Sun Sets On 2016

It's hard to believe that another year is coming to an end here at the old blog.  It's usually around this time of year that I sit back and look back at the little column on the right hand side of the page where there is a list of all the updates that I've done over the year.  This year it tells me that there have been 126 updates, soon to be 127.  That would make 2016 the second most productive year here.  That's one heck of a lot of photographs.  Sure, some of them come from my dusty archives, but the majority of those updates were taken in this calendar year.  Which cannot be said for this little group of photographs.  These were taken a few years back, but kept getting bumped down the rotation.  I had prepared them for a 2016 unveiling by putting the watermark on them back in the Spring, but they kind of got lost in the shuffle due to all of the sunset photographs I ended up taking back in November.  The sky isn't quite as red as the other photographs, but what I liked best about this set is the bridge.  In darkened silhouette, especially in the second photograph, the pieces of metal that make up the superstructure really stick out.  The first and second photograph were taken at f/7.1, 1/400sec, ISO 400 at 200mm.  That's because the second photograph was actually cropped out of the first one.  With that, things come to a close.  As I was saying, it was a rather productive year.  Highlights for me would be the many concerts I managed to get my camera into, whether it was welcome or not.  Though I hate the heat, the month of July is always a favourite of mine due to the fireworks.  Though my photographs didn't end up being exposed anywhere this year, I did manage to get two of them onto the television thanks to CTV News.  There was some football, hockey and soccer, to go along with some peaceful insects, flowers and classic cars.  I hope I tempted a few taste buds with the tasty creations baked by My Lovely Assistant, and I reached new highs by taking a photograph from the very top of a jam packed Olympic Stadium.  It's all been a blast and hopefully things will continue in the new year.  One in which I'll be having my third photography exposition.  You'll begin to hear much more about that in the coming weeks as March will be upon us very quickly.  I hope that you've all had a good time here in 2016 and that you'll keep coming back in 2017.  Happy New Year to you all.

Christmas Dessert

The holiday season isn't complete without a peek into the kitchen to see what My Lovely Assistant has been up to.  This year, her dessert of choice was an orange and chocolate yule log. As is the norm, it took me almost as long to photograph it as it took her to make it.  I just wasn't satisfied, but after adding some red candy berries and icing sugar to add a little bit of colour, I finally found an angle that satisfied me, though nowhere near as satisfied as my belly was when it was time to eat!  The photograph was taken at f/11, 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 24mm, with a little flash bounced off of the ceiling for a little added light.  I'd invite you over for a piece, but I'm afraid you'll all have to wait for next year.  Every last tasty piece was quickly devoured.

Not So Silent Night

Well, I have always had the habit of doing things differently than most others.  The 24th of December is usually a night that is spent with family.  Mostly sharing a meal, opening gifts and being with those people who mean the most to us.  That probably properly describes how 95% of you reading this spent your December 24th.  Me?  I was alone in the slush and the snow next to the St. Lawrence River waiting for some fireworks to go off.  After a one year absence, there are once again fireworks in the Old Port, this time sponsored by Natrel, a local milk company.  I ended up missing the first two editions and wouldn't you know it and didn't really want to miss the third.  Only one problem, it was taking place on Christmas Eve. Luckily, My Lovely Assistant gave me the green light to go take some photographs despite her family having a Christmas dinner planned at the same time.  I dropped her off with her family and quickly drove across the river to grab a spot among the snow and slush.  It's a spot that I really like as it gives me a nice view of the fireworks going off over the water, and the buildings of downtown Montreal as well.  This give me the option of cropping my photograph as either a usual 8" x 12" or stretching things out to 12" x 4", or like the photograph at the top of the page, 12" x 5".  Blown up to 24" x 8" or 24" x 10", these make pretty nice photographs, just annoying to find frames for.  This is of course made possible by having a trusty wide-angle lens in your bag of tricks.  The first photograph was taken at f/16, 15sec, ISO 100 at 25mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/16, 10sec IS 100 at 25mm and the third was taken at f/16, 8sec, ISO 100 at 25mm.  Here are a few more photographs that I took while everyone else was looking for Santa Claus.

f/16, 8sec, ISO 100 at 24mm

f/15, 6sec, ISO 100 at 24mm

f/16, 10sec, ISO 100 at 24mm

I quickly packed up my things and made my way to supper.  While I was out there, I was also keeping my eyes open for a bright red sleight and some tiny reindeer.  I'm not sure, but I think I saw them out there.  Hope they visited you.

Merry Christmas To All

It's time to shut things down for a few days as Christmas time is here.  Large gatherings have never been my strong point, and though it's nice to see members of the family, I still manage to sneak away from the pack for a little alone time with some Christmas decorations.  In this case, we're going back in time to a jolly fellow who was created by yours truly way back when I was in elementary school.  Every year since, he has found his way onto the family Christmas tree put up by my parents.  He may not be the most attractive member of the family, but he is always a welcome site come Christmas time.  He may look a little sad, but I swear, he's happy to be hanging in our tree,  I used a large aperture to blur out the other decorations and the lights, and also did two different versions.  One horizontal and the other vertical.  The horizontal shot allowed me to get in some of the golden Christmas decoration into the right hand side of the photograph, while shooting vertically allowed me to get some more of the lights, as well as the reddish decoration you see in the bottom left of the photograph.  Just a couple of ways to get a little more colour and variety into the images.  The first photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/20sec, ISO 1000 at 48mm and the second photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/25sec, ISO 1000 at 51mm.  Those with sharp eyes might even be able to spot me in one of the photographs.  While you're all looking, allow me to wish you all a Merry Christmas.

