Explosive Experimentation

With the delayed Spring we've been having, it has meant that I've spent a little more time than usual going through my archives.  During the fireworks shows in July, I usually post up photographs of all the shows I see.  However, there are sometimes two shows a week.  I end up 'forgetting' about some of the shots that don't make the final cut, or some where I wanted to try something different.  I usually photograph fireworks fairly wide so that I get the full effect of the explosion, but I've often thought about cropping them closer.  In this case, I cropped close on part of the Jacques Cartier Bridge, with the sky full of streaks of light.  It's not as 'classic' a look as my usual fireworks photographs, but I do like how silhouette of the bridge cuts through the light.  The photograph was taken at f/14, 8sec, ISO 100 at 42mm.  It can be fun to change things up.  To see the group of photographs that I originally took of this show, you can follow this link to them.

Drawing On Water

With a couple of free hours, I took a little stroll through the archives this afternoon and came upon this little forgotten photograph.  It's a long exposure shot taken after one of the summer fireworks shows in the city.  I generally stick around for a little bit after the explosions and that's how I got this photograph.  My eye was initially caught by the lights of the Clock Tower and the Molson Brewery reflecting on the water, but I noticed a boat arriving to my left, full of people who had watched the show and were headed back to port.  I wasn't that interested in the boat, but I knew that the lights would leave a nice trace across the water as it passed me by.  The photograph was taken at f/18, 30sec, ISO 100 at 54mm.  I generally come back with several photographs taken after the fireworks end, but they end up forgotten in the archives.  Just another reason why I should dig through there more often.

Banana Muffins

"How do you get to Carnegie Hall?"  That's how the classic joke begins and the punch line can be applied to just about everything.  "Practice, practice, practice."  Since My Lovely Assistant has been bringing home a variety of cookbooks lately, I've been taking advantage of her experiments in the kitchen to practice photographing them.  I came home to find these muffins were just coming out of the oven so I grabbed my camera right away.  I placed a couple of a small placemat with a white background.  For me, it seemed obvious that the banana slice at the top should have been the focus point of the photograph, so I lined a few up and focused on the one nearest my camera.  After taking a few photographs with the placemats, My Lovely Assistant suggested I try something new.  She put the muffins in a cookie tin and I thought I'd give it a shot.  By bouncing the flash off of the ceiling, it ended up reflecting up from the bottom of the tin.  I really liked how it put some light on the bottom of the muffins.  Not only is she a whiz in the kitchen, but she has some good ideas for photographs as well.  The first photograph was taken at f/4, 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 60mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/9, 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 60mm and here is a third.

f/4, 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 60mm

She makes tasty treats and offers up good ideas for photographing them, My Lovely Assistant may be in line for a raise.

In Need Of Colour

It's been a rather grey couple of weeks here as Spring seems to have forgotten it should have already sprung by now.  I'm still not going to complain because I am really not looking forward to the heat that will be coming with the seasonal changes, but I do miss some of the colours of Spring.  Luckily, it only takes a quick trip through my archives to find the much needed dose of colours that are needed.  In this case, colour medication comes in the form of this little Viola that I stumbled upon while visiting my brother last year.  These little wildflowers always have an interesting little pattern and colours.  If you look closely, and use a little imagination, the black streaks coming from the center of the flower kind of look like a spider.  Getting up close with a Macro lens really helps to make those little details pop out.  This photograph was taken at f/11, 1/60sec, ISO 400 at 60mm.  My knees might not always be happy when crawling around photographing these little guys, but I always enjoy looking at the final product.

She Also Makes Muffins

After all of the cookies and cakes that have been posted here lately, I was told that people were putting on weight just looking at my photographs.  Luckily, My Lovely Assistant is able to cook some healthier snacks as well.  These muffins were cooked with an interesting added ingredient.  Tea.  Yes, you read that right, she opened packets of tea and added them to the mix.  Now, I'm just your regular Friendly Neighbourhood Photographer, and this concept kind of surprised me.  However, when she cooks, it allows me to play in the kitchen as well, but with my camera.  I've been trying find different ways to present her creations, and in this case I used a dishcloth which I bunched up in the back and placed a few of the muffins on top of each other and at different angles.  I took the photograph at f/9, 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 30mm and again bounced some flash off the ceiling to get some better light and bring out the texture of the muffins.  She keeps cooking, so I'll keep trying to properly photograph them.

Expert Coconut Smasher

It's WrestleMania Weekend, which means that it's time for me to pull out my box of toys and find a memento from years gone by.  In this case, it is everyone's favourite rowdy Scotsman, Rowdy Roddy Piper.  It seems appropriate to feature Hot Rod this year since one of the big WrestleMania matches features the latest to get the 'Rowdy' label, that being Rowdy Ronda Rousey.  The original has a hard reputation to beat.  From smashing a coconut over the head of Superfly Jimmy Snuka, to headlining the very first WrestleMania, Piper did everything there was to do in a ring, and still found the time to make a name for himself in Hollywood as well.  For the photograph, I placed my figure on a white cardboard, which though beginning to show it's age, still works well as a background.  I tried to find a classic Hot Rod pose to use, bounced some flash off of the ceiling and presto!  The photograph was taken at f/18, 1/200sec, ISO 100 at 32mm.  With that taken care of, it's time to break-up the popcorn and chips, because the show is about to begin.

