Colourful Birthday

The Head Office was party central the other night as we were celebrating The Heir Apparent's 2nd Birthday. They say that time flies when you're having fun, and I for one can't believe that it has already been two years since she joined the team.  You don't see very much of her here on the blog, but she plays a vital role behind the scenes as chief photo selector.  When there are multiple photos to chose from, I always go with the one that gets her 'Oooh' of approval.  Which was the case of this photo of her birthday cake, created by my very talented Lovely Assistant.  Food photography has kind of taken a backseat here of late, which is kind of odd since with all of the restrictions and lock downs, we've all been home with nowhere else to go.  The photograph was taken at f/16, 1/200sec, ISO 100 at 63mm with some flash to bring out the colours.  A very tasty rainbow indeed.

Looking A Little Wider

 

I had intended for the last update to be two photographs, but it was meant to be two different sized photographs of the one you are seeing here.  That plan got put to the side when Lori Graham of CTV Montreal decided to air both photographs that I had submitted of the ice fog on the frozen Saint-Lawrence River this past weekend.  You can follow the link to go back and see the video and the two  other photographs.  This was probably my favourite of the two, and was also the favourite of The Heir Apparent who was with me when it was taken.  For the second version, I had decide to crop it a little more wide in order get the Biosphere into the photograph, as well as more of the frosty trees from Île Sainte-Hélène.  It was taken at f/7.1, 1/500sec, ISO 100 at 24mm.  A nice crisp morning of photography and numb fingers.

Montreal In January

 

 

As we were saying a few days back, everything looks better in the Winter.  The colder, the better.  It certainly was cold this past Saturday morning.  The temperature with wind chill was into the minus 30's Celsius, so that meant that I had to head down to the river.  A quick check of the traffic cameras showed that there was a huge cloud of ice fog hovering over Montreal and I can't pass up the chance to make my fingers numb.  I headed to the foot of the Jacques Cartier Bridge in order to get a shot of the bridge disappearing into the frozen mist.  A little later, I was back on the road dropping off My Lovely Assistant for her Day Job and had The Heir Apparent with me.  After dropping off My Lovely Assistant, we drove back to the Pont de la Concorde to take a wider shot of the disappearing bridge and all of the ice on the river.  I knew I had a good photograph on my hands when I got into the backseat with the Heir Apparent afterwards and she gave a 'Ooooohhh' after seeing it on the camera.  That reaction is usually reserved for photographs that I take of her, so I figured it was pretty good.  I sent them off to Weather Specialist Lori Graham at CTV Montreal and she was kind enough to air them during the evening newscast.  I say it often, but thank you very much Lori, it is always great to see my name on the television.  The first photograph was taken at f/7.1, 1/500sec, ISO 100 at 24mm and the second photograph was taken at f/7.1, 1/100sec, ISO 100 at 35mm.  It's true, nothing says 'Montreal in January', like a nice thick cloud of ice fog.  Bring on the cold weather, I most enjoy it.

Smoke On The Frozen Water

We're about to head into another deep freeze here in this part of the world, and no, I am not complaining.  Our previous dip in the temperature saw the windchill hit a chilly -28C.  For most people, that would be a good reason to maybe sleep in a little bit and snuggle under some warm covers.  For me, it means that it's time to head down to the river and feel the mist freeze against my face.  I went down to my favourite spots with view down the St, Lawrence river towards the new and old Champlain Bridges.  I was there a little after sunrise so it was still low on the river.  I angled myself to get some lens flares in the shot and to get some nice ice fog.  I really like it when the ice fog looks like it is reaching up from the water, trying to grab at the sun.  The photograph was taken at f/16, 1/40sec, ISO 100 at 57mm.  I underexposed the photograph a little bit to bring out the blue of the sky and make the fog a little more golden.  Everything looks better when it's cold

Up To His Neck

We ended up getting less snow than was predicted, but it was still enough to put my little yard friend in a rather precarious position.  You may remember meeting him back in December, a little bit before Christmas.  Feel free to refresh your memory by following this link.  About 16cm's of snow has fallen today, a little short of the 20-25 that had been originally predicted.  After doing a little shoveling, I noticed the plight of our little reindeer.  As you can see, he is up to his neck in trouble.  I waited for out Christmas lights to turn on and then tried to find an angle to best describe the serious the situation is.  The photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/125sec, ISO 1600 at 200mm.  I suppose that I should go dig out our friend, but despite being up to his neck in snow, he still seems rather comfortable

