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Photos of Canada Photos of Quebec

Sailing through ice on the St. Lawrence River.

Two ferries across the ice in front of Quebec City and Lévis winter 2024
Two ferries across the ice in front of Quebec City and Lévis winter 2024

The photo above shows two ferries shuttling between Quebec and Lévis through the ice in winter 2024. It doesn’t take much to immobilize a ferry in ice, but this year the layer is fairly thin due to a very mild January.

Practicing for the canoe race at the Quebec City Carnival 2024
Practicing for the canoe race at the Quebec City Carnival 2024

Taking advantage of a ferry crossing that has cleared a section of the St. Lawrence River, a crew is training for the Quebec Winter Carnival’s ice canoe race, which takes place every year between Quebec City and Lévis.

Ferry crossing the St.Lawrence Seaway near Quebec City in winter 2024
Ferry crossing the St.Lawrence Seaway near Quebec City in winter 2024

Above, the ships continue their work at dusk. The routes recently taken by the vessels can be seen. I took the photo from the Dufferin Terrace   with a tripod-mounted Canon 5 DSr camera.

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

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Photos of Quebec

The carnival and the Dufferin Terrace slide.

Bonhomme Carnaval on the Dufferin terrace in 2024.
Bonhomme Carnaval on the Dufferin terrace in 2024.

Bonhomme Carnaval regularly strolls along the Dufferin Terrace in Old Quebec to greet passers-by, and he never fails to attract many curious onlookers who rush to give him a hug. Further along the terrace is the famous slide, so popular with tourists. You have to queue for a long time before you can get your place on a toboggan.

The slide of the Dufferin terrace during the Quebec City winter carnival 2024.
The slide of the Dufferin terrace during the Quebec City winter carnival 2024.

The photo above shows the Dufferin Terrace slide in the early evening. I used a tripod to keep the ISO at 200 for a sharper image.

The Dufferin Terrace slide during the winter Carnival in Quebec City.
The Dufferin Terrace slide during the winter Carnival in Quebec City.

You can see the fun in the children’s and adults’ eyes when full speed is reached. For the photo above, the focus was taken on a precise point on the slide before the festival-goers were visible in the camera lens. When people reached the predetermined spot, I triggered the shutter. This made it easier for the autofocus system to focus on a fast-moving target.

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

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Photos of Canada Photos of Quebec Ship photography

Photography: the Queen Mary 2 in Old Quebec

The Queen Mary 2 in Québec in the fall of 2016
The Queen Mary 2 in Québec in the fall of 2016

The Queen Mary 2 comes twice a year in the Quebec Harbour during the autumn. It obviously always attracts a lot of onlookers. The vessel carries 2620 passengers who are prompt to visit Old Quebec upon arrival.

In order to take a picture of this superb ship and the architecture of Old Quebec’s houses, it was worth waiting until evening, when the colours were more subtle. I could have chosen to do a close-up of the Queen Mary 2, but by doing so the photo would have lost some of its dynamism since the quartier Petit-Champlain’s alleys and its pedestrians would have been absent from the scene.

There is only a small portion of the sky visible in the picture and this is voluntarily since it does not present any interesting details, especially when compared with the rest of the scenery. The front of the Queen Mary 2 has wilfully been located in the superior right corner of the photo since it is toward this part of the image that the eye ends its initial inspection.

There were quite a number of viewers installed on the Dufferin Terrace, most with a portable camera, trying to capture the scene. All those onlookers and photographers constantly moving on the wooden terrace were nevertheless creating vibrations: a tripod, usually the perfect tool to prevent any shaking of the camera, was only useful here providing that there was a shorter exposure time. The ISO had to be increased accordingly to respect the shorter exposure and avoid a blurred picture at low speed.

Still, the photo taken with a Canon 5DSR full-frame camera successfully portrays the mood in Old Quebec on that evening of autumn 2016.

For other ship photos posted on my website, click on the following link:

Ship photography

For other photos on the province of Quebec and also Quebec City, click on the following links from my blog:

Province of Quebec Photos
Quebec City and Île d’Orléans in Autumn
Quebec City and Île d’Orléans in Winter
Quebec City and Île d’Orléans in Spring
Quebec City and Île d’Orléans in Summer