1965 Shelby Cobra

I guess you could say that I was out hunting for logos.  This past May I once again visited the Saint-Lambert Classic Automobile Exhibition.  Once again there were several awesome cars on display and some terrific hood ornaments and car logos.  I'll be getting back to the hood ornaments at some time in the future, but tonight I wanted to share my favourite logo that I found on the day.  This one belonged to a 1965 Ford Shelby Cobra. The colour and details on the logo really caught my eye, as did the LeMans racing stripe that ran through it and up the hood.  The curving of the hood makes the stripe look like it's going off to the left, a visual effect that I really liked.  If you remember my Corvette logo from earlier in the month, I mentioned how I had tried using a small aperture in order to get a star effect on the reflection of the sun on the logo. I didn't have much success then, but if you look a little bit to the left of the 'C' in 'Cobra', you'll notice that I had a bit more success with this one.  This photograph was taken at f/16, 1/400sec, ISO 100 at 46mm.  The car was a one seat roadster built for racing, which is kind of cool because I think that my photograph feels pretty fast.

Turn, Turn, Turn

Flower beds are always a source of interest for me.  On the one hand, they're full of all kinds of different sizes, shapes and colours that grab my interest and get me rushing to grab my camera.  On the other hand, they're also pollen filled disaster areas that will sometimes leave me sniffling and sneezing for hours on end.  It's the price I pay, says the poor little internet blogger looking for a little bit of sympathy from his audience.  While this particular flower didn't leave me grabbing for the Benadryl, it most definitely grabbed my attention when I first saw it.  With my limited botanical knowledge, I think that this particular flower is an orange peonie.  I originally shot this photograph vertically, which you can see on the left-hand side of the screen.  However, while I was fooling around with Photoshop, I accidentally ended up rotating the photograph 90degrees clockwise and I kind of ended up liking the way that it looked vertically as well.  So, I've included that version of the photograph with this update as well.  Two for the price of one, everybody is a winner.

The photograph was taken at f4, 1/500sec, ISO 800 at 60mm.  I probably should have taken better care to make sure that the unopened flower had not been cut off, but when I was shooting it vertically, it didn't really seem like a big issue as it was just some filler at the top of the frame for me.  Horizontally, the cut seems a bit more evident to my eyes, but the way that the stamens and petals reached out really seemed more interesting to me. To each their own.

Pour Pierre

Over at The Day Job, we got some bad new the other day when it was announced that a former co-worker had sadly passed away while fighting cancer.  He had been a big fan of my photography, and more importantly, was a great person as well.  His name was Pierre, and this was probably his favourite of my photographs that I had shown him.  He had even asked if it was possible to get a this photograph blown up to a huge size as he would have liked it on his wall.  Sadly, his illness struck soon after and he was forced to leave the job.  I never got to see him again.  Repose en paix M. Pierre.  C'était un honneur de partager la backstore avec vous.  If you would like to find out more about this photograph, you can follow this link back to when it was originally shown here on the blog.

Violas & A Friend

This past Sunday was Father's Day, which meant a visit to Mom & Dad.  Longtime readers will also know that a visit to see Mom & Dad also generally means a visit to Mom's garden, a magical land full of colourful flowers just waiting to be photographed.  Sadly, the visit was probably a week or two late as many of the flowers in the garden had already bloomed a while ago and were showing their age.  All was not lost, however, when I spotted a little pot on the swing with these little Violas.  They were barely the size of the nail on my pinkie finger, but their yellow and blue colour, along with the deep black lines grabbed my attention.  As I was taking the first few photographs, I began to notice something moving quickly over the petals.  It ended up being a tiny red spider.  Sadly, it didn't take direction very well and wouldn't stop moving, so I took a few quick shots in burst mode with the hopes that I'd catch the little guy in action.  He's a little bit out of focus since I was shooting with a large aperture, but the mere fact that I was able to catch him considering his size made me quite happy.  The first photograph was taken at f/8, 1/50sec, ISO 400 at 60mm.  Here is the second photograph.

f/4, 1/250sec, ISO 400 at 60mm

After the colours, what I really like about these photographs is they show the power of the Macro lens.  As I mentioned, the flower itself was the size of my small nail and the spider was about the size of a pin head.  Yet here they both are, large and alive.

Breakfast Of Champions

While sort of keeping with the theme created by the last post, I bring you all something else that the warm weather brings.  Although this time the subject is, I think it is fairly safe to say, much more tasty.  I bought my first batch of fresh strawberries the other day, and the stores will soon be full of fresh varieties of the other berries as well.  I wanted to make sure that the big strawberry was the 'star' of the photograph, so when I threw all of the fruits together on a plate, I made sure to save it for last so I could get it exactly where I wanted.  I also used a Macro lens with a slightly smaller aperture than I usually would in order to make sure that I got a little bit more of the fruit in focus, but still making sure that the photograph would blur out as it went further to the back.  I shot the photograph at f/5.6, 1/125sec, ISO 100 at 60mm.  Much like the strawberries I showed in April, the models were just as tasty as they were photogenic.

