Spring Energy

Indian Poke (False Hellebore, vérâtre vert, Veratrum viride)

May 10 along the Cap-Rouge river; our favourite and most frequently walked path and best place to watch for early spring flowers. Besides the fiddleheads,  Indian Poke is the most conspicuous and fastest-growing plant in the moist soil. Its bright yellow-greens leaves of early spring turn a dull green as it grows quickly to a metre tall.

Bloodroot (sanguinaire, Sanguinaria canadensis)

Bloodroot, a member of the poppy family, grows very close to the ground and has very showy but transitory white petals. A week after this picture was taken all that remains are the pale lobed-leaf that surrounds each stalk.  


Ten days later on May 20, we re-walked our river path, Paulette with her binoculars and I camera in hand. Stay tuned for another spring-flower post. (Now that our living room has a nice fresh coat of paint it should be soon!)

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.

Photos Afoot to Photos Ariding

It's minus 3 C (-9 with the wind chill) and there's still plenty of snow about. Yesterday Paulette and I explored la Montagne Fendue on snowshoes (link). Today I couldn't resist going for a spin on my new deVinci Silverstone road bike.

Here's a picture of the blue bomber in our backyard supported by at least two feet of crusty snow. Came home with frozen hands and feet, pleased that I could manage the clipless pedals and curved handlebars.

I'm ready to hang up my MSR Ascents and climb aboard my deVinci for more outdoor fun. Not sure though how compatible my camera will be with biking. I'll let you know.

The Parc national du Mont-Mégantic was named an International Dark Skies Reserve in 2007 and so is the place to go for dark nights and bright stars in Quebec. You can see the astronomical observatory in the distant left background.  Paulette and I snowshoed up the steep trail to Mont-Saint-Joseph with our friends Marc and Édith and further along a ridge to a lookout and this view.

I cropped the original picture from the normal 2:3 aspect ratio (producing standard 4x6 prints) to a movie theatre widescreen aspect of 2.39:1 (picture is 2.39 times as wide as high). This is even wider that the new HDTV ratio of 16:9 (or 1.77 times as wide as high). This aspect ratio doesn't change the angle of view of my camera lens but simulates a more dramatic panoramic view.

Canon 7D, 15-85 lens at 15 mm, 1/800 sec, f/8, ISO 200

Below is the view from our rented chalet cropped to the same movie widescreen format. Go to flickr for a few more pictures of our weekend around Mont-Mégantic- link