Tag: full frame camera

Categories
Photos of Canada Photos of Quebec

A few snow sculptures at the 2017 Quebec City Carnival

In 2017, Quebec City has opted for a decentralization of the Carnival activities which where always organized on the Plains of Abraham. Part of Grande-Allée was blocked to traffic and other activities where also held in the parc de l’Amérique-Française, the parc de la Francophonie and at Place d’Youville, in the hearth of the touristic sector.

Quebec Carnival 2017 symbols
Quebec Carnival 2017 symbols

This new formula seems to be a success, according to the number of people met during my photography sessions on the different sites. Children, as usual, were not really bothered by the cold temperature et found a way to have fun. The picture below was taken while the wind chill factor was -20C.

Child playing at the parc de l'Amérique-Française during the 2017 Quebec Carnival
Child playing at the parc de l’Amérique-Française during the 2017 Quebec Carnival

The parc de l’Amérique-Française was receiving the international snow sculpture contest. Many countries were present: Argentina, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Morocco, Peru and the United States. Italy won the first prize with an excellence award from the Quebec Carnival, added to an award from the public and the benevolent staff. The Italian sculptors were Pietro Germano, Samuel Bonapace and Gino Casagranda. The picture below represents one Italian sculptor at work.

An Italian sculptor at work during the 2017 Quebec Carnival.
An Italian sculptor at work during the 2017 Quebec Carnival.

The second prize, with a Government of Quebec award, was offered to the team from France, who was composed of Pascal Veuillet, André Marastoni and Éric Margery. The pictures below show the work in progress and a French sculptor taking a few minutes to talk with a citizen. He does not seem too annoyed by the cold weather…

French sculptor at the 2017 Quebec Carnival
French sculptor at the 2017 Quebec Carnival
A French sculptor at the 2017 Quebec Carnival
A French sculptor at the 2017 Quebec Carnival

The  team from Canada won the third prize, with an award from Quebec City. In the team were Jessy Armand, Michel Proulx and Mathieu Béchard. The pictures below represent two of the Canadian sculptors at work.

A Quebec sculptor at work on the Canada snow sculpture during the 2017 Quebec Carnival
A Quebec sculptor at work on the Canada snow sculpture during the 2017 Quebec Carnival
French Canadian sculptor at the 2017 Quebec Carnival
French Canadian sculptor at the 2017 Quebec Carnival

Some sculptures had a really original look. Instead of capturing the whole creation, I decided to frame a section of one of the sculpture in order to emphasize the artwork.

Section of a snow sculpture at the 2017 Quebec Carnival.
Section of a snow sculpture at the 2017 Quebec Carnival.

All the pictures have been taken using a Canon 5DSR full-frame camera equipped with a Canon EF 85mm f/1.2 II USM lens, with or without tripod, depending on the amount of light available. The picture above was shot using a 1.2 aperture to maximize the blurred effect in the background. It was then reworked using two different image editing softwares.

For a better idea of all the activites organized by the Quebec Carnival, head towards the following official and bilingual site: Quebec Carnival official site

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
Categories
Photos of Canada Ship photography

Merchant navy vessels in the Juan de Fuca Strait in British Columbia

Merchant navy vessel in the Juan de Fuca Strait near Victoria (2016)
Merchant navy vessel in the Juan de Fuca Strait near Victoria (2016)

Photographers know that the most interesting hours of the day are either early in the morning or late at night, but before nighttime. These periods are ideal for subtle colors and very atmospheric shots.

The Vancouver Island coast offers absolutely everything to attract many categories of photographers: the wildlife, the mist over water bodies in the morning or late at night and the mountains that are visible almost everywhere.

Travelling through British Columbia, I noticed the great number of merchant navy vessels passing through the Juan de Fuca Strait. But to try to photograph them during daytime would only have given average pictures. Waking up early to get the right picture is never easy, but it always gives interesting results.

The only problem with regards to ship photography is that the latter often navigate quite far from the photographer, thus becoming tiny uninteresting dots on a picture. However, the Canon 5DSR camera and its 50.6 megapixels full-frame sensor solve that problem: new experiments are then possible
.
The scenery above was shot from a beach in Victoria, very early in the morning. It was mandatory to ensure of the total immobility of the camera since some serious cropping would be needed later on in order to significantly enlarge the ship. The slightest vibration would have been amplified through enlargment and the picture would have been useless.