Strange Bug

With the warm weather comes all kinds of other things.  Flowers, of course, are the first thing that comes to mind, but the other would be insects.  The little creepy crawlies all seem to come out of their winter slumber, and some take very strange forms.  That for instance this winged creature.  It has been almost a year since I took this photograph and I still have no idea what it is.  The thing kind of looks like a mix between a moth and a bumblebee yet moved around with the speed of a hummingbird.  I spent a good amount of time sitting back and trying to track this thing as it danced around the flowers.  I finally managed to snap a photograph without getting the wings blurred.  I took the photograph at f/10, 1/800sec, ISO 1000 at 200mm.  I needed to up the ISO a little bit in order to get a fast enough speed, while also using a small aperture because I really didn't want to have any parts of this mystery bug being out of focus.  If anyone out there has any idea what this thing is, feel free to let me know.

Spring Hockey

The hockey season finally came to an end last night, and seeing as how we're pretty much in the middle of the month of June, I suppose that is a good thing.  The Pittsburgh Penguins put away the San Jose Sharks in six games, so I guess this is the opportune time to put away a few more of the hockey photographs I took back in November.  Time seems to fly so quickly, and I had no intention of waiting so long to put these up, but I had taken so many during the game that I didn't want to overload the blog by putting them all up at the same time.  Once again, these are some photographs of my buddy's daughter, who is a goaltender.  For what it's worth, she got all of these photographs within days of my taking them.  I only managed to take in one of her games this year, so I thought I'd space them out a little bit here on the blog, and there might even be a few more left to dig out when the next season begins in October.  The first photograph was taken at f/5, 1/400sec, ISO 1000 at 200mm.  Here are a few more photographs taken during the game.

 f/5, 1/200sec, ISO 1000 at 200mm

f/5 1/400sec, ISO 1000 at 200mm

f/5, 1/500sec, ISO 1000 at 200mm

f/5, 1/320sec, ISO 1000 at 110mm

A fun little game to play if you've got a little extra time on your hands is to try and find the puck.  It can be seen in four of the five photographs, though to be perfectly honest, it's not a very hard game to play.  See you again in the Fall.

Racing Flags

Those of you who have been visiting over the years may have noticed that I sometimes like to theme certain photographs to certain events.  Even those of you who haven't been around very long probably picked up on that as well.  This is another of those 'theme' postings.  It's time for the Formula One Grand Prix in Montreal this weekend.  As I hear the motors begin to rev as they prepare for the big race on Sunday, I was reminded of one of the photographs I took a few weeks back at the Saint-Lambert Classic Car Exhibition.  It's from a 1973 Chevrolet Corvette with the classic logo featuring racing flag logo on top of the sunburst design that lasted until 1977.  I spotted this car near the end of my morning on the site and I really liked how the red logo stood out against the blue hood of the car.  The way that the hood was angled also created a little shadow at the bottom of the logo that, to my eye, helps it to stand out.  I shot the photograph with a rather small aperture because I wanted to make sure that all of the letters in the logo would be in focus, but I was also hoping to get some star effects on the logo from the reflections of the sun.  In particular, that little bit of reflection just under the 'T' in Chevrolet.  I took the photograph at f/16, 1/400sec, ISO 100 at 42mm.  The star effect didn't really work out, but the rest of the photograph came out just how I had imagined.  Enjoy the race.

Forgotten Flower

This past weekend, My Lovely Assistant and I made out annual Spring visit to a local farmers market in order to buy some tomato plants for what passes as our little urban garden.  On the way back to the car with our plants and tasty homemade treats, I spotted this little flower top sitting in the parking lot.  It obviously belonged to some plant that probably ended up getting accidentally cut off when it was being put in the car.  Being a waste not, want not kind of guy, I picked it up off the ground and brought it home.  The poor thing began to deteriorate a bit faster that I had thought, so I set up our little patio table and placed the flower in the setting afternoon sun. I tried shooting it from a few different angles because as My Lovely Assistant will tell you, why would I only shoot one photograph when I can shoot twenty.  In the end, I found that the photograph that I shot directly above the flower looking down and one that I shot looking towards the flower while using a large aperture to blur out both the front and back of the photograph, leaving a petal that was pointing upwards in focus.  The first photograph was taken at f/10, 1/80sec, ISO 400 at 60mm and the second photograph was taken at f/4, 1/1000sec, ISO 400 at 60mm.  I really liked the colour of this flower.  It managed to grab my eye in the parking lot and it equally grabs my eye here as a photograph.

