Not Ready For Opening Day

Back in my younger years, the end of March meant that soon the snow would be melting away.  Though it also meant that summer heat was just around the corner, it also meant that soon the fields would be nice and green.  Soon there would be the sweet sounds of a baseball meeting a leather glove, or the crack of the bat when it would rip into an oncoming pitch.  This year the local youngsters might have to wait a little bit longer to experience those beautiful sounds as the big snow storm from last weekend has left one of the last local ballparks of my youth covered under a sticky layer of snow.  While this may be bad news for the ball players, it was kind of good news for me, because I think the conditions made for some nice photographs.  I tried to line up my photographs using the fences of the park as my leading lines.  Either looking down the line towards home plate, or following the curve of the outfield walls I feel that I was able to use those fences to lead your eyes towards other things in those photographs, and most of them are covered in snow.  I also did a little extra Photoshopping with these photographs, adding a little extra contrast to the photographs which brought out more of the green from the fences, giving a little more colour to the photographs.  A little bit of fun experimentation.  The first photograph was taken at f/9, 1/160sec, ISO 100 at 62mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/9, 1/160sec, ISO 100 at 32mm and here's a third photograph to complete the set.

f/16, 1/40sec, ISO 100 at 70mm

So, since you might not be able to play any baseball this weekend, how's about heading over to the library in Greenfield Park?  I hear that they've got a photography exhibition under way.

Peaceful Easy Feeling

Phew!  That was quite the bit of self-promotion that we've experience over the last little while.  Those out there who know me are already well aware that I am not a man of many words.  I'm the person who prefers to lay back in the corner, and has no problem not being the star of the party.  For someone like me to be placed front and center, putting on a display of my photographs and then meeting and speaking with lots of people is difficult.  Don't get me wrong.  I had a great time, enjoyed every second of it and deep down and can't wait to do it again.  But, it is still difficult.  That's why it was good to get out early this morning, walk in the snow and get back to a little peace and quiet.  There was a wet and sticky snow storm here last night, and the snow was still sticking to the trees this morning.  My Lovely Assistant had to leave for her 'day job', so I took advantage of the opportunity to put on my boots and go take a quiet walk in the snow.  Some quality alone time.  A chance to not only recollect my thoughts, but to go out and snap some photographs as well.  Such as the two that you see here today.  The first shot, taken at f/9, 1/100sec, ISO 100 at 28mm, had me glad that I was wearing my boots as I was in snow up to my ankles in order to get it.  The second photograph, taken at f/10, 1/100sec, ISO 100 at 24mm, is one of my favourites on the day because I really liked having the colours of the swing stand out against the snow covered branches in the background.  It was a good little walk.  Now, a little more self-promotion before I go.  Don't forget that my photographs still remain on display until April 23rd at the Greenfield Park Library.

Thank You Very Much - Merci Beaucoup

Thank you to everybody who came to my vernissage last night and to those who bought some of my works. Your presence and kind words were very much appreciated.

Don't forget, my photographs will remain on display until April 23rd for those who haven't had the chance to see them, and for those who wish to see them again.  The library is located at 225 Empire in Greenfield Park and the opening hours can be seen on the poster.

---

Merci à tous ceux qui sont venus à mon vernissage et qui m’ont encouragé en vous procurant certaines de mes œuvres. Votre présence a été fort appréciée.

N’oubliez pas que vous avez jusqu’au 23 avril pour voir ou revoir mes photographies.  La bibliothèque est située au 255, rue Empire à Greenfield Park et les heures d'ouverture peuvent être trouvées sur l'affiche.

 ---

Here are a few photographs taken last night by either myself or My Lovely Assistant.  Neither of us took very many as we didn't want to disturb anybody.  Thanks once again to everyone who attended. 

 ---

Voici quelques photos prises hier soir par My Lovely Assistant et par moi. On n'a pas pris un très grand nombre de photos parce que nous ne voulions pas déranger personne. Merci encore à tous ceux qui y ont participé.

 See you all again at the next one!  -  J'espère vous revoir tous prochainement!

Here's Your Invitation

At this point, I guess that there isn't very much more left to say.  The photographs are hanging, the tasty treats that My Lovely Assistant has cooked up are baking and my nerves are starting to kick in.  If you've enjoyed the photographs that you've seen on this page, I hope you'll take the time to come and visit my exhibition.  The photos printed here on the page are presented with a rather low resolution and they look so much better blown up and on real photo paper.  It's physically impossible to get an invitation out to everyone, so if you can read this message, consider it to be your personal invitation.  Feel free to stop by the library any time tonight between 5:00 and 8:00PM, or anytime between now and April 23rd.  I hope to see some of you there.

The Other Hard Part

The months, weeks and days have slowly slipped away and our countdown can now pretty much be displayed in hours and minutes.  Of course, this countdown that I'm talking about leads us to my photography exhibition, Point of View.  It takes place once again at the Greenfield Park Library which is located at 225 Empire in Greenfield Park.  The other 'hard part' that I discussed last time has been taken care of.  That being the part where I hang all of the photographs in the library.  Thankfully, I had the helping hand of My Lovely Assistant who is far more graceful on a ladder than I will ever be.  As of now, 25 of my photographs are hanging in different parts of the library, just waiting to be viewed.  The best time to view those photographs would be Thursday night, the 23rd of March.  It's almost time.