A Tall Frosty One

It was a crisp and invigorating -30 something Celsius on Tuesday morning.  The kind of morning that would usually find me down by the water looking for some ice fog.  There was some out there to be seen, however I had to be at The Day Job and thus missed out.  Luckily, there are a few frozen shots laying around in the archives for such an occasion.  This shot was taken down by the St. Lawrence River, looking out towards what was then the Molson brewery but will soon be turned into high price condos.  The ice fog was pretty thick that day.  If you'd like to see a couple other photographs that I took that day, which also appeared on the evening CTV Montreal newscast at the time, you can do so by following link #1 and link #2.  This photograph was taken at f/16, 1/320sec, ISO 100 at 70mm.  They're calling for some more cold weather later this weekend, so maybe I'll be able to dig myself out of my warm comfy bed to freeze myself down by the water one more time.  What can I say, I'm a sucker for punishment.

Moonlight Spotlight

In more normal times, this past weekend would have been the final Fire on Ice fireworks presentation down at the Old Port of Montreal.  It is just another in the long list of social events that have been lost to The Plague. Often, after the final explosions have happened, I like to stick around and take some photographs of what are often rather peaceful scene after such loud, explosive events.  On this particular evening I was shooting the fireworks from Île Sainte-Hélène, which offers a great view of the city.  If you'd like to see the fireworks that took place before this shot was taken, you can do so by following this link.  From going back in the archives, I noticed that I took a few shots after the fireworks that night, so I guess it wasn't that cold of a December night.  This one gets published first because I'm still a sucker for the bright lights of the big city.  Especially since a nice moon in the sky.  This photograph was taken at f/16, 30sec, ISO 100 at 24mm.  We'll see if I get to see some moonlight spotlights later this year.

Heritage Wall

Sometimes, without any reason at all, something will just catch my eye and it becomes a bit of an obsession.  Back before this most recent wave of 'The Plague, I found myself at L'Astral in Montreal for a concert.  Up on the stage were Brittany Kennell and Tenille Townes (feel free to follow those links to see the photographs), but there was something behind the stage that had grabbed my eye.  Usually the back wall is always covered by either curtains or a band banner, but on this night, there was no covering, giving us a clear view of what was usually hidden.  What we saw was this great old brick wall and several pipes.  A brick wall that I later discovered dated back to 1910 when the building was built and then later named after the family that built it, the Blumenthal Building.  It opened to the public in 1911 and I couldn't help but think how many other people had looked at that wall in the more than 100 years that it had been there.  I took a quick photograph at f/3.2, 1/15sec, ISO 5000 at 70mm before the show began as I really liked the way the light and shadows fell on the wall.  The building was renovated into it's current form back in 2008 after having been declared a Heritage Site back in 1990.  All of that history hidden behind curtains.  I guess I can understand, but I'm very happy that I got to see that little piece of Montreal history.

Starting The Year With A Bang

I guess you could say that 2021 was a slightly less crappy version than 2020.  With that in mind, we're turning over a fresh page and starting a brand new chapter.  Back in the days before everything was banned, there was this thing called 'fireworks'.  Large, loud and colourful explosions of light that would draw us all together to celebrate a specific moment.  There used to be a large fireworks display over Montreal to welcome the new year.  Once, My Lovely Assistant and I even got caught in the middle of the show as rocket remains rained down over us.  There were no fireworks again this year, but hopefully, and I probably said this last year, that will not be the case this year.  This photograph was taken at f/16, 20sec, ISO 100 at 39mm.  It's hard to predict what kind of a year this will be photographically.  I certainly hope to get some fresh fireworks shots this year, as well as getting back to the sports and concerts that I really enjoy shooting.  We'll also be celebrating the 10th anniversary of The Old Blog in August, which just serves to make me feel older as I can't believe it has been 10 years already.  All of that and who knows what else, so stay tuned as we snap our way through 2022.  Same blog time, same blog station.