Jacques Cartier Spotlight Sunset

While watching the evening news on Thursday, the forecast called for three days of rain.  That meant I had to head out right away if I wanted this photograph.  A few days earlier, I was walking on the street when I noticed the setting sun just beside the metal structure of the Jacques Cartier Bridge.  A couple more days of clouds followed, and with the knowledge that there were more to come, I knew I had to make my move.  I got to my spot a little early and watched the sun make its way down to where I wanted and snapped away.  The photograph was taken at f/16, 1/1600sec, ISO 100 at 200mm.  I underexposed the shot to bring out more of the colour in the sky and to turn the bridge into a nice dark silhouette.  The photograph then got a little bit more exposure by being published on the La Presse+ app the next morning.  Those of you with the app can view the photograph in the Friday, April 26th edition, or you can see a screen capture by following this link.  It's always nice to know that my photographs sometimes exist beyond the pages of the blog for more people to see.  Hopefully they read the name at the bottom and try to find some of my other work while they're at it.

***UPDATE***

The photograph got a little bit more circulation when it was shared on the Instagram account of Catherine Fournier, Member of the National Assembly of Québec for Marie-Victorin.  Merci beaucoup Mlle. Fournier, je suis content que tu aimes ma photo.

Easter Bunnies

As is usually the case, My Lovely Assistant was hard at work in the kitchen in preparation for some holiday feasts with the families.  Easter is probably the favourite holiday for people with a sweet tooth, and those with a sweet tooth were not disappointed by her chocolate creations.  The combination of melted chocolate, various sugar sprinkles and food colouring resulted in a litter of chocolate bunnies invading the homestead.  Before they were devoured, they needed to be photographed, and nobody likes to play with their food more than I do.  Not to worry, hands were washed thoroughly before any bunny manipulation took place.  I had the idea of placing a few on a dishcloth, while My Lovely Assistant earned her name by placing several on nesting plastic used to decorate Easter gifts.  The first photograph was taken at f/6.3, 1/200sec, ISO 100 at 60mm.  Here are a few more.

f/6.3, 1/200sec, ISO 100 at 60mm

f/6.3, 1/200sec, ISO 100 at 60mm

As usual, I bounced the flash off of the ceiling, but I also experimented a little bit using the bounce card to reflect the light on the third photograph.  In photography, as with cooking, sometimes a little experimentation is a good thing.

Spring Sunset

Yesterday, after hiding in the clouds, the sun finally broke through an hour before it was scheduled to set.  I tried to think of an interesting spot that I could visit to photograph it.  The buildings of downtown Montreal were not an option due to where the sun was setting, and getting to the bridge was going to be a little difficult due to construction work.  I then remembered a little spot on the bicycle path that I like to use that goes past the La Ronde amusement park. I quickly drove there just in time to see the sun going down behind one of the rides.  I underexposed the photograph, which was taken at f/8, 1/400sec, ISO 100 at 70mm, to darken the silhouette of the ride and bring out a bit more of the colour.  On a lark, I decided to send it off to CTV Montreal since they seem to like my photographs, but since the evening newscast was already long over, I was pretty sure it wouldn't make the air.  It didn't, but our weather specialist, Lori Graham still took the time to post my photograph to her twitter feed.  Feel free to check it out at this link and let all of CTV know how great of a photograph it is.  All kidding aside, thanks again to CTV Montreal and Lori Graham.  Glad that you all like my photographs.

****UPDATE**** 

The photograph also ended up being published in La Presse+ Online Edition.  If you have the app, you can seen the photograph by opening it, otherwise you can see a screen grab of the page by clicking the following link.

Feel The Groove

While photography has been a rather large interest of mine, this is a photography blog after all, another of my interests has always been music.  My mother often shakes her head when she sees my wall of CD's.  Music seems like it has always had a place in my life.  I can't play an instrument to save my life, but I can remember hearing Smokey Robinson sing 'Tears of a Clown' and other old songs, in the backseat of my Grandfathers car.  I would fall asleep with the radio under my pillow listening to music, hoping that my parents would hear the tunes when they'd pass to check before going to bed themselves.  This all kind of ties together by the fact that yesterday was Record Store Day.   What was once a small niche celebration of things vinyl, has kind of exploded over the last few years.  I myself don't own any vinyl records, mostly because my obsessive collecting gene would probably lead me into bankruptcy as I would need to find a vinyl version of every CD I own.  However, I still decided to get in on the fun.  I remembered that a few CD's in my collection had designs that copied the vinyl grooves of a record.  I pulled a couple of them out, Family Tree by Black Stone Cherry and the Bachman Cummings Songbook for those wondering at home, and had a little fun.  The first photograph was taken at f/6.3, 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 60mm and the second photograph was taken at f/7.1, 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 60mm.  I used a macro lens to really makes the grooves stand out and placed the album sleeves under the CD's to add a little colour and design to the rest of the photograph.  Take a little time and listen to some music while you have the time today.

