Winter Carnival For All Ages

Quebec City is enjoying its winter carnival. The young "tubers" and the not-so-young snowshoers find themselves at CFB Valcartier enjoying the clear cold air at the Centre Plein Air Castor.

New snow had fallen the day before and continued on-and-off today (February 2). I like these two panoramic shots as you can see the snow flakes against the dark trees in the background. The colourful winter wear also contrasts with the almost B&W winter tones adding warm elements to the two scenes.

I took both pictures in RAW with the white balance set to automatic. In Adobe Lightroom I corrected the overcast picture of the tubers to 6300K (a cloudy setting) and used 5600K for the snowshoers (close to a daylight setting) as the sun had returned after lunch. Using RAW makes it simple to make adjustments like this.

Click here to see more pictures from this day on picasaweb.

Inviting Foregrounds

Those of us who live in Quebec City (on the north shore of the St. Lawrence) rarely see its true old-world beauty. Last Thursday, Paulette and I joined our walking group (the TamaLOUPs) for a three-hour promenade and chilly picnic along the south shore bike path. As we headed west from Lévis towards the Pont du Québec, I kept turning back to see when I had a foreground element that would lead the eye into the background and the spectacular Château Frontenac atop the cliffs. The Canadian Coast Guard boats are a little distracting but, with no ice to break, this is where you find them! 

Canon 7D, EF 70-200mm f/4L lens at 113 mm; 1/1250 sec at f/5.6, ISO 100, hand held

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Friday, we went to see the snow geese at Cap Tourmente. With temperatures below freezing not a goose was to be seen; a first in all our many visits there during the spring and fall migrations. Mont Sainte-Anne stands invitingly behind le Marais de la Petite-Ferme. Again the foreground helps leads the eye towards the main subject in the distance. The snow and ice in the marsh with the snow-covered ski trails reinforce the cool, early-spring feeling in the photo.

Canon 7D, EF-S15-85mm lens at 59 mm; 1/400 sec at f/8, ISO 100, hand held

Click here to see the snow geese from April 12, 2010

St. Patrick's Parade

Saturday, March 26, 20 000 people braved the cold and wind along rue St. Jean to cheer on the second annual St. Patrick's Day Parade. Colourful pipe & drum bands from Montreal, Boston, NYC and Quebec City mixed in with community groups and schools.

I'm not particularly a parade-loving person. However, armed with my 70-200 f/4L Canon lens, I zoomed in on all sorts of happy faces and bright greens, flashy reds and military finery. A high early-afternoon sun created strong shadows and made metering tricky. I shot in the full sunny areas and cropped the photos to eliminate  the darkest shadows and finished with a good number of keepers.

To see more go to my flickr site - link.

Oh, and the Irish beer after the festivities with Paulette, Monique and Phil added to my merriment.