Montreal-Quebec City: The Founders

This week, I'm starting my own Montreal-Quebec City series, not based on a sport rivalry but on the similarities between both cities.

The concept is very simple, I gather two photos taken in each city that have something in common, either in their name, their function, their history, their geographical location or only in my head. You will find the album Montreal-Quebec City Series under the tab Misc.

I chose the statues of the founders of both cities to start the series, Paul de Maisonneuve for Montreal (up) and Samuel de Champlain for Quebec City (down). It is interesting to note that both monument are located on a public place called "Place d'Armes".

I hope you will enjoy this Montreal-Quebec City series and that you will love both the metropolis and the capital of Quebec even more!

JH

Hidden Beauties: Dialog with History

Today's hidden beauty is a strange sculpture that can be found on Place de Paris, very near Place Royale. The monument, called "Dialogue avec l'histoire" (Dialog with History) was given to Quebec City by the city of Paris and represents the transition of our people to modernity.

Despite its name, the work of the french artist Jean-Pierre Raynaud is not very well understood. So here is a short explanation.

First, it is enligned with the bust of Louis XIV located on Place Royale. It is in fact an abstract statue that represents the contemporary answer to the french King that shaped our past. So the beauty of it is that the monument can represent whoever you want.

You can find the photo gallery of the Hidden Beauties under the tab Quebec City.

JH

A Walk in the Seminary

After a whole year wandering in the streets of Quebec City with my camera, I never ventured inside the historic Seminary, one of the most important historic sites of the city.

To compensate for this omission, I start February showing photos of the Quebec Seminary. You can find them under the tab Recent Photos.

JH

Hidden Beauties: The Bunker

I continue my series about the hidden beauties of Quebec City with the building that is considered by most as the ugliest of the city.

Personnally, I was quite indifferent to the Bunker, but I ended up liking it. It is oddly photogenic when you don't try to make it ugly.

You will find the photos in the album Hidden Beauties of Quebec City, under the tab Quebec City.

JH

Hidden Beauties: The Cursed Facade

As a photographer, I like to challenge myself to find beauty where nobody sees it. It's easy to create a nice picture of a nice looking place, but I find it more interesting to try finding the qualities of places judged as ugly by most people.

Next week, one of my favorite spots will disappear. After years of deadlock, the destruction of the facade of the church Saint-Vincent-de-Paul will start as soon as monday.

I seize the opportunity to pay tribute to the cursed facade with a few photos captured in this controversial place during the last year. At the same time, I inaugurate a new category of photos called "Hidden Beauties of Quebec City", which will gather photographies taken in various places unloved by the population of the city. This collection can be found under the tab "Quebec City", in the right column.

Enjoy!

JH

Photography in Winter

Last morning, I received an email from a future tourist in Quebec asking me for advice concerning photography during cold winter days.I thought this could be useful for more people, so I decided to reply here to help more visitors dealing with the harsh canadian winter.



Clothes
-Wear multiple layers of clothing: This advice is not specific to photography, but is a good way to shelter ourselves from the cold weather.


-Protect your extremities: The cold will mostly attack your head, your feet and your hands.To protect the latter, it is important to chose gloves that will be warm but flexible, to allow you to manipulate your camera.

Camera
-In general, cameras will continue to work fine even under cold weather, but the autofocus and the triggering can be slower than usual when you are shooting under extreme colds (-30C and less, -22F for my american friends).

-If you plan to shoot outdoors for a long time, it's better to bring spare batteries, because they will uncharge more rapidly under the cold.

-The cold itself will not break your equipment, but the transition from a cold environment to a warm one can. A cold unprotected camera that is brought indoors will be covered with condensation, which can be damageable. To avoid this problem, a simple trick is to cover your camera and lenses with a waterproof plastic bag and put it back into your camera case. Leave it there until your gear warms up, which will last at least 2 or 3 hours.

Snow
-It is advisable to protect your gear against snow, the same way you do with the rain. There are some dedicated protectors available in stores, but you can use any plastic bag held with an elastic on the lens if you don't want to buy one.


-Finally, the cameras have a tendancy to underexpose (darken) the snowy landscapes, which will make snow grey and ugly instead of white and shiny. To counter this non desirable effect, it's better to increase the exposure to +1 and sometimes +2, to make the snow look like you want it to look. Experiment to find the right balance without overexposing your shots. Some cameras have a "snow" mode that will do that for you.

I hope that these suggestions will be useful for the photography enthusiasts that will come visit us this winter or the future ones. There are probably some other ideas that could be added, these come from my own experience freezing my hands at -20C (-4F).

Bon voyage!

JH

Field of Dreams

"If you build it, he will come". I was thinking about this classic quote from the film "Field of Dreams" when I took this photo last summer. In this movie, the character played by Kevin Costner listens to a mysterious voice that inspires him, against all logic, to build a ballpark in the middle of his field, without knowing what will happens. Without revealing how it ends, for the few people that haven't seen it, something unexpected happens after he completes the project.

It's been one year since I have launched my website, which is my own field of dreams. I built it and you came in large numbers, so I would like to thank you all for your support all year round. In the end, it was worth listening to my mysterious voice and to shut the one of "reason", I feel like I took the right decision to pursue my dreams.

For the first anniversary of the site, I reworked its structure to make it easier to navigate. Now, photos are organized in different geographical and thematic categiruesm which will help the visitors seeking for something in particular to find it more rapidly.

Another big change is that frequent visitors can now find all the new photos at the same place, under the tab "Recent Photos". Last year, all the new images were published either on mondays or tuesdays, but now they can be seen any day.

I wish you all a great year 2010 I hope to see you again in my field of dreams!

JH