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.

The Opening Notes

As I continue to work my way through all of the photographs I took during the concerts at Saint-Lambert en fête we now come back to the beginning.  The name of the concert was Sylvain Cossette and Andrée Watters All-Stars, so it only makes sense that the evening would begin with them up on the stage.  At this point I had switched from my wide-angle lens to my telephoto lens.  The sun had gone down and I was hoping that the Image Stabilizing function might help in the low light.  I'd never used it under such conditions before, so I was taking a bit of a shot in the dark.  But, I still had the wide-angle with me in case I didn't like the results.  After looking at a few of my early shots, I figured I'd stick with the telephoto and my other lens stayed in my bag for the rest of the night.  This is the third set of photographs that I upload from this concert, and as such, I guess you could say that I'm running out of things to say.  So in this case, we really will let the pictures do the talking.  The first photograph was taken at f/5, 1/250sec, ISO 3200 at 100mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/6.3, 1/80sec, ISO 3200 at 120mm.  Here are several more photographs that I took during the opening few songs.

f/6.3, 1/80sec, ISO 3200 at 90mm

f/6.3, 1/125sec, ISO 3200 at 105mm

f/6.3, 1/125sec, ISO 3200 at 175mm

f/6.3, 1/400sec, ISO 3200 at 145mm

f/6.3, 1/200sec, ISO 3200 at 135mm

f/6.3, 1/125sec, ISO 3200 at 123mm

One thing I learned while shooting this beginning part of the concert is that I need to better pace myself.  I think that by the end of the first song I had already taken over 100 photographs.  Over the rest I tried better compose my shots, taking less but trying to have better composed shots.  I think I pulled it off, and you can judge for yourselves by going back and looking at the other photographs that I took later in the show, and in the photographs yet to come.

Stefi Shock & Andrée Watters

Music week continues here on the blog, with the possibility growing stronger that a second week will be in the offering as well.  Today, we're back to the All-Star portion of the concert in Saint-Lambert last Saturday night.  This series of photographs come from the third portion of the concert that featured a few solo songs by Stefi Shock before he was joined on stage by Andrée Watters.  I had some difficulty getting some nice shots of Stefi Shock as he was wearing a baseball cap that often caused shadows so dark around his face that we couldn't see his eyes.  Maybe it's not that important in the greater scheme of things, but I like to see the eyes of a performer when they're performing.  For me, it adds a little something to the shot.  Be they open or closed, the eyes just seem to add an extra piece of emotion to the photograph.  Bonus points go out to My Lovely Assistant who actually pointed Stefi Shock out to me during the soundcheck.  We were on the site in the afternoon to take in the other Saint-Lambert en fête activities while the soundcheck for the evening concert was taking place.  She told me that Stefi Shock was currently on stage when I, in my infinite wisdom, said it was impossible since the stars of the night don't usually take part in the afternoon sound check like that, it was usually roadies and technicians.  Score one for My Lovely Assistant.  The first photograph was taken at f/5, 1/60sec, ISO 3200 at 125mm and the second photograph was taken at f/6.3, 1/125sec, ISO 3200 at 115mm.  Here are a couple more.

f/6.3, 1/60sec, ISO 3200 at 115mm

f/7.1, 1/100sec, ISO 3200 at 115mm

f/5.6, 1/125sec, ISO 3200 at 150mm

I hope that you're all enjoying these out there.  I had great fun that night and there are still a few more updates to go before I get through all of the photographs that I took.

Million Dollar Band

As previously mentioned when last we spoke earlier this week, last Saturday night was spent in Saint-Lambert listening to some live music.  The main event was the Sylvain Cossette All-Star Band, but I was most looking forward to seeing the band that was playing just before them, the Million Dollar Band.  The main reason being that one of the members of the band is an old neighbour.  It was My Lovely Assistant who first spotted his name in the local newspaper as the promotional material for the event had named the band after him.  A small gaffe that his band mates and friends haven't let him forget.  The show began at 7:00PM and we got on the site nice and early, about forty minutes before the show was to begin.  We got there so early that I ended up getting way closer to the stage than I thought I would be.  It was so unexpected that I never even bothered to bring my wide-angle lens with me, thinking I'd be behind a large group of people and thus limited to using my telephoto.  Cue the kind heart of My Lovely Assistant who jumped back onto her bicycle and raced back home to get my missing lens, and managing to make it back before the show began.  Which brings me to a bit of a moral question I'd like to ask.  Since we arrived so early, and this was a free show given in the middle of the street without any assigned seating, I staked claim to a spot about 15 feet from the stage, in the middle of the street.  As we got closer to show time, more and more people began to show up, but rather than stand for the show, they mostly began to set up lawn chairs on the street so they could sit and watch.  Enter this couple who decided the ideal spot to watch the show while sitting down would be directly behind me.  Those of you who know me are well aware that I am a six-foot plus mountain of a photographer, thus making it rather easy to see that it might be difficult to see if you are sitting down directly behind me.  Sure enough, the music starts and I hear a whistling sound.  I see it's the same couple whistling at me, telling me to move because they can't see.  Now, I didn't really appreciate their manner, so I half felt like telling them that I had been standing in that spot for over a half hour and then ask what they were thinking when they chose to sit down directly behind me.  But, it was still early, and there was a little space to the right of the stage that I planned on using anyway, so I turned, gave them a long look and moved.  Did I do the right thing?  I didn't feel like causing a scene, but I also don't feel that I was in the wrong.  Oddly enough, the same thing happened later that night, but this time the offending party got told exacly where they could go by My Lovely Assistant.  Okay, that ends my little rant.  Getting back to the main subject, the Million Dollar Band play some old classic rock and roll songs, as well as some of their own original songs as well.  One of my favourite moments as a photographer was being able to grab a shot of the drummer with his drum stick in the air.  Not something that is always easy to do when you're stuck using slow shutter speeds due to the lack of available light.  I really enjoyed their set and I think that all of the others who came out that night did as well.  The first photograph of this group was taken at f/11, 1/60sec, ISO 800 at 145mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/7.1, 1/125sec, ISO 800 at 63mm.  The third photograph was taken at f/9, 1/125sec, ISO 800 at 70mm and the fourth photograph was taken at f/9, 1/100sec, ISO 800 at 70mm.  Here are several more photographs that I took during the show.