Here is the method that was used: the ISO was set on 250, the tripod planted on the beach (but not in the soft sand part where the tripod could have moved a little during the photo session). Moreover, the remote trigger was used, as well as the mirror lock-up function. In order to achieve an optimal focus, the latter was done manually using Liveview with a 16X enlargment.

A Canon 70-200 f2.8L IS II USM telephoto lens was installed on the camera, with a 200mm focal setting. A ND graduated filter was installed to compensate for the rising sun’s brighter light behind the mountains. Being early on the beach also allowed for a minimal wind speed, limiting even more any tripod vibrations. I tried several shots and decided to keep the one with a bird in the scenery, so as to add a touch of life to the scenery.

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

Ship photography

For more articles in the category « Photos of Canada », click on the following link : Photos of Canada

Categories
Photos of Canada Photos of Quebec

Night photography: the Quebec City German Christmas market

German Christmas market stands in Quebec City (2016)
German Christmas market stands in Quebec City (2016)

The German Christmas market is back again this year in Quebec City, for the ninth consecutive year. The market is located near the City Hall and the activity is an initiative of the German community of Quebec. European German Christmas markets have existed for centuries and have kept virtually the same formula throughout the years.

Amateur of delicacies and handicrafts always find something interesting when stopping by the sixty little wooden houses located in the City Hall’s gardens.

German Christmas market in Quebec City (2016)
German Christmas market in Quebec City (2016)

My family and I always stop for an evening meal at the heated chalet where we find an excellent white beer and many choices of meals. The site is ideal for photography enthousiasts and the thousands of multicolored lights add a very special atmosphere. If you visit the market when there is a snow shower, this will add even more interest to your pictures.

The photos shown here have been taken with a Canon 5DSR  full-frame camera equipped with a Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM fixed lens, which allowed me to walk around the site without carrying a tripod.

German market at Christmas in Quebec City (2016)
German market at Christmas in Quebec City (2016)

I would like to offer my condolances to the German people with regards to the terrible challenge they went through in December 2016 when many citizens visiting the Berlin Christmas market were killed or hurt by a madman from Daesh.

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
Categories
Aviation photography

Aviation photography: the Harbour Air DHC-2 Beaver floatplane

An Harbour Air DHC-2 Beaver floatplane is just airborne from Vancouver
An Harbour Air DHC-2 Beaver floatplane is just airborne from Vancouver

The photo above portrays a Beaver floatplane belonging to Harbour Air. It is seen here a few minutes after its take-off from the Vancouver Harbour floatplane base in British Columbia. The picture was taken with a Canon 5DSR full-frame camera equipped with a Canon 70-200 f2.8L IS II USM telephoto lens.

The aircraft, quite small in the photo, could have been enlarged using the Canon 5DSR’ s 50 megapixel full-frame sensor. The image would still have been of excellent quality but I would have lost the effect I was initially looking for.

As opposed to what seems obvious at first sight, the scenery was not captured sitting in another plane but from the ground, while I was standing near the Harbour Air seaplane base. The morning’s constant precipitation saturated the air with moisture and helped create a low level cloud base.

An image editing software was then used to crop the scene. I used a non standard photo format to show the kind of flight the pilot was dealing with, between two cloud layers and with a mountain range on his right. It seems to me that a photographer does not have to feel obliged to follow an arbitrary format if the latter has a negative impact on the intended result.

Cliquez sur le lien pour d’autres photos d’avions sur mon blogue.

Categories
Photos of Canada

Bird photography: a crow in Georgia Strait in British Columbia

A crow in flight over the Georgia Strait in British-Columbia
A crow in flight over the Georgia Strait in British-Columbia

This picture of a crow in flight over the Georgia Strait in British Columbia was taken with a Canon 5DSR full-frame camera. The aperture was set around 4.0. This allowed for a faster shutter speed. A reasonable ISO setting also kept the digital noise to a minimum.

In order to increase my chances of getting a precise photo of the crow, and to ensure that the background was blurred to limit distractions, I decided to follow as much as possible the exact speed of the bird with the camera. This is always risky as one can lose unique photo opportunities. But when it works, the picture is always interesting.