The Hard Part

Three more days!  That's all that remains between now and the beginning of my latest photography exhibition, Point Of View.  For those of you who don't remember, it takes place at the Greenfield Park Library, which can be found at 225 Empire, in the city of Greenfield Park.  Generally, the whole process leading up the even is fun and games, and of course the night of the vernissage is a party to celebrate a job well done, but there are two big jobs that need to be taken care of before we get there.  One of those jobs is the framing of the photographs.  In the words of Charlie Brown when he tries to kick the football, "Arrgghh!"  Framing a photograph or two is no big deal, but when you have 25 photographs that need to be framed, well, it turns into an all-afternoon affair.  After a few hours of Windex, dust, wood and glass, all 25 were framed and put into boxes, waiting for the ride to the library.  Now that the first big job has been taken care of, it means there's one more big one that will need to be taken care of.  I'll get back to you all when that project has been completed.

Inside Chez Paul

Those of you who were here a little earlier this week may remember out quick little visit to Chez Paul.  For those who don't, a good friend of mine put together a little fundraiser to help people dealing with Aphasia.  She put together a little theater show in the form of a cabaret. The fictional location for this was the Pub Chez Paul.  It was a musical show with lots of songs, both current and old, and I was given the fun job of photographing it all.  Unlike previous theater shows I've photographed, I wasn't able to show up for a dress rehearsal shoot where I could stand right in front of the stage and shoot away.  Instead, I was shooting from the crowd.  In the wings of the stands and also at the very back of the room at the very top of the seating area.  I'll admit, there were several times that I wished I could have just jumped in front of everyone in order to get a shot with some nice spotlight effects, but the limited shooting locations also offered me a different challenge.  Trying to get some nice shots, all while not being a distraction for those who were watching the show.  The lack of certain shots was made up for by the fact that afterwards I was told that I hadn't been noticed at all during the show.  I suppose I can take some of the credit by having limited my movements, but I think that also had a lot to do with the quality of the show that was taking place up on the stage.  While putting together a CD of photographs from the show, I decided to try making a few of them black and white.  I thought that doing so would add an old time pub feel to the images.  I was happy with the way that they turned out.  There are lots of photographs here to look at, so we might as well get started.  The first photograph was taken at f/5, 1/60sec, ISO 3200 at 135mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/50sec, ISO 3200 at 70mm and the third photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/500sec, ISO 3200 at 70mm.  Here are several more photographs that I took during the show.

f/3.5, 1/200sec, ISO 3200 at 70mm

f/4.5, 1/80sec, ISO 3200 at 200mm

f/4.5, 1/50sec, ISO 3200 at 115mm

f/5.6, 1/60sec, ISO 3200 at 135mm

f/5, 1/100sec, ISO 3200 at 27mm

f/2.8, 1/160sec, ISO 3200 at 62mm

f/2.8, 1/250sec, ISO 3200 at 43mm

f/3.5, 1/80sec, ISO 3200 at 40mm

f/2.8, 1/125sec, ISO 3200 at 180mm

f/4.5, 1/160sec, ISO 3200 at 140mm

 

f/4, 1/100sec, ISO 3200 at 142mm

 

I was juggling between two lenses over the course of the show.  Alternating between a 70-200mm telephoto lens for the shots from the back for the room and a 24-70 wide-angle lens when I was getting as close as I could.  Now I know why the pros usually shoot these shows with two camera bodies.  With the low light, I was also trying to time the movements of the dancers.  Watching the first part of the songs so I could time the breaks and then shooting when the chorus and dance moves would be repeated.  It was a great photographic exercise, and more importantly, it was great fun for a great cause.

One Week Away

We're only one week away!  The vernissage takes place next Thursday from 5:00PM to 8:00PM at the Greenfield Park Library, which can be found at 225 Empire, in Greenfield Park.  Head over to the Eric Mahannah Photography Facebook Page for more information. Make sure not to miss what will surely be the social event of the season! 😀

Smiling Snow Cone

Winter in my part of the World can be kind of deceptive.  Just when you think it's over, it has this habit of sneaking right back up and giving us a good smack.  Such was the case today.  A forecast of 15-30cm's of snow and high winds was in the middle of coming true this afternoon.  So, what did I do?  I decided to go out for a walk.  Truth be told, it wasn't a very long walk as I knew exactly where I wanted to go.  Just down the street from where I live, I had spotted a traffic cone that someone had spray painted a happy face on.  I had been trying to think of a fun way to photograph the thing, and what could be more needed during a blizzard than a happy face.  I shot the photograph at f/4, 1/2500sec, ISO 400 art 24mm.  I needed to use a high speed in order to catch some of the falling snow, and as you can see, there was quite a lot to be seen.

