This passer-by faces the high winds near Quebec City’s Dufferin Terrace. Behind her, the Québec Winter Carnival is advertised, taking place between January 25 and February 11, 2024. The ad invites people to get outdoors, using a local expression: “Déguédine pis sors“, which roughly translates as “Stop procrastinating and go play outside!
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Photographers make little use of the intense midday light when it comes to achieving an interesting effect. However, as in this HDR photo of the stairs of an Old Quebec street above, bright light can be used to create shadow effects with horizontal, vertical and oblique lines.
Above, another staircase with lines running in all directions. But it plays only a partial role in this HDR photo, the rest being taken up by the scene in the distance. I was looking for a double effect of chiaroscuro and atmosphere. The foreground, dark and cold, contrasts with a brighter background with an uncertain sky. On the right-hand side of the photo, the tension eases and the blue sky and sun appear.
This image is what is known as “street photography“. Chance has placed this person in the right place with the right dress and the right umbrella. She is wearing a horizontally lined dress and holding an obliquely lined umbrella in front of the vertically lined fence of the “station de la Plage” in Quebec City. The gray sky avoids distractions and focuses attention on the main subject.
For this last photo, I didn’t have my full-frame camera, but a cell phone. The file was of inferior quality, so I had to improve the focus using photographic software with artificial intelligence capability.
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In the St-Jean-Baptiste district of Quebec City, a muralist and a tagger each use their favorite art to express themselves in the same place. The expression ” Fuck tes murales anti-tag (Fuck your anti-tag murals) ” directly applied on the mural adds very little effort to the whole work, but hey, I’m not an art historian. Maybe a new way of communicating between artists has just appeared!
The photo was taken with a Canon 5DSr camera with a Canon 14mm f/2.8 L lens.
Click on the link for more pictures of the Quebec City and Orleans Island seasons on my blog.
An alley cat that has been in a few fights, judging from its bruised eye. Surprised by the sound of the camera’s shutter release, he stopped dead in his tracks, assessed the danger, and continued on his way.
I framed the animal tightly to avoid visual distractions. The ball in the background represents leisure time, while the cat is in a totally different mindset: he must fight and find his food.
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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…
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The photo above was taken in 2019 in Boston’s North End on the Feast of St.Anthony’s one hundredth anniversary festivities. The North End area experienced strong Italian immigration at the start of the twentieth century and is recognized today for its many Italian restaurants.
In the photo above, citizens of the area are gathered around a table placed directly on the street for the time of the festivities.
People gathered along the main streets of the area to feast on the many Italian dishes offered in restaurants as well as along the streets. They also took the opportunity to watch the parade carrying the banner of San Antonio di Padova.
Residents and tourists alike could drop some cash on the banners as the parade led by members of the St. Anthony Society passed. I managed to clear a small place for myself to take a few pictures, but I wouldn’t have made any friends if I had tried to get closer …
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In the upscale sector of Beacon Hill, in Boston, there are a lot of luxury cars. It would appear, however, that some of the owners of these cars are less popular…
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A publicity for a restaurant in Victoria shows on a wall « Food with a view » and sends the customers towards the washrooms. It is only for people with huge appetite. The « view » itself is not specified. But everything is free.
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Why talk when you can write?
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The boy tests the water temperature before running across the water jets located beside Quebec City’s City Hall.
The light in the water jets required an exposure correction of + 1/3. The shutter speed was set at 1/80 which allowed to see the boy clearly at a time when he was not moving too much. This shutter speed also allowed to visualize the water jets effects while limiting the ISO to 1250, even with such a low light. The aperture was only 6.3, just enough for what had to be photographed.
The picture was taken with a Canon 5DSR full frame camera equipped with a Canon EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens.
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