Hubcap Art

As previously mentioned, I attended the Saint-Lambert Classic Car Exhibition last weekend.  It's a favourite annual event of mine as I love looking at the old classic cars.  I try to go in with a mission every year because photographing the actual cars is a tad bit difficult as they are all parked in tight together, there are lots of people walking around and the put information cards in the windshield.    This year, my mission was to grab a nice hubcap photograph.  Sadly, despite getting there early, they nice hubcaps were unavailable as the cars were parked in a way that I couldn't get back far enough to properly photograph them.  Luckily, this one, which belongs to a Austin Healy 3000 Mark III from 1965, was parked all by itself.  I grabbed a photograph of the whole wheel, taken at f/16, 1/100sec, ISO 100 at 24mm, and then cropped in the hubcap.  Those of you with eagle eyes may notice the reflection of Your Friendly Neighbourhood Photographer in the hubcap.  I kinda like being in there as I add a little bit of colour to the photograph.

Baby Boomer's Band At Saint-Lambert Classic Car Exposition

I know that the first day of Summer officially comes on June 21st, but for me, the beginning of Summer in recent years has been attending the annual Saint-Lambert Classic Car Exhibition.  There aren't many cars to be seen in this update, but photographs were taken and you'll probably see some of them in the next few weeks.  The update today is reserved for the musical entertainment of the day, The Baby Boomer's Band.  This was my first time seeing them in Saint-Lambert, but the band has been in existence since 2002, playing all of the hits from the 1950's 60's and 70's.  A good time period to choose from considering many of the cars that were on display came from that period of time as well.  From a photography standpoint, it was a little difficult to grab some shots as they were playing on an outdoor stage with no backdrop, so there are some buildings and the occasional passerby in some of the shots.  They also had some dancer with them, which added to the show, but they found themselves blocking out my view a few times as well.  As a result, I was moving around a little bit, shooting from different angles through the show.  This ended up being a good thing since it added a bit of variety to some of the shots.  This was my first outdoor show of the Summer, and I once again probably got a little carried away with the shot selection, but I was always told it's better to share, and I have lots of photographs to share.  The first photograph of this set was taken at f/7.1, 1/100sec, ISO 100 at 75mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/7.1, 1/160sec, ISO 100 at 125mm and the third photograph was taken at f/7.1, 1/125sec, ISO 100 at 142mm.  Here are several more photographs that I took during their afternoon performance.

f/7.1, 1/125sec, ISO 100 at 142mm

f/7,1, 1/125sec, ISO 100 at 170mm

f/7.1, 1/160sec, ISO 100 at 200mm

f/7.1, 1/100sec, ISO 100 at 165mm

f/8, 1/80sec, ISO 100 at 155mm

f/8, 1/80sec, ISO 100 at 105mm

f/4, 1/320sec, ISO 100 at 120mm

f/4, 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 200mm

f/4, 1/320sec, ISO 100 at 85mm

f/4, 1/320sec, ISO 100 at 145mm

f/4, 1/640sec, ISO 100 at 145mm

f/4, 1/640sec, ISO 100 at 150mm

f/4, 1/320sec, ISO 100 at 165mm

f/4, 1/400sec, ISO 100 at 150mm

f/4, 1/400sec, ISO 100 at 140mm

f/4, 1/400sec, ISO 100 at 110mm

f/4, 1/400sec, ISO 100 at 155mm

f/4, 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 150mm

f/4, 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 200mm

f/4, 1/320sec, ISO 100 at 70mm

f/4, 1/320sec, ISO 100 at 200mm

As you could see it was very sunny outside, which presented me with a little problem.  I couldn't see the setting on my camera as the light would get in between my eye and the viewfinder, making the numbers impossible to see.  I was shooting in Manual and set a larger aperture and tried adjusting the shutter speeds by trying to find the little lines.  For the most part, it worked out.  The band had to deal with some technical issues as well as there were some sound issues during their noon performance, but they battled through and sent the crowd home happy.  They'll be playing a few more shows over the summer, you can find out where by visiting their website, right here.  If you like some old school rock 'n' roll, you're sure to enjoy their show.

Back On The Air

It's always fun when I get to add another 20 seconds to my 15 minutes of fame.  Thursday night marked the one year anniversary of the illumination of the Jacques Cartier Bridge.  For those of you who may have forgotten, you can see some of the photographs I took then at the following link.  On this occasion, the bridge was going to have a special lighting, though I think I need to mirror the words of My Lovely Assistant when she said that it wasn't very well publicized.  This was very evident when I got to Île Sainte-Hélène and found an empty parking lot, one Radio-Canada van and about four other photographer like myself, out on a chilly Spring evening to grab some photographs.  Afterwards, I figured I'd send it off to CTV Montreal since I've had some success doing so in the past, most recently twice back in January (here and here).  This particular photograph, taken at f/18, 25sec, ISO 100 at 24mm, was taken where I had originally wanted to be last year before I got sent on my way by security.  There were no fireworks on this night, but the moon was nice enough to make a guest appearance to the left of the bridge.  Thanks once again to Lori Graham and CTV Montreal for airing the photograph.

