Tag: photography theory

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Photos of Canada Photos of Quebec

St-Jacques de Leeds and the autumn colors.

St-Jacques de Leeds in Autumn.
St-Jacques de Leeds in Autumn.

The St-Jacques de Leeds region, in Quebec, offers interesting opportunities for photographers who like very diversified autumn colors.

A house in the St-Jacques de Leeds countryside in Autumn.
A house in the St-Jacques de Leeds countryside in Autumn.

At the time this picture was taken, most red leaves had already fallen. But the contrast between the dark tones of the evergreens and the other colors still offered beautiful landscapes.

To compose the picture above, I decided to keep the trail. It leaves the main road where I stood and heads, with a few curves, towards the house. The trail starts at the left of the picture and the observer naturally follows it to the house, then to the forest in the background. With my position, I was also able to hide part of the house with the colored trees.

St-Jacques de Leeds countryside in Autumn.
St-Jacques de Leeds countryside in Autumn.

During late afternoon in Autumn, the light is quite softer than in Summer. It is not necessary to wait for the evening to get interesting results. The scenery above offered a natural contrast between the blue of the sky and the orange tones of the trees. I kept part of the evergreen, for its position in the foreground as much as for its dark tone, to add to the dynamism of the picture.

Autumn evening in St-Jacques de Leeds.
Autumn evening in St-Jacques de Leeds.

The tripod was necessary for the picture above. The Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L USM lens, that is normally used for portrait, requires less light than the human eye. It perfectly captured the atmosphere and the colors that were prevailing a few minutes before nightime. All the pictures were taken with a Canon 5DSR full frame camera.

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Photos of Canada

The Château Lake Louise and Mount Richardson.

A view of Château Lac Louise and the surrounding mountains.
A view of Château Lac Louise and the surrounding mountains.

The picture above shows Château Lake Louise and, in the background, Mount Richardson. Lake Louise is in Alberta but only a few kilometers from British Columbia.

This picture was taken during summer 2018 while several forest fires were raging in western Canada. Luckily for us, the smoke had not yet reached Lake Louise when the picture was taken. A few days later, the visibilty worsened and the air quality in the area degraded considerably.

At the time of the picture, the sky was cloudy and I had to wait for the sky to clear in order for more intense sunrays to light part of Château Lake Louise. This provided a greater contrast between the hotel and the mountains in the background.

I thought it was appropriate to keep the canoe with its passengers to add dynamism to the scenery. The photographic composition was planned so as to include the reflection of the bright part of the hotel on the lake.

In order to make an acceptable picture at this time of the day while sitting in a canoe, I used a Canon EF85mm f/1.2L II USM lens mounted on a Canon 5DSR camera. The outstanding performance of the lens in low light allowed me to keep the ISO at 200, thus limiting the photographic grain.

The shutter speed was adjusted to 1/5000 to compensate for the movement of my canoe and the effect of the wind. It seemed to me that for this particular landscape picture, a 16 x 9 format was better suited than the traditional 3X2 associated with full frame sensors.

Click on the following links for other pictures of Quebec and Canada on my blog.

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Photos of Canada

A partial view of Lake Agnes, Alberta 2018.

A partial view of Lake Agnes, Alberta 2018.
A partial view of Lake Agnes, Alberta 2018.

The picture above, taken in 2018, shows a partial view of Lake Agnes. The photographic composition is limited to elements that reinforce the diagonal lines crossing the scenery. In the foreground, the branch reinforces this composition by following the reflection of the rocks in the water.

The limited number of colours in the picture allows for a better view of the diagonal lines in the landscape.

At the extreme right in the foreground are a few people following a pathway along Lake Agnes in order to start the ascent of the Devil’s Thumb (visible in the background) or the more popular Big Beehive.

The picture was taken with a Canon 5DSR camera equipped with a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM telephoto lens.

For other pictures of Canada, click on the following links of my blog:

Other Provinces and Territories of Canada Photos
Province of Quebec Photos
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Photos of Canada

A picture of the Kelowna Yacht Club at dusk.

The Kelowna Yacht Club in British Columbia.
The Kelowna Yacht Club in British Columbia.

For this picture of the Kelowna Yacht Club, in British Columbia, I was more interested in capturing the general atmosphere rather than the whole yacht club with all its boats and installations.

