The Sun Sets On 2019

It's time to turn over a fresh leaf as we get ready to begin yet another year.  Before we do that, it's always good to take a moment to reflect on the year that is coming to an end.  I've been saying this for a couple of years now, but this was quite the busy and exciting year for Your Friendly Neighbourhood Photographer.  All kinds of events passed in front my lenses.  Among the record 144 updates were the usual assortment of fireworks, sunsets, cars, insects, sporting events, musicians and other things that I may have found interesting  A couple of 'Wow' moments were when I found myself on the floor of the Bell Center to photograph Weezer and the Pixies.  There were also the many passes to concerts that were passing through town, as well as photographing the musical acts at the Canada Day celebrations in Greenfield Park, the Festin Culturel in Brossard and Saint-Lambert en Fête.   The many outdoor concerts in Greenfield Park, Saint-Hubert and Longueuil for 'Longueuil est culture', 'Les jeudis de la place' in Saint Lambert and a pass for the prestigious Festival International de Jazz de Montréal.  With all of that, some more photographs appearing on CTV Montreal newscasts and in the La Presse+ online newspaper were just a topping on the sundae.  I think that deserves a moment to kick up my feet take a moment in front of a nice relaxing sunset.  Kind of like the one a little bit higher up on the page.  It was taken at f/16, 1/125sec, ISO 100 at 63mm  So, how do I follow 2019 up?  I'm not really sure that I can, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to stop.  If you've been enjoying my photographs over the last few years, dont forget to keep passing by.  Who knows what you'll end up seeing.  Here's to wishing you all a Happy New Year and a great 2020.

Van Houtte Fire On Ice At The Old Port Of Montreal

f/16, 25sec, ISO 100 at 45mm

I suppose that it's a good lesson to learn that things don't always go as planned.  Last night was the third edition of the Van Houtte Fire on Ice fireworks display from the Old Port of Montreal and I felt like trying something new.  One of my few frustrations during the fireworks in July is that they shut off the lights on the Jacques Cartier Bridge during the shows.  I had noticed that they didn't do so in December so I thought I'd go out and try getting some fireworks and bridge lights in the same shot.

 f/16, 20sec, ISO 100 at 45mm

However, my judgment of distance was a little bit off.  Based on the fact that I have shot the fireworks from that bridge near the towers on the left hand side of the photograph, I figured the fireworks would be going off above the part of the shot.  As you can see, it wasn't quite the case, which is why these photographs are being presented in a panorama style.  Added to my fun were some high winds which resulted in a little camera shake and a passing cargo ship which blocked my view for a few minutes as it passed.

f/16, 30sec, ISO 100 at 45mm

As is usually the case, I did manage to pick out a few useful shots, though they are somewhat more cropped than I had originally planned.  On the positive side, I did manage to get those shots of fireworks and an illuminated bridge, just not exactly as planned.  Here are a few more shots.

f/16, 25sec, ISO 100 at 45mm

f/16, 25sec, ISO 100 at 45mm

f/16, 15sec, ISO 100 at 45mm

There's still one more of these shows to go, so head out there to enjoy them.  Though I suggest you get a little closer to the action than I was for these photographs.

Christmas Dessert

It's been one of the busiest years here on the old blog, yet it has been a long time since we've featured any of My Lovely Assistant's creations.  Christmas is a time that she gets to shine and put her talents on display.  This year, she made a raspberry and chocolate yule log cake.  Not content with only that, she also made little chocolate soldiers and different coloured chocolate Christmas lights which were a hit with dessert fans of all ages.  For my part, I'm told that I spent almost as much time posing My Lovely Assistant's creation as she spent making it.  After arranging the village and repositioning some of its inhabitants, I took the photograph at f/10, 1/200sec, ISO 100 at 45mm while bouncing some flash off of the ceiling.  It was then eaten with knives, forks and little chocolate covered fingers and enjoyed by all.

Merry Christmas To All

Just taking a little break from all of the shopping, cooking and wrapping to wish all of you out there a Merry Christmas from Your Friendly Neighbourhood Photographer and 'My Lovely Assistant.  While there may be more 'snow' in this photograph than on the ground, I hope it won't keep you all from having a good time with friends and family.  I had a little fun with the Christmas scene My Lovely Assistant created for the house this year.  Everything is still kind of new at The Head Office, so this was what we had instead of a tree this year.  Knowing her, it will be back, with a tree to go with it, next Christmas.  The photograph was taken at f/10, 1/200sec, ISO 100 at 70mm with some bounced flash to give a little life to the whole thing.  Hope the photographer got as nice a shot of me, as I got of him...though I think he should start looking for the missing piece of his tripod.  Maybe he'll get a new one for Christmas.

