Faces In The Crowd

This morning was the Montreal Marathon, and seeing as how the race begins about five minutes from where I live, I was kind of curious about going to the starting line and seeing what kind of photographs I could get.  I've never actually shot at a marathon before and after capturing the start, I was kind of at a loss about what to be looking for.  So, I figured that with photography being a visual medium, I thought that it would be best to look out for either interesting outfits or people who would make eye-contact with me.  There wasn't a loss for interesting characters.  There were older people, younger people, runners dressed as Superheros, medieval knights and one local pro wrestler who wasn't dressed in very much at all.  Trust me, you'll easily pick out his photograph.  Speaking of Superheros, there's one photograph in this batch of The Flash that looks a little bit out of focus.  However, those of you who are up to date on your Superhero mythology would know that The Flash is incredibly fast.  He's not out of focus in that shot, but rather I was incredibly lucky to catch him in action.  I believe he was already on his 36th tour of the 42km course when I managed to get the photograph.  Yes, you read that correctly.  The mere thought of running 42km leaves me out of breath, yet these people all took off with large smiles on their faces.  Speaking of smiles, I wasn't having much success getting any smiles or eye contact at all from my original position on the sidewalk of the bridge.  So after the third wave of runners made their way past me, I decided to change my location and managed to slide into a spot on the road portion of the bridge where the local media had been recording and photographing the race.  After the first few waves of runners, the media members began to slowly leave, and I was able to get a pretty good spot just before the runners make a turn and leave the bridge.  Suddenly, I no longer had any problems getting people to wave at me, probably hoping to see their faces in the morning paper.  I hope they won't be disappointed to find their mugs here on my page instead.  After that, the biggest challenge I had was trying to move my fingers fast enough to make sure that the people who actually took the time to wave at me would be in focus.  What I would try to do is take a quick look at the people who were at the front of each group when they would leave the starting line.  If there were any interesting character, such as the Superheros or the girl who had created a little stick with a carrot dangling from in for a little cartoon style motivation, I tried to focus on them until they reached my area.  After that, I would manually adjust the focus as I would quickly scan through the crowd of runners looking for anyone interesting, or someone who was waving.  Which wasn't always easy.  They were moving pretty fast, so often I'd have a question of seconds between seeing the runner and them having already gone by me.  It was a fun little challenge, but it was a little frustrating as well as I ended up missing about as many runners as I ended up getting.  The first photograph was taken at f/7.1, 1/500sec, ISO 400 at 200mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/10, 1/250sec, ISO 400 at 70mm.  The third photograph was taken at f/10, 1/160sec, ISO 400 at 135mm, the fourth photograph was taken at f/10, 1/400sec, ISO 400 at 70mm and the fifth photograph was taken at f/10, 1/320sec, ISO 400 at 70mm.  Here are several more who ran past me today.

f/10, 1/200sec, ISO 400 at 70mm

f/10, 1/160sec, ISO 400 at 105mm

f/10, 1/320sec, ISO 400 at 70mm

f/10, 1/500sec, ISO 400 at 70mm

f/10, 1/250sec, ISO 400 at 200mm

f/10, 1/320sec, ISO 400 at 70mm

f/10, 1/400sec, ISO 400 at 70mm

f/10, 1/500sec, ISO 400 at 70mm

f/10,1/400sec, ISO 400 at 70mm

f/10, 1/250sec, ISO 400 at 70mm

f/10, 1/320sec, ISO 400 at 70mm

f/11, 1/400sec, ISO 400 at 70mm

f/11, 1/400sec, ISO 400 at 70mm

f/11, 1/400sec, ISO 400 at 70mm

f/11, 1/400sec, ISO 400 at 70mm

Recognize anybody?  That was a large amount of runners.  I wasn't sure that I would be able to get onto the bridge to take some photographs, but I'm happy that I made it up there.  My respect to everyone who took part in the race, I was out of breath just climbing the stairs to get up to the bridge, I can't even imagine running another 42km's after that.

 

Across The River

It's no big secret that I'm a big fan of fireworks.  Go through the archives of this blog for the month of July in any year since I've been out here, and even some from the months of December, will show that a good deal of those months is devoted to photographing fireworks displays.  In order to get those shots, I often show up at my selected location an hour or so, if not longer, before the fireworks begin in order to make sure I've gotten a good spot.  Once situated, I often take several test shots in order to make sure that I've composed my photograph in the way that I wanted, and also to make sure that my shots will be as clear as possible.  Some of these test shots end up being rather cool, such as this shot of the Jacques Cartier Bridge.  It was taken before the final fireworks display of the 2015 L’International des Feux Loto-Québec and shot at  f/16, 44sec, ISO 100 at 24mm.  It stretches out the span of the bridge from the Molson brewery all the way to Île Sainte-Hélène where there was the added bonus of spotlights due to the Osheaga Festival that was taking place.  That's part of the fun with my fireworks outings.  Not only do I get some nice shots of the event, but I also come home with some nice 'test shots' as well.

