May I See Your Pass

While the local birds still seem to be refusing the invitations to visit my yard, my parents seem to have a much more social group of birds around their house.  Though the birds may be regular visitors, they sometimes wonder about the stranger who visits from time to time and is often pointing a large lens at them.  This Blue Jay seemed to find my presence in the backyard to be quite interesting.  He spent a short amount of time up in the tree trying to decide if I was friend or foe before making his way to the feeder.  Either that, or he was wondering if I had the proper accreditation to be taking a photograph of the star he believes himself to be.  The photograph was taken a f/2.8, 1/320sec, ISO 400 at 200mm.  He eventually did make his way to the feeder, meaning he either got comfortable with my being there, or he was just hungry.  Guess we'll never know.

My Kind of Dogs

I've been digging through the archives of late and suddenly realized that it has been a long time since any of My Lovely Assistant's creations have been featured here on The Old Blog.  I came upon these little chocolate dogies that she whipped up for her niece's birthday a few years back.  The bodies were made of little chocolate bars and Hersey Kisses were used for the heads.  The eyes and nose were edible sugar decorations while the ears and tails were other pieces of chocolate that were melted down and then reshaped into the necessary doggy parts.  As an added little touch, she had also created little birthday hats for all of them.  To get the photographs, I placed them on our cutting board to get a nice background and then angled myself so that it looked like they were all looking up at me.  For the second shot, the little party hats were added and I used a flatter angle.  Some flash was bounced off of the ceiling for both of the photographs. The first photograph was taken at f/4, 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 65mm and the second photograph was taken at f/10, 1/20sec, ISO 100 at 68mm.  While it may not have been a 'from scratch' creation, it was tasty none the less.  Though there were pretty cute, I don't believe that any of those little dogies ended up making the ride home with us.

 

Christmas In July

One of my favourite Christmas activities is upon arrival at my parents house, I head right to the tree and try to find out where my old buddy Jack Frost is hiding.  'Elf On The Shelf' may have been all of the rage these last few years, but Jack Frost has been hiding in our family tree going back as far as I can remember. Due to 'The Plague', I didn't get to look for my old friend this past Christmas, so I figured I'd look for him in the archives to celebrate Christmas in July.  Sure enough, I found him hidden in the digital files of my computer, surrounded by the bright lights and round shapes of the decorations he enjoys hiding behind.  The photograph was taken at f/4, 1/30sec, ISO 800 at 54mm.  If all continues to go as it is at the moment, I should be able to look for my old friend again this coming Christmas. I certainly hope that I will be.  Merry Christmas in July to all and to all a warm and humid night.

Warning Shots

I think that I may be suffering from a case of fireworks withdrawl.  After attending almost every show at the annual L'International des Feux Loto-Québec over the last 10 years, this second year of nothing exploding in the sky above me is wearing on me.  Since I would always show up early for these shows in order to get a good spot, I was always on hand for the warning shots that would go off 15 and 10 minutes before the show would begin.  I really loved shooting those warning shots because the sky was always clear of smoke and the lights of the Jacques Cartier Bridge, which get turned off during the fireworks, remain on which adds an extra something to the shot.  The photograph was taken at f/16, 52sec, ISO 100 at 70mm and cropped to 12" x 4".  If you would like to see the other photographs that I took during the show, you can do so by following the link.  Hopefully I'll be hearing the explosions roaring over me again soon.

Archived Sunset

I've been spending a little time going through the archives the last few days.  Summer heat and I are not a good mix, so unless I'm out walking with The Heir Apparent, much of summer is spent in air conditioned comfort.  I took a look inside one of the sunset folders from a few years back and noticed a nice vertical shot that I hadn't used.  One photo from that set did get used though, and it aired on the CTV Weatherpix segment.  If you'd like to check that out, just follow this link.  Getting back to this photograph, which was taken at f/16, 1/125sec, ISO 100 at 123mm, I remember that I had climbed a snow bank in a parking lot close to the former Head Office in order to get a better view of the Biosphere.  I waited it out for the sun to get to just the right spot behind the buildings of Montreal which also led to a nice golden hue.  The original photograph was more of a close-up of the Biosphere, but I also like this one with the cloud cover as well.  Another nice photograph that ended up getting lost in the archives.  It's a nice cool place to visit and get away from the Summer heat.