Christmas Candy

'Tis the season to be jolly, and to eat some appropriately coloured candy! Thus was the case earlier this week when your friendly neighbourhood photographer and his Lovely Assistant raided the snack cupboard.  Inside were some Christmas Holly Berries that I had bought a while back.  For photographic reasons ofcourse.  The bright reds and greens always please the eyes and the white candies had some nice colourful dots on them.  Red, white and green.  Some colours to get you into the moment of the season.  The photograph was taken at f/7.1, 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 60mm.  The best part about photographing candy is that there's always a tasty snack waiting for you when you're done.

Winter Berries

I went out for a walk the other day, hoping to find something in the snow that would grab my interest.  As is usually the case, it was the smallest things I saw that ended up being the most interesting to me.  I found these red winter berries growing next to a school.  There was one that was looking a little bit past date, but the three just behind it had the best looking snow.  In hindsight, I suppose I should have just plucked it off, but it still might make a tasty treat for a hungry bird that might be flying by.  Instead, I chose to use a large aperture and focus on the snow, effectively blurring the offending berry out.  The photograph was taken at f/5.6, 1/160sec, ISO 100 at 70mm.  The red of the berries and the little individual snow crystals resting on top of them really grabbed my eye.

Manoir Sweetsburg

I suppose it might seem a little bit odd that on the day that we have the first big snow storm of the season, I'm posting a photograph that was taken during the Summer months.  What can I say, sometimes I like to go against the grain.  I'm also running out of time to post the photographs that I had already prepared with a 2016 watermark before the year comes to an end, so away we go.  These two photographs are kind of close to me.  That's because my family used to own the house that you're looking at.  This house, located in the city of Cowansville, once belonged to my Great Grandparents.  It is now a very popular bed & breakfast in the area, known as the Manoir Sweetsburg.  I ended up taking a photograph of the building because my parents wanted to offer it as a gift to a cousin who they had stayed with while on vacation a few years back.  I couldn't decide which photograph that I liked more, so they ended up getting both.  The first one, taken at f/9, 1/400sec, ISO 400 at 24mm included a little building at the back that used to be a horse barn and is the one I chose to get blown up for a larger print.  The second photograph, taken at f/9, 1/400sec, ISO 400 at 30mm,  I also included as a tighter cropped 4x6.  A painting of this house used to be on the wall at my Grandparents house and it's a little nice to know that my photograph will hang on the wall of another member of the family.

Highway To Hell

To those of you who have spent morning or afternoon rush hours stuck in traffic on the Jacques Cartier Bridge, that title is probably a little bit more accurate than it should be.  For me, however, it relates more to a little bit of camera magic that makes the surface of the bridge look a little more red hot than 5:30PM on a work day.  In order to get these photographs, I positioned myself so that the rear red lights of the cars would be closer to me as I felt the red would have been washed out by the headlights of the oncoming cars had I decided to reverse my position.  Going up on the bridge during the week was a no-no because I wanted to get some of the blue from the sky in my shot, but that meant taking the photograph around 5:00PM, when all of those moving cars would have been a little less mobile.  To my concern, there was still some traffic that would back up over the metal superstructure of the bridge, but it would let up from time to time, allowing me to get my shots. In the first shot, taken at f/16, 8sec, ISO 100 at 38mm, the traffic was a little more thick.  The brake lights of the cars caused the light streak to be a little more red than in the second shot, which was taken at f/16, 10sec, ISO 100 at 38mm.  I couldn't decide which one I liked more, so you the viewer are the big winner as I decided to put them both up here on the blog.  Sure beats sitting in traffic.

The Countdown Begins

As mentioned here previously, I've got another photography exhibition coming up in 2017.  March 23rd to April 23rd to be exact at the library in Greenfield Park. With that in mind, the first promotional material for mine, and the other talented artists who will have shows in the early months of 2017 are out.  To be specific, it is the Winter 2016 Edition of the Espace Culture, put out by the city of Longueuil. My Lovely Assistant was kind enough to raid some of the neighbours to get me a few extra copies as the hoarder inside of me love to have them on hand.  This will be exhibition number three for me, and it is still a thrill to see my name in print next to one of my photographs.  The countdown has begun.  108 Days to be exact so I guess I had better start getting busy. March will end up getting here rather quickly.

Better Luck Next Year

A few weeks back while discussing my photograph that appeared on CTV News, go ahead and take another look, I mentioned how I was hoping to get one more similar sky so that I could get a similar shot of the Jacques Cartier Bridge.  Well, Mother Nature didn't approve of my plans.  The closest I got to similar conditions is the photograph that you see above. which was taken at f/4.5, 1/25sec, ISO 640 at 200mm.  Yeah, there is still some red in the sky, but nothing like the other photograph.  The sun now sets a little bit to far to the west now so I won't be able to grab another one until next Fall.  See you then.