Daisy Day 2017

As you've all read over the last several years, August 22nd is kind of a special day here on the old blog.  It is the anniversary of the passing of my Grandmother, Grammie.  Every year on this day I post up a photograph of a daisy because it is the flower that I associate with her.  In past years, the daisy I used ended up being photographed at the home of various family members or from somewhat significant locations.  This year is no different as this daisy was photographed near one of the pillars of the Jacques Cartier Bridge on the same day that I took my photograph of the sun setting on the bridge that ended up being featured during a segment on CTV Montreal News.  Grammie was always a big supporter of my photography and I guess she was looking out for me that day as I got a beautiful sunset and a great photograph.  In return, I give a little mention here on my page with a photograph, taken at f/2.8, 1/200sec, ISO 400 at 68mm of the flower that reminds me of her.  I'm not really a spiritual person, but I'm sure her helping hand was there that day, and on several other photographs I've taken as well.  Happy Daisy Day.

Angel Forrest in Greenfield Park

While a rather big band was making their return to Montreal this weekend, I think I found the better show in the borough of Greenfield Park where Canadian Blues great Angel Forrest was performing as part of the Canada 150 celebration.  When the flyer for this event came out, I immediately wanted to see the show, despite never even having heard of Angel Forrest before.  This was obviously my loss as I soon discovered an artist with one of the most powerful voices I've heard as she belted out classic blues and rock standards by groups like Led Zeppelin, Janis Jopin and Leonard Cohen, as well as some of her own original songs as well, many of them from her recently released album, Angel's 11.  It was only afterwards that I learned that she had won the Maple Blues Award for best Canadian Female Blues Vocalist for the past four years to go along with a career that has been going strong since 1996.  The crowd on hand really was treated to a masterful performance, from the opening note to the closing jig with her daughters on stage.  The first photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/80sec, ISO 1600 at 200mm and the second photograph was taken at f/4, 1/250sec, ISO 1600 at 105mm.  Here are several more photographs that I took during the show.

f/4, 1/250sec, ISO 1600 at 175mm

f/4, 1/250sec, ISO 1600 at 115mm

f/2.8, 1/200sec, ISO 1600 at 90mm

f/3.2, 1/100sec, ISO 1600 at 85mm

f/3.5, 1/125sec, ISO 3200 at 52mm

f4, 1/125sec, ISO 3200 at 70mm

f/3.5, 1/80sec, ISO 3200 at 55mm

f/3.5, 1/125sec, ISO 3200 at 145mm

f/3.5, 1/160sec, ISO 3200 at 165mm

I was alternating between a 70-200mm and a 24-70mm during the show, switching off a couple of times during the performance.  I had some issues with the lights, but I still managed to grab a couple of nice photographs.  It was a great performance, hopefully Angel Forrest comes back this way again soon.

Something Calmer

All of the explosions have come to an end for another year, so it's time to give all of my senses a little bit of a break. Photographs of day lilies are just the thing needed to soothe my pyrotechnic assaulted ears and eyes.  This particular flower was shot in the garden of My Lovely Assistant's Mother, otherwise known as Belle Mom.  Day Lilies are probably my favourite flowers, and this bright orange guy was real easy on the eyes.  As an added bonus, there had been a brief rain shower before our visit so there were still some rain drops on the petals which came out real nice with a Macro lens.  The photograph was taken at f/10, 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 60mm.  They say we should all take time to stop and smell the roses.  I prefer to stop and photograph the day lilies.  To each there own.

Montreal International Fireworks Competition - Recap

The sky over Montreal gets very bright during the month of July.  The annual L'International des Feux Loto-Québec has now been lighting up the sky for 33 years.  I once again found myself with my camera photographing several of the shows this year and putting the photographs that I took up here on the blog.  Though I missed the first couple of shows, I did manage to see all of the award winners this year.  This year, the winner of the Golden Jupiter award was Jubilee Fireworks of England.  The Silver Jupiter was won by Féérie of France and the Bronze Jupiter was won by Macedos Pirotecnia of Portugal.  As I have done in the past, here is a photograph that I took from each of the shows that I saw, complete with a link to the rest of the photographs taken from that group for those who wish to revisit the fireworks of 2017, or those who missed out the first time and want to see them for the first time.  The first photograph, of fireworks from Poland, was taken at f/14, 10sec, ISO 100 at 43mm.  Here are the rest of the photographs.

Germany

f/16, 15sec, ISO 100 at 27mm

France

f/10, 8sec, ISO 100 at 70mm

Portugal

f/10, 10sec, ISO 100 at 46mm

England

f/8, 6sec, ISO 100 at 24mm

Tribute to Serge Fiori & Harmonium

f/16, 10sec ISO 100 at 57mm

That's how the 33rd edition of the Montreal Internation Fireworks competition played out before my eyes.  There was also one other personal highlight this year as once again one of my fireworks ended up airing on a CTV Montreal newcast.  The photograph in question can been seen on the left and you can find out all about it by clicking on the following link.  It was another fun year, despite the weather playing a big role, some late departures and some bicycle path adventures.  It is still all worth it though as I really enjoy watching the big explosions in the sky, and I like photographing them just as much.  See you in July 2018!

