Fun With Photoshop

As some of you out there on the webs may have read before, I don't consider myself to be a Photoshop specialist.  I usually stick with the bare minimum and rarely stray further than cropping, colour balance, Curves and fixing dust spots.  But, sometimes when I feel a little lazy and don't want to do much of anything around the house, I spend a little extra time with some photographs and try out various different tools and settings.  That's how I came up with the two photographs you see before you here, both of which come from the same original photograph that was taken at f/4, 1/1000sec ISO 100 at 200mm.  The first photograph represents more of what I had in mind when the picture was being taken.  The night before had been a nice red sunset, so I went out and tried to capture it next to one of my favourite subjects, the Montreal Biosphere.  However, that night the sky didn't get as red as I was hoping it would, so I used the Curves tool and to darken the photograph a little and adjusted the colour using Colour Balance.  While I was doing that, I got to playing around the the Curves tool and actually got a nice looking sky by accident, though I ended up liking it just as much as the red one.  So, we get two versions of the same photograph.  In some simpler terms for those of you who are as fiscally aware as I, you get two for the price of one.  What a bargain!

Raffy At Fondation Véro et Louis In Longueuil

With the summer season coming to an end, that means that free outdoor concerts are going to begin to be few and far between.  That's why despite the over 30C heat, near 40C when you factor in the humidity, my camera and I found ourselves at the Esplande Charles-LeMoyne to photograph the group Raffy.  They were there to help keep the crowd on hand entertained while they waited to enter a tent full of all kinds of donated albums from several local Québec celebrities as part of a Vente de Garage des Artistes, or Celebrity Garage Sale.  The proceeds of everything sold would go to the Fondation Véro et Louis, a fondation created by arguably Québec's most popular power couple Véronique Cloutier and her husband Louis Morissette.  The foundation's mission to raise money to help support adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder, which affects one in every 42 boys, and 1 in every 189 girls.  As for Raffy, they are a group that formed in the late 2000's, beginning first as mostly a cover band, but have a couple albums of original songs as well, the most recent being Libérer L'Animal which was released last year.  They played two sets on this sweltering afternoon, though I was only present for the second one.  It still allowed me to snap off several photographs as the band kept the crowd entertained.  The crowd really grew a few songs into the set when they were joined on set by Véronique and Louis' son, Justin, who sang a pretty rocking version of the song Footloose.  Though I did find it sad that most of the crowd didn't stick around for the rest of the set as the band was more than deserving of some added attention.  The first photograph was taken f/5.6, 1/1000sec, ISO 400 at 70mm and the second photograph was taken at f/6.3, 1/500sec, ISO 400 at 200mm.  Here are several more photographs that I took of the performance.

f/4.5, 1/1600sec, ISO 400 at 155mm

f/6.3, 1/320sec, ISO 400 at 168mm

f/5.6, 1/500sec, ISO 400 at 200mm

f/4.5, 1/1250sec, ISO 400 at 135mm

f/4.5, 1/1250sec, ISO 400 at 130mm

f/4.5, 1/1600sec, ISO 400 at 175mm

f/4.5, 1/1250sec, ISO 400 at 200mm

f/6.3, 1/640sec, ISO 400 at 200mm

f/6.3, 1/640sec, ISO 400 at 200mm

f/5, 1/500sec, ISO 400 at 165mm

f/5, 1/800sec, ISO 400 at 200mm

f/5, 1/800sec, ISO 400 at 120mm

f/5.6, 1/800sec, ISO 400 at 115mm

f/5.6, 1/800sec, ISO 400 at 200mm

f/7.1, 1/800sec, ISO 400 at 182mm

Shooting in the sunlight provided some difficulties with shadows creeping in, but I managed to play around with them and came away with some interesting shots.  Capturing the younger, leaping Morissette was a nice highlight, as were the couple of shots where I managed to time the spotlights to create some cool effects shots.  If this was the end of my concert season, it was a fun one to go out on.

Hoppy Returns

All of these new photographs are fine and dandy, but this has been a bad year for those older photographs that are continuing to collect dust on my hard drive.  Though I decided to title this photo set "Hoppy Returns", he actually returned back in 2014 after one of his cousins made an appearance here on the blog back in the summer of 2013.  Other photographs get taken, seasons pass and then next thing you know, three years have passed in the flash of an eye.  I get that feeling a lot lately, but the recent butterfly update reminded me of these little grasshopper photographs that have been sitting around patiently, waiting to be shared with everyone.  I sometimes worry about my memory, but photographs like these put that worry at ease since I'm still able to remember the story behind the shots.  This particular 'hopper was dangerously close to some spiderwebs when I found him, with an eight-legged creepy-crawly watching nearby and probably looking forward to a big snack.  I couldn't let that happen so I grabbed a broom that My Lovely Assistant keeps outside and brushed away the webs, clearing the path for Hoppy to roam free.  I then asked the little guy if he wouldn't mind posing for a few photographs.  Yes, I talk to bugs.  Maybe memory loss isn't the head condition I should really be worrying about after all.  Psychological assessment aside, Hoppy obliged by stretching out along the wall, and resting on the walkway before giving one last glance backwards before taking off, as if to say, "You got all of the shots you need?"  Yes, I do have a healthy imagination, thank-you for asking.  The first photograph was taken at f/4, 1/60sec, ISO 400 at 60mm and the second photograph was taken at f/6.3, 1/100sec, ISO 100 at 60mm.  Here are a few more of the photographs that I took while Hoppy was around.

f/6.3, 1/60sec, ISO 100 at 60mm

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

See, I wasn't making it up.  In that last photograph you can see that Hoppy has his head turned back towards me.  Seconds later I gave him the 'thumbs up' and away he went.  Hoppy began his career as an insect model, I got some nice photographs and everyone was happy.  Well, everyone except for that spider who lost his snack, but I'm sure he ended up okay.

