The MSC Maria Pia vessel on the St.Lawrence Seaway by Quebec City.
Here is a last picture of the winter of 2022 before going into spring mode. We can see the MSC Maria Pia sailing through the ice on the St. Lawrence River between Quebec City and Lévis, with a temperature of -27C.
The container ship Maria Pia belongs to the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC). It was built in 1997 and flies the Panama flag. The ship passed by the Quai des Cageux at just the right time, as the very soft light of a late afternoon winter day is always more conducive to photography.
The Snowbirds passing by Québec City in June 2021.
The Snowbirds flew over Quebec Cityin June 2021, followed by many other jets and canadian military transport planes and helicopters. Until the last minute, a layer of low clouds and occasional showers worried event organizers.
A ferry crosses the St.Lawrence Seaway in front of Lévis in June 2021.
Low clouds are visible over Lévis in the picture above taken from the Dufferin terrace in Québec City. On the St. Lawrence Seaway, the ferry bound to Lévis is approaching its destination.
Three canadian CF-18 fly by Québec City in June 2021.
The CF-18s initially flew in a formation of three. For photography enthusiasts, the full frame camera used to capture those photos was a Canon 5DSrequipped with an EF 70-200mm f / 2.8L IS II USM telephoto lens. For the photo above, the shutter speed was set at 1/4000 and the focal length was 200mm. Given the CF-18’s fast fly-by, I opted for the AI Servo autofocus which quickly adapts to changes in the position of the objects to be photographed. Since the original image size was 50.6 megapixels, this allowed me to crop it in order to enlarge the military jets without losing quality.
Four canadian CF-18 flying by Québec City in June 2021.
Above, four CF-18s were photographed with a shutter speed of 1/5000.
The bulk carrier Spar Taurus is arriving in the Québec City harbour in June 2021.
Between each fly-by of the various military jets, the maritime traffic continued as usual on the St. Lawrence River. Above, the Spar Taurus vessel , a bulk carrier built in 2005 and sailing under the flag of Norway, is heading towards the port of Quebec, accompanied by two Ocean company tugs. In the background, the Île d´Orléans bridge, which will be redone in a few years.
A canadian C-17 Globemaster III flies over the Dufferin terrace in Québec City in June 2021.
A C-17 Globemaster III, military transport aircraft built by McDonnell Douglas, flies over the Dufferin Terrace. Canada owns five of these aircrafts.
A canadian Bell CH-146 Griffon at Québec in June 2021
Above, a Canadian Bell CH-146 Griffon military helicopter, slowly flies near the Château Frontenac. A soldier seated behind takes a picture of the crowd gathered on the Dufferin Terrace. To photograph a helicopter, the shutter speed must be drastically reduced, so that the movement of the blades can be observed. For the photo above, I opted for 1/250, but I could have gone down to 1/125 without too much risk of the helicopter being out of focus.
There were other aircrafts that flew over the seaway, such as the CP-140 Aurora and the Lockheed C-130J Super Hercules, but the photos were not of sufficient quality to be published on the web.
Click on the link for other pictures of Québec City in summer on my blog.
The Nave Equinox oil tanker with Lévis in the background during winter 2020.
Last week, there was virtually no ice on the St.Lawrence Seaway near Quebec City. Since the beginning of the winter, very mild temperatures had allowed ships to travel the St.Lawrence without encountering any obstacles. For the past week however, more seasonal temperatures with some days between -15C and -22C have been changing the appearance of the seaway.
The photo above shows the oil tanker Nave Equinox, a ship built in 2007 approaching Quebec City. Even at -15C, the day was still ideal for photography because the cloud cover was fragmented allowing the diffuse light of the January sun.
The photo was taken from the Dufferin Terrace near Château Frontenac.The vessel was quite distant and a significant cropping was applied to bring the vessel closer. The photo was taken hand-held and the image sharpness was retained using a very fast 1/8000 sec shutter speed. Doing so limited vibrations.
The camera used was a Canon 5DSr with a Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM lens. A 50.6 megapixel sensor limited image pixelization when cropped.
So far, this winter has been especially cold in Quebec City. There have been several weeks where the temperature stayed below -20 C. The STQ ferries, property of the Government of Quebec, must navigate the ice covered St. Lawrence Seaway between Lévis and Quebec City.
Government of Quebec ferry in the icy St. Lawrence Seaway between Lévis and Quebec. Winter 2018.
The ferries Alphonse-Desjardins and Lomer-Gouin, carrying cars and passengers between the two cities, must sometimes completely cancel the service. On three occasions so far, a ferry stayed stuck while trying to cross the ice covered seaway. The passengers had to wait patiently up to four hours for a crossing that normally takes ten minutes.
The picture below was taken from Old Quebec. In the foreground stands the “Le Vendôme” restaurant, which has been for sale for years now. In the distance, a ferry makes its way through ice towards Quebec City.
