Damien Robitaille For Longueuil Est Culture

If I may speak selfishly for a moment, other than obviously being unable to see the members of my family, the thing that I am missing the most during this current pandemic is photographing shows.  I had a terrific year behind the lens in 2019, and things had gotten off to a good start this year before the entire world got turned upside down.  I ended up photographing several of the summer concerts put on by Longueuil est culture in various parks and I noticed that some of those artists are putting on little shows from their home to try and break up the monotony of our confined to home days.  The latest artist to do so is Damien Robitaille, who I photographed last year at Parc Fernand-Bouffard in Longueuil.  It was a great show, and a very fun time as I was also dodging the rain drops that were falling on my head while getting some shots.  If you'd like to see more of my photographs from that show, follow the link to the original posting, and if you'd like to see his show over the internet tomorrow, follow this link to the Longueuil est Culture Facebook page to find out how.  While I'm dishing out the links, don't forget to visit Damien Robitaille's website to find out more about him and his music.

Comfort Food

It's been a while since I've featured some of My Lovely Assistant's handy work here on The Old Blog.  If ever there was a time for a little bit of comfort food, I figured this was it.  This lovely little milk & cookies display was pulled out of the pantry, or should I say my archives.  My Lovely Assistant had whipped up a batch of her famous almond cookies as a treat that was to be served at the vernissage for my photography exhibition, Point de Vue, which took place at the Greenfield Park Library back in March of 2017.  A fun time was had by all that night as both the photographs and the snacks were a big hit.  The photograph was taken at f/8, 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 55mm with some flash bounced off of the ceiling against a white cardboard background.  As usual, the cookies were even tastier than they look.

Great Ball Of Fire

There are a whole lot of new words that we use on a daily basis that were never really part of our vocabulary before.  Not a day goes by that we don't hear about self-isolation, quarantines or social distancing.  I was out on the road late last week when I noticed the sun setting by the Jacques Cartier Bridge.  As I passed by, it looked as if the sun was trapped inside the structure.  So, with an image in my mind and my gear now in the car, I returned two night later to see if I could get my shot.  Right on time, the sun began to drop from the sky and tucked itself right in the middle of the steel structure.  Almost as if it was quarantining itself from the sky.  I sent the shot off to CTV Weather Specialist Lori Graham and next thing I knew, it was on the noon newscast.    The photograph was taken at f/16, 1/500sec, ISO 100 at 200mm.  Thanks once again to Lori Graham and the gang down at CTV Montreal for airing my photograph.  The Heir Apparent was very happy to see her Dad's name on the television screen.

Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head

It was another grey and rainy Sunday so what better time to take another trip into the archives to pull out another lost photograph.  Keeping in time with the weather, I remembered a photograph I took while My Lovely Assistant and I were away on vacation in Lac Kénogami a few years back. The first day we were there it did nothing by rain so I ended up sitting on the deck of our cottage and tried to capture the raindrops as they fell from this leaf.  Nothing real spectacular but it did help to pass the time.  Since it was so grey, I really needed to up the ISO, thus all of the grain in the photograph.  I managed to grab this one just before it fell to the ground.  A small success.  The photograph was taken at f/4, 1/1250sec, ISO 3200 at 200mm.  If you'd like to see a couple more sunnier photographs from the same trip, feel free to follow the link to some photographs that I took from the Cap À L'Aigle lookout.

Social Distancing

Social distancing is a term that none of us had heard of a few months ago, but it's pretty much all our realities at the moment.  The term brought back a memory of a photograph that I had taken a while back.  This was taken while My Lovely Assistant and I were on a trip to Tadoussac.  We were leaving on a whale watching trip when I noticed this couple standing on the rocks as our boat was leaving the harbour.  I didn't know it at the time, but seeing how isolated they are, you could say that they were the original social distancers.  It was a fun trip, one that we'll probably repeat one day with The Heir Apparent.  The photograph was taken at f/3.5, 1/640sec, ISO 100 at 200mm.  Sadly the whales were hiding that day, but it was still a memorable outing.