Chick Pea Fries

I'd like to take this moment to nominate My Lovely Assistant for Sainthood.  She found a way to make chick peas tasty.  I may be in the minority here, but when you mention the words 'chick peas', the first thing that comes to mind is a small, slimy thing that doesn't appeal to my ample tummy in any which way.  However, where my nose may have been turned in the past, My Lovely Assistant carries some special stroke around these parts.  So, when she says that she'll be trying a new chick pea recipe, it is law.   In this case, she found a way to appeal to my previously mentioned tummy by turning the dreaded chick pea into a french fry.  To achieve this magical act worthy of Houdini, she ground some chick peas into a flour, which she then turned into a paste.  The paste firmed up as it cooled down and she then cut it into small french fry sized slices.  The were then cooked on a cookie sheet with vegetable oil until they were golden brown.  A small bottle of ketchup and a little splash of mayonnaise for photographic staging purposes, and we have a tasty appetizer.  The first photograph was taken at f/7.1 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 25mm and the second photograph was taken at f/7.1, 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 24mm.  Once again, hats off to My Lovely Assistant.  She turned the dastardly chick pea into something appealing.

Spring Stretch

After the long winter that we had, I'm sure that there were several of you who took advantage of the warmer weather we've had over the last few days to head outside, take a deep breath and soak up the sun.  One of the first signs of warmer times is the annual Saint-Lambert Classic Car show, which is coming up in a few weeks.  I always end up filling up my camera with photographs of the old cars and some of the decorations and hood ornaments that are on them.  This particular ornament, photographed at f/9, 1/200sec, ISO 100 at 59mm, came off of a 1934 Buick Club Sedan.  If you happen to be in the area and would like to know more about the event, you can do so by following this link.  Just make sure you don't get in the way of any of my shots! 😉

Oven Fresh Muffins

My Lovely Assistant has been so productive in the kitchen over the last few months that this photography blog of mine is rapidly turning into a food blog.  I won't be one to complain though, as I often find myself arriving home to wonderful aromas and tasty treats.  Such is the case with these tasty little bran muffins.  I had been using various plates and trays to display My Lovely Assistant's work in the past and was looking for something new.  As I often do, I looked to the internet for inspiration and saw some photographs of muffins bundled together in cloth, so I thought I'd give it a try.  As they came out of the oven, I gently tossed a few onto the cloth which was placed over my white cardboard background, which you can't see because I cropped it out of the final shot, but was still useful in bouncing some light onto the muffins.  I took the photograph at f/9, 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 30mm.  One word of warning, a layer of cloth is not enough to protect the cardboard underneath from warping under the heat and humidity of the muffins.  A lesson learned a little too late to save my background.  Fortunately, cardboard isn't very expensive in today's economy.

The Droids You're Looking For

Yesterday was May the fourth, but time at the day job and a power failure kept me away from the old blog. As we've discussed in the past, the fourth of May has come to be known as Star Wars day based on how similar 'May the fourth', sounds like one of the main lines from the films, 'May the Force be with you.'  To celebrate this year, I brought out two of my oldest toys from years gone by.  C-3PO and R2-D2 hold the distinction of being the only two characters to appear in every one of the Star Wars movies.  This little R2 unit was bought by my Mom after she took us to a matinee showing of both A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back while C-3PO was a Christmas gift a good many decades ago.  They're showing their age as little seven year-old me didn't have the foresight to not play with my toys, otherwise they might be worth a pretty penny today.  The photograph was taken at f/11, 1/250sec, ISO 400 at 43mm with a cardboard background and some flash bounced from off the ceiling.  The colours and stickers may be fading, but the memories of getting them and playing with them are still fresh.  Until next time, May the Force be with you.

A Perfect Drop

It's often been said that April showers bring May flowers, but since April saw more snow than rain this year, the May flowers are a little bit late in blooming.  Luckily, I have a June flower from last year saved up for such an occasion.  This photograph was taken at My Little Brother's home last year when I paid him a visit due to a problematic car battery.  It hadn't rained, but when I mentioned that sometimes flower photograph look a little better with water, he took no time in pulling out the garden hose and giving a little drink to some of his garden flowers.  As luck would have it, this perfect little droplet  remained so I grabbed a quick photograph before it burst.  The photograph was taken at f/6.3, 1/320sec, ISO 400 at 60mm. I focused on the little drop of water and used a small aperture to slightly blur our the background, but not by as much as I usually would because I really liked the colours and patterns of the flower.  Getting this photograph made having a dead car battery feel a little less bad.