Category: Photos of Quebec

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Photos of Quebec

A Storm on Île d’Orléans.

Sea kayaks at Saint-Laurent-de-l'Île d'Orléans 2023
Sea kayaks at Saint-Laurent-de-l’Île d’Orléans 2023

Unstable weather presents two advantages for a photographer on the Île d’Orléans. Firstly, the fear of rain means that visitor numbers are greatly reduced. In fact, most of the people who come to the island are interested in the outdoor activities on offer, such as fruit picking, cycling or sea kayaking. So, we’ve got the road all to ourselves to stop whenever we feel like it!

Île d'Orléans before the storm, July 2023.
Île d’Orléans before the storm, July 2023.

Secondly, unstable weather means the possibility of thunderstorms, with all their interesting cloud formations. It is therefore essential to check the radar and weather forecasts before setting off for the island.

The two photos above were taken with a Canon 5DSr full-frame camera equipped with a Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L USM ultra wide zoom lens.

Click on the link for more Summer photos of Quebec City and Île d’Orléans on my blog.

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Photos of Canada Photos of Quebec

Old Quebec in Summer.

Summer 2023 in Old Quebec.
Summer 2023 in Old Quebec.

Some companies organize themed guided tours of Old Quebec at dusk in summer. The guides dress up in costume and regularly follow the same routes. With a little patience, a lantern-wielding person can be included in a photo, as well as the old stone houses and the Château Frontenac. This adds another interesting detail to the scene.

The picture above presented several challenges, some of which have been solved. Ideally, the HDR method would have provided a better control of luminosity, but the hostess holding the lantern would have disappeared in the process carried out by the Photomatix software. This person played an important role in the scene, so I decided to take just one shot, but in RAW format to optimize the sky light correction in post-processing.

I wanted to use the smallest aperture possible to get a precise focus from the foreground to the Château Frontenac. But due to the lack of adequate light and the movement of people towards the camera, I had to maintain a sufficient shutter speed, even at ISO 6400. Unfortunately, the aperture suffered a little.

So, this is a photo full of compromises, where you do the best you can with the situation and the photographic equipment available.

Click on the link for more Summer photos of Quebec City and Île d’Orléans on my blog.

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Photos of Quebec

The Saint-Jean-Baptiste District in Quebec City.

HDR photo of the Saint-Jean-Baptiste district in Québec, June 2023.
HDR photo of the Saint-Jean-Baptiste district in Québec, June 2023.

Above, a photo of the Saint-Jean-Baptiste district in Quebec City, taken in June 2023. Five photos of 50.6 Megs each in RAW format and with different apertures make up this HDR scene.

After adjusting the basic HDR photo using Photomatix software, I worked with an image processing software to optimize the final result without exaggerating hue and saturation, which is not always obvious in photography today. Finally, I converted the whole thing to JPEG format for distribution.

Click on the link for more Summer photos of Quebec City and Île d’Orléans on my blog.

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Photos of Quebec

Shop on rue St-Jean in Quebec City

On the St-Jean street, the Magasin Général P L Blouin in Quebec City.
On the St-Jean street, the Magasin Général P L Blouin in Quebec City.

The photo shows a partial view of the window of Magasin Général P. L. Blouin Enr on rue St-Jean in Old Quebec. This store sells all kinds of traditional items and souvenirs in French and English, popular with tourists and locals alike. Digital image processing applied a pseudo HDR effect to bring out details and reflections.

Click on the link for more photos of Quebec City and Île d’Orléans during Spring on my blog.

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Photography Photos of Quebec

Tulips and Tourny fountain in Quebec City.

Tulips and Tourny fountain in front of the Parliament building in Quebec City in spring 2023.
Tulips and Tourny fountain in front of the Parliament building in Quebec City in spring 2023.

This photo taken in May 2023 shows the tulips planted in front of the Parliament Building in Quebec City, near the wall surrounding Old Quebec. The Tourny Fountain can be seen in the center, but it seems to suffer from inadequate water pressure. Indeed, we have seen much more spectacular water jets with this fountain.

The photo was taken using a miniature tripod and a Canon 85mm f/1.2L II USM lens mounted on a Canon 5DSr.

Click on the link for more pictures of Quebec City and Île d’Orléans in the Spring on my blog.

