Almost Finished

This is a case of the photograph being a little deceiving.  The new Champlain Bridge that will connect Montreal to the South Shore is actually almost finished.  It will open this coming Monday.  All the more reason to get this photograph out before it really becomes dated.  I wanted to get a shot of the new bridge being built next to the old and waited for a sunny day back in December to get my shot.  I wanted the sun to be low in the sky to give the structure a kind of glow.  I also overexposed the photograph by half a stop to get the effect.  The photograph was taken at f/16, 1/40sec, ISO 100 at 59mm.  The thing that struck me the most was how small the old bridge looks next to the tower of the new one.  We used to cross this bridge often when I was a kid and I was always impressed by its size.  Seeing it look so small next to the new bridge is something that still strikes me when I pass by it to this day.

Happy Croissant Day

I don't know who came up with the idea of Croissant Day, but I would like to take this moment to publicly thank them.  While most of the food photographed on this site comes from the talented hands of My Lovely Assistant, these croissants were purchased at a local bakery (Pâtisserie Rolland), for a tasty Saturday morning breakfast.  I couldn't help but to play with one of the leftovers, so once the table was cleared, I grabbed some gear and snapped away.  I used a black background and bounced some flash off of the ceiling to help bring out the delicious golden colour and texture.  The photograph was taken at f/6.3. 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 60mm.  It was then eaten.  Such is the life of models in the food photography business.  If you'd like to celebrate Croissant Day, follow the link to find a participating artisan bakery near you.

Silver Surfers

One of my favourite annual events to attend is the Saint-Lambert Classic Car show.  Sadly, bad weather caused the event to be delayed/cancelled this year so I wasn't able he head out and get a look at the old cars.  Luckily, my archives are still bursting from photographs taken over the last few visits.  So, though I didn't get a chance to see anything new, I've still got some fresh photographs for the blog.  As I've mentioned, I prefer taking photos of the details, rather than the cars themselves.  In this case, it's a couple of hood ornaments.  The first photograph, taken at f/4, 1/8000sec, ISO 100 at 60mm was the hood ornament of a 1953 Cadillac Series 62 Coupe.  The second photograph, which can be seen below, was taken at f/4, 1/1600sec, ISO 100 at 70mm was the hood ornament of a 1939 DeSoto.  Hopefully the event will be rescheduled as it is always fun to see the old cars on display.

Halestorm At MTelus

The headliner Wednesday night at the MTelus in Montreal was one of the bigger names in hard rock today, Halestorm.  Fronted by the powerful take no prisoners voice of Lzzy Hale, the group said they were glad to be back in Montreal to a crowd that was obviously very happy to have them back.  In my previous post, I mentioned how the fun thing about these shows with several bands is getting to find bands you didn't really know much about.  That was the case for me back in 2013 when I saw Halestorm for the first time when they played at Heavy MTL.  I saw them again when they visited back in 2016 and was very happy to get a photo pass to shoot the show on their stop in town.  They were touring the release of their album Vicious, which was released in July of 2018, and peppered their set with a mix of new and older songs.  Their song Uncomfortable, was nominated this year for a Grammy Award for best Rock Performance.  An award they previously won back in 2013 when it was called Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance.  Fun Fact: That makes Halestorm the first Grammy Award winner I have ever had the honour of photographing.  I guess I get to put an 'x' next to that on the checklist.  The first photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/320sec, ISO 1600 at 51mm and the second photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/1250sec, ISO 1600 at 51mm.  Here are a few more that I took during their set.

f/2.8, 1/320sec, ISO 1600 at 70mm

f/2.8, 1/1250sec, ISO 1600 at 70mm

f/2.8, 1/640sec, ISO 1600 at 38mm

f/2.8, 1/400sec, ISO 1600 at 46mm

f/2.8, 1/500sec, ISO 1600 at 50mm

f/2.8, 1/640sec, ISO 1600 at 50mm

f/2.8, 1/500sec, ISO 1600 at 70mm

f/2.8, 1/400sec, ISO 1600 at 70mm

f/2.8, 1/500sec, ISO 1600 at 50mm

f/2.8, 1/100sec, ISO 1600 at 43mm

f/2.8, 1/400sec, ISO 1600 at 32mm

Whew! What a night!  For those of you who haven't been following along as these updates were going up, you can see the photo sets for Beasto Blanco and Palaye Royale, who opened the show, by following the respective links.  A quick thank-you to the fine security staff at MTelus for keeping their eyes open while mine were peeled on the stage and a huge thank-you to Mr. Gwyther Bultman from In De Goot Management who was very helpful in getting my camera and I into the building.  It was a great night of music and photography, who could ask for anything more.  You can find out more about Halestorm and their music by visiting their website.

Palaye Royale At MTelus

The second band on the bill at the MTelus on Wednesday night was Palaye Royale.  A group of good ol' Canadian boys who were bundles of energy up on the stage.  Their constant movement, coupled with low lighting conditons, made capturing some nice shots a little more difficult, but I think I still managed to pull off some eye pleasers.  In preparation for the show, I had picked up their first CD a few weeks back and was more than happy to see that the second was available at the show.  What's fun about these triple bills is getting introduced to bands that I hadn't heard of before.  I'm glad that I had the chance to check them out.  The first photograph was taken at  f/2.8, 1/250sec, ISO 3200 at 54mm.  Here are some more that I took during their set.

f/2.8, 1/160sec, ISO 3200 at 70mm

f/2.8, 1/250sec, ISO 3200 at 25mm

f/2.8, 1/160sec, ISO 3200 at 57mm

f/2.8, 1/400sec, ISO 3200 at 24mm

f/2.8, 1/400sec, ISO 3200 at 55mm

f/2.8, 1/400sec, ISO 3200 at 70mm

f/2.8, 1/400sec, ISO 3200 at 24mm

f/2.8, 1/400sec, ISO 3200 at 25mm

f/2.8, 1/400sec, ISO 3200 at 48mm

As I said these guys were full of energy.  One moment I was shooting the guitarist and the next thing I knew, the singer was standing on the stack of speakers or diving into the crowd.  They really got the crowd going and played some great songs.  The crowd, and Your Friendly Neighbourhood Photographer, had a great time.  You can find out more about Palaye Royale and their music by visiting their website.