Rimouski Dixie Band

It seems that my little spider the other day wasn't as popular as I thought he would be.  The most common comments, especially those of My Lovely Assistant and Belle Mom were along the lines of "Ewww" or "It's disgusting", or other comments along those same lines.  I suppose that I understand since I'm no great lover of spiders, so it is time to move on.  One of the stops on this year on the vacation road trip was the city of Rimouski.  We read that there was going to be a jazz festival while we were on the road, so we decided to stop during the drive home and spend an evening there.  Of course, I brought my camera with me, but sadly the Rimouski Jazz Festival is a tad bit smaller than the one here in Montreal.  All of the events took place either in the free tent, the paying tent or some acts who would perform in the open space between the two.  We arrived near the end of the set of the group that was playing in the free tent, and early for the paying tent, so I figured I'd try my luck and see if I could capture any photographs of the group that was playing for free out in the open.  It was a bit of a challenge as the only lighting were some street lights that the group was performing under.  Luckily, they were playing an slow style of Dixie jazz so I was still able to get some shots without lots of motion blur despite the lack of light.  The first shot was taken at f/2.8, 1/30sec, ISO 3200 at 70mm and the second shot was taken at f/2.8, 1/60sec, ISO 3200 at 95mm.  Here are a few more photographs from their set.

f/2.8, 1/30sec, ISO 3200 at 200mm

f/3.5, 1/50sec, ISO 3200 at 70mm

I went up to the band after the show and asked if they had a Facebook page or site on the internet where I could send them the pictures I took.  They said that they only had personal pages, but would still be very happy to see the photographs I took.  So, I sent the photographs and the group was very thankful.  I didn't think I'd be able to capture anything in such low light, but I was able to walk away with some cool photographs, got to hear some good music and made a couple of people happy as well.  I call that a success.

Stuck In The Middle With You

Time to put the guitars and microphones down for a few seconds and get back to some other photographs I've taken over the last few months.  I have a friend who is currently doing the 365 Photography Challenge, where you post up a new photograph every day for a year.  A few weeks back her choice of photograph was a spider in its web.  I really liked the shot, though I really hate spiders.  A few days later, this guy showed up on my porch guardrail, so I figured I'd give it a go.   It was getting a little late into the afternoon so I had to use a high ISO which made my photograph a little grainy, but I really like how well the web stands out against the darker background and the little highlights in the back.  The details on the spider are pretty cool as well.  From the lines on his body down to his beady little eyes.  This photograph was taken at f/9, 1/60sec, ISO 3200 at 60mm.  Before anyone goes praising my bravery for getting so close to the beast, the spider in question was about the size of a small fingernail.  The magic of the macro lens makes it appear to be a little bit larger than it actually was. 

All-Star Grand Finale

They say that all good things must come to an end, and so it is time to put to bed this set of photographs taken at the All-Star concert that took place during the recent Saint-Lambert en fête.  I realize that it's been a little bit more than two weeks since this concert took place and I'm still putting photos from the show up here on the page, but I figured it would be best for business to split the concert up into different segments.  I also tried to market myself a little bit with this set but directly linking to the artists in question on my Facebook page, Eric Mahannah Photography for those of you who may have forgotten, and as a result I not only saw traffic to my sites increase my several thousand viewers, but I also got good comments back from France D'Amour and from Andrée Watters, who actually shared one of my photographs on her page.  Combined, all of those things did a good job of swelling the old ego a little bit.  But, it's time to bring the curtain down, and we're going to do so with a bang.  This last batch of photographs comes from the final encore of the night, when all of the artists returned on stage for a big farewell.  I continued to snap away while everyone on stage was going through a cover of the AC/DC song, You Shook Me All Night Long.  They even managed to get some of the docile Saint-Lambert crowd to come out of their seats before everyone called it a night and went home for the evening.    The first photograph on this page was taken at f/2.8, 1/400sec, ISO 3200 at 168mm and the second photograph was taken at f/3.5, 1/200sec, ISO 3200 at 120mm.  There's not really much more to add at this point, so let's get on to the photographs.  Get yourself a little snack and a cold beverage, because there are lots of photographs to come.

