Ariane Moffatt at Saint-Lambert en Fête

The music at Saint-Lambert en Fête continued on Friday night after the Foreign Diplomats left the stage.  For a quick look back at those photographs, you can follow this link.  The headliner for Friday night was Ariane Moffatt.  The crowd was into the show right from the beginning, and cheered even more for the singer after she shared the fact that her musical career essentially began in Saint-Lambert, at this very festival though on a much smaller stage, several years before.  Not only did she sing with great voice, but she was also almost a one-woman band, playing the keyboard, guitar and even the drums at different times over the length of the concert.  I enjoyed the performance as well, though my poor old camera was working hard with the low lighting.  It was cranked right up to ISO 1600 for much of the show which resulted in lots of noise in my photographs.  It meant that I wasn't going to be capturing any jump shots like I had during the previous set, but I still managed to freeze the action on stage at various points during the show.  The first photograph in this set was taken at f/2.8, 1/800sec, ISO 1600 at 200mm and the second photograph was taken at f/4.5, 1/80sec, ISO 1600 at 175mm.  Here are several more photographs that I took during the concert.

f/2.8, 1/100sec, ISO 1600 at 142mm

f/2.8, 1/800sec, ISO 1600 at 200mm

f/3.5, 1/640sec, ISO 1600 at 160mm

f/3.5, 1/1600sec, ISO 1600 at 165mm

f/2.8, 1/125sec, ISO 1600 at 160mm

f/3.2, 1/800sec, ISO 1600 at 155mm

f/3.2, 1/1250sec, ISO 1600 at 155mm

f/3.2, 1/500sec, ISO 1600 at 175mm

f/3.2, 1/800sec, ISO 1600 at 142mm

f/3.2, 1/500sec, ISO 1600 at 200mm

That's how Friday night came to an end, as everyone stood and cheered for Ariane before making their way home.  But, there was still more music to come on Saturday.  I'll be back with those photographs over the course of the week.

Foreign Diplomats at Saint-Lambert en Fête

Those of you who live within close distance of me know that the end of August means that Saint-Lambert Days, or Saint-Lambert en Fête as it is now know, is near.  My Lovely Assistant and I have been going for a few years now, and I went often as a youngster with my family before that.  Before, I would mostly hang around the kiosks, looking at all of the deals and local businesses on display.  Now, I mostly hang around the main stage, camera in hand, snapping away the musical groups as they perform.  The first group I got the chance to photograph this year as the Foreign Diplomats.  They're a local group from the Laurentians who are starting grab the ear of more people as they continue to grow as a band.  They've performed at the M for Montreal Festival, the Montreal Internation Jazzfest and this year they hit the big time by landing a spot at the Osheaga Festival.  Saint-Lambert en Fête may not be as big a festival setting as those others, but they still drew a respectable crowd for a Friday night at 7:00PM while most of the people in town were eating.  Thankfully, the crowd wasn't as dense as it would get later in the night, so I was able to move around a little bit and photograph their set from a few different angles.  The band had a great energy about them as they were moving all over the stage and putting on a good show. The first photograph here on the page was taken at f/5.6, 1/60sec, ISO 400 at 125mm and the second photograph was taken at f/4, 1/60sec, ISO 1600 at 110mm.  Here are a few more photographs that I took while they played.

f/5.6, 1/200sec, ISO 400 at 200mm

f/5.6, 1/200sec, ISO 400 at 200mm

f/5, 1/200sec, ISO 400 at 150mm

f/5.6, 1/60sec, ISO 400 at 155mm

f/2.8, 1/160sec, ISO 400 at 125mm

f/3.2, 1/1600sec, ISO 1600 at 200mm

f/3.2, 1/250sec, ISO 1600 at 142mm

f/3.2, 1/640sec, ISO 1600 at 175mm

f/2.8, 1/400sec, ISO 1600 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/200sec, ISO 1600 at 125mm

f/5.6, 1/125sec, ISO 400 at 200mm

Afterwards, the band greeted their fans at a little tent off the main stage.  I managed to get a few of my favourite shots, like some neck whips with the singers hair flying in the air and the drummer with his sticks in the air.  I was really happy to get a jump shot where I captured the singer as he jumped into the air.  I think I went back and checked that photograph out on the back of my camera a few dozen times before the night came to an end.  The Foreign Diplomats still have a few more shows left on their summer tour.  Check out their website to see if they will be playing near you, and then go see them.

Daisy Day 2016

Another August 22nd, another Daisy in tribute.  New visitors to the site may not be aware, but August 22nd is 'Daisy Day', a little photographic memorial to my Grandmother who passed away on this day in 2011.  The daisy was the flower that I most associated with her because we would pick them on the farm together when I was much younger.  She was also a great fan of my photography and I take great joy in taking a nice photograph of a daisy when I see one because doing so reminds me of her.  This particular photograph was taken at f/4, 1/400sec, ISO 400 at 60mm.  As usual, the daisies were growing wild in front of a cement wall.  By using the large aperture, I blurred out the grey cement background, creating a much nicer looking photograph by putting the flower that is at the bottom of the frame in full focus and having everything else behind it nice and soft.  I hope that you like it Grammie.

Gold Medal Dessert

With the 2016 Rio Olympics about to close, I knew that time was running out if I wanted to be clever and add the term 'Gold Medal' to one of my photographs.  I can't think of a better set of photographs to give that title to than this little set of desserts that were created by My Lovely Assistant.  This tasty treat is a Raspberry Tartlet.  The crust is made from a Date based paste and then filled with Raspberry filling.  The whole thing gets put inside the lid of a Mason jar and then put into the fridge to cool.  For decoration, she added a little piece of parsley, a single Blackberry and a candy Raspberry to the final mix.  Me being me, I immediately wanted to take some photographs of the final result.  I patiently waited until later that evening as we had supper with some of the other members of her family.  The kitchen table proved to be the perfect background and in my continued quest to master the flash, I ended up bouncing some light from off of the ceiling onto the desserts to give that little bit of brightness needed to bring out the right colour.  After keeping everyone from eating for long enough, I finally put down the camera and let everyone dig in.  The first photograph was taken at f/4.5, 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 60mm and the second photograph was taken at f/5, 1/160sec, ISO 100 at 60mm.  Here's a third photograph that I took.

f/5, 1/160sec, ISO 100 at 60mm

 

It goes without saying that they were delicious.  I hope that the photographs are just as sweet to your eyes as the real thing was to my tongue.

Needing a Win

The Olympic Games are currently going on, and since it is our female athletes who are grabbing all of the medals and headlines, this seems to be a good time for some more sporting ladies here on the blog.  My friends Grace and Sarah once again asked me to photograph their soccer game this past Sunday.  It was their final regular season game, so I figured I had better show up because their might not be another game to be played afterwards.  Especially with the Curse of the Photographer still hanging over the head of all my sporting friends who invite me to their games. This time I tried to focus more on the game action, rather than the play of my two friends.  The lighting was still terrible, meaning high ISO's, not enough shutter speed and some noise in the photographs, but that was to be expected.  Despite those strikes against me from the beginning, I still managed grab some pretty nice action shots, and some very nice facial reactions.  Lots of action and lots of intensity.  Two things that I like to see in my sports photographs.  The first photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/320sec, ISO 1600 at 100mm and the second photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/320sec, ISO1600 at 145mm.  Get yourself comfortable and grab a bowl of popcorn, here are several more photographs that I took during the game.

f/2.8, 1/200sec, ISO 1600 at 80mm

f/2.8, 1/250sec, ISO 1600 at 142mm

f/2.8, 1/250sec, ISO 1600 at 142mm

f/2.8, 1/200sec, ISO 1600 at 90mm

f/2.8, 1/250sec, ISO 1600 at 125mm

f/2.8, 1/250sec, ISO 1600 at 190mm

f/2.8, 1/200sec, ISO 1600 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/320sec, ISO 1600 at 142mm

f/2.8, 1/400sec, ISO 3200 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/320sec, ISO 1600 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/160sec, ISO 1600 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/200sec, ISO 1600 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/250sec, ISO 1600 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/320sec, ISO 1600 at 88mm

f/2.8, 1/200sec, ISO 1600 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/320sec, ISO 1600 at 160mm

Quite the collection.  Best of all, the girls beat the jinx!  And with style.  I believe the final score was 6-2.  The game was so out of hand that I was told by Grace and Sarah that late in the match, the girls were telling each other to kick the ball in my direction so that they could end up in some of the photographs.  I hope that those who wished to be photographed managed to find themselves in the above pictures.  Good luck in the play-offs ladies, maybe our paths will cross once again.

Flowers & Bees

I'm not really someone who enjoys sitting outside in a pile of dirt, surrounded by flowers in the summer heat.  Yet, put a camera in my hand and add some bees flying around, and I'll suddenly end up in places I wouldn't normally find myself.  Such was the case with these photographs.  While visiting with members of My Lovely Assistant's family, I noticed these flowers in the backyard, and a couple of bees that were flying around them.  I found a little dirt patch in the middle of the wildflowers, sat myself down and began to shoot away, while also shooing away the various other flies and ants that were discovering my legs were a tasty meal.  Despite a couple of stinging experiences in my past, I really enjoy taking photographs of bees.  I enjoy trying to follow them with my lens and trying to anticipate their movements, hoping to get that one shot where you can see their little face, which I believe that I accomplished with the third photograph.  Before getting to number three, I'll show the previous two.  The first photograph was taken at f/4, 1/3200sec, ISO 800 at 200mm.  Here are the other two photographs.

f/8, 1/4000sec, ISO 1600 at 190mm

f/11, 1/640sec, ISO 3200 at 200mm

It was a little late in the afternoon so I needed to use a high ISO in order to give myself a fast enough shutter speed to catch the bee in flight.  I also used a small aperture in order to give myself enough space that would remain in focus between the flower and where I though the bee would be flying.  The photograph doesn't count for much if the bee is not in focus.