Open Up And Say...Ahhh

When I was young I remember I would often find myself looking up to the sky and watching the clouds.  I would find all kinds of fluffy shapes and objects up there.  Maybe I'm easily entertained, but when I see everyone today looking down at their phones, I'm reminded to take a look up at the clouds.  I did so the other day and was met with looked like a mouth opening and sticking its tongue out.  Since I'm interested by such things, I went and grabbed my camera.  The photograph was taken at f/16, 1/320sec, ISO 100 at 70mm.  I was kind of hoping that a plane would fly by at that moment so it would look like it was escaping the cloud mouth, but it wasn't meant to be and a few minutes later, the clouds had disappeared.  I'll keep looking up though, there is always something interesting going on up there.

Furry Little Friend

Back in December when My Lovely Assistant and I moved the Head Office, we discovered a little trio of rabbits who would hang out by a walking path close to the house.  We continued to see them through Winter and Spring, but after disappearing for a few weeks, we began to spot them munching on the neighbours lawn over the last couple of days.  One of them returned this past Saturday so I grabbed my camera and tried to get a shot.  He was busy munching the wildflowers to really notice me, so I pulled out my keys and gave them a little jangle, just enough to get him to stick his head up long enough to take my picture.  The photograph was taken at f/4, 1/160sec, ISO 400 at 200mm.  After grabbing my photograph, I let my furry buddy continue his meal in peace.  Mostly because I'm much more happier to see him munch on wildflowers rather than finding him doing the same in my garden.

Forgotten Sunset

One of the fun things about taking a trip through the archives is stumbling upon something I wasn't looking for.  I was searching for some unused fireworks photographs, but came across this sunset shot instead.  I would show up very early to claim a good spot to shoot the fireworks, which meant I was already in place and installed when the sun would begin to set.  That allowed me to catch this shot of the sun setting behind some ominous looking clouds, with a nice bit of red coming out from behind and reflecting on the water.  Playing with the shutter speed allowed me to put the boats that were lining up for the show in a silhoutte and making the red that much more prominent.  The photograph was taken at f/7.1, 1/15sec, ISO 100 at 62mm.  To go back in time and see the fireworks that took place a little later, go ahead and follow the link.

The Balance Of Light & Dark

Those Star Wars fans out there should know that The Force can best be described as a connection and energy between all things, a balance of light and dark.  Well, judging by this photograph, it appears that The Heir Apparent may have a little bit of The Force in her.  She may soon find herself deciding which side she falls on.  Will she follow the Light of the Jedi Order or be seduced by the Dark Side.  I suppose that only time will tell, but in the meantime I'll think I'll keep my eye on her stroller to make sure it doesn't start to fly or if she starts Force choking her stuffed animals.  The photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/4000sec, ISO 400 at 70mm.  To those who may be doubting the growing powers of The Heir Apparent, much like Darth Vader, I find your lack of faith disturbing.

Explosive Memory

It's a Wednesday night in July, which means that under normal circumstances, I might have been shooting some fireworks tonight.  I had already resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn't be able to photograph all of the shows this year since we moved The Head Office back in December.  However, I had hoped to be able to sneak in a show or two here and there.  Sadly, the whole L'International des feux Loto-Quebéc  competition got cancelled this year, so we'll have to look to the past for some present entertainment.  This photograph, taken at f/10, 4sec, ISO 100 at 46mm came from a show back in 2017.  The display was put together by the Macedos Pirotecnia company.  Feel free to follow that link back to their offical website.    I might dig out a few more of these before the season ends.  If you'd like to see the other photographs that I took of this show, feel free to follow the link.

Backyard Sunset

My continued search for a nice spot to photograph the setting sun took me to my backyard the other night.  I was helping to bring in the dishes after supper and took a look across the backyard when I noticed the sky.  It was a bit of a dark orange and from where I was standing, the neighbours silhouetted tree stood out nicely against the sky.  So, I did what I always do, I grabbed my camera and snapped away using a couple of different shutter speeds to try and capture the colour.  The photograph was taken at f/4, 1/200sec, ISO 100 at 200mm.  It's not quite as glorious as a large steel bridge, but I've always enjoyed sunsets and silhouettes together.  The final result was a nice surprise, but the search goes on.