 

 

Ring Of Fire

We've reached the midpoint of July, which means that in other pre-Plague years, we'd be half way done with the annual Loto-Québec Fireworks Competition would have be half done as well.  The annual competition was cancelled for the second year in a row, so I've been going through my old folders looking for some unused shots from previous years.  That's when I stumbled upon this shot from the display produced by South Korean company, Hanwah Corporation, back in July of 2019.  I was really impressed with their display at the time and was sure that they would win the Golden Jupiter Award that year.  I guess the judges didn't agree with me as they ended up in fifth place, but their display really impressed me by including pyrotechnic elements that I have never before seen.  Including this ring of fire effect.  I had originally wanted to do this as a vertical shot with the reflection of the fireworks in the water, but there was a boat unfortunately placed in the reflection so my inner perfectionist wasn't happy.  So, I went with this square crop instead.  The photograph was taken at f/16, 20sec, ISO 100 at 41mm.  Then, because I am a bit of a completist, I went and cropped it vertically anyway.

Looking at the older photographs is fun, but I'm looking forward to being able to shoot some live explosions again some day soon.

Sunflower Admirers

As we continue to roll through the month of July, the flowers continue to grow in the yard.  That means that there will be more photographs to take soon, so I had better go back into the archives and actually post some of the flower photographs from last year.  This is a sunflower that was growing at my parents house.  It was originally meant to be the star of the photograph, but as I was walking around to find a good view, I noticed that a couple of wasps were flying around, looking for some pollen.  However, these were some wasps that I had never seen before.  They had the same regular striped body that everyone is familiar with, but their heads and upper bodies were green.  I had never seen anything like that before.  I waited for both of them to land on the flower, which took a while because they seemed to always be trying to get rid of each other.  I guess wasps also annoy other wasps and not just humans.  The photograph was taken at f/6.3, 1/125sec, ISO 100 at 200mm.  When you're walking around with a camera, you never know what you're going to see.

Have You A Snack To Spare

I'm a fan of all little critters, but my favourite backyard critter has always been the chipmunk.  There were always a couple running around the yard at our cottage and I was always willing to share some bread or peanuts with them.  This little guy showed up while we were visiting my parents last summer.  They've always got some peanuts on hand for such visitors, so as soon as he showed up, I grabbed a handful of nuts and my camera.  I was using a telephoto lens so that I could remain far enough away from my little buddy so he wouldn't be scared off.  I would toss the occasional peanut in his direction, he would eat it, and then stand on his hind feet to see if any more nuts would soon by flying his way.  The photograph was taken at f/4, 1/250sec, ISO 1600 at 168mm.  He got a few more snacks before we left for home.  It's hard to find a good model that will work for peanuts.

Waiting For The Show To Begin

July is usually the month where the sky over Montreal is lit up with exploding flashes of colourful noise.  But, for the second year in a row, 'The Plague' has caused the annual Montreal International Fireworks Competition to be cancelled.  Granted, since moving the Head Office, my days of photographing every one of the shows was probably over anyway, but I would have certainly tried to get in a couple of the shows per year. I'd always be sure to arrive nice and early to get a good spot, but also to get some of the pre-show fun.  From this particular spot, I was able to catch the lights of the passing boats, the rides of the La Ronde amusement park, some of the skyscrapers of Montreal and in this case, a couple of passing drones and two of the warning fireworks explosions.  All kinds of fun stuff.  The photograph was taken at f/22, 20sec, ISO100 at 35mm.  Hopefully things will have calmed down enough so that the fireworks can return next year.