Butterfly Invasion

Over here in my neck of the world, we have been experiencing an insect invasion over the past week.  Now, my opinion on this invasion may be a little bit different had it been spiders, ants or mosquitoes, but luckily that insect that has been taking over is the butterfly.  The Painted Lady Butterfly to be more specific.  This little winged creatures have been all over the place of late, and last week I had one visit our from yard.  It seems that they are visiting in greater numbers than usual due to some stronger than normal winds that have been pushing them down to our level during what would be their usual migration down to a warmer Southern climate for Winter.  Garnering some strange looks from My Lovely Assistant, and possibly a couple of neighbours as well, I ended up laying face down on the lawn so that I could get some nice close-up shots of this particular little visitor while snacking on some of the wild flowers that were growing in the grass.  The first photograph was taken at f/6.3, 1/1250sec, ISO 400 at 200mm and here are a few more photographs I took.

f/6.3, 1/16000sec, ISO 400 at 200mm

f/6.3, 1/1250sec, ISO 400 at 200mm

There are still several of them flying around out there at the moment, but they won't be around for much longer.  Or, with the mid-July temperatures we are currently experiencing, maybe they just might decide that they like it here after all.

A Day At The Races

This past Sunday, My Lovely Assistant and I got out our bikes and headed out to the Olympic Basin to watch a Dragon Boat competition.  I've enjoyed watching the Dragon Boat races for several year now, so I brought along my camera to take a few photographs of the event.  Sadly, I don't think that these were my best photographs as I placed myself on the wrong side of the basin and had the sun between the racers and I, so the best views I had were of the back of people's heads.  I still got a couple of nice shots of the action, but I think the one big thing that I'm missing is some nice shots of the paddlers and how much they were forcing themselves to do the best that they could.  It may not have been one of my best successes, but at least I managed to learn something from it.  The first photograph was taken at f/8, 1/640sec, ISO 100 at 170mm.  Here are a few more photographs that I took.

f/8, 1/640sec, ISO 100 at 150mm

f/7.1, 1/640sec, ISO 100 at 300mm

f/7.1, 1/640sec, ISO 100 at 135mm

I took some photographs of this event last year as well, though they never made their way to the blog.  Maybe I'll dig those out and give them a look so I can better prepare should I find myself near the water again next year.

Sunset Season

We're already half way through September and as the seasons change from Summer to Fall, I have a front row seat for some great sunsets.  The sky has already begun to turn a nice red in the evenings and I'm more than ready to take advantage.  This first photograph, taken at f/16, 1/100sec, ISO 100 at 70mm, was taken a little bit late in the sunset as I was actually out to photograph something else.  That photograph should find it's way to these pages sometime in the next decade.  I still caught the last of the red sky, set against the silhouette of the the Montreal skyline.  Always a nice sight for the eyes.  Get outside and shoot those sunsets while you can.  Happy hunting.

I Walk The Line

This one gets filed under the category of things that catch my eye.  I was on a nature walk with My Lovely Assistant on the Boucherville Islands a few weeks back and we came upon this wood cable bridge along one of the walking paths.  I took a few photographs of the bridge, but what really grabbed my attention was the steel cables that were keeping the bridge up.  When a couple of cyclists passed by, I ended up pressing myself against the railing and got a nice close look at the cables.  I really liked how there seemed to be one streak of red wires wrapped into the usual silver .  The aged wood with all of the little lines and cracks was interesting as well.  So, out went the classic shot of a bridge on a summer day, and in went the less than classic photograph of some steel and wood because the guy behind the camera found it more interesting.  Luckily, the guy behind the camera is also the guy behind the keyboard so that's how the photographs he likes end up on the blog.  This photograph was taken at f/4, 1/640sec, ISO 100 at 64mm.  Always keep your eyes open, you never know what you might see.

Everybody Wants Something

Every year near the end of summer, my place gets invaded by a bunch of Ladybugs.  Where they came from, where they're going, I have no idea.  The only thing I know is that I'll either step outside or arrive home from the day job and find that they are all over the outside walls of where I live.  It's almost that time of the year again, so I had best put up these photographs that I took of their visit last year.  Usually, these little bugs are always more than happy to pose for me, but this year they wanted nothing to do with my camera.  In order to get a photograph, I needed to offer something up myself.  That thing ended up being some icing sugar.  I sprinkled a little bit of icing sugar on the wooden railing outside of where I live and waited for my little friends to arrive.  Except they didn't.  I had to transport this one on my finger to where I had put the sugar.  Initially, the ladybug wanted nothing to do with my sugary snack, but after finally getting one taste, it came down with a case of white line fever.  I suppose that as far as modeling fees go, a little bit of white sugar is a small price to pay.  As an added bonus, a very light rain started to fall which resulted in the nice water bubbles that you see on the back of the ladybug.  The first photograph was taken at f/8, 1/60sec, ISO 1000 at 60mm and the second photograph was taken at f/11, 1/60sec, ISO 1000 at 60mm and the third photograph was taken at f/11, 1/80sec, ISO 1000 at 60mm.  The second photograph in this series is one of the few remaining that was actually featured in my photography exhibition back in March.  Was it really so long ago?  Time flies.  These photographs are also a nice success story for my use of flash.  I directed the light of the flash onto the ladybug using the little reflective card that is attached to my Speedlite.  Reflecting the light gives a softer look to the photograph and also gives much less harsh shadows.  More importantly, it lessens the force of the flash as I was afraid the light would chase my model away.  Now I'll just wait and see if I end up getting any more little visitors later this year.