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Photos of Canada Photos of Quebec

Video game characters in Old Quebec.

Something new in Old Quebec.
Something new in Old Quebec.

During a photography session in Old Quebec, at Place d’Youville, I met this group of young people dressed as characters from a video game they like. I find it quite charming and entertaining. It’s important to think outside the box and not be afraid to express what drives you the most.

I saw them a few hours later at the Dufferin Terrace as tourists insisted on having their picture taken in their presence.

Click on the link for more photos of Quebec City and Île d’Orléans in the Spring on my blog.

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Photography Photos of Quebec

A Canon lens avoids the garbage.

The Basilique-Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Québec , April 28th 2023.
The Basilique-Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Québec , April 28th 2023.

A sixteen year old Canon 14mm f/2.8 L lens that was narrowly saved from the garbage allowed me to take this wide angle photo of the Notre-Dame de Québec Basilica-Cathedral in Old Quebec.

The visit being improvised, I did not have a tripod. So, I put the full frame camera Canon 5DSr directly on the ground. However, the lens was pointing straight ahead, preventing me from capturing the architecture and colors of the vault. I put my wallet and the lens cap on the floor to provide support for the camera to point towards the ceiling. Considering the circumstances, the result could have been worse.

Two months earlier, this 2007 Canon 14mm lens broke and could not focus automatically or manually anymore. I had sent it to Canon in Toronto. The company had written back that the lens was beyond repair and that I would unfortunately have to get a new one, at an estimated cost of $2700.

With nothing left to lose, I took the chance to have it repaired in Quebec City in a small workshop that repairs just about everything. The technician only needed a few hours of work on the lens and I received a bill for $200 plus taxes.

It was explained to me that the big camera companies do not repair equipment that is fifteen years old or more: they declare it “irreparable” when a few hours are all it takes for an experienced and competent technician to do the job.

The breakdown came just in time as the technician retired within a few weeks…

Click on the link for more pictures of Quebec City and Île d’Orléans in the Spring on my blog.

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Photos of Quebec

A controversial mural in Quebec City.

Disagreement between two artists in Québec City.
Disagreement between two artists in Québec City.

In the St-Jean-Baptiste district of Quebec City, a muralist and a tagger each use their favorite art to express themselves in the same place. The expression ” Fuck tes murales anti-tag (Fuck your anti-tag murals) ” directly applied on the mural adds very little effort to the whole work, but hey, I’m not an art historian. Maybe a new way of communicating between artists has just appeared!

The photo was taken with a Canon 5DSr camera with a Canon 14mm f/2.8 L lens.

Click on the link for more pictures of the Quebec City and Orleans Island seasons on my blog.

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Photos of Quebec

Spring in Quebec City

Joe Fafard's sculpture photographed during Spring in Quebec City.
Joe Fafard’s sculpture photographed during Spring in Quebec City.

Nature comes back to life with the arrival of Spring. This is a good season for black and white photography. In the case of the photo above, the melting white snow uncovers a dark colored ground. The almost black main subject also stands out against a fairly light horizon, so this can only help the photographic composition.

I imagined the effect of the photo when transformed into black and white, with this continuous alternation of light and dark from the foreground to the horizon.

The horse, now free of snow, is galloping past the trees. The multiple trunks seem intertwined with the horse and give the illusion of a ghostly apparition. To avoid too much confusion, however, I had to make sure that the horse’s head and tail were clearly visible. A vertical shot was better because of all the branches that fill the first third of the picture and seem to be part of the horse.

The all-metal animal is part of a set of eight horses created by Joe Fafard, a renowned Saskatchewan artist and Officer of the Order of Canada. The City of Calgary and the Calgary Stampede donated the sculpture to Quebec City and it is located along Champlain Boulevard near the Cap Blanc stairs, just before entering Old Quebec.

Click on the link for more photos of Quebec City in the Spring on my blog.

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Photos of Quebec

Choir in Old Quebec.

Choir in Place Royale, Old Québec.
Choir in Place Royale, Old Québec.

A choir sings traditional songs on the Place Royale in Old Quebec, in front of the Notre-Dame-des-Victoires church. For the occasion, the singers wear coats and hats from another era. If there was by chance a representative of an animal rights association as a spectator, he probably had a little difficulty singing with the choristers…

Click on the link for more pictures of Quebec City in Winter on my blog.