Van Houtte Fire On Ice At The Old Port Of Montreal

December in the city means people rushing around to make sure all of their Christmas purchases are made on time, but it also means it's time to light up the sky.  No, not with the light from Rudolph's red nose, that will be a little late, but with the light from the annual Fire on Ice series at the Old Port of Montreal.  This year, it is being presented by the Van Houtte company and takes place during the last three Saturday's of December and the first Saturday in January.  Though I no longer live next to the action, I made my way down to a favourite spot on Île Sainte-Hélène to watch the fireworks go off with the downtown core in the background.  The first photograph was taken at f/16, 20sec, ISO 100 at 70mm and the second photograph was taken at f/16, 20sec, ISO 100 at 57mm.  Here are a couple more shots of the show.

f/16, 25sec, ISO 100 at 70mm

f/16, 20sec, ISO 100 at 57mm

f/16, 15sec, ISO 100 at 70mm

f/16, 20sec, ISO 100 at 70mm

There are still a couple more weeks left if you want to take in the shows.  The Old Port is kind of busy at time of the year, but there are several other interesting vantage points that you can watch from.

Rebelles de Laval 4 vs Félines du Richelieu 2

There's nothing more Canadian than hockey on a Saturday night, so I was more than happy to take a break from unpacking boxes to take in some action.  My favourite goaltender, Florence Bouchard-Maynard and her teammates on the Félines du Richelieu were taking the ice against the Rebelles de Laval a few minutes away from the new Head Office.  Sadly, the team is having a rough go of things this season.  Things got off to a good start as the Félines opened the scoring early in the first period.  The Rebelles scored the next two goals and held the lead until the Félines tied things up midway through the third period.  Sadly, the old hockey rule of not taking offensive zone penalties late in the game struck as a roughing penalty with a minute and a half to go in regulation time ended up with the Rebelles scoring the go-ahead goal with just under a minutes left in the game.  An empty net goal wrapped everything up for the Rebelles as Your Friendly Neighbourhood Photographer went home with another mark in the loss column.  Most of the goals were scored at the opposite end of the rink from where I was and les Félines we're wearing their darker uniforms.  That meant many of the saves Florence made ended up being unseen as the puck would disappear in the team colours.  With that in mind, I tried to take more photographs of the action, and trying to grab some shots of the rebounds or just before the puck would be stopped.  I still went home with a nice little collection of shots, despite the unfortunate result.  The first photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/1250sec, ISO 3200 at 168mm and the second photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/1250sec, ISO 3200 at 130mm.  Here are several more photographs of the action.

f/2.8, 1/1250sec, ISO 3200 at 120mm

f/2.8, 1/1250sec, ISO 3200 at 120mm

f/2.8, 1/1250sec, ISO 3200 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/1250sec, ISO 3200 at 145mm

 

f/2.8, 1/1000sec, ISO 3200 at 175mm

 

f/2.8, 1/1000sec, ISO 3200 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/800sec, ISO 3200 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/800sec, ISO 3200 at 123mm

f/2.8, 1/800sec, ISO 3200 at 120mm

f/2.8, 1/800sec, ISO 3200 at 180mm

f/2.8, 1/800sec, ISO 3200 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/800sec, ISO 3200 at 155mm

f/2.8 1/800sec, ISO 3200 at 135mm

f/2.8, 1/800sec, ISO 3200 at 135mm

f/2.8, 1/800sec, ISO 3200 at 160mm

f/2.8, 1/640sec, ISO 3200 at 180mm

f/2.8, 1/640sec, ISO 3200 at 110mm

f/2.8, 1/640sec, ISO 3200 at 160mm

f/2.8, 1/640sec, ISO 3200 at 180mm

f/2.8, 1/1000sec, ISO 3200 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/1000sec, ISO 3200 at 170mm

f/2.8, 1/1000sec, ISO 3200 at 170mm

f/2.8, 11250sec, ISO 3200 at 180mm

 

f/2.8, 1/1250sec, ISO 3200 at 200mm

It's always fun to spend a night at the arena.  Hopefully next time I get invited both the Félines and I can bring an end to our losing streaks.

Where's The Snow?

We're less than two weeks away from the big day and it has not yet begun to look like Christmas.  We had a little bit of the white stuff a few weeks ago, but it has long melted away.  So, I've dug into the archives to bring out an older photograph that I took during a little walk after a snow storm a few year back.  I had found these nice evergreens, next to some bushes and trees that had lost their leaves.  The snow was sticking to them and gave everything a nice peaceful feel.  The photograph was taken at f/9, 1/100sec, ISO 100 at 24mm.  The season is still young, and I'm sure that by April most of you will be sick of the white stuff, but I'm still holding out hope that we'll get some soon to make Santa's trip a little easier.

A Relaxing Moment

As preiously mentioned, it's been a busy time for Your Friendly Neighbourhood Photographer as the head office move has been taking place.  It's a busy time, but it's always good to take a little mental break.  Back in the Fall, I had taken a bunch of photographs that are still sitting in the digital darkroom, which as always, is bursting full of stuff.  I caught sight of this photograph, which was taken at f/16, 1/500sec, ISO 100 at 24mm, and it took me back to standing on the edge of a lake and watching the sun go down.  There's not much of a more relaxing scenario than that.  With that in mind, my moment of zen is over and it's back to the boxes I go. 

