Published on February 2, 2011
in Misc.
After talking about it for so long, I finally had the chance to visit some of Ottawa’s nicest highlights. Parliament Hill was one of them, you can’t say it isn’t a must when you consider you were one of three million who took the time to visit. Inside or outside the architecture is just stunning but the most impressive area has to be the library of Parliament. I had the chance to briefly see it but we were advised not to take any pictures and trust me, with the number of guards you really don’t want to mess around. You can take the guided tour which is about 20-60min, make sure you stay close to the tour guide has it’s not always easy to listen an follow along, especially when it’s large group.
Parliament Architecture 2010
The Royal Canadian Mint located at 320 Sussex drive, the guide tour only cost a few bucks but is well worth the money. It’s a great experience to get to see how it processed etc… You don’t get to go up close but at least you get chance to watch the worker from a window overlooking their work area. I’ve never seen so much gold, silver in my entire life.
Visiting Ottawa at the end of October isn’t the best time of the year, it’s cold and windy but even with those conditions you must make sure you take the time to walk in ByWard market. Even when it’s not the high season there are some pretty interesting things to see.
Yet another post of my daughter, my apologies to all of those who are hoping to see more landscape photography, it will come but I just don’t know when. At least, I’m still shooting, just a little variation in the subject 
).
Time flies and she’s growing everyday, I’ve been told I should enjoy every bit of it and take the time to appreciate every moment when possible. So far that’s what I’ve been mostly focusing on aside being there for my wife and working on a few leftover project in our basement.
A few days ago I did a little shoot with a beautiful Kushies outfit we had received as a gift. Here’s one from the quick shoot.
Now that our daughter has hit the 3 month mark we both have more time on our hand. Between doing some construction work, spending time with the family I was able to resume my personal photo activity. About 2 weeks ago we visiting relatives in Pointe-à-la-croix, while I was there I took the time to scout the area. For some reason, I love white birch and everywhere I go if there’s some around it’s most likely where I’ll be.
Can’t say if these where naturally grown or planted there on purpose, they were all in small group at various depth in the wood. The light was gently diffused but more emphasized on the foreground. This made the perfect setting to experiment with a slow shutter speed. The dark tone of green against those tall straight wood gave proper contrast.
Now you might wonder why the title is Seeing in Watercolor? It’s simple, For the last few months I’ve been thinking on giving Watercolor a try. Someday, I’d like to reproduce these shots on paper to give it a different dynamic and a new challenge for me.
Seeing in Watercolor
See similar post here : Season of Vibrant Colors
Published on August 8, 2010
in Misc.
Time is precious and sometime you have to utilize to its best use. Taking the time to shoot at sunrise or sunset had become secondary. One of the reasons had to be the lack of sleep, the other was to support my wife in all the household task while taking good care of our little daughter. Even if I knew it would be hard it was nowhere near what I had in mind. It’s worth every second, especially when she wakes up after a good night sleep and looks you in the eye with a big smile and chuckles.
Sure, she does have her days where there’s lots of crying but it usually only last for a few minutes. Those ups and down all are totally normal, after all we all have our days. We are shorthly hitting the 3 month mark and everything is gone for the best. Hopefully my post with be more constant than they were in the last 6 months.
On that note I would like to thank all the follower who have been visiting my blog even without new posts.
Little Bundle of Joy
Published on April 20, 2010
in Misc.
Not only had I been working in my basement, part of it was spent on designing a wedding album for an amazing couple. This was my first experience dealing with Kiss and I must say I’m quite impressed with the results. The leather quality is awesome, printing is accurate (if your monitor is calibrated) and the paper quality is fantastic. I’m thrilled and can’t wait to deliver them.
Kiss Wedding Book, 12inch with brown leather
Dealing with Kiss has been really simple, even if it was the first one I created with this particular company. Their moto is “The World’s Simplest Book Company”, sure there are others out there that may be similar but… it still ain’t a Kiss Book.
Everything was super easy, uploading, preview of the book before printing and submit and that’s all you have to worry about. Once it was uploaded to their site the next day it was already printing and the day after it was binding time. If it would not have been for shipping/customs , it would’ve been here in about 3-4 days max.