Looking For A Sign

I'm not really one to look to The Big Guy above for answers, but with the way that things are going on in the world right now maybe it might be a good time to ask a question or two.  Before the celebrations got cancelled, this weekend would have been Easter.  Since I'm still in the process of digging through my archives, I remembered that I had these pictures from a visit My Lovely Assistant and I made to the Percé region of the Gaspé a few years back.  During a hike up Mont Sainte-Anne, we found this little open air area of worship.  There were these wooden pews, and carved into them were some crosses.  I thought it would be kind of cool to take a shot of the sky through the hole made by the cross.  The photograph was taken at f/3.5, 1/3200, ISO 100 at 34mm.  I hope you managed to have a Happy Easter wherever you may be.

Looking For The Man In The Moon

It's been a while since I've taken my camera out for some fresh air, or maybe it's the other way around.  We had a Super Moon last night, the second of 2020.  With maybe a slight case of cabin fever, I headed out the door in search of a nice background to shoot my Super Moon with.  Sadly, my quest came up empty.  I had thought about shooting the moon next to a local church steeple, but it wasn't in the right part of the sky.  With my bag of ideas a little low, I decided to break-out the telephoto lens and go with a classic zoom shot.  The photograph was taken a f/16, 1/50sec, ISO 100 at 200mm.  There won't be any more Super Moon's this year, so I guess that gives me a chance to look around and try to find a nicer background for the next time.

Fake Drawings

One of the reasons I took up photography was to be able to capture some of the interesting images that I would stumble upon in daily life.  One of the reasons why I wanted to capture them with a camera was because I wasn't able to recreate them myself.  One of the things that has always annoyed me is my complete lack of ability when it comes to drawing.  All the way back in school, I was always impressed by the people who could grab a bunch of coloring pencils and end with with a work of art mere moments later.  I have a hard enough time drawing a stick man, forget all about a complex city scene.  

This set of pictures comes from a visit up on the deck of the Jacques Cartier Bridge several years back to watch the fireworks.  The fireworks ended up being a bust, but I really liked this wide-angle shot.  I was still new to using Photoshop back then, so I ended up playing with a bunch of the filters and ended up finding one that had a water colour effect and another was pencil effect.  I kinda liked that one.  It took an okay photograph and gave it a bit of a different look.  Something that I would have liked to draw myself.  The photograph was taken at f/16, 13sec, ISO 100 at 32mm and then fiddled around with in Photoshop.  Just a little bit of fun.

Tag Team Champions Of The World

Seeing as how we're all confined to our homes, I might as well play with some of my toys.  As luck would have it, it's also WrestleMania weekend, a time when I usually put up a little portrait of some of my plastic friends.  Due to the virus that's going around, WrestleMania is a two day event this year, so we'll keep things current by photographing two wrestlers.  My favourite tag team from years gone by, Ax & Smash, Demolition!  I set them up on my cardboard background under the kitchen light and then used some directional flash to put a nice shine on them.  The photograph was taken at f/16, 1/200sec, ISO 100 at 50mm.  With everything that is going on, it may be a good time to dig through the old toy box and see what other things we might find.

Sleeping On The Job

She's relatively new to the company, but The Heir Apparent has already been caught sleeping on the job.  I wasn't planning on sharing may photographs of the newest member of the corporation here on The Old Blog, but it's been a kind of crummy few weeks for just about everyone out there.  Since she makes me smile when I look at her, I thought maybe this photograph may serve a similar psychological effect for some of you out there too.  I get the feeling that smiles are getting to be in short supply, so we decided to see if we could help.  The photograph was taken at f/9, 1/250sec, ISO 4000 at 50mm and has a guest appearance from a so far unnamed bear.  The Heir Apparent has proven to be a very willing model.