Musical Memories

Since musicians can't give concerts in the usual pre-COVID fashion at the moment, some of them have taken to having online virtual concerts.  Such is the case for Matt Lang, who you are seeing a photograph of on the left of the page.  Obviously, I won't be shooting the show, but this does allow me to take a nice trip down a musical memory lane.  Back on Canada Day in 2018, Matt Lang was the headline performer at the annual Greenfield Park celebration.  I was in the crowd for that show, with camera in hand.  It was a great performance that night, and I was even happier when I got home and looked at my photographs.  I had recently been bitten by the music photography bug and was wondering how some unknown like myself could maybe advance in that world.  Those photographs came out so well that a few months later I sent off a request for a photo pass for an indoor show and was accepted.  Many shows have come and gone since then, but if it wasn't for that one Matt Lang show, I might not have found the courage or belief to take that extra step forward.  This photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/160sec, ISO 3200 at 62mm. If you'd like to go back in time to see the other photographs that I took of that show, you can find them by following this link.  If you'd like to find out more about Matt Lang and his music, don't forget to follow this link to his website.  Finally, if you're interested in watching his virtual concert tomorrow night (July 10th), you can follow this link or the following link to the TD Musicparc site to find out where he'll be performing later this month at a drive-in theater near you.

Go Jump In The Lake

I usually try and come up with a clever little title for some of these blog updates, but there wasn't much racking of the old brain to be done with this one.  In order to get these photographs, I did actually jump into a lake.  These are a couple of shots from a few years back.  When I took them, I thought they were going to be my hit photographs of the summer.  They ended up in the 'back-up photos in case the fireworks get rained out' section of my archives.  Those of you with astute eyes may have noticed that the watermark reads '2019'.  The photographs are actually a little bit older than that, but by the time I noticed the year, the update was already written and ready to post.  Well, the fireworks didn't get rained out, but they ended up falling victim to the Coronavirus, like a good many things this year.  So, I figured it was a good time to pull them out of the archives and into the light of day.  Especially on a day like today when a good many of us would probably like nothing more than a lake to jump into.  As mentioned, to get these photographs, I actually had to go into a lake.  My Lovel Assistant's family had a cottage near Mt. Tremblant, and we would head up there once in a while.  I took the battery pack off of my camera and crouched down low in the water to get as close to the surface as possible.  My Lovely Assistant served as my water alarm if the camera would get a little close to the water.  Being that low helped me get some nice reflections and added a little bit of colour to the photographs.  Speaking of which, the first photograph at the top of the page was taken at f/2, 1/400sec, ISO 100 at 50mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/13, 1/40sec, ISO 400 at 50mm and the third photograph was taken at f/1.8. 1/3200sec, ISO 400 at 50mm.  Here is another photograph to finish the set off.

f/1.8, 1/500sec, ISO 100 at 50mm

Getting back to those of you with astute eyes, did any of you happen to catch the tiny little bug on the head of the water weed?  You're forgiven if you didn't see it, but I was quite happy to have captured him in my shot.  Until next time, try and stay cool out there.

Canada Day Concert Memories

Since all of 2020's events have been cancelled thus far, I've been taking little trips down memory lane to some of the fun events that I got to photograph last year.  They provide a happy little distraction for me, hopefully they do the same for some of you.  Today, we're going to revisit the Canada Day celebrations that took place in Greenfield Park.  I'd been going the last couple of years, shooting photographs from the crowd.  Since I had been having some success getting passes to shows, I figured I'd try my luck with some city work.  I sent off a request for a pass, and they liked my work enough to give me one.  While it can be fun to shoot from the crowd, being in the pit is much more thrilling.  There were only four photographers at the show, and there was no three song limit so I was free to walk all around the front of the stage.  The other great thing about having a pass, I was able to leave the pit from time to time and shoot some photographs from different points of view.  Something you can't do shooting from the crowd.  If I'm at the front of the stage for the first group, I need to stay there for the rest of the event because otherwise my prime spot will quickly be taken by someone else.  There were three bands performing that day.  Les Jacks opened the festivities, followed by Five Roses.  The headliner for the evening was Christian Marc Gendron and after a fireworks display, the crowd was treated to a dance party by DJ Miss Shelton.  She is also the subject of the first photograph of this update.  It was taken at f/2.8, 1/125sec, ISO 5000 at 70mm.  You can see more of the photographs that I took of her by following this link, and don't forget to visit her website to find out more about her and her music.  The second photograph of Les Jacks was taken at f/2.8, 1/500sec, ISO 400 at 70mm.  You can find more of the photographs that I took of the by following the link.  You can also find out more about them and their music by visiting their website.  The third photograph of Five Roses was taken at f/2.8, 1/250sec, ISO 400 at 70mm.  You can see more of the photographs that I took of their performance by following the link and you can find out more about them and their music by following this link to their website.  One more photograph to go.

f/2.8, 1/100sec, ISO 3200 at 70mm

Follow this link to see other photographs that I took of the performance

Follow this link to find out more about Christian Marc Gendron and his music

Add the Jazzfest photographs from the last update, and that made back-to-back night of shooting multiple acts on stage.  Needless to say, I came home with an enormous amount of photographs to dig through and edit.  Not quite as much fun as shooting, but all part of the great fun that is shooting shows.  I hope that I can get back to it again some time soon.