The only downer was the brokerage/customs fees I had to pay. This is something I had not thought about initially and in our area UPS can be a pain since they don’t cover this area so it’s a subcontracted to another company. It then becomes harder to track your parcel or even get the hand on it.
It might appear as if I was in hibernation mode all winter but in fact, I wasn’t. I’ve somewhat became a handyman for most winter doing plumbing, flooring etc… to make room for the new member of the family, see : http://blog.micael.ca/archives/267.
There are times were you need to prioritize things you wouldn’t feel like doing vs. things you would want to do, like shooting. Aside from shooting for various clients, it was barely possible to find the time to do my own photography. If I had an hour or so to spare, me and my wife would go out for dinner or relax, and to be clear, this is something I enjoy. I mean, shooting is my passion but love comes first.
Last year, around the same period I had spent part of the day in an old abandoned house, see : http://blog.micael.ca/archives/203
The house was able to withstand another cold icy Canadian winter so I venture once more, this time with a model. I need to give credit to my mom who kindly made the remark that it would be a good location for a photo shoot. Never before I had shot a model in such a decrepit house.
Those were all shot with one flash off-camera with a shoot thru umbrella about 2-3 feet away from the model. Here are a few from the photo shoot.
Shot thru broken glass window.
Last week we had an activity at work and we had the luxury to choose where we wanted to go, my pick was easy, a walk at Daily Point. It’s been almost two months since my last “personal” shooting but I have an excuse, we are currently renovating the house so it has kept me pretty busy but my motivation towards photography is always there are times in your like were need to find your priority. Initially, our only intention was to renovation one room in the basement to move my office downstairs so we could make room for the baby but after all that brainstorming we thought we’d be better of re-doing the whole basement which I’m working on at the moment.
My little walk at Daily Point was great, after all a snowstorm aftermath always make great pictures, plus the light conditions were great around diner time with warm low light filtering thru the tall trees with little branches peaking out of the snow enjoying the last glimpse of light while they still can.
On a side note, I’d like to thank those who visit my blog, when this blog was created 2 years ago I barely had 60 viewers per month. This has since changed and the traffic has impressively increased over those two years has the average is up to 456 unique visitor per month. Thanks again for viewing/reading/commenting on my blog, it’s greatly appreciated.
It is scary enough to think bright colored leaves are now turning to brown and with the blowing wind it’s just a question of time before the trees become denuded of their beautiful foliage. The month of November is somewhat interesting but it often takes you more to get you out of bed, November has a monochromatic feel and vibrant colors are absent other than the few red bow and Christmas wreaths hanging here and there. It may feel to some people a bit depressing at time but there is always something interesting to play with when you carefully take the time to explore and play.
Denuded Trees
Listening to songs by Tricot Machine on my way to the Acadian Village, I must say it was a bit disappointed to be in such a great venue with gusting wind and pouring rain. That’s why you should never think about scenarios on how you would like things to happen or where to shoot in order to get the desired shot. There was one thing I was hoping for and that was the cooperation of the bride and groom. I must say thew both blew me away with their open mind and willingness to do or try things.
Some might give the photographer full credit for the image created, to me I might have taken the shot but after all it’s the people in the shot that make it look stunning. Even if you have all you can imagine to create a stellar shot, if your model don’t cooperate it will be hard to accomplish such image. Thanks for this wonderful day and here’s few images.
Under the covered bridge
At the Gas Station
For at least a year now I had mark October 9th on my calendar, it was Isabelle and Rémi wedding day, a couple I met for the first time while chatting over an espresso at the Mosaique Café Galerie Boutique in Moncton, we had a great time and not long after I was booked. The venue was at the Memramcook Resort, and exactly four years ago I was at the same location with my wife on our honeymoon road trip, we had visited Monument Lefebvre National Historic Site of Canada on a raining day. There’s no need to say I had been praying for “No Rain” for that day and true enough… we only witness a few water drop, one for which I was able to capture.
Water Drop ripple
It was one of my busiest weekend has I had 2 weddings back to back, after the wedding at the Memramcook Resort I left for Moncton where I “tried” to get some sleep and be in shape for the next day. “Please Note : If you really want to sleep well in Moncton, make sure your room isn’t facing Main St.”
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