Beasto Blanco At MTelus

I was fortunate enough to acquire a photo pass for a triple bill at Montreal's MTelus theatre on Wednesday night.  It was an evening of bone rattling hard and heavy rock and roll.  The first band to hit the stage was Beasto Blanco.  I hadn't heard of them until a few weeks before the show, but I enjoyed their set so much that I picked up their CD in between sets from the merchandise booth.  Led by veteran bassist Chuck Garric and vocalist Calliope Cooper (daughter of Alice), these guys did their best to blow the roof off of the building before everyone even had the chance to get in.  The first photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/125sec, ISO 3200 at 42mm and here are a few more.

f/2.8, 1/125sec, ISO 3200 at 50mm

f/2.8, 1/125sec, ISO 3200 at 24mm

f/2.8, 1/160sec, ISO 3200 at 40mm

f/2.8, 1/200sec, ISO 3200 at 43mm

f/2.8 1/125sec, ISO 3200 at 24mmm

f/2.8, 1/100sec, ISO 3200 at 62mm

f/2.8, 1/80sec, ISO 3200 at 70mm

f/2.8, 1/125sec, ISO 3200 at 24mm

f/2.8, 1/200sec, ISO 3200 at 66mm

Fun story with that last photograph, I was trying to get a shot of the guitarist when I suddenly felt a cold chill on my head.  I had just been blasted with the extinguisher canon by Alice Cooper's daughter and I can't think of anything more cool that I could write than that.  You can find out more about Beasto Blanco and their music by visiting their website.

I'll Have A Burger (For Dessert)

My Lovely Assistant and I are big fans of the television show Les Chefs, which airs on Radio-Canada in the Spring every year.  It's a cooking competition which she watches for inspiration and I watch to make me hungry.  This past week, they had some apprentice chefs on the show to make desserts and one of them made little hamburger cakes.  With it being Mother's Day, she felt that it would be a great dessert to try and I was sure that it would be a hit with the little kids that would be on hand.  To create these little burgers, she made brownies in the form of patties and the buns were small vanilla cakes.  The mustard and ketchup were sugar icing with yellow and red food colouring added to them and the relish was coconut shavings with some green food colouring.  For the photograph, I took it at f/4, 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 60mm.  I bounced some flash off of a reflector card and My Lovely Assistant added the little grill for a little BBQ feel.  As usual, they were delicious and a hit with all.  Luckily there were still a couple left over, so see if you can guess what Your Friendly Neighbourhood Photographer will be eating later.

Leaving A Trail

One of the things that I like the most about photography is the little somethings that cross my path.  While out waiting for the sun to set by the Jacques Cartier Bridge, a photograph you can see by following the link, I looked up to the sky and saw this plane going by.  It was leaving a condensation trail behind as it flew away.  The trail stood out nicely against the blue sky, so as I often do, I snapped away.  The photograph was taken at f/16, 1/100sec, ISO 100 at 200mm.  It doesn't take much  sometimes.  I was standing around, looked up at the sky and something caught my eye.  A little bit of minimalism goes a long way.

It's Not Wise To Upset A Wookie

This year's edition of Star Wars Day (May 4th....'May The Fourth Be With You') was saddened with the news of the passing of Peter Mayhew.  He was best known as the actor who brought life to everyone's favourite fuzzball, Chewbacca.  With that in mind, I decided to break out the old toys and photograph a little scene in his honour.  Putting the Storm Trooper over Chewie's head caused some problems as not only did it make it difficult to get the action figure to remain in its pose, but it blocked the light that I was trying to bounce off of the ceiling. To solve the problems, I put another Storm Trooper on the ground behind the Chewbacca figure which served to stabilize the other two.  I then put the Storm Trooper that was in the air at an angle, letting the light better hit Chewbacca's face.  There's still a bit of a shadow in the picture, but it doesn't really bother me as it was a sacrifice I was ready to make to get the blue of Chewie's eyes.  The photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 60mm.  Thanks once again to Mom & Dad for getting me these toys in my younger years.  I'm still playing with them more than 30 years later so guess that's a pretty good return on your investment.

Throwback Thursday

I'm not really a 'Throwback Thursday' kind of guy.  I've always been of the mind that I'd rather post something new rather than something that has already been seen, but there are always exceptions to every rule.  The other day I was watching the evening news when the weather segment came on.  As it came time for the seven day forecast, it took a few seconds before I recognized the background photograph, but once I did, I knew that it was mine.  It would have been nice to get a little photo credit, but part of the small writing with the Weatherpics segment is that CTV gets to use the photographs again, as they did here.  So, while CTV might not have passed along my name, it doesn't mean that I won't.  This photograph of the Jacques Cartier Bridge was taken back in July of 2017 and was one of my first CTV Weatherpics.  It was taken at f/10, 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 70mm.  If you'd like to find out more about the photograph, feel free to take a trip back in time to the original posting. Keep watching the news, you never know when one of my photographs might show up.