A significant cropping was then necessary to increase the size of the crow in the photo but this had no negative impact on the image’s quality since the initial ISO setting was quite low and I had access to the Canon 5DSR’s 50 megapixel full-frame sensor. Such a huge number of megapixels makes it easier when comes the time to enlarge pictures.

A bit of patience was necessary in order to capture an interesting subject but the wait was worth it. The specimen above landed about fifty feet from me on a Parksville beach. It started to look for small pieces of wood and, when satisfied of its finding, took-off for its nest.

For more articles in the category « Photos of Canada », click on the following link : Photos of Canada

Categories
Photography Books

Photography books: “Full Frame” by David Noton

The photography book « Full Frame », by David Noton, was written in 2010 but the content is still totally pertinent today. It’s possibly the best photography book I’ve ever read. The images are fantastic and the text is loaded with practical and accessible information.

Photography book "Full Frame" by David Noton
Photography book “Full Frame” by David Noton

The author is known as one of the best landscape photographer in the world. Every page of his book is divided in three sections: before, during, after. This means that you read about everything that the author had to deal with as he travelled around the world with his wife to capture landscapes: the preparation, technique, priorities, obstacles, successes, etc.

All along the book, I had the feeling that a friend was writing me since the text is written with a light and humoristic approach in mind, and certainly without pretend. Here are some of his remarks and advices:

“Luck is where preparation and opportunity combine.” (p.38) This certainly applies to everything we do in life.

“Stick with the full frame quality and crop as when required, keeping all the [sensor’s megapixels] information in reserve”.

“Sometimes a new lens or format will serve as a catalyst for a whole new way of looking. It’s all part of the evolutionary process.” (p.64)

Sharpen all digital images. Pictures are made of square pixels and need microadjustments.

To choose among your interesting similar photos which one is the best, start with a very good one and compare it with each other photo, one at a time, throwing away the ones that are inferior. You will save a lot of time.

A bit of blinking in the highlights is not terrible since RAW files can easily be adjusted. Don’t forget that the camera’s monitor shows an histogram adjusted for JPEG files.

Use a grad filter to control the contrasts only, not to add mood or create an artificial contrast.

There is no need to always show the tops of mountains.

“The best pictures are the simplest. Composition is the art of knowing what to leave out.” (p.71)

“Be flexible and strive to extract the most from seemingly adverse conditions.” (p.77)

“For wide angle views on the world, a full-frame sensor is imperative.” (p.93)

Back cover of the photography book "Full Frame" by David Noton
Back cover of the photography book “Full Frame” by David Noton

“Scout the location, analyse the options in different lighting situations, previsualize the image, plan the shoot then keep returning until it’s nailed.” (p.113)

“Location finding is everything; the photography is the easy bit.” (p.125)

“Don’t be afraid of “blinkies” in the brightest part of the sky where the sun shines through […]. We don’t expect to see detail there.” (p.138)

“Using movement is an essential technique in a photographer’s repertoire.” (p.143)

“The classic, golden rule of thirds is a good starting point, but it’s only a guideline to ignore at will.” (p.149)

“A camera’s sensor is not a linear device so the right half of the histogram contains far more information than the left. Those apparently overexposed images, when processed with the brightness brought back to the desired density, will have richer tones and less noise than a frame exposed to the left.” (p.153)

“We photographers can only continue to improve if we keep pushing ourselves.” (p.187)

For more photography books, click on the following link: Other photography books

Title: Full Frame
Author: David Noton
Edition: David & Charles
ISBN-13:978-0-7153-3615-1
©2010

Categories
Aviation photography

Aviation photography: the sunset colors on a Bombardier Q-400

Sunset colors reflecting on an Air Canada Bombardier Q-400 in Toronto
Sunset colors reflecting on an Air Canada Bombardier Q-400 in Toronto

The Air Canada Terminal installations at the Toronto Lester B. Pearson international airport are such that a voyager intending to do a flight from Toronto to Quebec has to walk outside the building to catch his plane. This has some advantages, especially when it is an evening flight and there is, at the time of boarding, a superb sunset.

But to directly photograph the sunset colors without any filter or tripod, while hand holding the camera, is a recipe for disaster. And a photographer cannot stay immobile for very long in that restricted area where security agents and passengers walking towards the DHC-8-400 demand that everyone move with the flow.

A practical method that offers very good results is to indirectly photograph the beautiful sunset colors by using the aircraft as a reflector.

First, it is better to use a camera lens that requires very little light. This will limit the grain size while allowing a shutter speed that is high enough to avoid a blurred picture. The scenery was thus captured with a Canon 5DSR full-frame camera equipped with a Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens.

Secondly, the photographer must crop the photography using an image editing software so that all useless details are absent from the final shot. There are two objectives: 1) it is obviously necessary to keep the aircraft parts that will best show the sunset colors and 2) do the best possible use of the elements presenting graphic interests for the viewer.

If I had kept only several oversized windows in order to show the superb sunset colours, there would have been only clear bright colours, without contrasts. That would have given an uninteresting photo. The advantages of protecting the shadowy top of the aircraft are that it adds a strong luminosity contrast, allows the inclusion of the Q-400 diagonal lines (1-2-3-4-5) and a reflection of the reflections themselves (6) under the aircraft’s wing. All this is highlighted in the photo below.

Photography theory: diagonal lines on a Bombardier Q-400 photo
Photography theory: diagonal lines on a Bombardier Q-400 photo

Click on the link for more aviation photos on my blog.

Categories
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
Categories
Photos of Canada Photos of Quebec

Photography: autumn colors in the Jacques-Cartier National Park

Autumn colors in the Jacques-Cartier National Park
Autumn colors in the Jacques-Cartier National Park

The picture above was taken at the Jacques-Cartier National Park, in the Province of Québec, in 2016 with a Canon 5DSR full-frame camera. You can find this exact location by heading towards the “kilometer 10” inside the park, immediately behind the service center.

Even if the autumn colors were beautiful and would have deserved a close-up, there was also a possibility to include an interesting foreground. The natural shapes and alternance between the strips of land (1-3-5) [see the picture below] mixed with the water and sky (2-4-6) helped form a virtual diagonal that was used as a lead-in line until the eye meets the superior right corner of the photo.

The rule of thirds was easy to apply here and no compromise was necessary. I decide to cut most of the sky since the time of the day was not ideal as the light was too bright. But I also wanted to give precedence to the geometric shapes of the foreground. The skyline was relocated in the first third of the scenery, immediately at the base of the mountains. The main interest of the picture, which was the colorful forest, now rested in the upper right portion of the frame.

Jacques-Cartier National Park in the Province of Québec and photography theory
Jacques-Cartier National Park in the Province of Québec and photography theory

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
Categories
Aviation photography

Aviation photography: sunset on Vancouver Harbour

Harbour Air Twin Otter floatplane C-GQKN and Turbo Otter floatplane C-FODH in the sunset in the Port of Vancouver during summer 2016
Harbour Air Twin Otter floatplane C-GQKN and Turbo Otter floatplane C-FODH in the sunset in the Port of Vancouver during summer 2016

The picture above has been taken with a Canon 5DSR full-frame camera in the Port of Vancouver, in British Columbia, during summer 2016. Following a very busy day of take-offs and landings, everything is now peaceful. The Harbour Air Twin Otter floatplane C-GQKN and Turbo Otter floatplane C-FODH are now parked for the night.

Pictures taken at dusk or dawn benefit from a unique light. Nonetheless, taking pictures of aircrafts against the light, with the last sunrays still visible, requires a special attention with regards to blown out highlights.

When contrasts are too important, it is possible to correct the situation by taking several pictures with different exposures and merging them using an image editing software like Photomatix (HDR photography). This is done in a few minutes only. Nonetheless, with floatplane aircrafts that are still slightly moving even when tied for the night, there is an increased risk of a blurred picture. The best way to proceed is to use a ND grad filter and to place it exactly where the light is the strongest. Naturally, there will still be some blown out highlights.

This being said, you still have a good margin of manoeuver, since there is no problem in showing a limited amount of over-exposed highlights in the brighter part of the sunrays, as there is not much details to lose there anyway. While purists would argue otherwise and spend hours in front of their computer trying to correct everything, you are making the best of another day of photographic exploration.

If the picture was taken using RAW files (or RAW with JPEG), it is possible to improve the scene even more by correcting some aspects like the contrasts, the brightness, the colours, the saturation and ambient light, etc. This also requires very limited time in front of the computer once you understand the basic principles of an image editing software.

Click on the link for more aviation photos on my blog.