Moment Of Remembrance

A small, simple photograph to commemorate the large sacrifice that many have made to afford me the freedom to take small, simple photographs.  The photograph was taken at f/5.6, 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 60mm using a Macro lens and bouncing some flash off of the ceiling.  I remember so that those who are no longer with us are never forgotten.

Fall Television Spectacular

As previously mentioned, the amount of sunlight we've been getting over the last few days has been rather limited.  It was another colourless day on Tuesday, but as I arrived home from the day job, the clouds began to part, leaving the potential for a nice sunset.  I quickly grabbed by gear and headed over to the Jacques Cartier Bridge.  I walked along the bicycle path to a spot that afforded me a nice view of the buildings of downtown Montreal, but the sun wasn't where I wanted it to be.  Before heading home, I quickly glanced in the other direction towards the Victoria Bridge and was very happy that I did.  The clouds had split, leaving a nice blue sky and some red and orange light from the setting sun on the clouds that remained.  My Mom has been saying that it has been a while since I had sent in a photograph to CTV News, so I figured this one might be broadcast worthy.  I sent it off and a few minutes later, there it was on television.  They unfortunately made a mistake in identifying the photograph, though weather specialist Lori Graham caught the error and corrected the situation.  The photograph was taken at f/9, 1/500sec, ISO 400 at 70mm and a little bit of Photoshop was used to bring out a little more colour.  Thanks again to Lori Graham and CTV News for letting me add another couple of seconds to my fifteen minutes of fame.

Autumn Stroll

It seems like we haven't seen the sun for about two weeks now.  As someone who isn't a big fan of the heat, it's not that big of a deal, but it also means that other than the photos of a few weeks back, there won't be many more Autumn 2018 colours to show.  However, there is always a colourful lining to every grey cloud.  Looking for Fall images, I headed into the archives and found this photograph that I took a few years back.  It's always fun to find hidden things in my photographs.  For instance, if you look just below the middle trees in this shot, you'll see a couple of people who were out for a stroll. I had never noticed them before until I started to play around with this photograph.  The photograph was taken at f/9, 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 70mm.  A nice little Sunday discovery.

Trick Or Treat

'Tis the season for ghosts and goblins.  I caught this one going through the kitchen hoping to raid the candy reserves.  He thought he was fast enough to avoid my camera, but all of that chocolate in his bag must've slowed him down.  In all seriousness, I had some free time and decided to play around with the camera and my little spooky friend.  To create the photograph, which was taken at f/16, 4sec, ISO 100 at 60mm, I put the little ghost on my black jacket, which was resting on the table.  I then set my focus for a certain spot on the table, slid my jacket back a little bit and then pulled the jacket back to my designated spot on the table while the photograph was being taken.  I made sure to stop pulling a little before the four seconds ended so that he'd be in focus, while leaving a nice streak of his form behind him.  Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go see if he left any candy behind for me.

Bridging The Season

Went out for a nice Autumn walk the other weekend, looking for some colour in the trees and before I had been out even 10 minutes, I found myself looking at the Victoria Bridge.  It opened in 1859 and will probably be around long after the new Champlain Bridge that is being built.  Though it freaked me out a little bit as a kid, it is easily my favourite of the bridges that lead to Montreal.  On this sunny Saturday afternoon, I found myself at the foot of the bridge, looking up at one of the iron trusses that make up the rail portion of the bridge.  There were some wild bushes growing nearby which were turning colour, and against the blue of the sky the whole scene caught my eye.  The photograph was taken at f/9, 1/160sec, ISO 100 at 43mm.  I played around with the contrast a little bit to darken the structure, making it look more like a silhouette against the blue sky.  Just the kind of thing I like to look for.

Orange Zest Chocolate Chip Cookies

As is the usual case around here, the year seems to have passed by very quickly.  Here we are in October, and me with a serious backlog of photographs.  My Lovely Assistant has been busy creating all kinds of tasty treats this year, making sure Your Friendly Neighbourhood Photographer has a full belly.  This update is a very sweet one, chocolate chip cookies with orange zest.  To photograph the cookies, I filled up an elevated grill and placed them on the kitchen table.  I used a large aperture and focused on the cookies in the front row so that the ones behind would slowly fall out of focus.  I bounced some light off of the ceiling with my flash which not only gave the cookies a nice colour, but also created the little shadows under the grill.  The first photograph was taken at f/5.6, 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 24mm and since I know that I asked for seconds, here is a second photograph.

f/6.3, 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 43mm

Same basic set-up as the first, only I focused tighter on a smaller group.  After that, my focus quickly turned to the fridge in order to get a tall glass of milk to help wash those cookies down.

Autumn Colours

As previously mentioned, My Lovely Assistant and I took an apple picking trip last weekend and after the apple bag was full, it was time to open the camera bag and snap up some of the fall colours.  In an effort to keep my out of control archives from ballooning even more, here is a group of photographs I took of the changing leaves on Mont Saint-Hilaire.  After getting clear of the apple trees, I had a nice view of the line of red trees that you can see in the first photograph, which was taken at f/9, 1/400sec, ISO 100 at 135mm, as well as a few puffy white clouds in the blue sky.  All kind of nice colours to look at.  Here are a few more photographs I took that afternoon.

f/9, 1/400sec, ISO 100 at 182mm

f/9, 1/200sec, ISO 100 at 90mm

f/9, 1/125sec, ISO 100 at 200mm

It was nice to be able to grab a few Fall colours since the winds of the last week have done some serious damage to the leaves of my neighbourhood.  There are still a few left out there though, so get out and enjoy the colour while you can.