f/9, 1/80sec, ISO 800 at 70mm

f/8, 1/80sec, ISO 800 at 70mm

f/8, 1/60sec, ISO 800 at 70mm

f/6.3, 1/60sec, ISO 800 at 70mm

 

f/9, 1/100sec, ISO 800 at 70mm

 

f/5, 1/125sec, ISO 1000 at 67mm

f/6.3, 1/60sec, ISO 800 at 68mm

f/5, 1/125sec, ISO 1000 at 65mm

f/5, 1/125sec, ISO 1000 at 65mm

Phew, that was a lot of photographs.  I guess I kind of got carried away.  If I managed to get fourteen photographs out of the opening act, plus all of the others that didn't make the cut, you may now understand why I decided to split up the headliners into several different groups.  What can I say, I was having a good time and got a little carried away with my trigger finger.  I'm sure that it happens to the best of  us.

Musical Family

Two things that I enjoy the most are music and photography.  It doesn't happen very often, but when ever I get the chance to combine the two those are the times when you are likely to find me with a large smile on my face.  Such was the case this past Saturday when My Lovely Assistant and I hit Victoria Avenue for Saint-Lambert En Fête.  There's often a special musical guests over the course of the three day event, and Saturday night saw Sylvain Cossette and Andrée Watters with their All-Star Band.  The concert was broken into several sets as various combinations of artists would hit the stage.  I managed to snap some shots from all of them.  Rather than load this update with all of the photos, I figured it would be best to try and break the photographs down by segment in the hope of not trying to overload both the page, and your eyes.  After all, isn't several little treats bigger than one large one?  I guess we'll soon find out.  This first group of photographs feature the show headliner, Sylvain Cossette on stage with his daughter, Beth Cossette and also Félix-Antoine Couturier.  I believe this was the third act of the show, but it gets first billing here because after breaking down all of the photographs I took by group, this one was the easiest to go through.  We'll get into that a little more at another time.  The first photograph was taken at f/6.3, 1/125sec, ISO 3200 at 125mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/6.3, 1/250sec, ISO 3200 at 125mm.  Here are a few more photographs that I took.

f/6.3, 1/80sec, ISO 3200 at 100mm

f/6.3, 1/60sec, ISO 3200 at 135mm

f/4, 1/80sec, ISO 3200 at 130mm

I've broken down all of the photographs I took into four groups, plus another group of photographs that I took of the band that played just before the All-Stars hit the stage.  They'll all be up here in due time.

Daisy Day

I was about to open this little session by mentioning that August 21st  was about to be renamed Daisy Day on the old blog, but then I realized that we're already on the 22nd, so I guess Daisy Day will be a two-day celebration instead.  Those of you who have been around for the last few years know that Daisy Day originates as a way of remembering my Grandmother, who passed away on August 22nd 2011.  This is the third 'Daisy Day' that I've had here on the site and I almost didn't make it.  In past years, I have been able to rely on the gardens of either my mother or cousin to provide the necessary flower to make Daisy Day a success, but this year I've had less success finding some nice ones.  This particualar photograph, taken at f/7.1, 1/3200sec, ISO 3200 at 200mm, was found in Val Morin during a visit with My Lovely Assistant's family.  So, in a sense I guess that I'm still keeping the flowers in the family.  I had a little visitor for the session in the form of a fly who seemed quite comfortable on his seat.  If I was a little bit better with Photoshop, I would have probably made that little daisy bud at the bottom of the screen disappear, but by framing the final image as I did, it bothers me less than it did in my original shot.  It's probably for the best as I don't think that Grammie would appreciate me playing around and altering the work of Mother Nature.

Casting A Large Shadow

I believe that it's already been said here before, but I am fascinated by small insects.  Not all of them mind you, but some of the bugs that I've classified as being harmless and friendly in my mind.  On that list is the lovely Ladybug.  Although to be honest, this one wasn't really that friendly.  I discovered it on a picnic table last fall while on an outing picking apples.  I tried to get it to pose for my camera, but the bug was not interested at all.  Not interested until I shared some icing sugar with it.  I was enjoying a fine snack of freshly cooked apple donuts when I thought that my little friend would might enjoy a sweet snack.  I put some on the table and suddely my model was more than happy to sit still while I took my photographs.  This photograph was taken at f/4, 1/80sec, ISO 100 at 70mm.  I just hope that the sugar rush it must have experienced afterwards didn't send it flying wildly into a car windshield.