The picture above was taken at the parc Jeanne d’Arc in Quebec City in May 2018. In the background, you can see the Hotel Le Concorde, the only hotel with a revolving restaurant in Quebec City.
The picture was taken with a Canon 5DSR full format camera equipped with a Canon 14mm 2.8L fixed lens.
For other photos from the province of Quebec or of Quebec City, click on the following links from my blog :
This digitally modified photo shows a part of Place d’Youville, in Old Quebec.
I wanted to capture the church in the background, which seemed to be squeezed between two bigger buildings. It became the principal subject of the photo and it was positioned according to the rule of thirds. This rule is far from mandatory in photography but it often provides interesting results.
I liked the repetitive effect of the windows on each side of the picture and the fact that there were diagonal lines that lead the eye to the church. The vegetation in the foreground added a nice touch to the scenery. There was only one thing missing: a human presence.
With a little patience, three girls stopped on the sidewalk and started to talk, exactly where I wanted them to be. The wet sidewalk on which they stood helped to reflect the ambiant light and also lead the eye to the church, the principal subject in the photo.
I rarely digitally transform a photo in such a drastic way. The reason was simple: normally, when the ambiant light is not favorable, you can sometimes use the black and white setting. However, the light on that day did not offer the required contrasts to get sufficiently interesting results.
I did not want to leave Place d’Youville without having captured the energy I felt there. I opted for a radical option after having cropped the image in order to keep only the essential features.
The picture was taken with a Canon 5DSR full frame camera.
For other photos on the province of Quebec and also Quebec City, click on the following links from my blog:
These teens from Quebec City work hard at walking on the side of a stonewall near the St. Louis Gate in Old Quebec. Their efforts deserved a picture.
The picture was taken from far away, that is from a point located on the other side of the St.Louis street.That way, they did not realize that they were being photographed, which allowed them to stay natural. That is one of the principles of street photography.
Behind the people is Quebec City’s lower town. The city lights are visible since it was close to 9 PM when the picture was taken.
I was able to take a sharp picture from really far away only with the help of a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM telephoto lens mounted on a Canon 5DSR full frame camera that is equipped with a 50.6 megapixel sensor. Some significant cropping was then necessary to bring the action even closer to the viewer.
For other street photography pictures:
In July 2017, the four masted Chilean sailboat Esmeralda arrived in Quebec City for the Tall Ships Regatta 2017. The arrival was quite spectacular, as the whole crew sang together for several minutes for the people standing along the pier.
In order to avoid any distraction, the full frame picture has been taken in the portrait mode and the cropping was tight enough to bring forward the crew members standing up high away on the masts.
The picture below offers another point of view of the sailboat masts but this time the importance is given to the colored chairs directly installed in water, allowing the tourists to cool down during a particularly hot summer day. The wide angle lens used for the shot was a Canon 14mm f/2.8L. Two diagonal lines created by the pool in the foreground progressively meet with each other in the distance, in front of the sailboat.
When the Tall Ships Regatta 2017 ended, several small boats approached the Esmeralda and other sailboats to slowly travel with them from Quebec City until they cleared île d’Orléans. In the picture below, you can see the cruise ship Maasdam, which has been repositioned to a new pier in the Port of Quebec in order to accomodate the sailboats.
In the picture below, the sailboat Esmeralda his heading towards the north of île d’Orléans as the final parade is completed. On the left, you can see the Château Frontenac and, directly behind, the Hotel Le Concorde Québec, with in its upper ring a revolving restaurant offering a superb view of Quebec City. The hand held photo was taken from île d’Orléans with a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM telephoto lens. This lens is equipped with an integrated stabilizer.
It would nonetheless have been quite difficult to succeed with such an important cropping without the performance of the 50.6 megapixel full frame sensor used in the Canon 5DSR. Considering the great distance over water that is present between the camera and the sailboat, it is possible that you notice a mirage effect, even with the small picture presented here.
I thought the crew would use all of the sailboat’s sails once passed île d’Orléans, but it was not the case. The picture below was taken from the top of a wooden tower installed at the north east extremity of île d’Orléans, while the Esmeralda is still navigating using its engine.
Even without the sails, the photographic composition benefited from a yellow field, a merchant ship and a lively horizon line showing the Appalachian mountains. No tripods were used for the shot as the wooden tower was constantly moving. The telephoto lens used was a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM and a slight cropping was necessary.
An approximative rule of thirds is behind the composition of the photo : you can imagine three fictive horizontal lines dividing the frame. The sailboat also finds itself on one of the rule of thirds vertical line on the right.
