By cropping very tightly a picture of the St-Louis-de-Gonzague school’s entrance, in Quebec City, it is possible to modify the access to the school.
To the right of the hole in the wall, you can see “Entrée des élèves”, which means “Entrance for students”. With this reinterpretation, the students are invited to leave school as soon as they arrive. At a time where the society promotes an alternative education and the environment, this is an ideal opportunity for the students!
In Canada, we cannot take the picture of someone who is the main subject unless we have obtained her permission. This is even more important with a child, where the authorization of the parents is required. But in the case of the picture below, it is different: it is a child whose face seems to belong to somebody else!
The child with a man’s face. Terrasse Dufferin, Quebec City.
I took this picture and enlarged it in the camera to understand what I was seeing. I realized that the child was holding the image of an adult man directly in front of his face.
The child with a man’s face (enlarged photo)
There was a group of adults that were standing nearby. One of the man called the child, who rapidly stepped down from the statue. They told me that the picture held by the child represents the sensei of a karate club that came all the way from British-Columbia for a national competition of Shotokan style karate being held at Laval University in Quebec City. The mystery was solved!
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.
So far, this winter has been especially cold in Quebec City. There have been several weeks where the temperature stayed below -20 C. The STQ ferries, property of the Government of Quebec, must navigate the ice covered St. Lawrence Seaway between Lévis and Quebec City.
Government of Quebec ferry in the icy St. Lawrence Seaway between Lévis and Quebec. Winter 2018.
The ferries Alphonse-Desjardins and Lomer-Gouin, carrying cars and passengers between the two cities, must sometimes completely cancel the service. On three occasions so far, a ferry stayed stuck while trying to cross the ice covered seaway. The passengers had to wait patiently up to four hours for a crossing that normally takes ten minutes.
The picture below was taken from Old Quebec. In the foreground stands the “Le Vendôme” restaurant, which has been for sale for years now. In the distance, a ferry makes its way through ice towards Quebec City.
Ferry approaching Quebec during the winter in 2018
Ocean’s tugboats are also working on the seaway, regardless of the temperature. The picture below shows one of those tugboats enroute to the Jean-Gaulin refinery to help an oil tanker.
Ocean’s tugboat on the St. Lawrence Seaway near Quebec City. Winter 2018, by -20 C.
The pictures in this article were taken on January 7th 2018 with a Canon 5DSR equipped with a Canon EF 85 mm f/1.2L II USM. The temperature was -18 C.
The next day, a man who had fallen in the icy waters of the St. Lawrence Seaway was luckily spotted by one of the passengers who was standing on the Lomer-Gouin ferry heading to Quebec City. The man suffering from severe hypothermia was saved by the Government of Quebec STQ staff (Société des traversiers). Here is the link to TVA news (in French): Une personne tombe dans le fleuve Saint-Laurent à Québec.
The cold temperature and winds did not stop the Château Frontenac canoeists from training on the icy seaway in preparation for the Quebec Carnival competition. This year, the race will be held on February 4th. The Association des coureurs en canots à glace du Québec (Ice canoeists Association of Quebec) recently faced a tragedy went they lost one of their members in a training session during very harsh weather conditions.
Château Frontenac ice canoe team at work by -18 C on the St. Lawrence Seaway between Lévis and Quebec.
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.
The Quebec Bridge, the longest cantilever type bridge in the world, celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2017. For the occasion, several activities were organized in Quebec on September 23rd 2017, culminating with fireworks near the bridge.
Reflections on the St. Lawrence Seaway. The 100th anniversary of the Quebec Bridge was celebrated with fireworks.
Several workers lost their live while attempting to build the bridge. A Wikipedia article resumes its history: The Quebec Bridge
In 2017, the safety issue was brought back in the news. This time it was about the lack of maintenance that favored an increasing amount of rust on the metallic structure.
The funds that would allow to paint the bridge on a regular basis seems hard to find. The bridge owner, the Canadian National Railway Company, and the different levels of government are attempting to find a solution that would be acceptable for all. This discussion has been going on for years. While the bridge holds on, everything is fine.
September 23rd 2017 celebration for the 100th anniversary of the Quebec Bridge.
About the photography
During the fireworks several boats equipped with an additional lighting system approached the bridge.
It was impossible to get really sharp shots of the boats since they were constantly moving due to the strong current of the St. Lawrence Seaway.
The fireworks lasted about thirty minutes and attracted a huge crowd, both along the St.Lawrence Seaway and on the higher grounds of bothLévis and Quebec City.
Fireworks for the 100th anniversary of the Quebec Bridge
Frequent adjustments of the camera’s aperture and ISO were needed since it is always very demanding for a camera to deal with sudden burst of lights appearing in the darkness. It was necessary to limit the exposure time in order to avoid an accumulation of blurred light trails.
The Quebec Bridge is 100 years old in 2017
The pictures were taken with a Canon 5DSR full frame camera mounted on a tripod. A Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM was used to capture the fireworks.
The catamaran Impossible Dream and the vessel Europa arrive in Quebec for the Tall Ships Regatta 2017
The picture above shows the catamaran « Impossible Dream » and the three masted vessel Europa arriving in Quebec for the Tall Ships Regatta 2017.
The Impossible Dream is a catamaran built in 2002 and designed to travel on the ocean. Its mission, as stated on the website Impossible Dream, is “to bring disabled and nondisabled people together in productive, collaborative endeavors ».
The three masted vessel Europa arrives in Quebec for the Tall Ships Regatta 2017
The Europa is sailing under the Netherlands flag. The crew was nice enough to use all the ship’s sails, even while the wind were not really favorable. That pleased the crowd and helped to achieve even better pictures. Since it was only 10h30 AM, the sails were lighted at an angle by the sun, which produced a more lively effect.
I elected to keep the small canoe and its passengers, at the right of the picture, in order to give an idea of the Europa’s scale.
The pictures were taken with a Canon 5DSR full frame camera.
For other pictures of ships on my blog, click on the following link : Ship photography.
The schooner Oosterschelde arrives in Quebec for the Tall Ships Regatta 2017
The picture above shows the tree-masted schooner Oosterschelde, from Netherlands, arriving in Quebec in the morning of July 18th 2017, during the Tall Ships Regatta 2017. In the background is the city of Lévis.
The picture was taken with a Canon 5DSR full-frame camera equipped with a Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L USM.
For other pictures of ships on my blog, click on the following link : Ship photography.
On the picture above, there is a sign indicating that the Quebec Summer Festival does not garantee an access to any sites. Under normal circumstances, this makes sense.
Part of the crowd waiting to enter the site for the Metallica show at the Quebec Summer Festival in 2017
But to say such a thing to the crowd who came to see Metallica would have been quite a challenge : « Ladies and gentlemen, as the person in charge of the Quebec Summer Festival, I would like to take the opportunity to remind you that the ticket you bought does not garantee an access to any specific site. A sign has been posted to that effect and the people at the beginning of the waiting line for the Metallica show can actually read it. Today happens to be such a day where you do not have access to the site. But there are other shows in town, so have a good festival and have fun! »
But all went well and the Metallica show, as well as the other shows presented at the Quebec Summer Festival were a success in 2017.
On a more technical side, the full-frame camera used to take the huge crowd was a Canon 5DSR equipped with a Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM lens. The top of the St.Louis Gate, on Grande-Allée, was the perfect place to capture all those people waiting for Metallica.
For other photos on the province of Quebec and also Quebec City, click on the following links from my blog:
The picture above, that shows the activities of the White Birch Paper company in Quebec City, was taken on June 2017 from a moving car on a highway heading to Quebec City’s east side.
The shot was taken with a Canon 5DSR full-frame camera at 19:33 when the light was quite weak. There was also a bit of mist and an overcast sky at the time of the picture.
In order to compensate for the lack of adequate light, and also for the fact that the camera was moving, it was necessary to use a lens requiring very little light. That prevented from setting too high of an ISO (only 2500). The shutter speed was set to 1/1250 sec. The perfect lens for this picture was the Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM.
Some cropping had to be done to recenter the main subject according to the rule-of-thirds.
Finally, an image editing software helped increase the cloud and smoke effects around the two chimneys.