A Glimpse Of Chez Paul

I've spent the last little while pretty much focused on my photography exhibition, but when one receives an offer that they can't refuse, some scheduled things end up getting thrown out the window.  Such was the case this past week when my friend Jasmine asked me if I would be interested in photographing a benefit show she had produced to help raise money for research into aphasia.  It's a disease that is very personal to her as it has struck her father.  This year, she has put together a full cabaret style theater show and it was terrific entertainment.  I wasn't exactly sure what I would be shooting when I accepted to lend a hand, and ended up being a little bit nervous when the full scope of the show was explained to me, but sometimes it's best to jump into the deep end if you want to learn how to swim.  However, I now find myself drowning in photographs as my trigger happy shooting method has left me with a incredibly large amount of photographs to sift through.  At least editing all of these photographs will keep me out of trouble for the near future.  I prepared two rather quickly so I could send them off to Jasmine so she could see I was doing some work, and I figured I'd share them with all of you out there as well.  The first photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/40sec, ISO 3200 at 70mm and the second photograph was taken at  f/3.5, 1/100sec, ISO 3200 at 110mm.  I'll post a few more up here when I finish everything up.

Dust In The Wind

We're getting near the end of the 2016 watermarked photographs.  This little batch was created during a dull afternoon when I tried to save a photograph that I had taken. I had made the mistake of heading out to shoot some photographs of the Jacques Cartier Bridge without cleaning my camera first.  The result was a bunch of photographs that were covered with dust spots.  Frustrated, I decided to play around in Photoshop, trying to see if I could save the images and maybe create something with them.  I figured that it's a good time to finally put these photographs up on the blog since the bridge is currently going through a bit of a make-over as lights are being installed on the outside of the structure.  You can see many of the dust spots in the first photograph that is presented at the top of the page. I had begun to try and get rid of them using the Clone Stamp too in Photoshop, but there was just so many of them, and in many inopportune places.  So, I began to play around with several of the different textures and filters that the program offers.  The end result was the second photograph that you see on the page.  It kind of ended up looking like a painting.  That's a good thing since I would never be able to draw or actually paint that thing myself.  The third image looks a little bit more like a photograph than the second one.  I managed to get rid of the dust spots from that one by using the Curves tool and also also playing around with the colours.  I ended up losing some of the sky in the upper left-hand corner, but preserved lots of the red of the setting sun while still keeping some of the blue on the top right.  All three of these images came from the same original photograph, which was taken at f/7.1, 1/60sec, ISO 100 at 40mm.  I'm still ages away from being proficient with all of the options that Photoshop has to offer, but it's nice to be able to do a little bit of tweaking here and there in order to save a photograph and make something out of what I had previously considered to be a lost cause.

Gaspé In The Morning

While things may be progressing ahead of schedule when it has to do with my photography exhibition, I am still dreadfully behind schedule when it comes to clearing out the hard drive.  Since I have not been doing much shooting over the last little while due to getting things ready for the show, this is the opportune time to pull some older photos out.  Such is the case with this series.  Those of you with sharp eyes may notice that they have been watermarked 2016 as I had planned to posting these last year, but time ended up getting in the way.  These photographs were taken a couple of years ago when My Lovely Assistant and I spent a week in Gaspé for our summer vacation.  I wanted to visit the Percé Rock, a very well known local landmark that draws thousands of toursist every year, present company included.  I wanted to get some photographs of the sun coming up next to the rock, so I woke up early one morning, headed down to the beach and began shooting.  Upon returning to the hotel, I was spotted by the manager who let me know that in early August, the sun rises right through the hole in the rock.  Maybe we will have to return to see that one day.  The first photograph was taken at f/16, 1/60sec, ISO 100 at 24mm and the second photograph was taken at f/16, 1/50sec, ISO 100 at 24mm.  Here are some photographs from the rest of the sunrise.

f/16, 1/30sec, ISO 100 at 24mm

f/16, 1/60sec, ISO 100 at 24mm

f/16, 1/20sec, ISO 100 at 24mm

f/16, 1/50sec, ISO 100 at 24mm

At first, I was a little worried about the line of clouds that were hanging around over the rock, but as the sun rose, it made a nice demarcation line of blue sky above, and orange sky below.  The reflection of the sun in the ripples of the water was also something that caught my eye.  Then it was quickly back to bed.  After all, what the heck was I doing awake so early in the morning...I was on vacation for crying out loud!

Everyone Is Invited

Time is doing that old trick of going by really fast.  In the blink of an eye, it's already the 1st of March.  That means that in another blink of an eye it will be March 23rd and my photography exhibition will be taking place.  I was given a little invitation slip that I could give to people, to invite them to my vernissage and the exhibition.  This being the digital age, I figured I'd extend the invitation to all of you out there.  I understand that some of you reading this may be a great distance away, but should you be within a short distance of the Greenfield Park Library from March 23rd to April 23rd, feel free to drop in and take a look at my photographs.  Same goes for the vernissage which will take place the evening of March 23rd.  I hope to see some of you there.