Tag: photography theory

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Photos of Canada Photos of Quebec

The Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec 2022

Cyclists turning for côte Gilmour in Quebec City in 2022
Cyclists turning for côte Gilmour in Quebec City in 2022

An interesting vantage point to photograph the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec is at the intersection of Grande-Allée and the avenue leading to the famous Gilmour hill. The cyclists are riding at high speed and must brake hard before making a sharp left turn to begin the descent to the portion that will take them along the St. Lawrence River. There are no obstructions for the photographer at this point.

2022 Quebec City Grand Prix Cycliste
2022 Quebec City Grand Prix Cycliste

To capture the effect of the cyclists’ movement, the shutter speed must not be set too fast, preferably between 1/125 and 1/160. Otherwise, everything looks immobile, even the wheel spokes.

Quebec City Grand Prix Cycliste in 2022
Quebec City Grand Prix Cycliste in 2022

Positioning yourself immediately after the curve allows you to capture a long line of bicycles. You can focus on the cyclists on the right in the viewfinder and leave the line of cyclists around the curve out of focus. To do this, make sure that the chosen aperture will blur the background. It is also important to follow the movement of the cyclists with the camera. If you stand still, all the riders will be out of focus, as the shutter speed is too slow for the high speed of these riders.

Cyclists racing on Grande-Allée in Quebec City 2022
Cyclists racing on Grande-Allée in Quebec City 2022

An occasional close-up obtained through cropping allows us to see details that we would otherwise miss. In the case of the photo above, it is clear that not only is the rider in the front relaxed, but he has also recently crashed, with his right arm still in recovery. Sometimes we also see the result of deformities in the knees of cyclists following numerous surgeries.

Quebec City Grand Prix Cycliste 2022
Quebec City Grand Prix Cycliste 2022

The cyclists want to maintain their position in this tightly packed group that must maneuver in a small space. With a telephoto lens, one can see the facial expressions change as they approach the turn for the Gilmour hill. Note the concentration on the faces of the cyclists in the foreground…

Grand Prix Cycliste in Quebec City in 2022
Grand Prix Cycliste in Quebec City in 2022

Following moving cyclists with a camera remains a difficult art to master. Several pictures are taken before a successful one is achieved. Fortunately, film photography is behind us and we don’t worry as much about missed shots. The important thing is to have fun and try to get a little better with each photo session!

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

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Photos of Quebec

The architecture of Quebec City in photography.

Fontaine de Tourny and the Quebec National Assembly building.
Fontaine de Tourny and the Quebec National Assembly building.

The fontaine de Tourny and the parliament building in Quebec City are often photographed separately. This can give very good results. However, the visual impact can be increased by combining the two architectural styles in close proximity in the same photo.

By paying attention to the photographic composition, I sought a balance while creating a tension between the two works. In the scene above, the fountain and the Parliament building appear to be of similar height. The vertical axis of the center of the Parliament tower is about the same distance from the right side of the photo as the vertical axis of the fountain is from the left side. This is close to the rule of thirds, but not dogmatically so. Both works are deliberately framed tightly.

Other elements contribute to the interest of the scene. First of all, each architectural work has a specific color that is well marked and luckily the colors are almost complementary. Still on the subject of color, I chose to take the photo during the “blue hour”, that time of day just before dark when a very soft light illuminates the landscape for a few more minutes.

Finally, the water jets and the people in the background add a little dynamism to an essentially static subject.

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

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Photography

Saint-Nicolas blueberries.

Blueberries and macrophotography
Blueberries and macrophotography

Saint-Nicolas is full of quality blueberry fields. While the family is having fun picking the delicious berries, I take the opportunity to do a little photography and try to create something other than a traditional photo of a blueberry plant. The right light and a Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM macro lens are a good start to maximize the chances of success.

Arriving at the time of the season when the blueberries are not all mature makes it possible to capture several colors. The next step is to choose a plant with healthy flowers and fruit, because in macro photography a damaged plant is magnified several times and the defects become distracting.