For other pictures of ships on my blog, click on the following link : Ship photography.
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.
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.
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.
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…
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.
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.
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:
The Quebec Islamic community has just lost six of its members. I want to offer them my sincere condolances as a Quebecer from Quebec City and as a Canadian.
It is hard for me to realize that in my city, which is so beautiful and peaceful, such a tragedy can happen. But all the citizens who have lived the same tragedy in their city tell themselves the same thing. Talk about it to the French or the Berliners. Quebec is not different.
The Quebec City mayor, Régis Labeaume, was recently mentioning how good the statistics were in Quebec when it came to violent acts : there had been only one homicide in twenty-one months. And now, in full Quebec Carnival period, at a time where the City invites its citizens and tourists to get out and be together enjoying the winter season, one Quebecer attacks his peaceful compatriots.
The word « terrorism »
I do not know why exactly but it seems that the Sainte-Foy, January 29th 2017 murders that have just been commited will be classified as a « terrorist » act. Possibly because it targeted a specific community that has a different religion than the shooter. Or because the act is aimed at terrorizing people. Or both.
The word « terrorism » is popular. In United States, the Donald Trump government has just closed its boundaries to selected countries, in case a potential « terrorist » would arrive in USA.
It is easy to forget that there are American citizens already living in United States that are even more dangerous, those who kill tens of thousands of Americans yearly with all kinds of guns that they have the right to possess according to a Constitution that did not anticipate the consequences.
In spite of the blooshed that includes tens of children in schools, it is not « terrorism » so there are no drastic actions taken. Politicians talk and hesitate for weeks after a tragedy and then everything comes back to normal. The « terrorist » murder has obviously a much stronger social impact than any other murder. And it allows to disregard the widespread « laisser-faire » when it comes to the right of everybody in United States to acquire almost whatever he desires when it comes to guns and to use them at will. But if you come from Irak, now that’s dangerous!
A few nice Quebec City photos
I take the opportunity to post a few nice pictures of Quebec City, as I did for France after the terrorist acts. They have been taken with a Canon 5DSR. This is another way of saying to local citizens and tourists that Québec, as for Paris, Nice or Berlin, is a beautiful city, normally very peaceful and filled with happy people. And that we are not going to be told how to behave or think by the most violent and often mentally fragile individuals of our societies.
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:
For other photos on the province of Quebec and also Quebec City, click on the following links from my blog:
On June 24th 2016, during the National Holiday of Quebec, the new Pierre Lassonde pavilion of the Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec (MNBAQ) on Grande Allée in Quebec City was inaugurated. This pavilion, that has been expected for a very long time, will allow the Museum to expose art that had to be stored, up to now, due to lack of floor space. This new pavilion will double the exibition space.
Many political personalities were present, among them the Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau and Quebec’s Prime Minister Philippe Couillard, as well as the MNBAQ director Line Ouellet. International actuality caught up with the Canadian Prime Minister during his presence in Quebec and he had to comment on United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union (Brexit) which was voted on the precedent day.
The Pierre Lassonde pavilion architectural project, valued at about $103 millions, was the result of an international competition won by the American architectural firm OMA from New York. Fifteen thousand people were expected to show up for the inauguration. Instead, thirty thousand people visited the pavilion to get a glimpse of the creation directed by the architect Shohei Shigematsu.
Lots of compromises to limit the expenses had to be made, like in all serious projects. Nonetheless, the pavilion is a success and I am eager to see what kind of atmosphere will be generated this coming winter when the light shines through the glass panels and colors the snow around the pavilion. This new building, with its original architecture and the light that emanates from it, already adds a new dynamic when night falls on Grande Allée.
For those of you who are interested in photography, here are some details about the photographic equipment used for my photos : they were all taken with a DSLR Canon 5DSR camera. The Canon lenses that were used were : EF 14mm f/2.8L II USM, EF 50mm f/1.4 USM and telephoto lens EF 70-200 mm f/2.8L IS II USM. The use of a flash being forbidden inside the museum, I had to carefully adjust the ISO, speed and aperture settings, especially where the use of a tripod was not authorized. For those occasions, the EF 50 mm f/1.4 USM was of great help.
For other photos on the province of Quebec and also Quebec City, click on the following links from my blog:
Coming back from Old Quebec after a photo session, I took the opportunity to stop in the area around the Hotel Le Concorde Québec. Restaurants on Grande Allée are particularly well lit which is ideal to capture colorful pictures.
The photos show the Pot de vin restaurant, which replaced the Voo Doo Grill and is now associated with the Maurice Nightclub. It is also possible to see part of the Cosmos restaurant located just below the Pot de vin.
A huge banner has been installed on one of the Hotel Le Concorde Québec’s wall announcing the coming Série Cubaine 2016, several baseball games between Cuba’s team and the Capitales de Québec’s team, during Summer 2016.
The photo below, showing a black vehicle in movement, was a bit more touchy to take since it was already quite dark outside and I still wanted to capture the local population clearly enough. A shutter speed adjusted too slow would have made the people almost invisible as they would have been too blurred. But too fast a shutter speed would have frozen both people and vehicule, taking away the photo’s dynamism. This would have also demanded an exaggerated ISO setting, thus degrading the shot’s quality by increasing the digital noise to an unacceptable level.
Here are the camera settings that were necessary to obtain the desired effect: an ISO at 5000, which is already high enough, an aperture set at 5.0 to get an acceptable depth-of-field and a shutter speed at 1/13, which allowed to see that the vehicle was in movement but was slow enough to freeze the people waiting at the red light. A few seconds before, I had tried a shot while people were walking near the street’s corner, but everything went blurred. Waiting for the appropriate green light allowed the vehicule to move while forcing the pedestrians to stand still.
The pictures were taken with a Canon 5DSR DSLR camera mounted on a tripod, with a remote trigger and the mirror lock-up function active to reduce the camera vibrations. Liveview and manual focus were also used to ensure the image sharpness during that night photography session.
For more articles in the category « Photos of Canada », click on the following link : Photos of Canada
Here are a few recent photos taken during the month of May 2016 using a Canon 5DSR camera equipped with a Canon 70-200 f2.8L IS II USM telephoto lens. I was on île d’Orléans for the photo session, near the Horatio Walker promenade in Sainte-Pétronille.
The picture above shows the vessel Shelduck flying the Liberian flag. It just crossed the narrow channel between île d’Orléans and Levis. This ship, built in 2012, is a bulk carrier. In the background it is possible to see Quebec City, with the Château Frontenac and the Hotel Le Concorde Quebec.
The photo below shows the Silver Carla (Majuro), a tanker used to carry oil and chemical products. It is moored at the Quebec harbour installations. The ship was built in 2014 and sails using the Marshall Islands flag of convenience.
In the picture below, the tanker Cap Jean, property of Euronav, is approaching île d’Orléans. This tanker was initially supposed to be named St. Jean but the name’s religious connotation could have caused problems in some parts of world. The name Cap Jean was thus chosen.
The photo below, also taken from île d’Orléans, offers an interesting view of Quebec City just before nightime. The Hotel Le Concorde Quebec’s new lighting system is visible in the distance. In the foreground, you can see the ship Laurentia Desgagnés.
Below, the ship Nilufer Sultan is heading towards Quebec harbour. Built in 2008, this oil tanker also uses the Marshall Islands flag of convenience.
The photo below shows the tanker Sloman Herakles, normally based in St. John’s, Canada. It sails under the Antigua and Barbuda flag and is heading to Sarnia, Ontario.
The two photos below show the container ship Toronto Express, property of the Hapag Lloyd Company. I chose to transform the first picture in black and white since the ship did not contrast enough with the background in the colored picture. It is actually slightly inclined since it is turning towards the right while approaching île d’Orléans. On the next picture, we can see in the background the smoking chimney of the Papiers White Birch Company, formerly called Daïshowa and later Stadacona.
Below is the chemical tanker Mayaro (Japan) arriving near Quebec City in May 2016.
Taking pictures in the evening
Trying to take pictures of moving ships in the evening, using the smallest possible ISO, forces a photographer to use a tripod, a remote trigger and the camera’s mirror lock-up function to reduce vibrations. Ideally, it is best to find a spot where the tripod will be protected from the wind while ensuring that the camera’s strap is not moving at all. There is no need to use a polarizing filter at this time of the day: that would only be detrimental to the photo.
The Canon 5DSR DSLR full frame camera allows the photographer to take a picture in two steps, reducing even more the possibility of secondary vibrations. First, the mirror is lifted up. Then, two seconds later, the photo is finally taken. For a sharper image, it is best to use the Liveview function with a 16X enlargement and do a manual focus adjustment.
Risks associated with photography!
On île d’Orléans, many visitors use the surroundings banks to let their dog roam freely. This can cause a problem as the animal sometimes perceives the photographer and his photographic equipment as a potential threat to a master that it must protect… You will have been advised!
For other ship photos posted on my website, click on the following link:
For other photos on the province of Quebec and also Quebec City, click on the following links from my blog: