Marjolaine Morasse & Élie Dupuis At Parc St-Mark

The pandemic rolls on, but luckily there is still some live music taking place out there.  Every Sunday during the month of September, Marjolaine Morasse and Élie Dupuis have been putting on some open air concerts in local parks, with some added promotion from Longueuil Est Culture.  They've titled the show 'Les Pianos Rassembleurs' in an effort to bring people closer together, though still socially distanced, and have a good time.  Together, they played a selection of their own songs and a couple of covers to a very appreciative Longueuil crowd.  I think the best way to describe the show would be to use their own words.  It's two friends around a piano mixing their musical universes to provide a unique open air moment.  The first photograph was taken at f/4, 1/320sec ISO 100 at 200mm.  Here are several more photographs of the performance.

f/4, 1/320sec, ISO 100 at 135mm

f/4, 1/100sec, ISO 100 at 135mm

 f/4, 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 180mm

f/4, 1/160sec, ISO 100 at 200mm

f/4, 1/100sec, ISO 100 at 135mm

f/4, 1/60sec, ISO 100 at 200mm

f/4, 1/320sec, ISO 100 at 200mm

f/4, 1/400sec, ISO 100 at 130mm

f/4, 1/400sec, ISO 100 at 200mm

f/4, 1/400sec, ISO 100 at 175mm

f/4, 1/800sec, ISO 100 at 70mm

The sun was shining, the temperature wasn't overly warm and even The Heir Apparent was swinging and swaying in the distant grass.  I miss being able to get right up next to the stage to shoot these shows, but that's why telephoto lenses were created.  Have to keep a safe distance.  You can follow the links to find out more about Marjolaine Morasse and Élie Dupuis and their music.  If you live around Longueuil, don't forget to check out the Longueuil Est Culture site for some interesting events.  You might come across Your Friendly Neighbourhood Photographer at one of them some day.

Mr. Blue Sky

A few weeks ago I thought that it might be fun to take The Heir Apparent out for a little boat ride.  There is a ferry service that takes people from Longueuil to Montreal and I thought that it might make for a fun outing.  Unfortunately, present circumstances meant that the ferry was actually put out of commission for the year back in the Spring.  I guess I must have missed that notice.  Though The Heir Apparent will have to wait, I can still relive the ride thanks to some photographs in the archives.  This shot, taken at f/16 1/500sec, ISO 100 at 25mm, was grabbed during a ride a few years back.  As you can see, it was a relatively cloud-free day and the sun was shining bright in the sky. A small aperture and a quick shutter speed helped create the star effect on the sun and darken the buildings.  Hopefully we can take her on that ride next year.  Maybe she'll even enjoy it a little more.

Welcome Autumn

It is easily one of my favourite days of the year, the first day of Autumn.  Or as I prefer to call it, the end of my Summer misery.  It was a particularly hot and humid Summer this year, and I for one am happy to see it go.  As a reward for surviving the sweltering heat, Mother Nature is about to treat us with a wide variety of brilliant colours.  As a little preview of what it is to come, here is a photograph, taken at f/16, 1/125sec, ISO 400 at 35mm, that I took while out on a Fall stroll last year with My Lovely Assistant while visiting my parents.  We're not quite at that level of colour just yet, but after looking around my neighbourhood, I can already see some of the changes in the trees.  So, get your sweater or light jacket ready to take in the sights, because though the colours may be great, they don't stick around for very long.

Maude Audet At Parc Saint-Mark

Here's a shocking headline, it has been a terrible year.  Big shocker, I know.  Just about everything that everyone enjoys has been put on the back-burner.  In my case, one of the things that I enjoy the most is photographing concerts.  I managed to squeeze a few in before 'The Plague', as my father puts it, but it was a very quiet Spring and Summer with things not looking any better for the Fall.  With that in mind, I try to get out anytime I hear about a local park concert to snap a few photographs.  This week, the god folks at Théâtre de la Ville de Longueuil and Longueuil est Culture presented a small concert by Maude Audet in Parc Saint-Marc.  Much like the Jerome 50 show that I photographed a few weeks back (check out the photographs by following the link), the stage was the bed of a pick-up truck that was rolled into the park.  An already accomplished singer-singwriter, she was a finalist for an ADISQ award for Alertnative Album of the Year in 2018 and won Folk Album of the Year from GAMIQ in 2016, she performed some of her best known songs, and a handful from her most recent album, Tu Ne Mourras Pas, which was released in February of this year.  Due to the current pandemic, the crowd was very socially distanced, but still close enough to make for a nice intimate little performance in the park.  The first photograph was taken at f/4, 1/500sec, ISO 3200 at 150mm and the second photograph was taken at f/4, 1/400sec, ISO 3200 at 150mm.  Here are a few more photographs that I took of her performance.

 

f/4, 1/400sec, ISO 3200 at 115mm

f/4, 1/400sec, ISO 3200 at 70mm

f/4, 1/640sec, ISO 3200 at 100mm

f/4, 1/200sec, ISO 1250 at 200mm

f/4, 1/250sec, ISO 3200 at 140mm

f4, 1/250sec, ISO 3200 at 180mm

f/4, 1/640sec, ISO 3200 at 142mm

f/4, 1/640sec, ISO 3200 at 145mm

A good time was certainly had by all.  If you'd like to find out more about Maude Audet and her music, follow the link to her website for more information.  Will there be any more concerts this year?  Only time will tell.

Taste Of Things To Come

One of the yearly activities that My Lovely Assistant and I like to take part in is apple picking.  We have a favourite place that we like to visit, and I'm looking forward to taking The Heir Apparent on her first visit there this year if the conditions are favourable. My Lovely Assistant and I added a couple of apple trees to the new head office in the hope of growing some tasty snacks of our own in the coming years.  In the meantime, since we might not be able to visit the orchard this year, I made a virtual return to the archives instead.  It had rained the night before our visit and there was still some drops on the apples when we arrived so I quickly took some photographs as the sun was beginning to emerge from behind the clouds.  The photograph was taken at f/5.6, 1/100sec, ISO 400 at 62mm.  Here's to hoping we'll be able to pick some fresh apples, and take some fresh photographs soon.

Back To The Beginning

Time flies when you're having fun, and time has certainly flown since I began this little blog a little more than eight years ago.  Here we are, the 1000th update.  This whole thing began as an idea back in July of 2012 because my photographs had been selected to be put on display in a library in Greenfield Park from October to November.  I was trying to find a way to grow my audience in an attempt to get as many people out to see my exhibition as possible.  Since then, there have been two other exhibitions, a stint as the unofficial photographer of a regional newspaper, several appearances on the CTV Montreal Weatherpics segment, several sporting events, a couple of weddings, family photoshoots, some tasty creations made by My Lovely Assistant, music festivals and concerts.  Including in that final group would be a memorable evening at the world renowned Montreal Jazz Festival and a time where my camera and I found ourselves on the floor of the Bell Center in Montreal for a show.  Most recently, we've even seen a few shots of The Heir Apparent.  It's been a year of going back in time, so let's go back to the very beginning, the very first photograph that appeared on this blog.  The photograph was taken at f/22, 30sec, ISO 100 at 43mm from a railroad overpass looking down on Victoria Ave. in Saint-Lambert.  It has certainly been a wild ride, thanks to those of you who have been around since the beginning, and those who have joined up along the way.  I hope that you've found some things to your liking over the last 1000 updates, and that you will continue to do so over how many more updates are yet to come.

It Was That Big

Everyone has a fishing story about the one that got away.  Well, I've never been fishing so I guess I don't, but there must be a few of you out there who have.  It was the first thing I though of after capturing this little moment in time.  I was down in Old Montreal with My Lovely Assistant when we stopped in the Old Port for a little break.  We found a picnic table near the Bonsecours Basin which was surrounded by geese.  They generally minded their own business, but this one was a show-off.  He was constantly flapping his wings, so I took a few shots.  With his wings wide open, it reminded me of that classic story, 'it was that big, but he got away.'  The photograph was taken at f/4, 1/3200, ISO 400 at 68mm.  Luckily, this one didn't get away.

Cross Bridge Traffic

There was a nice big moon the other night that made me thinking about some photographs that have been hanging back in the archives.  I had walked up on the bicycle path that crosses the Jacques Cartier Bridge with the aim of getting some light streak photographs.  As an added bonus, the moon was high up in the air that night as well.  Since this year has been about digging photographs out of the archives, I felt that it was  a good time to pull this one.  The photograph was taken at f/22, 15sec, ISO 100 at 32mm.  There were lots of cars turning right on the bridge exit, but I waited for a truck to go by before taking my shot in order to get that extra row of red lights that you see above the others.  Using the small aperture with a long exposure created the nice star effects on the light and on the moon.  Thankfully, there was no traffic that evening.  Light streaks are more fun than motionless automobiles.

Keeping An Eye On You

Things haven't exactly gone the way we thought they would this year.  I'd complain more, but seeing as how that phrase applies to everyone out there on the internets, there really isn't any point.  Trying to keep things positive, it has allowed me to spend lots of time with The Heir Apparent.  As previously mentioned, I am enamored with her eyes and spend as much time looking into them as possible.  Photographing them as well.  You get a nice feel for the curve of her eye and the sharpness of her little eyelashes.  The little curve of her nose makes a nice little slope of blurred colour in the background.  The photograph was taken at f/4, 1/100sec, ISO 400 at 70mm.  Hope all of you out there have some positive things to spend your time looking at too.