Winter view of the houses on Couillard street in Old Québec in winter. The photo was taken in the middle of the afternoon. The light is still good enough to illuminate all buildings without creating reflections that are too strong in places where the sun hits the houses directly.
Click on the link for other pictures of Québec City in winter .
This is what a Demag AC435 all-terrain telescopic crane looked like before it received the colors of the Quebec company “Grues Guay“:
This all-terrain crane was recently at work in Old Quebec, on the Côte de la Montagne. The coast has a fairly steep slope and it was necessary to create an artificial horizontal surface using pieces of wood to make the work safe.
The crane operator used a stepladder to get in and out of his vehicle as needed:
So this gave the following result, once the crane was at work:
With the telescopic arm fully extended:
In the last photo below, you can see a person in a basket that is suspended at the end of the telescopic arm, confident that the tens of thousands of pounds of counterweight will keep the crane from tipping over. The calculation had to be very precise. Everything had to remain stable throughout the day! And since the work on the building lasted several days, the same operation had to be repeated every morning …
Click for more pictures of Québec City in summer on my blog.
As I process these photos taken in February 2020, we are in full confinement because of COVID-19. It’s strange how life has changed in such a short time. Just a few weeks ago, I was freezing in Old Quebec and in the surrounding area while doing winter photography. There were lots of residents and tourists all around, and I could warm up in the cafes of my choice. There was no question of social distancing, masks, closed restaurants and daily press conferences of the federal and provincial governments!
The photo above was taken on rue St-Jean, around supper time. Citizens went out to have a bite in one of the many restaurants and cafes on this popular street, while others quickly went to specialty stores to get missing ingredients for the supper to be prepared. Dogs are not allowed inside the shops, so they have to wait a few minutes outside in the snowstorm for their owners.
I enjoyed the digital processing of these multicolored dwellings. Indeed, although they are interesting, the original colors of the buildings were still less vivid than what I wanted to obtain for this winter scenery near Old Quebec. The saturation was therefore slightly increased to obtain the desired effect.
Traffic time on Honoré-Mercier avenue. Pedestrians have just enough time to cross this very busy avenue before the numerous buses and cars block the passage again. The icy and sloping roadway, the wind and the snow make it more difficult than usual, but the time allowed to cross remains the same. Hurry up!
For this photography project, I used a Canon 5DSr full-frame camera with a Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM lens.
Click on the link for other photos of Quebec City and île d’Orléans in Winter on my blog.
The photo above shows Place d’Youville, in Quebec City, during the February 7, 2020 snowstorm.
The original color photo practically showed only a general white veil. The processing in black and white photo helps to accentuate the effects of blowing snow in this winter scene. Transformation into black and white is a very useful photography
technique when it comes to highlighting elements that are difficult to detect.
The subsequent enhancement using an image processing
software also helped to highlight otherwise secondary elements.
Between the snow bank in the foreground and the buildings on the right, the cars are moving slowly along what is still visible of this entrance to Old Quebec.
The scene above shows St-Louis street partially obstructed by snow. On this Friday evening, the Quebec carnival has just started. However, not everyone is celebrating. The driver of the snow blower in the background is immobilized. The trucks in which he would normally blow snow have been delayed.
In the foreground, the restaurant La Bûche. I’ve been there a few times since it opened. Always the same excellent recipes, impeccable service and an extra kilo after the meal. A very good restaurant in Quebec, near the Chateau Frontenac. And for those interested, what is happening in the kitchen is visible to some of the customers. (No I am not paid for this advertisement!)
For the bravest, winter cycling is an alternative way to travel in extreme weather. The reduced visibility forces the cyclist above to use the sidewalk for his own protection. However, beware of walking down sidewalks at the corner of streets where ice sometimes accumulates. Having often been in Old Quebec to do night and day photography, I witnessed spectacular pirouettes that would make the elastic acrobats of Cirque du Soleil jealous.
The photos were taken with a Canon 5DSr full-frame camera.
Click on the link for other photos of Quebec City and île d’Orléans in winter on my blog.
