Itty Bitty Butterfly

Here's a little friend who almost got lost in the rush of August updates.  While walking back to the car after watching the Preville Big Band at Saint-Lambert en Fête (you can see the photographs by following this link), this little guy began flying around me in an obvious attempt to grab my attention.  Or it was just continuing its daily life of being an insect.  Of those two choices, I prefer the first.  My little friend was rather small, and I wasn't carrying a Macro lens with me, but he was such a nice colour of blue that I figured I should at least try to grab a photograph.  He landed on a little flower in the grass so I pulled out my the telephoto lens that I had with me, laid down on the sidewalk and shot away.  I grabbed this one at f/4, 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 70mm and I must admit that I did a little bit of tweaking in Photoshop to bring out the colour a little more.  I tried to get a photograph from the front, but he wasn't willing to smile for the camera.  Still, I think the wings were pretty magnificent so maybe he just wanted to show off his brighter side.

Round The Clock At Fondation Véro Et Louis

Though Summer has come to and end, which is news that is always met with a Homer Simpson-esque 'Whoo-hoo!' in these parts, it is also met with a degree of sadness as it means that the outdoor concert season has passed as well.  The quest for outside tunes took me to Place Charles-Lemoyne where the annual Vente de garage des artistes organized by the Fondation Véro et Louis was taking place.  The foundation raises money to help young adults with autism by providing a secure and stimulating living environment.  They've raised enough money to construct home in Varennes and this is their big annual fundraising event.  There is also a musical act that is on hand to keep the masses entertained and this year that job went to the band Round The Clock. They're a band that specializes in classic rock songs from the 1960's to the 80's and they had a nice crowd on hand to watch them belt out some tunes. They played four short sets during the day.  I only arrived in time for their third performance, which is probably for the best since I had taken way more photographs that I had planned during that short 30 minute period.  I guess I was trying to compensate for the fact that this would probably be the last show I get to photograph until next year.  I was also able to move around the front and side of the stage thanks to the way that the seating/rest area was set up, so that probably upped my photograph total as well since I had so many more angles to shoot from than usual.  I still stuck around for the fourth set because I remembered that the kids of the foundation usually get up on stage to perform a song before the show ends, and they did so again this year, singing a high energy version of the song Footloose.  I didn't take many more photographs during that set as the sun had moved into a spot that left the bottom half of the stage bathed in sunlight, but the rest in shadows.  I guess it was a good thing that I went a little shutter crazy during the previous set after all.  The first photograph was taken at f/4, 1/250sec, ISO100 at 75mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 150mm and the third photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 145mm.  Here are several more photographs that I took during the performance.

f/2.8, 1/200sec, ISO 100 at 70mm

f/2.8, 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 70mm

f/2.8, 1/400sec, ISO 100 at 200mm

f/6.3, 1/250sec, ISO 400 at 200mm

f/4, 1/800sec, ISO 400 at 155mm

f/4, 1/640sec, ISO 400 at 142mm

f/4, 1/400sec, ISO 400 at 145mm

f/4, 1/400sec, ISO 400 at 160mm

f/4 1/400sec, ISO 400 at 70mm

f/4, 1/400sec, ISO 400 at 115mm

f/4, 1/400sec, ISO 400 at 95mm

f/4, 1/400sec, ISO 400 at 95mm

f/4, 1/400sec, ISO 400 at 105mm

f/4, 1/400sec, ISO 100 at 130mm

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

f/4, 1/500sec, ISO 100 at 100mm

f/4, 1/640sec, ISO 100 at 80mm

f/4, 1/400sec, ISO 100 at 160mm

f/4, 1/800sec, ISO 100 at 200mm

Bon Jovi, the Rolling Stones and AC/DC, the Round The Clock band were true to their word and entertained all with their classic rock interpretations.  They were in fine form for a band that admitted a few times on stage that they were much more used to singing at night.  As for the foundation, a final amount wasn't able to be announced as the afternoon came to an end, but early estimates had the donations being over $100,000.  A good cause, and a good time had by all.

A Celebration Of Lights

I guess that 100 is a number worth celebrating, and what better way to celebrate than with a light show.  It has been a busy year so far on the blog, especially since I had originally intended on cutting back a little bit on the photographs this year.  However, those of you who have been paying attention are aware that June, July and August ended up being rather busy for your Friendly Neighbourhood Photographer.  Fireworks, concerts, trips and a variety of things that either popped out of the archives or caught my eye resulted in 50 updates here over the last three months.  Speaking of the archives, these are some shots that I took a few years ago at a Canada Day party in Greenfield Park.  I was there because I wanted to take some photographs of the musical acts.  Feel free to go back in time and check out the photographs of Patrick Lehman and Kevin Bazinet by following the links.  In between the two acts was a fireworks display, but I didn't want to lose my spot for the concerts so I didn't have a clear view to shoot the fireworks.  I decided to point my camera at the explosions in the sky, used a remote trigger to keep the lens open for various lengths of time and shook it around in different directions while also randomly zooming in and out.  The result is a bunch of pretty cool looking light streaks which are always fun to look at.  The first photograph was taken at f/25, 20sec, ISO 100 at various lengths and the second photograph was taken at f/18, 30sec, ISO 100 at various lengths.  Since three is the magic number, here's a third photograph to close things out.

f/18, 15sec, ISO 100 at various lengths

I had originally prepared these photographs, two years later, as a back-up in case one of the summer fireworks shows got rained out.  Rather than stick them back in the archives, I felt that a light show would be appropriate for the 100th update of the year.  Stick around, there are sure to be a few more before the year comes to an end.

St. Bruno Bug

It's odd how things can cause a different reaction when the situation is different.  In my house, this bug would have probably been either shooed quickly outside or have had a very traumatic meeting with a shoe.  However, sitting peacefully on a post in St. Bruno and I seem to appreciate its shape and colour a little more.  While My Lovely Assistant and I were trying to figure out a detour on our little trek the other day, we stopped by a map of the park.  However, rather than look at the map, my attention was instantly grabbed by this little guy who was just hanging out on the post.  I took the photograph at f/2.8, 1/60sec, ISO 100 at 200mm.  Yes, I was surrounded by all kinds of beautiful scenery and the think I wanted to take a photograph of was bug.  But, you have to admit, he is a pretty good looking bug.

Licking The Heat

It is September 15th and for some reason I am sitting in front of my computer and sweating.  To find me in front of the computer is nothing out of the ordinary, but why is it still so freakin' hot right now?  As I type, it is pushing 40 degrees Celcius again with the humidity.  It hasn't been the best Summer for someone who hates the heat, and it has been made worse by the fact that my A/C decided to die as well.  Luckily, there has been a wide variety of cool treats on hand at all times, and My Lovely Assistant has helped with some creations, such as these homemade watermelon popsicles.  As is usually the case, I view her creations as a chance to practice the old photography skills.  However, you can't really spend lots of time taking pictures of frozen treats when the weather is in the 30's.  I looked online to find some examples of popsicle photographs and noticed one where they were displayed on a plate full of ice cubes.  This seemed liked a good idea to me, so I decided to give it a shot.  As an added precaution, I even put the plate I was going to use in the freezer for a little bit as well to try and give the popsicles a greater chance of survival.  Well, survival up to the point where they would be eaten that is.  We didn't have any extra pieces of watermelon hanging around, so My Lovely Assistant suggested maybe putting some raspberries as a replacement fruit, so I went for it and away we went.  The first photograph was taken at f/5, 1/60sec, ISO 100 at 24mm and the second photograph was taken at f/5, 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 57mm.  Both were also taken with the help of bouncing some flash off the the ceiling.  Speaking of help, I'm about to help myself over to the freezer in the hopes that there are still a couple of them left.

Finding Bambi

One of the final activities of my recent vacation was a little trek through nature at the Parc National du Mont Saint-Bruno.   It was a pleasant little walk so no accusations of attempted murder will be necessary.  We took a walk on the 8.8km Five Lakes trail and along the way we came upon this guy and two other friends.  They must be very used to seeing humans because they didn't get spooked by our presence at all.  They even decided to take a break and took a seat on the ground.  I tried to get their attention by scrapping my shoes against the rocks and fallen leaves on the ground, but the closest thing I could get to a reaction was this guy who turned his head.  You'll probably think I'm crazy, but if you look at the second photograph, I'd swear that he was smiling for the camera.  There were lots of branches between me and my new friend which played all kinds of havoc with my auto-focus, but I managed to grab a couple photographs by turning the focus ring manually and then trying a little trick in Photoshop to make the photograph look a little sharper.  The first photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/80sec, ISO 400 at 200mm and the second photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/60sec, ISO 400 at 200mm.  As an added bonus, the park was free to visit that day and we even got free passes for another visit at any of the other national parks so maybe I'll find a few more friendly critters during that future visit as well.

