Tag: photography technique

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Photos of Canada Photos of Quebec

The Parc national de la Jacques-Cartier during winter.

Hiker entering the Jacques-Cartier National Park's forest, Winter 2024.
Hiker entering the Jacques-Cartier National Park’s forest, Winter 2024.

The province of Quebec offers in 2024 a free admission to Parc national de la Jacques-Cartier a few days a week. This means more visitors than ever before head for the park. Hikers seeking absolute peace and quiet should opt for the paid days.

Even so, if you look carefully, it’s always possible to spot a lone walker, as in the photo above. Most people take the marked trails for ease, but others, like the individual above, venture out on snowshoes near the Jacques-Cartier River, which is completely covered in snow at this time of year.

Jacques-Cartier National Park's landscape, Winter 2024.
Jacques-Cartier National Park’s landscape, Winter 2024.

Approximately three kilometres from the Discovery and Services Chalet is a bridge. From here, the hiker can capture some very beautiful scenes. In winter, an interesting effect can be achieved by positioning yourself close to the banks.

November in the Jacques-Cartier National Park in Quebec, 2023
November in the Jacques-Cartier National Park in Quebec, 2023

This scenery relaxes me so much, yet there are no spectacular elements. Rather, all the components are in perfect harmony: reflections in the water, some bluish snow here and there, brushes and a few leaning trees lit from the side by a soft late afternoon light. As the large trunks occupy the majority of the scene, I chose a vertical format for the photographic composition.

Photo of the Jacques-Cartier national park, Winter 2024.
Photo of the Jacques-Cartier national park, Winter 2024.

Above, the landscape attracts the eye with its combination of horizontal, vertical and oblique lines, as well as its alternating black and white in the foreground. I positioned myself to include in the scene a large branch that enters the photo from the top right-hand corner.

The foreground features open water, snow-covered ice, pure ice and snow-covered ice again. In the middle ground, coniferous and deciduous trees. In the background, a forest revealing the snow on the mountain floor. I’ve left only a hint of sky, as the latter offers no particular interest on this cloudy February day, other than to add some white to complete the alternation of colours.

Click on the link for more photos of the City of Québec and Île d’Orléans in winter 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 Quebec Ship photography

The Norwegian Joy in Québec City

The Norwegian Joy cruise ship docked at pier 22 in Quebec City in 2023.
The Norwegian Joy cruise ship docked at pier 22 in Quebec City in 2023.

The Norwegian Joy cruise ship, which weighs close to 168,000 tons, is one of the biggest ships to dock in Old Quebec in autumn.

The Norwegian Joy cruise ship docked in Quebec City in 2023
Le navire de croisière Norwegian Joy amarré à Québec à l’automne 2023.

It can accommodate 3,852 passengers and, for onboard service, there are 1,851 crew members – almost one employee for every two holidaymakers. The ship was built in 2017. Despite its young age, it benefited from renovations in 2020.

Sliding down the tube on the Norwegian Joy cruise ship

Sliding down the tube on the Norwegian Joy cruise ship

In the photo above, you can see a transparent tube raised above the upper deck in the top left-hand corner. With an enlarged photo, you’ll see that people are sliding down this water slide upside down. The shot below will help you get a better look at the guy in the red and blue swimsuit speeding by. The camera’s shutter speed had to be set to 1/2000 to avoid motion blur.

Sliding down the tube on the Norwegian Joy cruise ship 2023
Sliding down the tube on the Norwegian Joy cruise ship 2023

That day, I was only carrying a Canon EF 11-24 mm f/4 USM zoom lens. I had to crop the photo a little to enlarge it, but you can still see the scene quite well. Part of the tube gives the sportsman the impression of suddenly plunging to the ground, as the installation protrudes over the sides of the ship.

Looking for dangerous goods on the Norwegian Sky cruise ship in Quebec City
Looking for dangerous goods on the Norwegian Sky cruise ship in Quebec City

While people are enjoying themselves on the upper deck, a whole team is busy refueling the ship and ensuring its safety. In the photo above, a dog can even be seen going around the pallets to detect any dangerous or illicit products.

The Norwegian Joy cruise ship in Québec.
The Norwegian Joy cruise ship in Québec.

Here’s a final photo of the Norwegian Joy, taken from inside a recently built cedar gangway near Quay 22 in the Port of Quebec. The sun filtering through the rungs provides a beautiful play of light, all captured by a Canon EF 11-24 mm f/4 USM zoom lens set to 11 mm. The effect is further enhanced by the pseudo HDR mode offered by digital processing software.

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

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Photography Photos of Quebec

Photographing Old Quebec.

An Old Quebec view with the Château Frontenac in the distance using a Canon 11-24mm zoom lens.
An Old Quebec view with the Château Frontenac in the distance using a Canon 11-24mm zoom lens.

Luck plays a significant role in the acquisition of an original shot. To put chance on our side, we need to go on photo expeditions frequently, whatever the weather, and seize opportunities when they arise.

For this outing in Old Quebec, I thought I’d use a Canon 11–24mm f/4L USM super-wide-angle zoom lens. It allows you to get very close to a tall building and obtain vertical lines without the top of the structure disappearing.

Indeed, many high-performance zooms require the utilization of image-processing software to produce an almost perfect vertical effect. But doing so cuts off the top of the edifice.

So, I was looking for a different perspective to shoot the Château Frontenac. I saw it more in the background, as a point of arrival for the eye, rather than taking up all the space. Even as a small edifice in a photo, you recognize it before any other structure.

To do this, I chose an architecturally interesting building as my starting element. It reminded me vaguely of the Flatiron Building in New York. Naturally, it’s not as high and offers that rounded effect when captured in wide-angle format.

I’ve observed a lot of representations of Old Quebec so far. However, I don’t recall previously noticing the street and the old edifices in this way. Usually, the building in the foreground is partially visible.

Lost in the analysis of the ideal angle, I heard a strange engine sound. On my left, a vintage car was moving slowly and would pass in front of the Canon 5DSr lens in a few seconds.

I quickly lifted the camera and placed it in the right spot. The auto was already gaining speed and I had to seize the opportunity. This vintage car blended perfectly into the scene. Only the slightly more contemporary station wagon indicates a more recent picture.

Modernity and the past still come together in harmony in a developer-protected Old Quebec. To capture interesting pictures, you need to get out into the old town frequently.

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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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

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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Photography Photos of Quebec

Old Quebec in winter.

Old Quebec, winter 2023.
Old Quebec, winter 2023.

The Old Quebec in winter is always exciting to photograph. The continually changing weather presents new opportunities that must be seized. Moreover, for the same weather system, each hour that passes also offers a different luminosity. The photographer is spoilt for choice.

For the picture above, taken with a Canon 5DSr, I positioned myself in a place that is normally off-limits during winter. That’s why you can only see my footprints in the snow. But hey! The risk was minimal and the angle of view perfect to capture the Château Frontenac.

The street lamp emits a light that needs to be corrected in the camera. Instead of “AWB”, select “tungsten”. This adjustment allows you to reflect exactly what you see, rather than ending up with tones that are too contrasty. HDR photography allows for some correction of large contrasts in brightness.

The lights on the roof of the Chateau Frontenac illuminate the snow falling around the building. This snow makes for interesting sky tones, even though the blue hour has long since passed.

In terms of the photographic composition, the low wall and fence serve as the entry point into the photo. The lamp post is located at a point respecting the rule of thirds. The building on the right blocks the view and invites the eye to continue its exploration to the left of the photo, which leads the viewer to the Chateau Frontenac.

The photo below, taken a few minutes later, uses the stairs as an entry point into the photo to quickly lead the eye to the Château Frontenac. In this case, a vertical format lends itself better to the scene.

The Château Frontenac, winter 2023.
The Château Frontenac, winter 2023.

The snow on the railings and steps adds an alternating black and white effect. Otherwise, everything would be quite dark and we would lose a little interest. A nearby street lamp provides enough ambient light to illuminate the scene; however, I was careful not to include the light source directly in the photo, as it distracts the viewer from the main subject.

In winter as well as in summer, I use a tripod to reduce camera shake and improve resolution in low light conditions.

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

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Photos of Quebec

The Old Quebec in colors.

Christmas decorations in Old Quebec
Christmas decorations in Old Quebec

A great way to add color to your holiday photos in big cities is to use store decorations. On this street in Old Quebec, a shopkeeper installed a small shrub filled with tiny white and purple lights.

You simply position your camera through the lights, taking care to focus on the main subject. By limiting the aperture of the camera, you get a decorative blur effect in the foreground.

You don’t need digital processing software to add color to photos. Use existing merchant setups!

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

Categories
Photos of Quebec

Houses of Old Quebec in Winter.

Old Quebec houses during winter 2022
Old Quebec houses during winter 2022

I took this picture of the houses in Old Quebec one day before the great storm of December 23, 2022 that left hundreds of thousands of Quebecers without electricity. At the time the picture was taken, the winds were already blowing pretty hard and the windchill factor was around -20C. The tripod had to be held securely to avoid unnecessary vibrations.

The scene captured during the “blue hour” consists of three photos superimposed in order to obtain an HDR result .

As I finished the shoot, I saw a young couple walking up the snowy slope in the foreground in the photo above. The young man approached me and asked me to make a video of the proposal he was about to make to his girlfriend on his cell phone. She didn’t know anything about it.

He got down on one knee, proposed and she said yes. Then came the ring, the kisses and hugs. Without gloves to hold the cell phone for several minutes, I was hoping for the most concise ceremony possible. A few moments later, half frozen, he came back to get his cell phone. Everything had gone as he had planned. You never know what to expect when you go out for a photo shoot!

Click on the link for more pictures of Old Quebec in winter.