Red Window

We began the week with a nice shot of the Victoria Bridge, so we might as well end the week with one as well. This is the kind of photograph that would have probably ended up lost in the archives if it didn't get posted today.  When I take several photographs on one day, I tend to post one rather quickly, but the others tend to get buried in my hard drive.  After taking the photograph with that appeared on Monday, view it by following this link, I walked around the area a bit before turning to make my way back to the car.  I stopped by where that first photograph had been taken and where the sun had once been, there was now a bright red sky.  With the way that the bridge is built, it kind of looks like a framed sunset within the photograph as the rest of the sky is a nice light blue.  The photograph was taken at f/16, 1/160sec, ISO 400 at 24mm.  Always keep your eyes open, even when walking back to the car.  There's always something interesting, waiting to be seen.

Victoria Bridge Day

No, there isn't actually a Victoria Bridge Day, though there probably should be.  There have been a few facelifts over the years, but the stone piers that hold up the structure were built between 1854 and 1859. It is often the Jacques Cartier Bridge that gets featured here on The Old Blog, but the Victoria Bridge is my favourite of the Montreal bridges.  It is just unfortunate that I don't have as much access to it during the winter days when the sun sets much closer to it.  I still managed to get this shot of the sun sneaking out from under the deck of the bridge. At first, I thought that I had screwed up my ISO setting as the sunset looked real grainy.  It was only after looking a little closer that I figured out that all of the grain, was actually a bunch of insects trying to get their fill of sunlight before it went down for the night.  The photograph was taken at f/16, 1/125sec, ISO 100 at 24mm.  If you'd like to learn a little bit more about the Victoria Bridge, the National Film Board of Canada produced a nice little film about it back in 1987.  It is voiced by local radio celebrity Terry DiMonte, who is retiring from broadcasting this Friday.  Thanks for the great memories and great tunes Terry.  If you'd like to see the video, you can do so by following this link.  Hope you all have a great Victoria Bridge Day.

Feeling Nostalgic

We're currently on the second time around the calendar when it comes to events that have been cancelled due to The Plague, and this weekend marks the second year in row that one of my favourite events, the Saint-Lambert Classic Car Exhibition, was cancelled.  I know that in the great scheme of things a cancelled car show isn't very high on the list of current world problems, but it was always a fun outing.  Classic cars and good music make for an entertaining day.  To help get back to a happier time, here is the hood of a 1967 GTO and some shots of the Baby Boomer's Band.  The hood ornament was a nice little example of how the light can fall differently on an uneven surface.  You can clearly see the demarcation down the center of the hood where the ornament it located.  A little visual touch that caught my eye.  The other two shots of the band and their fans are hopefully an appetizer for what soon may be able to return.  The photograph of the hood ornament was taken at f/4, 1/8000sec, ISO 400 at 48mm.  Here are the two other photographs.

f/2.8, 1/800sec, ISO 100 at 115mm

f/2.8, 1/500sec, ISO 100 at 70mm

Hopefully my complaining will soon end and we can all go back to seeing classic cars, old-time rock and roll bands and whatever else our little hearts desire shortly.  It certainly will do us a world of good.

In Bloom

We'll stay in my backyard for this update.  There are lots of things in bloom at this time of the year, but the little tree in our backyard really caught my attention.  My Lovely Assistant tells me that it looked the same last year, but I don't remember it at all. I guess my mind was on other plague related thing last Spring.  After the morning sun cleared the roof, it hits the tree just right. I had originally planned on taking some photographs of it the week before, but it got real cloudy and the light was never right. I spent the rest of the week watching as more flowers bloomed and more leaves appeared.  I was afraid they would cut into my view, but I still found a little corner of flower blooms to shoot. The photograph was taken at f/4, 1/640sec, ISO 100 at 70mm.  There's all kinds of nice things out there to look at right now, go see Mother Nature at work.

Itsy Bitsy Spider

Since the arrival of The Heir Apparent, I have been revisiting several of the old nursery rhymes that I remember being sung to me when I was young.  One of my favourites from that long ago time was Itsy Bitsy Spider, conveniently often sung to me by my Grandmother next to their waterspout.   Last year, we added a couple of apple trees to the yard and the Cortland tree is already in full bloom.  I thought I'd get a few photographs of the flowers before they hopefully become apples.  While I was trying to find the right angle, I noticed something moving out of the corner of my eye.  Sure enough, there was an itsy, bitsy spider running around the petals.  I waited for the little guy to stop running, and it was fortunately in a good spot, so I quickly took the photograph.  It was taken at f/4, 1/1600sec, ISO 100 at 70mm.  I always enjoy photographing flowers, but it's always nice to get a little insect friend come in for a guest appearance.

Leaving On A Jet Plane

There is something impressive about watching an airplane take off.  The roar of the jets, the rumble of the ground and just watching this large chunk of steel rolling down the runway at high speed before finally lifting up off the ground and flying away. Since moving the head office, I've been wanting to try an capture a take-off, but the scheduling never seemed to work out.  On Sunday, I took the time to quickly scan the departures schedule and saw that one of the big jets would be taking off in 15 minutes.  I quickly hoped in the car and made it to the airport just at the plane was taxiing from the hanger to the runway.  I had hoped to get a view straight on to the runway, but there were several obstructions, including a pesky chain link fence meant to keep people like me out.  So, I climbed up a short foothill and tried to get an angle as the plane began to take off.  I took the photograph at f/16, 1/500sec, ISO 400 at 175mm.  I'll keep poking my nose around the airport to see if I can find a better view for the future.

Flowers For Mom

I guess the title is a little bit misleading.  Rather than flowers, it is three photographs of a single flower.  A good way to make my dollar go a little further.  All kidding aside, this will be my second missed Mother's Day, and I think I can speak for all of the other people out there who are unable to see their Mom when I say that I hope the old saying of 'never two without three' will not apply in this instance.  This flower was bought last year and had a prominent place on my deck all Summer.  There was just something about the colour and pollen that really caught my attention when I saw it.  So, I figured since we can't be together, I might as well share my favourite flower with my Mom, and to any of you other Moms out there who might not be getting your usual visit.  The first photograph was taken at f/9, 1/500sec, ISO 100 at 70mm.  Here are a couple different views.

f/9, 1/500sec, ISO 100 at 70mm

f/9, 1/640sec, ISO 100 at 70mm

Happy Mother's Day Mom.  Hopefully we'll see each other again soon. The Plague can't go on forever....right?

I Am A Jedi

Since it's another Fourth of May, that means that it is time once again to open the toy box and remember the fun times of years gone by.  For those of you who may need a reminder, the Fourth of May is Star Wars Day due to the similarity in the way the day is spoken, and the famous salutation of the Jedi, 'May the Force be with you.'  'May the Force'....'May the Forth', not much else needs to be said.  Last year, I dusted off an old Darth Vader figure and decided to try and broaden my admittedly limited Photoshop skills to add a glowing light-saber to the Dark Lord of the Sith.  So, this year I figured I'd do the same with a Jedi Master who began as a simple moisture farmer on Tatooine.  Of course, I'm talking about Luke Skywalker.  I put our Jedi Master in the middle of a Rosemary plant.  An odd choice to be sure, but I wanted some kind of different background than a piece of cardboard.  I also liked the way it kind of looked like the leaves were trying to reach out and trap our hero.  The photograph was taken at f/16, 1/100sec, ISO 100 at 63mm with a little bit of added flash bounced off of the ceiling.  I then used my little Photoshop tricks I learned last year to add the glowing effect to Luke's light-saber and we were off to save the galaxy, or at least my Rosemary plant.  May The Forth, I mean The Force, be with you.

Sleepy Eye

I know that it doesn't really show much here on The Old Blog, but The Heir Apparent has quickly become my most photographed subject. The Jacques Cartier Bridge may have been getting lots of looks here over the last few weeks, but the amount of photographs I have of that structure, or anything else for that matter, pales in comparison to the pixels that have been dedicated to our little one.  While the public hasn't seen any of these shots. I have decided to share her eyes with those of you out there. In this instance, those eyes were on the verge of closing for a much needed nap.  The photograph was taken at f/4, 1/400sec, ISO 800 at 200mm.  I of course used a long focal length for the shot because I'm not sure that my subject would have appreciated having a Macro lens shoved into her face as she was trying to snooze.  I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't have appreciated it anyway.  I hope she had sweet dreams.