Remembrance Day 2013

I'm a firm believer that Remembrance Day should be a National Holiday.  There are very few things more important than taking a moment of our time every November 11th to remember all of the fallen soldiers who sacrificed their lives so that we can enjoy the freedom we have today.  Until that day comes, I try to book one of my weeks of vacation to coincide with Remembrance Day every year so that I can either go in to Montreal for the service there, or at least attend one of the many ceremonies that take place closer to where I live.  I skipped the Montreal service last year, so I decided to hop into a Metro car and make the trip downtown.  The ceremony used to be held at the Place du Canada in downtown Montreal, but was moved to the lawns of the campus of McGill University a few years back due to renovations.  It seems that McGill has become the new home of the ceremony, though I preferred the former location as it was easier for me to move around.  As a result, I was stuck near the back of the ceremony and missed seeing the laying of the wreaths.  In the middle of the ceremony, I decided it was in my best photographic interest to move around.  The first order of business was to go to where the canons were being fired.  I got some good pictures of that, which you'll be seeing in a future blog post here on the site.  Afterwards, I knew that I had to find a better position than the one I had been in before if I was going to get some shots of the parade as the Veterans and others made their way from the site.  I managed to find a good spot just outside of the gates, right behind a police utility vehicle.  This provided to be a great spot for two reasons.  One, how could I find a more secure spot than right behind a police car?  Secondly, it was kind of chilly outside, so the feeling of the warm exhaust against my leg was kind of comforting.  After everyone had left the site, I returned to the make-shift cenotaph and took a few pictures of the wreaths that had been left behind.  I really wanted to take a picture of a balloon that someone had left behind.  Written on the balloon was "Thank you our brave heroes, we remember" in English.  I felt that it best summed up the what the day should have been all about.  The first photograph was taken at f/4.5, 1/400sec, ISO 400 at 42mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/5.6, 1/320sec, ISO 400 at 24mm and the third photograph was taken at f/5.6, 1/250sec, ISO 400 at 35mm.  Here are a few more photographs that I took, with the settings I used written underneath.

f/5.6, 1/250sec, ISO 400 at 62mm

f/7.1, 1/400sec, ISO 400 at 27mm

f/7.1, 1/400sec, ISO 400 at 24mm

f/7.1, 1/400sec, ISO 400 at 59mm

f/7.1, 1/320sec, ISO 400 at 40mm

I know what those long-term readers of this site might be thinking.  "Eric," you're thinking to yourselves, "all of your pictures were taken at ISO 400.  Did you forget to reset your setting again?"  Fair question, especially since I have been guilty of doing so in the past.  Nope, I was shooting at ISO 400 on purpose because it was really cloudy outside and I need to raise the ISO in order to have enough shutter speed to capture the movements of the people marching in the parade.  Taking a few moments out of  my day to pay my respects was the least I could do on this day.  I hope that most of you out there did so as well.

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks still bravely singing fly 
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead: Short days ago,
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved: and now we lie
In Flanders fields!

Take up our quarrel with the foe
To you, from failing hands, we throw
The torch: be yours to hold it high
If ye break faith with us who die,
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields

That, ofcourse, was the poem In Flander's Fields by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae of the Canadian Army Medical Corps.  The story behind the poem tells us that Lt. McCrae composed it after the death of a close friend in Belgium while near a field of poppies, thus why the Poppy is used today as a symbol of remembering those brave men and women who gave their lives in battle so that we may enjoy the freedom that we live in today.  I've always had a tremendous amount of respect for our Veteran's, partially because of the several members of my family who served in World War II, most notably my Grandfather, Frederick Paul Mahannah.  We were fortunate in that everyone in our family came home, but the same cannot be said for so many others.  So these poppies, photographed in my Mom`s garden, are dedicated to all of the war veterans out there.  Do them all a favour and buy a Poppy for all of the sacrifices that they made for us.  I photographed these poppies with my Macro lens, the details follow in the order they are presented.  f/4, 1/250sec, ISO 400 at 60mm.  f/4, 1/60sec, ISO 400 at 60mm and finally, f/4, 1/200sec, ISO 400 at 60mm.  These particular poppies are Oriental Poppies and I really like the detail that the Macro lens brings out in them.

 

Au champ d'honneur, les coquelicots

Sont parsemés de lot en lot

Auprès des croix; et dans l'espace

Les alouettes devenues lasses

Mêlent leurs chants au sifflement

Des obusiers.

Nous sommes morts

Nous qui songions la veille encore

À nos parents, à nos amis,

C'est nous qui reposons ici

Au champ d'honneur.

À vous jeunes désabusés

À vous de porter l'oriflamme

Et de garder au fond de l'âme

Le goût de vivre en liberté.

Acceptez le défi, sinon

Les coquelicots se faneront

Au champ d'honneur.

Merci Beaucoup

It's the unexpected surprises that are the best.  I was at the library with my Lovely Assistant the other day and looking at the various brochures and leaflets that lined the hallway, looking if there were any opportunities that an amateur photographer like myself can take advantage of to get his work seen.  As I was scanning the brochures, something caught my eye.  It took about a second before I suddenly said, "that's my photograph!"  I pulled out the brochure and discovered that it was from my old friends at the Troupe de théâtre musical Choeur Vives Voix.  And even better, there was another one of my photographs on the inside.  The smile on my face on grew larger when I saw my name in black print just underneath my photograph.  Just like that, my week was made.  They're getting ready for their big 2014 production, Facade, and hopefully I'll be able to work with them once again.  If you'd like to see the full version of the photos that were presented in the brochure, you're kind of in luck.  The photograph from the front cover can be seen right here and the photograph from inside the brochure hasn't been on my blog, but other photographs from the same show can be seen here and a few more right here.  Un gros merci, encore une fois, au Choeur Vives Voix.