The photography technique adopted above uses the arch offered by Porte St-Jean to frame the main photo showing Place d’Youville and its buildings at the time of heavy snowfall.
This winter night photograph represents several challenges, including the need to show the snowflakes falling in front of the headlights of moving cars while respecting the natural light of the buildings in the background.
The two pedestrians strolling on St-Jean Street add a human touch and depth to this scene.
The photo below shows part of Pub St-Patrick with some of its Christmas decorations during the snowstorm of February 7, 2020. Old Quebec is full of decorated buildings long after the holiday season is over.
The photo was taken just before nightfall because the light is particularly soft at that moment. I waited for a rare pedestrian to add a bit of humanity to this scene.
The photographic composition takes into account the two diagonal lines starting from the upper and lower left corners and meet on the right side of the photo, roughly in its center.
The diffuse light coming from a lamp post located on the right and outside the frame of the photo adds a little warmth to this winter scene.
The pictures above were taken with a Canon 5DSR full frame camera.
Click on the link for other photos of Quebec City and île d’Orléans in winter on my blog.
The few Christmas decorations still remaining in Old Quebec enhance the winter scenery during a snowstorm on February 7 2020. The presence of several interesting elements add to the photographic composition: the color of the lights in the fir tree and its reflection on the snow, the yellowish lights , the pedestrians walking in the snow covered alley, the smoke escaping from one side of the building and the « blue hour », a period that lasts a few minutes before darkness when one can still see the color of the sky.
The black and white photo above has received infrared treatment. This way, the characters passing in front of the car’s headlights are clearly visible, while also making it possible to distinguish the surrounding objects. Night photography with moving characters and such dramatic light contrasts requires a higher ISO if you do not want to leave out objects that would be of interest in the photographic composition.
Despite an adjusted ISO, the car’s headlights made it harder for the camera’s sensor to correctly read the average brightness of the scene. Without digital image processing, the surrounding buildings would all be extremely dark. Using infrared solved part of the problem.
The photos were taken with a Canon 5DSr.
Click on the link for other photos of Quebec City and île d’Orléans in winter on my blog.
A winter photography project can consist of planning a photo session during a huge winter storm. The next few articles related to photography will concern the snowstorm that took place on February 7, 2020 in Quebec.
The photo above was taken near Côte de la Fabrique, in Old Quebec, after the storm which left 35 centimeters of snow. I chose a black and white photo because the colors added nothing significant, even going so far as to distract the viewer.
The technique of black and white photography works very well here at showing the contrasts between light and dark. The pedestrian and the vehicle headlights emerge much better and the blowing effect near the buildings is more visible.
Interestingly, the rise and fall of tides in the St. Lawrence Seaway impacts snow removal in upper town of Old Quebec.
If the storm occurs during high tides, there may be an overflow of the St. Lawrence Seaway on certain sections of the highway in the lower town. The trucks responsible for collecting snow then have to make a long detour which brings them back to areas already affected by automobile congestion and where speed limits are considerably lower.
While the snowblower is on site and ready to clear the streets of Old Quebec, trucks are caught in traffic, thus slowing the snow removal process. (To be continued).
The photos were taken with a Canon 5DSr.
Click on the link for other photos of Quebec City and île d’Orléans in winter on my blog.
This young man found a quiet spot on the St-Jean Gate in Old Quebec. On the other side of the wall, at Place d’Youville, a band plays during the Quebec Summer Festival.
Click on the link for other photos of Québec City and île d’Orléans in Summer on my blog.
This photo was taken near the Quebec City Townhall in Old Quebec with a handheld Canon 5DSR full frame camera equipped with a Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM lens.
Click on the link for other pictures of Québec City and île d’Orléans in Summer on my blog.
Ephemeral creations are part of the constantly changing portrait of Old Quebec. The public art installations are visible only for a few weeks at a time. The photography lover must stroll through numerous areas of the city in order to find and immortalize an installation before it definitely disappears!
Click on the link for other photos of Quebec in Autumn on my blog.