f/3.5, 1/250sec, ISO 3200 at 90mm

f/3.5, 1/250sec, ISO 3200 at 90mm

f/3.5, 1/250sec, ISO 3200 at 90mm

 f/4.5, 1/160sec, ISO 3200 at 90mm

f/4.5, 1/160sec, ISO 3200 at 90mm

f/4.5, 1/250sec, ISO 3200 at 105mm

f/4.5, 1/160sec, ISO 3200 at 100mm

f/4.5, 1/250sec, ISO 3200 at 130mm

f/4.5, 1/250sec, ISO 3200 at 125mm

f/4.5,1/200sec, ISO 3200 at 140mm

f/4.5, 1/250sec, ISO 3200 at 95mm

f/6.3, 1/125sec, ISO 3200 at 95mm

f/5, 1/125sec, ISO 3200 at 135mm

f/5, 1/200sec, ISO 3200 at 135mm

As the great Willie Nelson used to sing, "Turn out the lights, the party's over."  It was a great evening.  When all was said and done, I was a bit of a sweaty mess, but I had a huge smile on my face because I had just spent the last three hours photographing all of these different musical acts.  If you'd like to go back in time and check out all of the other photographs I took, feel free to click on the following links.  Up first was The Million Dollar Band.  The All-Star portion of the show began with some songs featuring Andrée Watters and Sylvain Cossette.  Up next was a few songs featuring Andrée Watters, Sylvain & Beth Cossette and Félix-Antoine Couturier.  After that was a little segment that saw Stefi Shock and Andrée Watters perform together and finally, just before the show came to an end, there was a brief set performed by France D'Amour.  Quite the evening of talent, and quite the two weeks of updates for the site.

France D'Amour

After a brief intermission, we're back in business.  My Lovely Assistant and I have been away on vacation for the last several days, and don't worry, lots of photographs were taken.  Sadly, they may not see the light of day here on the blog as I still haven't gotten through all of the Vacation 2014 photographs yet.  Let's not even mention 2013.  One of the fun things about digital photography is the ability to take several photographs without having to worry about getting the film processed or the added cost of having dozens of roles of film taken care of.  The downside is that you get home from a little trip and find yourself with hundreds of photographs to go through.  In the meantime, there are still waiting for their time to shine, including these shots of France D'Amour, taken once again during the big Saint-Lambert en fête concert a few weeks back.  This was probably my favourite part of the concert was I've been listening to France D'Amour since the early 1990's.  She has such a strong voice and good rock songs.  Her popularity was such that her songs were even being played on English rock stations here at the time.  So, it was a cool surprise to me when she was welcomed to the stage for a few songs near the end of the evening.  She rocked the stage for a few songs and had my inner teenager remembering some much younger days.  My fun was increased ten-fold later that night when I had what My Lovely Assistant likes to refer to as my 'groupie moment'.  The concert was over and most of the people of Saint-Lambert had made their way home while My Lovely Assistant and I retreated to a little park behind the stage to relax for a few moments.  We were on our bikes and the feeling was that by letting the site empty out a little bit, we'd have less problems riding home due to people walking in the streets or the large number of cars that were leaving the area.  As we were sitting and I was going through the photographs I had taken on my camera, I heard a familiar voice from a few feet away.  It was France D'Amour and she was talking to a couple of fans who were line-up against the metal barriers that separated the people from the backstage area.  She had come out to say hello to a few people, and after a few moments of indecision, I made my way down to say hello.  I tried not to come off as a geek, not always an easy task, and simply shook her hand and said I really enjoyed her performance that night.  Short, sweet and simple.  In and out before I could make a fool of myself.  Getting back to the music for a moment, France D'Amour also had the distinction of being the only performer that night to be able to get the crowd onto their feet.  As I already mentioned, most of the crowd showed up with lawn chairs and spent the majority of the concert seated.  France D'Amour managed to cajole them out of their seats and move around for a little bit before, one-by-one, they eventually returned to their seated  positions.  You've got to give her points for trying.  The first photograph was taken at f/3.2, 1/400sec, ISO 3200 at 142mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/3.2, 1/640sec, ISO 3200 at 142mm and the third photograph was taken at f/4, 1/320sec, ISO 3200 at 115mm.  Here are a few more photographs I took during her performance.

f/4, 1/200sec, ISO 3200 at 142mm

f/4, 1/250sec, ISO 3200 at 110mm

f/4, 1/250sec, ISO 3200 at 110mm

f/4, 1/400sec, ISO 3200 at 115mm

f/4, 1/250sec, ISO 3200 at 90mm

The hits keep on getting played at Eric Mahannah Photography!  I told you that I ended up taking lots of photographs during this concert.  We're almost through as there only remains one last group of photographs to get through.