The words Kelowna Yacht Club and the boats being  obvious in the midground, there was no need to add more details. It was nonetheless important to position the tent in the superior right corner of the picture since the name of the yacht club was showing and it was well lighted.

The photographic composition includes elements of the surrounding natural environment that made Kelowna’s reputation. The boats are framed between the rocks and the plants in the foreground while the mountains are visible in the background.

In order to achieve a good photo at this time of the day, a tripod was necessary. It was nonetheless mandatory to limit the exposure time due to the winds, in order to avoid a blurred picture. The shutter speed was limited to 3.2 seconds and the ISO adjusted to 320 to limit the photographic grain. An aperture set at 13 allowed a sufficient depth of field to offer a sharp image.

A Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM lens mounted on a full frame Canon 5DSR was used for the picture. The focal was limited to 32mm. The visibility was somewhat limited due to the active forest fires in the region, but the additional condensation nucleis in the air helped to obtain beautiful colors in the sky.

For other pictures of Canada, click on the following links in my blog:

Other Provinces and Territories of Canada Photos
Province of Quebec Photos
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Environment Photos of Canada Photos of Quebec

Freezing rain on a plant during winter 2019

Freezing rain and nature during the winter 2019 in Quebec City.
Freezing rain and nature during the winter 2019 in Quebec City.

The effects of the freezing rain that fell over Quebec City this winter were not only negative. Photographers seized the opportunity to immortalize rapidly changing situations.

In the picture above, the “blue” that is visible in the ice represents the reflection from the magnificent winter sky. On a bigger screen, the ice shows the white birch trees that were surrounding the scene.

In order to avoid any distractions, the background was kept blurred by setting the aperture to 3.5. The presence of moderate wind required a higher shutter speed, in this case 1/6400. The ISO was limited to 250, to protect the quality of the picture during the enlargment. The 50.6 megapixel full frame sensor offered all the necessary flexibility during the digital processing.

The picture was taken with a Canon 5DSR equipped with a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L II USM telephoto lens. I only had that lens at the moment of my walk. The focal length was 200mm with the stabilizer “on” and a setting of “1.2 meter/infinite” instead of the usual “2.5 meters / infinite”.

For other pictures of Quebec City, click on the following links of my blog :

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

The crowd on the Plains of Abraham during the Quebec Summer Festival 2018

The crowd on the Plains of Abraham, in Quebec City, during the 2018 Festival d'été de Québec.
The crowd on the Plains of Abraham, in Quebec City, during the 2018 Festival d’été de Québec.


The Quebec  Summer Festival draws huge crowds every year to each one of its shows. I decided to use the crowds to compose a photo in which there are only two subjects. In the foreground, one of the trees on the Plains of Abraham.  I use the tree to create a diagonal that crosses the picture and, at the same time, helps balance the colours in the picture.

In the background, the crowd,  without any other distraction. The people fill every available corner of the picture. They are the ones bringing the picture to life. It is also because of their presence every year that the Quebec Summer Festival is a success.

The picture was taken with a Canon 5DSR camera equipped with a Canon 70-200 f2.8L IS II USM lens. The focal length was 200mm and the shutter speed 1/250. Despite a 200mm focal, the people were still too far to be clear enough.

The goal being to crop the picture enough to enlarge the people, the ISO had to be quite low. It was set at 640. Once those priorities were established, the aperture could only be set at 5.0, which was good enough for the result I was trying to obtain. The 50.6 megapixels full frame sensor of the Canon 5DSR helped a lot.

For other pictures of Quebec City, click on the following links of my blog :

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
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Photos of Canada Photos of Quebec

Picture of a Cedar Waxwing taken with a Canon 5DSR

A Cedar Waxwing in a Russian mountain ash.
A Cedar Waxwing in a Russian mountain ash.

This Cedar Waxwing was photographed in June 2018 as it stopped in our Russian mountain ash. The bird had spotted a few dried out fruits left from the Autumn 2017 season.

The picture was taken with a Canon 5DSR camera in order to use the cropping facility of its full frame sensor. A Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM was mounted on the camera. The aperture was set at 3.5 to ensure a blurred background.

The ISO was set at 320 since considerable cropping would be required to enlarge the bird, even with a 200mm focal length. The  grain remained reasonably small through the cropping process, ensuring an acceptable image.

Click on the links for more photos of Quebec and Canada on my blog.

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Street photography

Jeanne d’Arc and the snow geese

Jeanne d'Arc and the snow geese. Parc Jeanne d'Arc, Quebec City, 2017.
Jeanne d’Arc and the snow geese. Parc Jeanne d’Arc, Quebec City, 2017.

When someone wants to do street photography, he must continually ask himself: “What don’t I see, but that is there? What do I take for granted but that would deserve a different approach?”

While I was heading to Old Quebec, I walked by the Jeanne d’Arc park. This park is known for its beautiful flowers and its huge statue of Jeanne d’Arc. But how could I get the statue without the flowers?

I was looking left and right when I finally looked straight up to see, in the background, hundreds of snow geese flying at high altitude and enroute for the Arctic. I had to very rapidly find a way to photograph the statue and the snow geese.

A few seconds later, the tip of Jeanne d’Arc’s sword was pointing towards the snow geese, making a link between the two subjects.

On a more theoretical note, an abstract diagonal line crossed the photo, starting from the front of the horse and going through the rider, the tip of the sword and following the two lines of geese, ending in the upper right corner of the picture.

The picture was taken with a Canon 5DSR full frame camera equipped with a Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM.

For other street photos, click on:

Street photography

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Photos of Canada

A few photos of British Columbia

The pictures below were taken in Vancouver and Victoria, in British Columbia. They were all taken with a Canon 5DSR full frame camera.

In the Vancouver harbour, several condo towers have been built in the last few years. Many condos in those towers can now be rented by travellers through Airbnb, thus entering in direct competition with the hotels located nearby. I was trying to use the water reflections in the harbor to show one of the towers when this seagull appeared in the viewfinder, adding a touch of life to the scenery.

Another way of showing the Vancouver Harbour architecture (2016)
Another way of showing the Vancouver Harbour architecture (2016)

Floatplanes of all types constantly maneuver in the Vancouver harbour. The two photos below show a Saltspring Air Turbo Otter as it is being helped to park. You can also see a row of Harbour Air Beavers (DHC-2) parked after a day of uninterrupted flights.

Saltspring Air Turbo Otter C-FLAP in Vancouver Harbour 2016
Saltspring Air Turbo Otter C-FLAP in Vancouver Harbour 2016
Harbour Air DHC-2 Beaver floatplanes in Vancouver, British-Columbia (2016)
Harbour Air DHC-2 Beaver floatplanes in Vancouver, British-Columbia (2016)

In the Willows Beach’s Park, in Victoria, I was able to photograph this Cooper’s Hawk using a Canon 70-200 f2.8L IS II USM telephoto lens. The full frame sensor 50 megapixels allowed for some serious cropping to bring the bird closer. The hawk clearly annoyed all the crows that considered themselves as the owners of the territory.

Cooper's Hawk in a Victoria's public park (2016)
Cooper’s Hawk in a Victoria’s public park (2016)

In the evening, the fishing boats come back to the Victoria Fisherman’s Wharf. Since I was standing on a moving platform, the use of a tripod would have been useless because of vibrations impossible to eliminate. The solution was to use a lens requiring little light, like the Canon EF 50mm 1.4 USM. By increasing the aperture and the ISO, the picture could be taken with a high enough shutter speed to avoid a blurred photo.

Fishing vessel in the Victoria harbour (2016)
Fishing vessel in the Victoria harbour (2016)

Click on the link for other pictures of British-Columbia on my blog.

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Aviation photography

The Government of Quebec Challenger 600 C-GQBQ

Government of Quebec Challenger CL-600 C-GQBQ airborne from the Québec Jean-Lesage international airport
Government of Quebec Challenger CL-600 C-GQBQ airborne from the Québec Jean-Lesage international airport

I return in the past with this photo of the Governement of Quebec Challenger 600 C-GQBQ. It is seen here after the take-off from the Quebec Jean-Lesage international airport. The picture was taken during fall 2012 with a Canon 5D MKII full frame camera, from the stairway surrounding the Quebec control tower.

With regards to photographic composition, the rule of thirds can be detected in the two wooden zones in the background, one at the top and the other at the bottom of the photo. The aircraft’s position in the frame happens to also meet the same rule of thirds.

I used the spectacular colors of fall to add some interest to the scene.

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