Montreal International Fireworks Competition - Finale

As Geoffrey Chaucer once said, all good things must come to an end.  Such is the case with the 2017 edition of the L'Internationale des feux Loto-Québec has wrapped up.  This was the 33rd edition of the world renowned fireworks competition and though I got off to a slow start this year by missing the first two shows, I was happy to be able to take in the final six.  This final show of the year was put together by GFA PYRO and was themed "C’est dans le ciel:Serge Fiori and Harmonium".  Both Serge Fiori, who helped select the soundtrack for the nights fireworks display, and Haromonium were huge musical acts in 1970's era Montreal.  This final show of the year is often themed around a musical act, so dedicating the show to these very popular Montreal acts is part of the city's 375th anniversary celebrations.  I took in these fireworks from my second favourite location, a walkway over Taschereau Boulevard.  A location that is also usually pretty full, but I was able to take advantage of a weather scare once again and found myself all alone on the walkway about ten minutes before the show began.  The sky opened about an hour before the fireworks were due to begin and it's pretty clear that the bad weather kept lots of people away.  Fortunately, I was already very close to the spot as My Lovely Assistant and I were having dinner at her mother's house, which is about a five minute walk from my spot.  Once the rain stopped, I was out the door and ready to shoot.  What I love about this spot is that not only does it give a great view of the fireworks, but I also get some nice light streaks from the cars that are passing below.  As an added bonus, I get a great view of the bad driving habits of my fellow drivers as they zigzag all over the place, some even coming to a full stop on the busy boulevard.  The first photograph was taken at f/16, 10sec, ISO 100 at 57mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/16, 20sec, ISO 100 at 57mm and the third photograph was taken at f/16, 15sec, ISO 100 at 57mm.  Here are a few more photographs that I took during the show.

f/16, 15sec, ISO 100 at 57mm

f/16, 20sec, ISO 100 at 57mm

f/16, 15sec, ISO 100 at 57mm

f/16, 10sec, ISO 100 at 57mm

f/16, 15sec, ISO 100 at 57mm

As I said way back at the beginning, all good things do come to an end.  However, if you're a fan of my fireworks photographs, never fear, your friendly neighbourhood photographer has one more update still left up his sleeve.  See you then.

Tried Something New

The 2017 edition of the L’International des Feux Loto-Québec is quickly coming to an end.  As I mentioned a little while back, my motivation this year was kind of lacking due to a lack of different locations for me to use for the shows this year.  With that in mind, My Lovely Assistant and I made our way onto the deck of the Jacques Cartier Bridge in the hopes that I could finally find a nice spot to photograph the fireworks.  After an impressive belly flop over the cement barricade and making our way past the security guards and their machine guns, we walked most of the span of the bridge to where I hoped I would get a nice view of the fireworks against the structure of the bridge.  As you can see by looking at the third photograph in this set, and by the total lack of others like it, this adventure didn't end as I had hoped it would.  As the fireworks were going off, we continued to walk on the bridge, making our way back from where we came, but stopping along the way at different locations to try and grab a photograph or two along the way.  I still got a couple of nice ones.  I grabbed a couple of nice explosions with the first photograph, and I do find the shot of the fireworks going off outside of the steel beams to be interesting, but I've always preferred my fireworks photographs to have something in the background.  As such, though these are still some nice shots, they do feel a little bit empty to me.  To fill time, I also took a couple of special effects shots of the fireworks by zooming in and out over the course of the explosions, which makes the photograph look like the fireworks are dancing through the air.  The first photograph was taken at f/8, 5sec, ISO 100 at 24mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/8, 13sec, ISO 100 at 24mm and the third photograph was taken at f/16, 25sec, ISO 100 at 24mm.  Here are a few more photographs that I took over the course of the show.

f/16, 20sec, ISO 100 between 24 and 70mm

f/8, 6sec, ISO 100 between 24 and 70mm

f/8, 6sec, ISO 100 at 24mm

That last photograph was taken after I positioned myself behind someone filming the fireworks with their cellphone.  I though that the little streak of light coming from the phone added a nice little detail to the photograph.  The fireworks were handled by the Jubilee Fireworks Ltd. company from England.  They previously won the Golden Jupiter Award in the 2015 edition of the fireworks competition and I photographed it from the top of Mount Royal.  You can see those photographs by clicking on the following link.  Hope you've been enjoying the annual competition because it's almost over.

Montreal International Fireworks Competition - Portugal

I've fallen a little bit behind here with my photographs of the 2017 L'International des feux Loto-Quebéc, though with good reason.  That being that one of my photographs from this particular night of shooting ended up being broadcast on the CTV Montreal newscast.  If you haven't had the chance to see it, take a few seconds and watch the video by following this link.  This particular night of fireworks was brought to us by the Macedos Pirotecnia company from Portugal.  This was their third appearance here in Montreal, and at one time there were also in the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest fireworks display ever produced.  I almost didn't go out for this show because the weather forecast had been calling for rain for most of the evening.  About 30 minutes before show time, and after several hours of watching the weather radar, I finally made my move out the door and headed out to my favourite spot. Fortunately, many other people must have been watching the same weather because there were very few people there.  Though it is my favourite spot, over the last few years, it has also become the favourite spot of several other people as well.  So much so, that if you don't get there at least an hour before the fireworks start, you may not have a productive position to shoot from as there are people everywhere.  Much more do than when I began shooting from this spot a few years ago.  I guess it's difficult to keep a good thing under wraps.  Once again smoke proved to be a bit of a problem after several rapid fire explosions, but the wind did a fine job of blowing most of it away.  The first photograph of this set was taken at f/16, 13sec, ISO 100 at 46mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/10, 8sec, ISO 100 at 46mm and the third photograph was taken at f/10, 10 sec, ISO 100 at 46mm.  Here are a few more photographs that I took over the course of the fireworks display. 

f/10, 8sec, ISO 100 at 46mm

f/10, 8sec, ISO 100 at 46mm

f/16, 8sec, ISO 100 at 46mm

It was probably my favourite set of fireworks photographs that I've taken of the competition this year, but there are still two shows that remain.  We'll see if I can top these photographs in the days to come.