There are dogs that have a more difficult life than the dog above. For many years, this dog has accompanied his master who works as a coachman in Old Quebec.
This picture was taken with a hand held camera using a shutter speed of 1/60, which is very little considering the 200mm focal length. Normally, with 200mm, a photographer would have to use a speed of 1/200. But the light was not ideal and the ISO already at 3200. I stabilized my position as best as I could by using one of the Château Frontenac’s wall, which is solid enough!
The lens used was a Canon EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM mounted on a Canon 5DSR camera.
For other pictures of Quebec City, click on the following
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The crowd on the Plains of Abraham, in Quebec City, during the 2018 Festival d’été de Québec.
The Quebec Summer Festival draws huge crowds every year to each one of its shows. I decided to use the crowds to compose a photo in which there are only two subjects. In the foreground, one of the trees on the Plains of Abraham. I use the tree to create a diagonal that crosses the picture and, at the same time, helps balance the colours in the picture.
In the background, the crowd, without any other distraction. The people fill every available corner of the picture. They are the ones bringing the picture to life. It is also because of their presence every year that the Quebec Summer Festival is a success.
The picture was taken with a Canon 5DSR camera equipped with a Canon 70-200 f2.8L IS II USM lens. The focal length was 200mm and the shutter speed 1/250. Despite a 200mm focal, the people were still too far to be clear enough.
The goal being to crop the picture enough to enlarge the people, the ISO had to be quite low. It was set at 640. Once those priorities were established, the aperture could only be set at 5.0, which was good enough for the result I was trying to obtain. The 50.6 megapixels full frame sensor of the Canon 5DSR helped a lot.
For other pictures of Quebec City, click on the following
links of my blog :
The 2018 Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec took place on September 7th on a beautiful day. The cyclists had to repeat a 12,6 km pattern across Old Quebec and the Battlefields Park sixteen times, which amounted to 201,6 km.
The circuit’s height difference from start to finish was 186 meters, for a total difference of 2976 meters. It is the Australian Michael Matthews who won the race during the final sprint.
Here are a few photos that I took with a Canon 5DSR camera. I used a Canon 14mm 2.8L ultra wide angle lens and a Canon 70-200 2.8L IS II USM telephoto lens.
The Grand Prix Cycliste Québec 2018. The cyclists are passing under the St. Jean Gate.
The Grand Prix Cycliste Québec 2018. Turning on St-Louis street.
The Grand Prix Cycliste Québec 2018. Turning on Côte de la Fabrique.
The Grand Prix Cycliste Québec 2018. The cyclists are passing under the St. Louis Gate.
The Grand Prix Cycliste Québec 2018, in front of Place d’Armes.
The Grand Prix Cycliste Québec 2018. The car from each team is never far behind the racers.
A few official photographers at the UCI World Tour Quebec 2018.
The Grand Prix Cycliste Québec 2018. The winner, Michael Matthews, from the Sunweb team, raises his fist.
Pour d’autres photos de la ville de Québec, cliquez sur les
liens suivants de mon blogue :
Whimbrels over the Magdalen Islands in 2017. Photo taken with a Canon 5DSR.
The whimbrel is a bird that spends most of its life along the coasts of South America. It travels from Brazil to northern Canada when comes the time of nesting. It is possible to see it flying by the Atlantic provinces of Canada or by the Magdalen Islands in the province of Quebec.
The total number of whimbrels belonging to the hudsonicus species is estimated at around 58,000 and is in constant decline. During the last 40 years, the population has diminished by 80%. During their trip, the whimbrels stop an average of three weeks on the acadian peninsula to feed themselves. A study shows that 1200 were observed in 2014, 518 in 2015 and 344 in 2016. ( French text: Le courlis corlieu )
During our family holiday on the Magdalen Islands in 2017, we saw close to thirty of those birds while we were standing on a hill in Havre-aux-Maisons.
A flight of Whimbrels over the Magdalen Islands in 2017
The pictures were taken with a Canon EF 70-200 mm f/2.8L IS II USM telephoto lens mounted on a Canon 5DSR full frame camera. The focal length was set at 200 mm and I had to adjust the ISO at 1250 in order to get a shutter speed that would prevent a blurred picture as the birds were quickly flying by. Some additional cropping was needed in order to obtain a picture that was big enough.
For other photos on the province of Quebec and also Quebec City, click on the following links from my blog:
These teens from Quebec City work hard at walking on the side of a stonewall near the St. Louis Gate in Old Quebec. Their efforts deserved a picture.
The picture was taken from far away, that is from a point located on the other side of the St.Louis street.That way, they did not realize that they were being photographed, which allowed them to stay natural. That is one of the principles of street photography.
Behind the people is Quebec City’s lower town. The city lights are visible since it was close to 9 PM when the picture was taken.
I was able to take a sharp picture from really far away only with the help of a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM telephoto lens mounted on a Canon 5DSR full frame camera that is equipped with a 50.6 megapixel sensor. Some significant cropping was then necessary to bring the action even closer to the viewer.
The Corona Frontier bulk carrier vessel in the Vancouver Harbour in 2016
The picture above was taken during summer 2016 in the Vancouver harbour, in British Columbia. I chose that time of the day to take the picture since the light was at its best.
The calm winds allowed for a better reflection in the water. The rain, which had been falling almost all day, favored the presence of low clouds which eventually hid the mountains. It is nonetheless possible to still see part of the mountains at the top of the picture.
I used a Canon 5DSR full frame camera equipped with a Canon 70-200 f2.8L IS II USM telephoto lens. The aperture was set at F9 in order to optimize the photo’s sharpness.
