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.

Men and nature must work hand in hand

Men and Nature must work hand in hand. The throwing out of balance of the resources of Nature throws out of balance also the lives of men. We find millions of our citizens stranded in village and on farm - stranded there because Nature cannot support them in the livelihood they had sought to gain through her. We find other millions gravitated to centers of population so vast that the laws of natural economics have broken down.
Prophetic words from Franklin D. Roosevelt's address to Congress on the Use of Our National Resources, January 24, 1935.  


Washington DC is full of memorials and inspiring words of past American leaders. What will it take to convince our current political leadership to heed these words? 

November Freeze

November is a month that is hard to like; in fact it's my least favourite month of the year. The days are short and getting shorter. It's too cold to cycle and too soon for snow. However, looking on the bright side, walking is good and sights like this are available not far from the city centre.

Taken from the Mirador (lookout) at 2:45 in the Parc naturel du Mont-Bélair on November 8th this stream is just beginning to to freeze over while the warm afternoon light highlights the reddish vegetation of the bog.

I like! Go back to my post on September 10, 2010 for another look at this parc.

Canon 7D with 15-85mm lens at 24mm; ISO 100, 1/50sec at f/ 10

Plage Jacques Cartier after Sunset

Standard Time and the sun sets at 4:20 pm on November 7. Paulette and I were walking and shooting photos along our favourite piece of the Saint lawrence called Le parc de la Plage-Jacques-Cartier.


I took this silhouetted tree twenty minutes after the sun had set. I like the colour contrast between the cool dark blue sky and the warm salmon colour along the horizon and reflected in the water. The lamp light (which had come on just minutes before this shot) adds another dynamic element to the composition.

I took the picture in RAW mode with the white balance in the camera set to daylight (5400K). To remove the resulting overly warm colour-cast I reduced the temperature to 3400K (typical sunset value) to achieve this more faithful rendition.

For the sequence of photos leading up to this moment go to my flickr album. Hope you enjoy them.

Andrew

Late Fall Beauty

Our friends Denis and Judy live in Randboro, a small hamlet near Sawyerville, by Cookshire and twenty minutes from Lennoxville in the  beautiful Eastern Townships. Mid-morning on a day threatening rain, Denis took Paulette and me along the east fork of the Eaton River to show us some of the spots he returns to paint year-after-year, especially during spring breakup. This old sugar maple hangs on to the last of its intensely red leaves (October 17). By now the leaves have fallen and been carried off by the river.

Canon 7D, 15-85mm zoom at 15mm, 1/80 sec, f / 7.1, ISO 200, hand held

This photo is similar in composition to A.Y. Jackson's 1914 painting entitled the Red maple (which hangs in the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa)