern day models.  Something a little unique to make the car stand out.  I suppose from a driving standpoint, they don't add much to the performance of the car, but from a photographic point of view, they give me something I can photograph without having to worry about passers-by or cardboard identification signs muddying up my shot.

Manny Jr. & The Cyclones in Saint-Lambert

Earlier today I was in Saint-Lambert to see some old cars at their annual old car exposition.  So naturally, the photographs being posted here tonight are of a concert.  On stage is Manny Jr. & The Cyclones, a Quebec band that plays old time rock & roll and rockabilly music.  Both styles very fitting on a day in which cars from the 1950's, 60's, before and beyond were on display.  I was only able to stick around for a few songs, but they played very well, including a very good version of one of my all-time favourites, Rock Around The Clock by Bill Haley and The Comets.  The crowd really got into the show and there was even a few brave folks who were swing dancing away.  I'm not much of a dancer, so I happily turned my camera on the band and grabbed a few quick photographs of their show.  The first one was taken at f/7.1, 1/250sec, ISO 400 at 59mm.  Here are a few more photographs I took as they band played.

f/7.1, 1/400sec, ISO 400 at 55mm

f4, 1/800sec, ISO 400 at 70mm

f/4, 1/2500sec, ISO 400 at 51mm

f/7.1, 1/200sec, ISO 400 at 70mm

I always enjoy the opportunity to photograph some musical acts.  I was having as much fun shooting as the band was playing and the crowd was listening.  Everyone's a winner.

White Porsche

In retrospect, photographing something with a pure white background and placing it on this white blog page might not have been the brightest of ideas.  As I mentioned a while back, this coming Sunday is the Old Car Exposition in Saint-Lambert, an event that I like to attend when I can.  Lots of cool old cars to see, and lots of cool car parts to photograph.  Some of the car logos are special and creative, and the Porsche logo really stands out.  In my photography classes, I was taught that it's sometimes best not to put the subject of you photograph in the center of the frame.  That's what I did with the first photograph you see here, placing the logo on the lower right third of the photograph.  But, as sometimes happens, I got to thinking and began to wonder what the logo would look like if I cropped it a little tighter and put it dead center.  Kind of like a flag.  I think it that the coat of arms has the makings of representing the imaginary country of 'Porsche' rather well.  Both images were created from the same original photograph and it was taken at f/8, 1/1000sec, ISO 100 at 68mm.  If any of you out there live close to Saint-Lambert and like to look at old cars, try and find the time to visit the exposition on Sunday.  There's usually a wide selection of cars on display and everyone is real friendly.

Rock Candy

Trips to the candy store are getting a little rough.  There aren't that many more photogenic candies out there that I have yet to taste, I mean, take photographs of.  This one came as a bit of a surprise.  This is some chocolate rock candy, and to be honest, I didn't really think it would be either tasty or make for a cool photograph.  They aren't quite as flashy as the gummies or jujubes, but I liked how the light brought out their texture and they also provided the perfect scene to play with different apertures.  Changing the aperture allows me to control just how much of the photograph remains in focus, meaning I can make the entire scene stand out, or really just focus on a particular piece of candy.  The first photograph was taken at f/14, 1/80sec, ISO 400 at 60mm.

f/4, 1/1000sec, ISO 400 at 60mm

f/14, 1/80sec, ISO 400 at 60mm

My trusty macro lens helped out with some of the blurring of the background and the lighting was handled by some good old-fashioned sunshine and a white plate that I put next to the candies in order to reflect some light onto the other side.  Studio lighting at home, and with the money saved, you can go and buy more candies.

Buzzing Around

Bumblebees and myself have had a love/hate relationship over the years.  When I was a kid, I wasn't a very big fan.  I got stung a few times over the years, though I later discovered that my assailants weren't the fuzzy bumble, but rather some of their jerkish cousins like wasps and hornets.  These little guys end up providing a great deal of good in the world, and photographically speaking, they make cool models.  They're large enough to show up on the screen and slow enough so that it's possible to use a slower shutter speed and a smaller aperture in order to make sure the flowers will be in focus as well.  The first photograph was taken at f/6.3, 1/125sec, ISO 100 at 110mm.  Here's another one.

f/6.3, 1/125sec, ISO 100 at 110mm

Keep your eyes peeled for the humble bumblebee.  He's doing some hard work in order to make sure that you get some nice flowers to look at and tasty fruits and vegetables to eat.

Wascally Wabbit

Mother's Day was this past Sunday, and since Mom usually gets her fair share of flowers, it usually means a fun day of photography.  Sadly, the day was rained out as the weather was not on my side.  Fortunately, the day wasn't a complete waste, from a photographic standpoint, since I spotted this little rabbit in the yard across the street.  I grabbed my camera and tried to quietly get into a position to take a nice shot, but as you can see, he was alerted to my position rather quickly.  For his future well-being, I suppose that is a good thing.  This photograph was taken at f/5, 1/400sec, ISO 400 at 200mm.  Ends up this is probably the same rabbit that has been eating my Mom's tulips, so while I'm happy to have gotten my photograph, this rabbit may have a meeting with Elmer Fudd in the future unless he stays out of Mom's garden.

Sidewalk Decoration

The temperatures have begun to rise as we seem to have made the turn from Winter into Spring.  As usual, one of the very first signs of this change is the arrival of everyone's favourite lawn decoration, the Dandelion.  This one caught my eye because it had managed to grown between the stone of our little walkway next to the house and I liked the way that the yellow stood out against the darker sidewalk and the green weeds.  This photograph was taken at f/7.1, 1/125sec, ISO 400 at 42mm.  I know most people don't like Dandelions, nor are they very happy to see them on their lawns.  But, this one brought a little colour to our sidewalk, and they're also very important for the bumblebee population, so this one merited a little portrait.

Use Your Imagination

Don't let my age betray you.  I may have hit the Big 4-0 this past year, but I'm really nothing more than an overgrown kid.  It doesn't take me much of an excuse to break out my old toys.  When I knew Star Wars Day was coming up, I knew that I was going to be playing with some old friends.  For those who don't remember, May 4th is Star Wars Day, 'May The Forth Be With You' sounds rather close to the famous line from the film, "May the Force be with you".  It may look like action figures on my lawn, but with a little imagination, it's quite obvious that this is Han Solo and his trusty Wookie, Chewbacca, exploring the forest planet of Endor.  I photographed them in this galaxy far, far away at f/7.1, 1/200sec, ISO 40 at 50mm.  My Lovely Assistant looked at me like I was crazy, and some of you loyal readers out there may think so as well, but I had great fun playing with my toys again.

In Bloom

The old saying is that 'April Showers Bring May Flowers'.  In fact, the title of this little update was going to be something along those lines until I found out that I've already used that a few times here over the years.  April was kind of chilly this year.  As a result, there aren't very many new flowers in my neck of the woods.  So in an attempt to bring a little colour to our lives, it was off to the archives to find these cool flowers that I photographed while on vacation in the Mont Tremblant area a few years back.  The first photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/1000sec, ISO 100 at 51mm.  Here are a few more that I took that day.

f/2.8, 1/400sec, ISO 100 at 60mm

f/2.8, 1/1600sec, ISO 400 at 60mm

As you can see from this little selection, I like taking either big close-ups of the flowers in order to get a nice look at the center or petals, or photographs from a little distance so that I can get a nice blurred background.  Generally, I choose which I''ll try based on the location.  It just so happened that this place offered a nice colourful background for some of the flowers so I was able to take both kind of shots.