Festival Classica & CHOM Present Classica Rock in Saint-Lambert

With the arrival of June, I think we can say that outdoor Summer concert season has officially begun.  The Festival Classica is an annual classical music and arts festival that takes place in the city of Saint-Lambert that has been taking place for the last few years.  My favourite part of the festival is the Classica Rocks show, which generally takes place on the Saturday night of the festival.  Sponsored by local radio station CHOM 97.7 FM, the show features a choir and full orchestra doing classical versions of classic rock songs.  This year, it was the musical catalogue of Led Zepplin that was getting the classical treatment.  Usually, I would show up really early to get a good spot in order to take my photographs, but the folks in Saint-Lambert like to sit during their concerts so despite showing up only a half-hour before the show, and being about 30 rows of people from the stage, I knew that I'd still be able to get some good shots by using a telephoto lens. There's only so much that you can photograph of an orchestra.  There's no lead singer bouncing around the stage, and most of the musicians are seated.  Mind you, after having said that, there are still almost twenty photographs in this update so I obviously found something to point my camera at.  I tried to focus on the movements of the conductor.  Trying to make sure that his arms were raised or were pointing in some direction in order to show that he was more than just some guy standing with his back to me.  There was one musician who stood out and that was the guitarist.  He stood a few times for a couple of solos, so I wanted to get some good shots oh him playing his instrument.  I also wanted to get some good shots of the drummer.  It's always a challenge to try and get a shot of a drummer with his sticks in the air in such conditions were there isn't much light and shutter speed is at a premium.  Speaking of lights, I wanted to play around with some of the lighting setups that were used.  Again, using different apertures and shutter speeds to play with the light, or get some star effects of the spotlights themselves.  There was one photograph where the spotlight was coming down on the conductor and I couldn't decide if I should crop it as a vertical shot, focusing solely on the conductor, or using the wider shot where lots of the orchestra was visible as well.  So, since it's my blog they're both here as well.  All of that experimenting comes with a cost though.  In this case several hours of going through all of the photographs that I took during the show.  Luckily, I have a very good relationship with my very comfortable couch that helps the hours go by much easier.  It also helps that I really like going through my photographs because looking at a folder full of photographs that need to be looked at could be a little daunting.  The first photograph was taken at f/8, 1/60sec, ISO 1600 at 95mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/8, 1/80sec, ISO 1600 at 95mm.  The third photograph was taken at f/8, 1/250sec, ISO 1600 at 110mm and so was the fourth once since it is just a different crop of the third one.  Here are a few more photographs that I took over the course of the show.

f/8, 1/60sec, ISO 1600 at 155mm

f/8, 1/80sec, ISO 1600 at 200mm

f/8, 1/50sec, ISO 1600 at 85mm

f/8, 1/80sec, ISO 1600 at 88mm

f/6.3, 1/100sec, ISO 1600 at 155mm

f/11, 1/60sec, ISO 1600 at 85mm

f/4, 1/125sec, ISO 1600 at 142mm

f/3.5, 1/320sec, ISO 1600 at 200mm

f3.5, 1/160/sec, ISO 1600 at 200mm

f/3.5, 1/80sec, ISO 1600 at 200mm

f/3.5, 1/320sec, ISO 1600 at 200mm

f/3.5, 1/250sec, ISO 1600 at 200mm

f/3.5, 1/320sec, ISO 1600 at 160mm

f/3.5, 1/200sec, ISO 1600 at 120mm

f/5, 1/160sec, ISO 1600 at 200mm

f/5, 1/125sec, ISO 1600 at 200mm

While I have a general dislike of cellphones, I do appreciate seeing one at a concert because it means I get to take a photograph like the one above.  It was good to see some of the younger members of the crowd get up and dance during the show.  Most of these Saint-Lambert shows are spent with the artists asking a bunch of people sitting on their lawn chairs to get a little more involved in the action.  It was a fun evening with lots of good songs.  Can't wait to find out which group will get the Classica treatment next year.

Prowling Jaguar

One of the cool things about the annual Saint-Lambert Old Car Exhibition is that it allows me to correct some past mistakes.  Before we get into some more photographs I took this year, there were two photographs that I took last year that I had been holding on to.  As previously mentioned, I had a lot of fun last year, but one thing that bothered me was that I had forgotten to take notes so that I could actually name some of the photographs I had taken.  There was one car that I was on the look for, and it was this green Jaguar.  Once again, I actually left home having forgotten to bring a notepad with me and I thought that I was going to once again return home without some information.  It then dawned on me that if I took a photograph of those annoying identification cards that I have so often spoken negatively of, I'd have all of the information that I needed.  As such, I can now tell you that this was a 1968, Model 340 Jaguar.  What really caught my eye was the hood ornament. When I first spotted the car, it was close to noon and the sun was high in the sky.  I was about to leave as when the sun is directly overheard, it's generally the worst time to be taking photographs because of the harsh shadows.  However, for the first photograph, which was taken at f/8, 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 46mm, the sun was in the perfect spot to leave a nice shadow of the jaguar on the hood.  If you use your imagination, it almost looks like a real jaguar, roaming through the plains looking for its next prey.  Maybe that's a lot of imagination, but it's something I have in spades.  I also added a bit of the grill of the car to the bottom of the photograph because I felt that it added a little extra something to the image.  I then took a close-up of the same ornament, taken at f/8, 1/160 sec, ISO 100 at 70mm.  As with most hood ornaments, I really liked the detail in the jaguar and how well it was reflected on the hood.  Lots of fun, and probably lots more safe than tracking a real jaguar.