Election Results Are In

We had municipal elections last night in this part of the world.  Various mayors, city counsellors and other municipal titles were decided all in the name of democracy. I had the honour of winning a prestigious position as well.  I was elected Best Photographer in my Condo unit.  Sure, only one vote was cast, but I'm sure that if My Lovely Assistant had been aware of the election, she would have voted for me as well.  Sadly, my victory won't get me a nice corner office in Montreal City Hall, which you see in my photograph here of Old Montreal.  It took a while for me to get this photograph as you see it.  I arrived a little earlier at the location and was annoyed to see that a tour bus was parked on the street.  True, not the end of the world, but I needed for that bus to be gone in order to properly capture the light trails of the cars that were passing by.  I walked off and took some photos around the area and made a quick trip back to this spot just in time to see that the bus had gone.  I set up my camera and shot away.  This photograph was taken at f/9, 19sec, ISO 100 at 38mm and was one of the chosen 25 that was on display at my photography exhibit last year.  There's several things I like about this photograph.  The already mentioned light streaks, the red in the building on the old Hotel Nelson, the clouds in the sky behind the statue and how clear the guy sitting on the corner appear.  Not bad considering with the long exposure time, it means that the guy didn't move very much over the 19 seconds that the photograph was being taken.

Two Go Up The Mountain...Will Two Come Down?

As I've mentioned here, my parents moved back at the end of August.  It's a rather complicated situation that saw them spend a month living in a pretty cool cottage at the foot of Mt. Sutton.  My Mom thought it would be a good idea if I were to come down one day and take a little trip up the mountain as it would be sure to result in several good photographs.  I thought it seemed like a good idea and I invited My Lovely Assistant along for the trip as walking around a mountain is the kind of thing she enjoys.  Little did I know, my Mom's good idea would almost spell my doom!  The first sign of trouble came when I discovered that the ski lift wasn't available the day that I went to visit.  That meant it would be time to climb.  We decided to go to the Round Top, a spot that the guide told us would provide all kinds of nice views.  The board at the base of the mountain said that it would only be a two hour hike to where we wanted to go, but despite spending a good five hours on the mountain, we still never got closer than 1hr 30 minutes, according to the signs along the path, from where we wanted to go.  Not being the most fleet of foot, I managed to slip on a rock and knowing that I had a camera in my right hand, I decided it best to use my left arms to cushion my fall.  We finally found ourselves at this lake you see here in the photograph, despite my being sweaty, bloodied and sore.  I wasn't coming down without at least one photo, so I put the camera into Manual mode and tried to find a way to capture the image you see here while preserving the blue sky and the reflection in the water.  I ended up taking this photograph at f/11, 1/250sec, ISO 400 at 60mm.  I really like the reflection in the water and how it, along with the treeline in the sky seem to lead you towards the center of the photograph.  I was also happy to keep the blue in both the sky and the water without either being blown out.  Another of the features I like are the three trees in the right hand side of the photo that managed to have some sunlight fall on them, despite the rest of that side being in shadows.  We then decided to head back down the mountain despite never reaching our destination, which is probably a good idea since my Mom was on the verge of calling the police since we had been gone so long.  Guess she had a feeling that My Lovely Assistant was trying to kill me, as well.  Or maybe they were in on it together.  Hmm.  Better luck next time

Happy Halloween

 People getting dressed up in spooky costumes and then getting free candy.  What's not to like about Halloween.  It's easily one of my favourite days of the year despite the fact that my Trick or Treating days ended over 25 years ago.  The spirit has lived on though, as at the day job they allow us to dress up for the day and I've been known to walk the floor with my trusty little skull and leave a trail of blood or two on the floor.  The classic Halloween image is the Jack-O-Lantern and this is one that you can probably find on the lawn of your neighbour.  I had to play around a bit with different exposure times in order to get the orange to be just how I liked while keeping the star effect from the light in the big pumpkin's hat.  This photograph was taken at f/5.6, 1sec, ISO 400 at 52mm.  So keep your eyes open on the night of the 31st as there are bound to be a countless number of spooks out there, all looking for some chips and chocolate.

Between A Rock And A Hard Place

I had a week of vacation back in August and I had the great opportunity to visit Ottawa and also spend some time at a cottage near Mt. Tremblant.  I spent most of that week with my camera in my hand and as a result, it's been almost two months since my week off and I'm still nowhere near finished with processing all of those photographs.  While going through some of the photos I have yet to display, I stumbled upon some that I had taken of this little flower.  Despite the fact that it was stuck right in the middle of several large rocks, it had managed to grow into an eye-catching beauty.  I noticed it while eating lunch and decided to later take a couple of photographs.  I guess I was impressed by the fact that despite it's surroundings, the flower had managed to persevere and grow. The first photograph was taken at f/5, 1/400sec. ISO 100 at 80mm.  With this photo I wanted to show the harsh surroundings that the flower was growing in.  The second photograph was taken at f/5, 1/400sec, ISO 100 at 140mm.  I felt that this photo better shows off the flower, but still has enough of the rocks to describe where it was.  I also liked the little shadow that the flower has cast against the rock.  One difference between these photographs and others that I have taken is that these were taken with a telephoto lens.  I took these photos while trying to track a dragonfly.  You'll see him here soon as well, but I was rather impressed with how well the lens captured the details in the rocks and the flower.