They Are The Champions

I think I'll just admit right off the bat, I may have been a little bit trigger happy with this game.  Though in my defense, I did end up shooting three intense periods of action, a heart stopping period of overtime and then a stressful shoot-out before Les Félines du Saint-Laurent were finally able to put away Les Rapides de Champlain and win the Midget A Regional Championship.  A victory that will send the team off to Quebec to do battle with other regional champions as they battle for the Dodge Cup.  While I probably wasn't as nervous as any of the players, I was asking myself beforehand if it was a good idea to attend.  I've been to six other games over the course of the past few season, and every time I end up attending, Florence's team always seems to end up on the wrong side of the score.  My overall record of 1-4-1 is not something to be proud of  But, after the letdown of Friday night, I had told Florence that there would be a third game in the series that would enable both of us to put aside our Good Friday Blues and replace them with a proper Easter Sunday Celebration. Les Félines opened the scoring early with a goal just 28 seconds into the match by Maïka Lefrancois.  Anabel Labrecque tied the game seven minutes later and that is the way that the score stayed.  A scoreless second period, led to a scoreless third and a additional overtime period did nothing to change things, except to maybe raise the blood pressure of the several parents, and your friendly neighbourhood photographer.  The only goal scored in the shootout was by Audrey Bisaillon on the first shot and then Florence Bouchard-Maynard closed the door, stopping all three shooters that Les Rapides sent on the ice.  After the final save, sticks, gloves and helmets went flying in all directions as the players piled onto the ice, and onto each other, in celebration.  One thing I'm going to have to learn before next season is to find out to cut down on my photographs.  I don't know how the folks who photograph the pro games feel about only one, or maybe two, of their photographs appearing in the paper.  Sure, the amount of photographs in this update borders on overkill, but all of them show different aspects of the game, and I also couldn't cut the celebration photographs at the end because those are the ones that are full of emotion.  With the fireworks in the summer, I usually try to limit myself to only using a maximum of 10 photographs per update, so that might be a rule that I'll have to start using with hockey as well.  In the meantime, grab yourself another bowl of popcorn and a cold beverage because the slideshow is about to start.  The first photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/1600sec, ISO 3200 at 100mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/2000sec, ISO 3200 at 105mm.  The third photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/2000sec, ISO 3200 at 130mm.  The fourth photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/2000sec, ISO 3200 at 115mm and the fifth photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/2000sec, ISO 3200 at 200mm.  Here are the rest of the photographs that I took during the game and of the celebrations that took place afterwards. 

f/2.8, 1/2000sec, ISO 3200 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/200sec, ISO 3200 at 140mm

f/2.8, 1/2000sec, ISO 3200 at 160mm

f/2.8, 1/2000sec, ISO 3200 at 130mm

f/2.8, 1/2000sec, ISO 3200 at 120mm

f/2.8, 1/2000sec, ISO 3200 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/2000sec, ISO 3200 at 140mm

f/2.8, 1/2000sec, ISO 3200 at 120mm

f/2.8, 1/2000sec, ISO 3200 at 115m

f/2.8, 1/2000sec, ISO 3200 at 135mm

f/2.8, 1/2000sec, ISO 3200 at 135mm

f/2.8, 1/2000sec, ISO 3200 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/2000sec, ISO 3200 at 102mm

f/2.8, 1/2000sec, ISO 3200 at 102mm

f/2.8, 1/2000sec, ISO 3200 at 120mm

f/2.8, 1/2000sec, ISO 3200 at 110mm

f/2.8, 1/2000sec, ISO 3200 at 150mm

f/2.8, 1/1250sec, ISO 3200 at 180mm

f/2.8, 1/1250sec, ISO 3200 at 180mm

f/2.8, 1/1250sec, ISO 3200 at 168mm

f/3.2, 1/1250sec, ISO 3200 at 105mm

f/3.2, 1/1250sec, ISO 3200 at 115mm

f/3.2, 1/1250sec, ISO 3200 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/1250sec, ISO 3200 at 130mm

f/2.8, 1/1250sec, ISO 3200 at 130mm

f/2.8, 1/1250sec, ISO 3200 at 102mm

f/2.8, 1/1250sec, ISO 3200 at 102mm

f/2.8, 1/640sec, ISO 3200 at 135mm

f/5, 1/640sec, ISO 3200 at 102mm

f/2.8, 1/1600sec, ISO 3200 at 102mm

f/2.8, 1/2000sec, ISO 3200 at 115mm

f/2.8, 1/2000sec, ISO 3200 at 100mm

f/2.8, 1/2000sec, ISO 3200 at 95mm

f/2.8, 1/2000sec, ISO 3200 at 95mm

f/2.8, 1/2000sec, ISO 3200 at 90mm

f/2.8, 1/2000sec, ISO 3200 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/2000sec, ISO 3200 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/800sec, ISO 3200 at 70mm

f/2.8, 1/800sec, ISO 3200 at 70mm

f/2.8, 1/800sec, ISO 3200 at 90mm

f/2.8, 1/800sec, ISO 3200 at 175mm

f/2.8, 1/800sec, ISO 3200 at 165mm

f/3.2, 1/400sec, ISO 3200 ate 130mm

After typing all that, it becomes pretty clear that I stayed around f/2.8, 1/2000sec for most of the games.  In the future, I'd probably try to alter those a little bit, but after the Friday night experience, I wanted to make sure that I'd have a fast enough shutter speed to avoid missing the big moments.  Some experimentation is called for, but in the meantime, congratulations to Florence and the rest of Les Félines.  You played a great game and I wish you lots of success at the Dodge Cup.  Hopefully we'll be able to meet again next season.  Now, my batteries, and those in my camera, need a break to recuperate from all of this action.