Follower Of Buzzards

WrestleMania season is always a fine reason to play with my toys.  This year our model is one Bray Wyatt, leader of the Wyatt Family.  Bray ended up getting the nod to be my WrestleMania portrait this year, despite the fact that he hasn't appeared on television for a good several months now.  A little bit of favouritism applies in this case as he was a gift from My Lovely Assistant a few months back.  A bit of a supernatural character in the WWE Universe, I tried to give him a little supernatural look as well.  Rather that just go the simple portrait route and bouncing some flash off of the ceiling, I shot the photograph vertically with the flash on top of the camera.  The flash ended up being pointed to the side of plastic Bray, so I pulled out the little bounce card to direct the light back towards the subject, which helped create the large shadow in the background.  The photograph was taken at f/9, 1/200sec, ISO 100 at 62mm.  Follow the buzzards!

Rapides 1 - Félines 0

The Junior A Regional Finals continued Friday night as Les Félines du Saint-Laurent and Les Rapides de Champlain met once again in La Prairie for the third game of their five game series.  The game was a little more tight defensively than the previous game on Wednesday night, as both goaltender made several saves.  The only goal was scored by Les Rapides late in the second period on a power play.  It gave Les Rapides a 2-1 lead in the series, the winner of which will be off to Laval to play for the Dodge Cup.  The old arena where the game was played, it's almost 60 years old, had much worse lighting than brand new arena that the previous game was played in.  I had to up the ISO to 6400 for these photographs in order to get enough of a shutter speed to freeze the action.  I like my hockey photographs much more when there is a frozen puck in them.  Things also got a little chippy in this game as the rivalry between the two teams, which was already healthy to begin with, continued to grow.  The first photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/2000sec, ISO 6400 at 165mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/3200sec, ISO 6400 at 80mm and the third photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/2000sec, ISO 6400 at 155mm.  Here are several more photographs of the action.

f/2.8, 1/2000sec, ISO 6400 at 120mm

f/2.8, 1/2000sec, ISO 6400 at 155mm

f/2.8, 1/2000sec, ISO 6400 at 190mm

f/2.8, 1/2000sec, ISO 6400 at 190mm

f/2.8, 1/2500sec, ISO 6400 at 160mm

f/2.8, 1/2500sec, ISO 6400 at 165mm

f/2.8, 1/2500sec, ISO 6400 at 168mm

f/2.8, 1/2500sec, ISO 6400 at 120mm

f/2.8, 1/2500sec, ISO 6400 at 120mm

f/2.8, 1/2500sec, ISO 6400 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/2500sec, ISO 6400 at 130mm

f/2.8, 1/2500sec, ISO 6400 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/2500sec, ISO 6400 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/2500sec, ISO 6400 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/2500sec, ISO 6400 at 142mm

The regional championship tournament continues this weekend so best of luck to both teams, and thanks to all of the players who have been nice enough to compliment me on my photographs.  It's been fun watching you all play out on the ice.

Félines 3 - Rapides 2

It's time for some play-off hockey.  My favourite goaltender, Florence Bouchard-Maynard and her teammates with Les Félines du Saint-Laurent find themselves in a series for the Regional Championship this week against their longtime rival, Les Rapides de Champlain.  On the line in this best-of-five series is a chance to participate in the Dodge Cup tournament later this month.  Game One was won by Les Rapides and I, despite the terrible record the team has when I attend their games, got an invitation to shoot the action of Game Two.  The teams traded first and second period goals before a scoreless third period led to overtime.  Both goaltenders made some big saves as neither team scored in overtime which meant that a shoot-out would be needed to settle the game.  Both teams failed to score on their first two attempts before Félines put one past the Rapides goaltender on the third attempt.  Florence then shut the door on the third Rapides skater to win the game and even the series at one game a piece.  The first photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/1250sec, ISO 1600 at 120mm and cropped to 12" x 4" for a widescreen look.  The second photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/1600sec, ISO 1600 at 200mm and the third photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/2000sec, ISO 1600 at 200mm.  Here are some more photographs of the action.

f/2.8, 1/2000sec, ISO 1600 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/2000sec, ISO 1600 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/1600sec, ISO 1600 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/1600sec, ISO 1600 at 135mm

f/2.8, 1/1600sec, ISO 1600 at 135mm

f/2.8, 1/1600sec, ISO 1600 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/1600sec, ISO 1600 at 145mm

f/2.8, 1/1250sec, ISO 1600 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/1250sec, ISO 1600 at 110mm

f/2.8, 1/1250sec, ISO 1600 at 123mm

f/2.8, 1/1250sec, ISO 1600 at 123mm

f/2.8, 1/1250sec, ISO 1600 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/1250sec, ISO 1600 at 125mm

f/2.8, 1/1250sec, ISO 1600 at 100mm

f/2.8, 1/1000sec, ISO 1600 at 200mm

The tournament continues this weekend, so I might be able to get to another game or two.  Best of luck to Florence and les Félines!

Looking To The Future

It's been another series of grey days over here, so back into the archives we go for a little bit of Blah Relief.  These two photographs were taken during a summer break that My Lovely Assistant and I took in the Mont Tremblant region a few years back.  As I sat on the deck and watched the waves hit the rocks, I thought that the nice mix of plants, rocks and water would make a nice little photograph.  Luckily I always have the camera near by, so take a photograph is what I did.  With the first photograph, taken at f/5, 1/250sec, ISO 400 at 50mm, I waited for the sun to be behind the greenery so that it wouldn't wash out the colour.  With the second, taken at f/9, 1/125sec, ISO 100 at 50mm, I tried to get in the colours of the trees and the reflections in the water, while also not losing the colour of the sky.  Don't worry you summer people, your season is soon to arrive.