Last Longueuil Sunset

Those of you observant types may have noticed that the Old Blog has been silent over the last little while.  That's because My Lovely Assistant and I have been packing up the Head Office and made the move to a new location.  While the move itself is a good thing, Your Friendly Neighbourhood Photographer is a little saddened because I'm losing my great spot for taking photographs of sunsets, fireworks and various other cool things.  With that in mind, I went out one last time this past Friday to say good-bye to my good friend, The Biosphere.  Sadly, Mother Nature didn't feel like providing a spectacular show, so I waited a little bit longer for the lights of the downtown Montreal skyscrapers to be turned on.  At the same time, someone turned on the lights of the Biosphere as well, giving it a little blue glow.  The photograph was taken at f/9, 1/50sec, ISO 800 at 200mm.  With that, it's time to start walking the streets as I try and find some new sunset spots.  Hopefully, it won't be a long search.

Blink And You Missed It

I can't speak for other parts of the world, but over here we're already covered in snow as Fall gave way to Winter rather quickly this year.  I'm not one to speak ill against the colder weather, but it meant that there was less time to appreciate the colours of the changing seasons.  Luckily, I managed to spend a weekend in the County back in early October.  While visiting the family for Thanksgiving, My Lovely Assistant and I snuck away for a little car ride in search of some autumn colours.  I came upon this nice collection of trees by a lake and snapped away.  The photograph was taken at f/16, 1/60sec, ISO 100 at 70mm.  Just a little bit of colour for those of you out there for those of you who may have missed out.

Shining Through

While photographing bands, sunsets and fireworks are great fun, my favourite thing about photography are the surprise discoveries.  One evening while I was waiting for the sun to set, I happened to glance over to some wild bushes that were growing along the parking lot.  as the sun began to set, I noticed it shining through the branches and found it interesting.  It reminded me of one of those photographs taken from space of cities at night showing all of the city lights.  I took the photograph at f/16, 1/25sec, ISO 100 at 200mm.  The small aperture creates the little stars which stand out against the darker background.  The setting sun peaking through a bush, or lights of a city as viewed from space.  Let your imagination run wild.

Red Autumn Sunset

There's not much out there that I like watching more than a November sunset.  The sky gets so nice and red, it's a real treat for the eyes.  I'm lucky to be living in a spot where not only do I get to see these sunsets on a regular basis, but I get to see them against the island of Montreal.  It was snowy and grey today, but just as we were getting to the hour where the sun was to disappear, the clouds began to break a little and let some light in.  I grabbed my camera and went to one of my favourite spots.  I usually crop tighter on the buildings, but I really liked the texture of the colour on the clouds, so I decided to make them the focus of my shot.  As I often do, I then sent the photograph off to CTV Montreal and weather specialist Lori Graham was kind enough to feature it during the newscast.  It's always nice to see my name on the big screen.  The photograph was taken at f/7.1, 1/160sec, ISO 400 at 95mm.  Take the time to look up in the late afternoon, you're often in for quite the sight.

The Interrupters At MTelus

Sunday night at MTelus was headlined by California ska/punk band The Interrupters.  They've been entertaining their fans with their self-described 'unity music' since the the band formed in the early 2010's.  They call it 'unity music' because they like to make music the brings people together and the consider their fans to be one big family.  Something that is rather evident as singer Aimee Interrupter was already reaching into the crowd before the first song was over and was up to hugs and high-fives by the time we left the pit after the third song.  I only discovered them earlier this summer through local radio and was disappointed when I found out about their Spring show at Club Soda by a few days.  When I found out they were coming back, I didn't waste my time and found out the information I needed to get a photo pass and was more than happy I had done so.  The first photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/800sec, ISO 3200 at 70mm.  Here are several more photographs that I took of their performance.

f/2.8, 1/1250sec, ISO 3200 at 26mm

f/2.8, 1/250sec, ISO 3200 at 31mm

f/2.8, 1/500sec, ISO 3200 at 61mm

f/2.8, 1/500sec, ISO 3200 at 41mm

f/2.8, 1/800sec, ISO 3200 at 24mm

f/2.8, 1/250sec, ISO 3200 at 42mm

f/2.8, 1/640sec, ISO 3200 at 24mm

f/2.8, 1/400sec, ISO 3200 at 39mm

f/2.8, 1/800sec, ISO 3200 at 39mm

f/2.8, 1/80sec, ISO 12800 at 44mm

f/2.8, 1/200sec, ISO 3200 at 70mm

f/2.8, 1/160sec, ISO 3200 at 24mm

f/2.8, 1/160sec, ISO 3200 at 55mm

f/2.8, 1/1000sec, ISO 3200 at 30mm

f/2.8, 1/250sec, ISO 3200 at 70mm

f/2.8, 1/160sec, ISO 3200 at 24mm

Wow, talk about a breath of fresh air.  I'd never seen The Interrupters live before, but I certainly would like to again.  Awesome attitudes and killer tunes, that makes for a crowd pleasing combination and the Montreal fans were more than happy to see them again.  They were touring to support their latest album, Fight The Good Fight, and you can find out more about The Interrupters by following the link to their website.  Thank you very much to Dan Hodge of the YMU Group for the pass, it was very much appreciated.  While you're clicking on links, don't forget to check out the photographs that I took of the two bands that opened the evening, Sharp/Shock and Skinny Lister.