Poppy

Remembrance Day is once again upon us, and the symbol for this very important day is the poppy.  I wasn't able to attend any of the weekend Remembrance Day ceremonies this year, nor will I be able to attend on on the 11th.  In my 'Perfect World', Remembrance Day will become a National Holiday so that everyone can take the time to pay their respect to those who gave their lives so that we can live in freedom today.  However, since I'm nowhere near able to pass laws at the moment, I'm going to have to dig into my archives and pull out this extra photograph that I took at a ceremony I attended last year.  This photograph was taken at f/11, 1/250sec, ISO 400 at 52mm.  I didn't want to entirely blur out the background of this photograph, so I positioned myself close to the poppy, and used a small aperture.  This allowed me to focus on the poppy, but not throw the rest of the photograph out of focus entirely.  Don't forget to take a moment out of your day to remember those who made the most important sacrifice there is.

Aphasia Fundraiser

A couple of Saturdays ago, a good friend of mine organized a fundraiser to try and raise some money for Aphasie Rive-Sud.  It's an organization that helps people affected by and families dealing with Aphasia.  Aphasia is a condition that reduces the affected persons ability to communicate.  The ability to read, write, speak and understand are diminished, though the intelligence of the person in question doesn't change.  Aphasia is usually caused by an injury to the brain, most often either a stroke, a trauma or a tumor.  My friends father had recently been diagnosed with the condition, thus her deciding to try and raise some funds, and some awareness, for the condition and this group that helps people deal with it.  She organized a spaghetti supper and a musical show, with all of the money raised being given to Aphasie Rive-Sud.  She brought in several of her friends to sing some songs, people some of you may remember as they belong to the Choeur Vives Voix, and I've photographed their shows for the last several years.  They all donated their time, others workers donated their time in the kitchen, and I donated my time as well by going in and photographing the show for them.  At last count, the evening had raised over $4000 for the organization, money that will be used to help people and their families to adapt to their condition.  The first photograph was taken at f/4, 1/100sec, ISO 1600 at 30mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/4, 1/320sec, ISO 1000 at 70mm.  Here are some more photographs of the show.

f/4.5, 1/100sec, ISO 1600 at 60mm

f/3.5, 1/125sec, ISO 400 at 70mm

f/4.5, 1/125sec, ISO 1250 at 68mm

f/4.5, 1/80sec, ISO 1250 at 54mm

f/4.5, 1/100sec, ISO 1600 at 60mm

f/3.5, 1/125sec, ISO 400 at 28mm

I'd say that the evening was a success.  Everyone seemed to really enjoy myself, and from a personal standpoint, I had a great times as well.  The stage was kind of small, but they had rented a huge spotlight, which allowed me to use an ISO a little lower than the usual ISO 3200 that I use for the Choeur Vives Voix shows.  That meant less grain in the photographs.  The evening also gave me a chance to practice my shots using flash, something that always gives me a headache.  These, I think, came out pretty well.  I didn't have any flash created shadows in my photographs, and everyone seems well lit.  It was a fun night for everyone involved.

 

Red Pepper

It's been quite the while since I've played with my food.  So long, infact, that while digging through my hard drive during my monthly back-up, I found this lost pepper.  It was fresh from the store and the bright red colour instantly caught my eye.  I threw open the curtains in the kitchen and let the sunshine in.  I had to work fast because if my memory is correct, this pepper was scheduled to become part of supper that night.  Seeing as how the first  photograph was taken on a window sill,  I tried to get as close as possible for my shot and I used a large aperture in order to blur out the less than spectacular background.  For the second photograph, I still stayed close to my subject.  I tried to focus on the texture of the inside of the pepper because I found that it was really interesting.  I also played around with the positioning of the slice of pepper in order to get a nice shadow effect on my plate.  The first photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/1600sec, ISO 400 at 68mm and the second photograph was taken at f/4, 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 60mm.

There are all kinds of colourful things that you can find in the kitchen.  As an added bonus, this one had a nice texture to it as well.  It made for a tasty addition to supper than night as well.

The Final Whistle

The local Champlain Cavaliers football team was playing a Quarter-Final play-off game last night,so I decided to make the trek down the street one last time this season to see the team in action.  It ended up being one heck of a good game.  Things were looking pretty bleak at halftime as the team was down 22-9 and their starting quarterback had been taken out of the game in the middle of the second quarter after taking a hit.  Thinking I had a good selection of photographs, I almost headed for home at the half, but I'm really happy I didn't because I would have missed one heck of a comeback.  The team scored two fourth quarter touchdowns to take the lead 23-22 with a less than four minutes to go.  Things were looking fairly bleak when the opposing team took the ball all the way down the field and scored the go-ahead touchdown with a little bit more than two minutes to go on the following drive.  However, despair quickly turned to elation when on the ensuing kick-off, Champlain returned the ball all the way down the field and scored what would be the winning touchdown.  Final Score - Champlain 29 vs Ahuntsic 28.  Sadly, even in victory this game marked the end of my football season, photographically speaking.  Though Champlain won the game, their next play-off game will be played in Thetford Mines, and should they make it to the finals, that game will be played in St. Jean.  A bit far off for me to make the trip.  Still, I had much fun attending the three games that I made it out to this season, though I wish that one of those games would have taken place in the afternoon to provide me with a bit better light to take my photographs.  I could also use a bit of better luck.  I only got a good shot of one touchdown during the three games that I attended.  For the most part, the scores always seemed to come at the other end of the field from where I was positioned.  I only have myself to blame for this past game though as three touchdowns were scored in my end zone, but I missed the first two when I wasn't fast enough to adjust my focusing while the action was taking place and I ended up with two out of focus scores.  That really ticked me off.  I'll have to practice spinning that focus ring a little more quickly to build up my finger speed.  The first photograph was taken at f/3.2, 1/400sec, ISO 3200 at 200mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/3.2, 1/400sec, ISO 3200 at 200mm.  The third photograph was taken at f/3.2, 1/200sec, ISO 3200 at 200mm and the fourth photograph was taken at f/3.2, 1/400sec, ISO 3200 at 200mm.  Here are a few more shots of the action that took place on the field.