Finally, it is necessary to take several pictures with different apertures. We must find the right balance. A bush with too much detail may become conventional, while too many blurred areas lose interest because the eye does not know where and what to look at.

Click on the link for more pictures of Quebec City and surroundings in Summer on my blog.

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Street photography

Street photography: the delivery man.

On his knees he could have carried on more box in the grocery store.
On his knees he could have carried on more box in the grocery store.

The deliveryman above avoids unnecessary trips by carrying a stack of boxes so high that he can barely fit through the door of the St-Olivier grocery store in the St-Jean-Baptiste neighborhood in Quebec City. He could have added another box to the pile, but he would have had to enter the establishment on his knees. We don’t ask for that much…

Scenes like this feed street photography, which requires the photographer to be ready to capture ephemeral situations. The time allowed to camera settings is reduced to a minimum. Sometimes a photo is taken without looking through the viewfinder, hoping to have captured the essential.

This is the case of the scene above. I had just parked in the area and was getting out of the car with the camera still in the bottom of my backpack. Across the street, a delivery man was walking with a stack of boxes taller than him. In a few seconds he would be in the establishment, if the stack didn’t collapse after catching the top of the door frame.

To capture the scene and gain speed, I pulled the camera out of the bag with its preset settings adjusted for street photography and shoot without taking the time to make sure the subject was captured.

Just looking through the viewfinder to frame perfectly would have taken a few extra seconds and been enough to ruin the scene, as in the absence of the delivery man, only the man holding the door would have appeared in the photo. And it is obvious that he is not the main subject. He is very kind to hold the door (it’s the least he can do), but apart from the fact that he seems to have a white support stocking on his left leg (because of the sun), he was the secondary subject from the beginning…

Click on the link for more street photography on my blog.

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Photos of Canada Photos of Quebec

Pope Francis in Old Quebec.

Motorcycle policemen lead the convoy bringing the Pope to Old Quebec in 2022.
Motorcycle policemen lead the convoy bringing the Pope to Old Quebec in 2022.

If you don’t have privileged access, the main difficulty in photographing the arrival of Pope Francis in Old Quebec in 2022 lies in the vague and sometimes contradictory information offered to journalists in an obvious effort to protect the itinerary of the head of state.

You also have to deal with the strong police presence and the barriers that open and close according to the mood of the moment, blocking bicycles and pedestrians long before the Pope has crossed the Saint-Louis gate. As a photographer, you don’t want to find yourself suddenly stuck in a place of no interest.

Other aspects to consider are purely photographic, such as the ambient light and the distance from the subject at the time of the photo, which will influence the choice of equipment carried.

The official convoy arrives on Saint-Louis Street. It is important to know that in the afternoon, the sun crosses directly the axis of the Saint-Louis Street in its slow descent towards the west. If you position yourself along this street to take the picture, there is no physical obstacle, but you photograph against the light a convoy which passes at full speed. The camera sensor does not appreciate backlighting, because it has difficulty evaluating which light takes precedence. The choice of a straight line on Saint-Louis Street is therefore not very interesting.

The crowd greets Pope Francis on his arrival in Old Quebec in 2022.
The crowd greets Pope Francis on his arrival in Old Quebec in 2022.

The Pope’s driver sits on the left (at least in Canada). The Pope will therefore be on the right, whether forward or backward. If one stands in the Place d’Armes, one gives priority to the driver rather than to the Pontiff.

As the sun travels progressively from the axis of St. Louis Street to the west, the tall trees of the Place d’Armes will create a natural veil blocking the effects of backlighting. This will increase the chances of successful photos.

On St. Louis Street, the convoy is moving quickly in a long straight line. The chances of getting a good picture decrease. When the security cars reach the end of Saint-Louis, they have to brake because of a sharp curve near the Château Frontenac. If you position yourself immediately after the curve, the chances of getting an acceptable picture increase greatly.

As for photographic equipment, a camera lens that requires little light will help optimize shutter speed and depth of field, especially in the late afternoon. The Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM lens offers more flexibility.

A camera with a full-frame sensor will also allow the cropping necessary to magnify the photo without loss of quality. For the photos included in this article, the camera used was a Canon 5DSR.

The riskiest technique which therefore requires a little more experience is to take the picture of the head of state in his car in focus while leaving the outside blurred, to show that the car is moving fast. You follow the car with the camera’s viewer. The closer it gets to you, there is an obvious feeling of acceleration. It is thus necessary to increase the rotation of your body to adjust to the car’s relative speed change. The autofocus does its job as the vehicle approaches.

There is only a fraction of a second where you get a completely clear view of the head of state. A second too early and you only see a portion of the face with a piece of the car, a second too late and you get a three-quarter rear view. A continuous shooting mode becomes absolutely necessary.

Pope Francis arrives in Old Quebec on his trip to Canada in 2022.
Pope Francis arrives in Old Quebec on his trip to Canada in 2022.

An adequate shutter speed captures the face of the head of state accurately and keeps the background blurred. A shutter speed that is too fast makes the whole scene clear and sharp, and the photo loses its dynamism. Too slow a speed and the face lacks definition. There is only one chance to get it right.

So, those were a few ideas to remember if you want to photograph important events in Old Quebec. A prior knowledge of the terrain and of the sun’s position at specific times remains essential if you want to increase your chances of success.

Enjoy your photography!

Click on the link for more photos of Quebec City in Summer on my blog.

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Photography

A lucky American Robin.

An American Robin and its fledgling in Sillery, Quebec City.
An American Robin and its fledgling in Sillery, Quebec City.

In Quebec City, an American Robin came to make its nest near our back door. Since it had been there brooding without giving birth to anything, we were beginning to believe that the mother was sterile.

Major construction work was to begin shortly at our home and would last a few weeks. We were almost glad that no chicks were born, as this would simplify the transportation of materials.

A day before the renovations were to begin, the first chick was born. From then on, all construction workers would have to be blocked off and asked to make a detour each time they needed to take scraps out of the house or bring in new material.

All labor groups agreed to our request without a second thought. For two weeks, electricians, plumbers, floor layers, delivery people and installers of all kinds came and went, sometimes asking for updates on the condition of the mother and her chicks.

In Quebec City, three two week old American Robins.
In Quebec City, three two week old American Robins.

The photo above shows the three chicks one day before they fledge. The lack of light due to the location of the nest, as well as the desire not to disturb the fledglings, necessitated the use of a powerful telephoto lens and a camera capable of cropping without loss of quality. A full-frame camera Canon 5DSR with a Canon 70-200 f2.8L IS II USM telephoto made the job easy. The ISO was set to 200 and I severely limited the depth of field to get the best possible shutter speed to avoid motion blur.

This morning, all the birds had left the nest. The parents were flying around nervously, attacking predators while the young were quickly learning to become independent. The blue jay that regularly visits us for its “dish of the day” was denied access to the backyard by both parents.

There are now three new American Robin in the area and it is almost certain that the mother will return next year to the same location, given the success this year.

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

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Photos of Quebec

A Blue Fairy in Old Quebec.

A young girl dances through the water jets near Quebec City's city hall.
A young girl dances through the water jets near Quebec City’s city hall.

The water fountains near the Quebec City’s City Hall Gardens attract crowds during the summer season. The changing colors of the lights offer many opportunities for night photography.

Patience becomes the first rule when it comes to capturing the scene that will stand out. Usually, children run indiscriminately left and right. But there are exceptions, like that evening when a young girl started dancing through the programmable fountains. She moved quickly, adding more dynamism to the scene. I had to take a chance with a night photo.

As far as the photography technique is concerned, the challenge was interesting. I wanted to capture the feeling of movement in her dance. But this demanded a high shutter speed to avoid too much motion blur. On the other hand, the low ambient light called for a slow shutter speed. Those two requirements were completely opposite.

A Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM lens mounted on a Canon 5DSR    camera was part of the solution. A recycling garbage can positioned near the scene also served as a support for the portable tripod. Both Canon lens and tripod allowed for more light to be captured while avoiding unnecessary vibrations.

However, those two actions would not have been enough to allow the scene to stand out. There were still too many contrasts between light and shadow. A digital image processing software facilitated the use of the essential data included in the RAW file of the photo, revitalizing the background while diminishing the foreground’s highlights of the water jets.

Some purists lose sleep over the idea that contemporary photographers use digital processing software to get a better picture. When a RAW file contains 50 million megapixels and you refuse to use its data on principle, it’s a bit like Charles Leclerc deciding to drive his Formula 1 car using only the settings of the ’60s, for nostalgia’s sake.

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

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Photos of Canada Photos of Quebec

The promenade Samuel-De Champlain in winter.

A part of the promenade Samuel-De Champlain in winter by -27C.
A part of the promenade Samuel-De Champlain in winter by -27C.

The photo above shows a portion of the promenade Samuel-De Champlain in Quebec City. People are walking under a temperature of -27 C, but the windchill factor is actually more like -40 C.

Where I was standing, a cliff was blocking the last sunrays. But a little further, the perfectly clear sky and the sun setting diretly in the axis of the St-Lawrence River allowed to obtain amazing color contrasts.

The promenade Samuel-De Champlain with the Adobe "Content Aware" function.
The promenade Samuel-De Champlain with the Adobe “Content Aware” function.

I used the first photo above to familiarize myself with Adobe CC 2022. The software’s “content aware fill ” feature allows you to quickly erase elements of a photo without it being too noticeable. So, I tried the experiment with the person in the foreground. In a few seconds, the lady disappeared without a trace. Artificial intelligence now plays an increasingly important role in the fast and efficient editing of images.

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

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Photos of Quebec

On The Road (3)

Province of Quebec landscape in Autumn.
Province of Quebec landscape in Autumn.

On the road in Chaudière-Appalaches, a beautiful region in the province of Quebec, I saw an interesting landscape in my rearview mirror. This was the perfect start for autumn photography.

Rather than getting out of the vehicle to capture the scene and its autumn colors, it seemed to me that a modified « frame in the frame » technique could be applied very well to capture most of this bucolic landscape.

In order for the photo to be sufficiently in focus, it is necessary to stop the engine. Otherwise, the minute vibrations are transmitted to the rearview mirror, making it impossible to obtain a correct focus, even when using the manual mode.

The photographic composition is determined in the rearview mirror by a zigzagging path through houses and forests. The leaves are starting to change color and the buildings in the foreground as well as the shades of green in the fields help bring the scene to life.

Click on the link for more photos of the province of Québec on my blog.

Categories
Photos of Canada Photos of Quebec

On The Road (2)

Old American Ford pick-up on the road to Lyster in Québec in 2020
Old American Ford pick-up on the road to Lyster in Québec in 2020

This photo was taken at the end of a beautiful day in the Chaudière-Appalaches region. The sun is almost on the horizon and is hitting the sides of the trees directly, further enhancing the autumn colors .

By this time, people are home having dinner and there are hardly any vehicles on the road. Rather than photographing an empty road, which certainly would have been a logical choice, I waited for a vehicle to show up and advance into the foreground of the photo. We are in the countryside and, luckily for me, the old Ford pick-up fitted perfectly in the landscape.

In terms of the photographic composition, the ideal position to capture the scene seemed to be near the curve, so as to use the white line of the road as a guideline leading to the subject of interest. The 16×9 format also allowed for a photo large enough to include the set of transmission line poles on the left, which itself was certainly as old as the pick-up. The latter was positioned according to the rule of thirds, without any compromises being necessary.

The posts on the left allowed a better framing of the subject. In the distance, the sun shines on the road and we assume there is a field on the left that lets the sun’s rays pass through.

The picture was taken with a Canon 5DS R full frame camera.

Click on the link for other photos of the province of Québec on my blog.