Fighting To Be Seen

Taking another moment to look back at my Summer vacation.  As previously mentioned, our arrival at Lac Kénogami was met with thick clouds and rain.  The clouds didn't part until a few days later, but the moon gave them a good fight.  We were sitting next to  brilliant fire that My Lovely Assistant built next to our rented cottage when I noticed a little sliver of light trying to fight through the clouds in the sky.  Though the moon remained initially hidden, the light it was giving off was still bright enough to give a nice look at the texture of the very clouds that were hiding it.  The first photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/10sec, ISO 3200 at 110mm.  Here are a few more.

f/2.8, 1/10sec, ISO 3200 at 125mm

f/2.8, 1/25sec, ISO 3200 at 200mm

It was one of those moments where you had to be there.  I suppose that it may just be my point of view, but I thought that it was a pretty cool celestial moment.  I had originally hoped to practice shooting some star trails, but ended up with a moon that was fighting to be seen.

A View To Die For

As previously mentioned, My Lovely Assistant and I took a little road trip last week up to Lac Kénogami, which can be found in the Saguenay region of Québec.  We encountered some wet weather upon our arrival, but the sun came out on the second day and that is when she decided to try and kill me.  It is kind of a little joke where I say that she 'tried to kill me' and that is code for we went for a bit of a walk.  In this case, it was a little 3.8km walk up to Cap À L'Aigle, a look-out with a great view of the lake.  However, this 3.8km walk was also a mostly uphill trek through the trees, mud and rocks.  For your average in shape person, it's probably not that difficult of a walk, but Your Friendly Neighbourhood Photographer is not your 'average in shape person'.  After about 3km's of that walk, not including a little detour that added to our trek, we arrived at a look-out spot and in my mind, that was the end of my trip.  The first two photographs of this update, taken at f/8, 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 42mm and f/9, 1/320sec, ISO 100 at 30mm were taken from this spot.  While I snapped away, My Lovely Assistant continued a little bit further upon the trail and returned to say that our original planned destination, the Cap À L'Aigle was only about 15 minutes further up the path.  Since we had already gone that far, and our guide at the tourist center had said that it was a great view, my hardheadedness took over and overruled my protesting legs.  I made it to the top, grabbed some more photographs and we made our way back down the hill.  For a kind of perspective of how far we went, if you go to the last few photographs of this update, you can see a stone cliff sticking out of the forest.  That was the Cap À L'Aigle and where I took the photograph was the beginning of the walking path.  Here are a few more photographs of the great views of that afternoon.

 f/8, 1/500sec, ISO 320 at 70mm

f/8, 1/250sec, ISO 320 at 70mm

f/8, 1/1250sec, ISO 320 at 24mm

f/9, 1/200sec, ISO 100 at 24mm

f/9, 1/60sec, ISO 100 at 70mm

f/8, 1/200sec, ISO 100 at 24mm

f/7.1, 1/2000sec, ISO 400 at 24mm

f/7.1, 1/2000sec, ISO 400 at 24mm

The last photograph is the original file and I just cropped in a little closer for a better view of the rock cliff afterwards.  Yes, I think I earned my supper that night.  Much thanks to My Lovely Assistant for talking me up the hill, and then talking me back down it afterwards.  As usual,though she seems to try and kill me quite often, it is always with the best intentions and often allows me to see some terrific things.  I wonder where she will attempt to kill me next.

A Little Thirsty

Yes, I am probably the only person to go away on vacation and have the first photograph that they post on the internets to be one of a bird drinking water.  My Lovely Assistant and I took a little ride up to Lac Kénogami in the Saguenay region of Québec, and as is the case with most of these vacations we take, I over indulged a bit with the camera.  As a result, I have a huge backlog of photographs to dig through so my dominant Lazy Bone went right to a single photograph that I didn't try to redo five times.  I caught this little guy when he and a bunch of his feathery friends were frightened when I plopped myself down on a large rock to put on my sandals.  The rest flew away, but this guy was courageous enough to stick around, so he gets immortalized on the old blog.  The photograph was taken at f/6.3, 1/320sec, ISO 100 at 200mm.  I should get around to more vacation photographs in the future....though I said the same thing about recent trips to Tadoussac, Prince Edward Island, Brockville, and Percé as well.  Stick around, they should be here by 2025.  I hope.