The bulk carrier ship in the foreground is the Corona Frontier. It sails under the japanese flag and has its home port in Kobe. The vessel was built in 2000. The Corona Frontier’s draught is 13.7 meters and its gross tonnage is 48032 tons.
The Magdalen Islands, in the Province of Quebec, are recognized for the magnificent sunsets. The picture above was taken while I was coming back from Havre Aubert with my family during summer 2017. The ponds are located between Havre Aubert and Cap-aux-Meules, immediately alongside the main road.
The day had been cloudy and there was no indication that the evening would offer a possibility to get an interesting picture. But around 8 PM, while the sun was still relatively high above the horizon, a few sunrays were able to pierce through the cloud deck. The stratocumulus being well defined, it became obvious that when the sun would be close enough to the horizon, it would light the cloud deck from below as well as light up the ponds. It was important to act rapidly in order to capture the beautiful atmosphere.
When the winds are calm and you must stand still close to ponds in order to do photographic adjustments, one must accept to lose some blood to swarming moskitos. That night, I must have lost a pint of blood!
The absence of wind allowed for a good reflection of the electric poles in the foreground.
The picture was taken with a Canon 5DSR full frame camera equipped with a Canon 70-200 f2.8L IS II USM telephoto lens and a graduated filter used to avoid the underexposure that would be caused by the highlights in the horizon. I used aperture priority and set it at F18 to get a proper depth of field. The ISO was set at 200 and the focal length at 135 mm.
For other photos on the province of Quebec and also Quebec City, click on the following links from my blog:
The chilean vessel Esmeralda and its crew during the Tall Ships Regatta 2017 in Quebec City.
In July 2017, the four masted Chilean sailboat Esmeralda arrived in Quebec City for the Tall Ships Regatta 2017. The arrival was quite spectacular, as the whole crew sang together for several minutes for the people standing along the pier.
In order to avoid any distraction, the full frame picture has been taken in the portrait mode and the cropping was tight enough to bring forward the crew members standing up high away on the masts.
The picture below offers another point of view of the sailboat masts but this time the importance is given to the colored chairs directly installed in water, allowing the tourists to cool down during a particularly hot summer day. The wide angle lens used for the shot was a Canon 14mm f/2.8L. Two diagonal lines created by the pool in the foreground progressively meet with each other in the distance, in front of the sailboat.
The vessel Esmeralda during the Tall Ships Regatta 2017 in Quebec City.
When the Tall Ships Regatta 2017 ended, several small boats approached the Esmeralda and other sailboats to slowly travel with them from Quebec City until they cleared île d’Orléans. In the picture below, you can see the cruise ship Maasdam, which has been repositioned to a new pier in the Port of Quebec in order to accomodate the sailboats.
The ship Maasdam and the vessel Esmeralda during the Tall Ships Regatta 2017 in Quebec City.
In the picture below, the sailboat Esmeralda his heading towards the north of île d’Orléans as the final parade is completed. On the left, you can see the Château Frontenac and, directly behind, the Hotel Le Concorde Québec, with in its upper ring a revolving restaurant offering a superb view of Quebec City. The hand held photo was taken from île d’Orléans with a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM telephoto lens. This lens is equipped with an integrated stabilizer.
It would nonetheless have been quite difficult to succeed with such an important cropping without the performance of the 50.6 megapixel full frame sensor used in the Canon 5DSR. Considering the great distance over water that is present between the camera and the sailboat, it is possible that you notice a mirage effect, even with the small picture presented here.
The vessel Esmeralda in Quebec City during the Tall Ships Regatta 2017. In the background, the Château Frontenac and the hotel Le Concorde.
I thought the crew would use all of the sailboat’s sails once passed île d’Orléans, but it was not the case. The picture below was taken from the top of a wooden tower installed at the north east extremity of île d’Orléans, while the Esmeralda is still navigating using its engine.
Even without the sails, the photographic composition benefited from a yellow field, a merchant ship and a lively horizon line showing the Appalachian mountains. No tripods were used for the shot as the wooden tower was constantly moving. The telephoto lens used was a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM and a slight cropping was necessary.
An approximative rule of thirds is behind the composition of the photo : you can imagine three fictive horizontal lines dividing the frame. The sailboat also finds itself on one of the rule of thirds vertical line on the right.
The vessel Esmeralda, from Chile, sailing on the St. Lawrence Seaway after its departure from the Tall Ships Regatta 2017 in Quebec.
For other pictures of ships on my blog, 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.
Canada Geese over the Strait of Georgia in British-Columbia, in 2016.
Night photography is not always planned and the photo above, taken late in the evening, was certainly not one I would have been able to take when I started as a photographer.
There was a superb sunset on the strait of Georgia, in British Columbia, and I had taken multiple pictures until late in the evening with my Canon 5DSR full-frame camera. The photography session was almost over.
Once I decided that it was time to pack-up for the night, I heard a flock of Canada Geese. They were flying in formation over the mountains to the west and were heading north in the darkness. In order to photograph those fast moving birds in the remaining light, drastically different settings would have to be made on the camera, and this, very rapidly.
The camera was equipped with a Canon 70-200 f2.8L IS II USM telephoto lens mounted on a tripod and facing west. It was on manual focus, the stabilizer was inactive and the ISO setting was very low. A ND graduated filter was already mounted on an adapter which was installed on the lens.
That meant dismantling the camera from the tripod, activating the automatic focus as well as the stabilizer, increasing the ISO, removing the ND graduated filter, limiting the aperture to insure sufficient shutter speed, composing the photo and taking few rapid shots before the geese were too far away.
Few seconds later, those birds and the landscape were becoming another souvenir of a beautiful summer holiday spent in British Columbia.
For more articles in the category « Photos of Canada », click on the following link : Photos of Canada
