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.
Click on the link for more about ship photography on my blog.