f/3.2, 1/400sec, ISO 3200 at 200mm

f/3.2, 1/800sec, ISO 3200 at 110mm

f/3.2, 1/500sec, ISO 3200 at 200mm

f/3.2, 1/500, ISO 3200 at 200mm

f/3.2, 1/160sec, ISO 3200 at 200mm

f/3.2, 1/160sec, ISO 3200 at 200mm

That last photograph ended up being the winning touchdown.  Congratulations to my former school on their great season, and here's wishing them much success in the semi-finals this weekend.

Reese's Pieces

The explanation behind these photographs is kind of a stretch, but I'm guessing that those of you who come here are somewhat interested in my little musings, so here goes.  If you're reading this the day after it has been published, you know that it is Halloween.  On Halloween, fun folks young and old alike get dressed up in various different costumes.  A favourite costume through the ages has been to dress up as an alien.  And who is the everyone's favourite alien?  Why it's E.T.  And what was E.T's favourite snack?  Reese's Pieces.  As a Halloween treat to all of you, I'm offering up some photographs of Reese's Pieces.  Longtime visitors to this site know that photographing candy is something I enjoy.  There are two reasons.  First, they're really colourful and can really grab your attention.  Second, they make for a really tasty treat once your done shooting them.  I like to shoot candy two different ways.  With a large aperture which blurs out the background and again with a smaller aperture, keeping everything in focus.  The first photograph was taken at f/16, 1/80sec, ISO 400 at 60mm and the second photograph was taken at f/8, 1/60sec, ISO 400 at 60mm.  After all of you trick or treaters get home with bags filled up with tasty treats, give a look at what is inside.  There might be something cool in there to snap a picture of before you eat it.

Double On The Rocks

Though we can now safely say that Summer is over, I'm still going through a little phase where I've been going over several of the photographs that I've taken over the last few summer vacation trips, trying to make up for last time and putting a final polish on them.  Sure, I should have done this probably shortly after getting home from those vacations, but one of the drawbacks of being a shutterbug, is that you sometimes end up coming home with way more photographs than you thought you would.  That's when my other little bad habit kicks in.  A wise man once said 'why do today what can be put off until tomorrow', and for better or for worse, those words seem to have stuck with me for most of my life.  These photographs were taken during the trip of 2014 to Tadoussac.  I shot them in the late afternoon after My Lovely Assistant and I had just arrived in town and went for a walk on the rocky beach as our first official act.  The first photograph, shot at f/5, 1/1600sec, ISO 1000 at 68mm, is of rocks that were out of the reach of the tide.  I liked the way that the sun and shadows seemed to dance around them.  The second photograph, shot at f/6.3, 1/400sec, ISO 100 at 42mm was taken down by the water and I played around with a couple of different exposures before finally getting one that allowed me to properly capture not only the sun falling on the rocks, but also a nice reflection of the blue sky and clouds in the water.  These were the first among many photographs that I took in Tadoussac, and marked the beginning of a good vacation.

Ladybug Invasion

Okay, it's time to dig back into the archives for a quick update.  These photographs were taken last fall after getting home one afternoon and finding that the building had been invaded by ladybugs.  This one in particular seemed rather relaxed and enjoyed posing.  These photographs have been sitting in my website folder since January, but two little incidents finally got me to post them.  First, we had a similar invasion two weeks ago, though none of the bugs were as photogenic as this one.  The second reason needs a bit of explaining.  While visiting my parents over the Thanksgiving holiday, I came upon a ladybug that had gotten into their house.  I managed to position it onto my finger with the intention of letting it free outside, when I felt a little sting.  The little thing had bitten me.  I'd never known ladybugs to bite before, but it reminded me of these photographs.  The first one in particular.  I'm not sure how well is shows at the small size I use to post my photographs on this website, but when it was blown up to 10" x 15" for my exhibition back in March, one of the things that struck me were the teeth.  It's not a surprise I felt a bit of a pinch with a mouth full of teeth like this bug has.  Getting back to the photograph, another thing that I really liked was the reflection of the ladybug.  We had just painted the railings no more than two weeks before this photograph had been taken and the fresh paint provided a nice reflective surface.  I liked the photograph so much that I cropped it both vertically and horizontally.  It's the vertical version that ended up being put on display.  The photograph was taken at f/4, 1/125sec, ISO 400 at 60mm.  Here's a third photograph that I also took that afternoon.

f/4, 1/125sec, ISO 400at 60mm

The reflection shows a bit more on the third photograph, but I should have probably used a smaller aperture in order to keep more of the face in focus.  Lesson learned.  Shoot with different apertures and also keep from being bitten by bugs in the future.