Elf No Longer On A Shelf

It has been a rough couple of years for the Elf On The Shelf that joined our family.  To be fair, he kind of brings these hard times upon himself with some of his hijinks.  Over the last few weeks he has gotten trapped in the pantry while trying to steal pretzels, made a toilet paper snowman, stole some breakfast cereal, assembled the other stuffed friends for story time, got trapped in the Christmas tree lights, tangled up in a hammock over the stairs and created a zip line from the kitchen lights to the Christmas tree.  Mostly harmless stuff, I suppose.  It also generally gets a good laugh out of The Heir Apparent and Crown Prince.  However, while these little tricks seem to have found a captive audience with the younger members of the house, the elf still has a terrible relationship with some of the wrestlers that he shares the living space with.  After having some terrible run-ins with Brock Lesnar and Terry Funk, The Elf decided to try and smooth things out by agreeing to an interview with Rowdy Roddy Piper.  However, just when The Elf thought he knew all the answers, Hot Rod changed the questions.  While it might not look as impressive as a coconut, a chocolate Christmas ball in the hands of the Rowdy One can be just as devastating.  The photograph was taken at f/16, 3/5sec, ISO 6400 at 59mm.  It's a good thing that The Elf will be returning to the North Pole soon, it will give him a chance to heal up and get ready for next year.  Maybe Santa can teach him some manners to avoid another similar episode next year.

Sara Dufour At Le Studio TD

‘Twas a few nights before Christmas and all through Le Studio TD, many fans were stirring as they awaited a special Christmas themed concert by one of our favourite Country/Folk singers, Sara Dufour.  Le Studio TD was appropriately decorated for the occasion.  We had a giant Christmas tree, lights galore and even some special presents for several lucky fans who were attending the concert.  Had I taken the time to look a little closer, I’m pretty sure I would have found some mistletoe hanging from the ceiling somewhere.  Sara Dufour opened the show with a series of her best known hits, bringing joy to the world of those who came out for the show.  With only twelve days to go until Christmas, there may have only been one drummer drumming, but his driving beat and the grooving guitars had the ladies dancing and the lords a leaping.  Joined on stage by her main song writing partner, Dany Placard, they whipped the crowd into a Sugar plum frenzy.   Any thoughts of it being a Silent Night were quickly abandoned as the band rocked around Le Studio TD stage.  Hark!  The second half of the show was totally immersed in the Christmas spirit with as the set list consisted of nothing but Christmas carols.  I’m used to being in the middle of some rather rowdy crowds, but this evening was a little bit different.  It truly was a generational show as we had children, parents and grandparents in the crowd.  No crowd surfers to be seen, but the prancing and pawing of little hooves may have been heard between guitar solos.  If you’ll forgive my terrible use of Christmas carol lyrics, Sara Dufour is an amazing talent who had a terrific year.  Her most recent album, ‘On va-tu prendre une marche?’ won a Félix Award for Folk Rock Album of the Year and it couldn’t have happened to a nicer person.  A Sara Dufour concert is equal parts music and stories.  Hearing her tell the tale of the night she finally won that Félix Award in November was a heartwarming moment.  I have yet to photograph an artist who smiles more on stage than Sara Dufour.  Her happiness spreads from her to the fans through her songs, making her concerts some of the most fun that I have ever covered.  All of the photographs were taken at f/2.8 while using various different shutter speeds, ISO settings and focal lengths.  Here are the rest of the photographs that I took of Sara Dufour while she performed on the Le Studio TD stage.

If you would like to find out more about Sara Dufour and her music, you can do so by following the link to her website.  A big thank you goes out to Karl-Emmanuel Picard of District 7 Productions and to Christopher Gonda of V13 Media for getting me a pass to shoot the show. As always, it is very much appreciated.  This was the final concert of 2024 for Sara Dufour, but one of Québec’s hardest working performers already has a slate of shows marked on the calendar for 2025.  Maybe some lucky fans will find some tickets to those shows under their tree this year.  After the final notes had been played and Sara Dufour had walked out of sight, a Merry Christmas was wished to all, and to all a good night.

Conner Smith At Théâtre Beanfield

The old running joke was that Country music was pretty much music based on lost.  I lost my job, I lost my car, I lost my home, I lost my girl, I even lost my dog.  Sounds like a Country song.  I have my own personal Country loss experience to add to the list, I lost my lens.  My lens and I were last seen together at the Théâtre Beanfield this past Saturday night where an evening of Country Music was on the menu.  Conner Smith was in town for the final show of his ‘The Storyteller’ tour.  At only 24, he had a heck of a good year.  A new album, ‘Smokey Mountains’ was released in January, and finished up the year with a new EP, ‘The Storyteller’ and a headlining tour to go along with the release.  The final show of that tour took place in Montreal where a warm and welcoming crowd opened their arms wide to shelter a young up and coming Nashville singer from the cold of an early December night.  I guess this is a good point to bring up the lost lens from my intro.  After Conner Smith opened his set with the title track to the recently released ‘The Storyteller’ EP, my camera began to show an error message.  The lens and camera were no longer communicating and I was in the midst of a cold sweat panic.  After furiously trying the few tricks I knew to bring the camera back to life, I had to admit defeat and retreated to my camera bag where a 70-200mm lens was waiting for me.  However, from the close confines of ‘The Pit’, a telephoto lens isn’t of much use.  I grabbed a few shots from the far reaches of our designated area, but am left to wonder about those that ended up getting missed.  Also missed, was much of Conner Smith’s performance.  I apologize for not being able to give a better description of what went down.  I can say that Conner Smith and his band were terrific during that portion of time when I wasn’t running around the pit trying to get to my lens.  They sounded great and were obviously having a great time up on the stage.  The Storyteller is a great song and a terrific choice to open the show with.  My mind may have been elsewhere but every other eye, as well as a good number of cell phones, were focused on the party that was taking place up on the stage.  A party that I missed, but hopefully will be able to attend again should Conner Smith and his crew make their way back to the Great White North again soon.  The photographs were all taken at f/3.2 while using various different shutter speeds, ISO settings and focal lengths.  Here are the rest of my photographs taken of Conner Smith while he performed on the Théâtre Beanfield stage.

If you would like to find out more about Conner Smith and his music, you can do so by following the link to his website.  If you would like to see the photographs that I took of Zach John Day, who performed earlier, you can do so by following the link.  A big thank you to Jake Kinney and Chris Kappy of Make Wake Management & Pioneer Artists and Christopher Gonda of V13 Media for getting me a pass to shoot the show.  As always, it is very much appreciated.  Conner Smith’s ‘The Storyteller’ tour came to an end in Montreal, but he will certainly be back on the road in the coming year.  Be sure to check him out when he plays near you.  Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a sad Country song to write about a photographer who drove in to the big city and had his heart broken by a broken lens.  Who knows, it might be a hit.