Ferry approaching Quebec during the winter in 2018
Ocean’s tugboats are also working on the seaway, regardless of the temperature. The picture below shows one of those tugboats enroute to the Jean-Gaulin refinery to help an oil tanker.
Ocean’s tugboat on the St. Lawrence Seaway near Quebec City. Winter 2018, by -20 C.
The pictures in this article were taken on January 7th 2018 with a Canon 5DSR equipped with a Canon EF 85 mm f/1.2L II USM. The temperature was -18 C.
The next day, a man who had fallen in the icy waters of the St. Lawrence Seaway was luckily spotted by one of the passengers who was standing on the Lomer-Gouin ferry heading to Quebec City. The man suffering from severe hypothermia was saved by the Government of Quebec STQ staff (Société des traversiers). Here is the link to TVA news (in French): Une personne tombe dans le fleuve Saint-Laurent à Québec.
The cold temperature and winds did not stop the Château Frontenaccanoeists from training on the icy seaway in preparation for the Quebec Carnival competition. This year, the race will be held on February 4th. The Association des coureurs en canots à glace du Québec (Ice canoeists Association of Quebec) recently faced a tragedy went they lost one of their members in a training session during very harsh weather conditions.
Château Frontenac ice canoe team at work by -18 C on the St. Lawrence Seaway between Lévis and Quebec.
The Harlequin in front of the Jean Gaulin refinery in Lévis, 2017.
The picture above shows the Harlequin, a bulk carrier built in 2012 that has a 9.7 meter draught. It sails under the Cyprus convenience flag. On June 18th 2017, when the photo was taken, it was in front of the Jean Gaulin refinery in Lévis, Quebec, and was about to cross the Atlantic heading to Rouen, France. The Jean Gaulin refinery is Quebec’s largest refinery and ranks second in Canada when it comes to refining crude oil.
The photo was taken at 21:07, just before nightime. Since I was positioned on the highest floor of the Quai des Cageux wooden tower, there were constant vibrations associated with people going up and down the stairs. The tower’s movement combined with a moving vessel made the use of of tripod totally useless. It was thus necessary to make a handheld photo, which seriously increased the risk of a blurred picture considering the lack of light.
A Canon EF 85mm f/1.2 II USMfixed lens installed on a Canon 5DSRfull frame camera helped to make a successful shot. The fact that this kind of lens requires very little light increases the photographer’s margin of manoeuver. It would obviously have been possible to increase the ISO to 6000 and more to compensate for the poor lighting, but that would have degraded the photo’s quality. The ISO was thus limited to 2000, with a shutter speed of 1/200 sec and a 1.6 aperture.
In order to limit the risk of a blurred picture, it was necessary to follow the movement of the ship with the camera. The closer one gets to immobilizing the ship in the viewfinder, the better the chances of a defined photo.
Since the ship was farther than it appears on the picture above, some cropping was mandatory to bring the vessel to a decent size. If the ISO had been too elevated to start with, the ensuing photographic grain would have been too big after the cropping and the quality of the picture would have suffered. With an ISO limited to 2000, the image kept a decent definition.
For other pictures of ships on my website, click on the following link : Ship photography.
The Havelstern is a chemical tanker sailing under Canadian flag which was built in 1994. Its draught is of 8.5 meters. It is photographed here on June 3rd 2017 in front of Quebec City, with Lévis in the background, heading to Point Tupper in Nova Scotia, Canada.
The Havelstern between Quebec City and Lévis on June 3rd 2017
Several vessels are visible in the picture above. In the foreground, it is possible to see the two chimneys of the Louis Joliet, a boat essentially used for tourist excursions. Then there is one of the two ferries constantly traveling between the south and north shore of St. Lawrence Seaway between Lévis and Quebec City.
The small boat riding by the Havelstern is used to carry one of the St. Lawrence Seaway pilots. A pilot who masters the navigation specifications on this part of the seaway boards the ship and takes control until he can transfer the control to another pilot farther down the seaway ( Pilotes du St-Laurent ). In the background is the second ferry used to carry passengers and cars from one shore to the other.
The full-frame camera used to take the pictures was a Canon 5DSR equipped with a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens. With a 5.0 aperture and the ISO set at 200, the shutter speed allowed was 1/1000 sec.
The Havelstern ship and île d’Orléans in the background, June 2017
While the tourists are having fun in Quebec City, the picture above shows the Havelstern heading to Île d’Orléans in a rain shower.
The picture below represents the Havelstern making a wide turn to navigate around the southern portion of Île d’Orléans. The ship was quite far away and some serious cropping would have to be done in order to enlarge the image. In order to get a picture that would not be blurred, I had to increase the shutter speed a bit.
The Havelstern ship is approaching Île d’Orléans in June 2017, heading to Point Tupper in Nova-Scotia
The ISO was adjusted to 200 and the focal length was set to 200mm. The aperture was only 4.0, allowing a shutter speed of 1/2500 sec.
For other pictures of ships on my website, click on the following link : Ship photography.
