A Sweet For My Sweet

It's no real secret that My Lovely Assistant is the talent in the house when it comes to the fabrication of tasty creations.  I have enough trouble opening up a can of soup, so when the occasion calls for it, I outsource the work so that My Lovely Assistant can have something for her sweet tooth.  For such occasions, I like to visit the Pâtisserie Juste Une Fois in Saint-Lambert.  I've been there a few times and everything we've tried has always been tasty.  For Valentine's Day, I brought The Heir Apparent with me and she chose this little heart shaped chocolate mousse with a brownie base and red topping as the perfect gift.    Sadly, she fell asleep before she could actually try it, but there will be many more Valentine's Days in her future.  Before digging in, I took a few photographs, using the ribbon from the box as a little photographic accessory.  Idea courtesy of My Lovely Assistant, showing why she has earned that title.  The photograph was taken at f/6.3, 1/200sec, ISO 100 at 70mm with some bounced flash.  As usual, it tasted much better than it looks.  Hope you had some tasty treats of your own.

Ready For Some Football

Another Super Bowl is upon us, and to help get ready for the big game, here are a couple of bonus photographs that I pulled out of the archives from the two games of the Champlain Cavaliers that I was able to photograph back in the Fall.  In the first game, the Cavaliers held on for a tight victory against the Ahuntsic Aigles and in the second, came from behind for a win against the Shawinigan Électriks.  This was a regular Super Bowl weekend feature here on The Old Blog over the years, but it ended up becoming another victim of The Plague.  Luckily, things let up a little bit back in September and October, and I was able to shoot a few games this year.  Just a little something to get you all in the mood for some football.  The first photograph was taken at f/4, 1/320sec, ISO 25600 at 200mm.  Here are a couple more shots from the two games.

f/2.8, 1/400sec, ISO 25600 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/320sec, ISO 25600 at 200mm

f/6.3, 1/320sec, ISO 100 at 200mm

f/6.3, 1/200sec, ISO 100 at 200mm

f/6.3, 1/200sec, ISO 100 at 200mm

If you'd like to see the other photographs from those games, the first back can be found at this link, and the second game at this link.  With that out of the way, kick-off is approaching.  May the game be good and may your snacks be even better.

Cloudy Canvas

There wasn't much to do last year and there weren't very many places to go, so we spent lots of time in the backyard with The Heir Apparent.  I would spend some of that time lazing in my deck chair and staring at the clouds in the sky.  Sometimes, what I would see ended up being quite extraordinary.  There were all kinds of different cloud formations and mixes of colour over the hours of the day and I would often keep a camera close by.  Sure, it was mostly to photograph The Heir Apparent, but I would also point my lens to the heavens every once in a while when I saw something that caught my attention.  It probably takes a little bit of imagination, but it kind of looks like giant monster head looking to strike at the light of the sun that was about to be swallowed by a different set of clouds below.  Yes, a little bit of imagination comes in handy when cloud watching. The photograph was taken at f/16, 1/200sec, ISO 100 at 70mm.  There's always something waiting to be seen hiding in the clouds.  Just take a look.

Winter Warm-Up

As mentioned last time, I've been rather comfortable these last few weeks, but I understand that it's not a feeling that is shared by everyone out there on the internets.  So, since I have been known to post a nice comforting Winter shot in the middle of Summer, I guess I should post a Summer photograph here in the dead of Winter.  This photograph was taken during a little get-together with the family of My Lovely Assistant this past Summer.  As we sit here in the middle of cold-wave number five of this Winter, I am sure that there are many of you who would rather be sitting on the dock next to a lake.  This photograph was taken at f/7.1, 1/800sec, ISO 100 at 24mm.  I had really liked the colour of the sky, so I underexposed the photograph a little bit to bring out more of the blue.  It came at the expense of greens of the trees who ended up being silhoutted out, but the blue was just to nice to pass up.  Fear not, foolish lovers of heat, your time in the sun will soon be back.  Sadly.

A Comfortable Month

I read an article the other day that stated that this past January was one of the most comfortable, I mean one of the coldest, January's that we've ever had.  I know that I certainly took advantage of the weather to get a few photographs.  Last week, during the coldest of the January days, I headed over to the Victoria Bridge because I love to photograph the ice fog passing under it  The problem is, it was so cold that the ice fog ended up being so thick that I couldn't even see the bridge.  It was at that point that I moved off to see the Jacques Cartier Bridge and ended up taking the photographs that ended up being seen on CTV Montreal and the La Presse+ newspaper.  You can go back to that more comfortable time by following the link.  Since I ended up shin deep in snow, I didn't want to just let the photographs disappear into the archives like the bridge did into the fog.  The photograph was taken at f/7,1, 1/125sec ISO 100 at 27mm.  Sadly, the calendar continues to turn and the most comfortable weather is probably behind us, there's still got a few more weeks of comfort left.

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.