Montreal In Pictures

September 24 2012

I was hoping that there would be a great sunset tonight so I headed on over to the other side of Mount Royal to a spot along the voie Camillien Houde I considered would provide a good vantage point to photograph the sunset.

But before I reached the road, a friendly raccoon popped his head out from the bushes and wandered over to say hi.

Raccoon on Mount Royal
ISO 100 – 80mm – f4.8 – 1/45 sec

The raccoon population on Mount Royal was recently estimated to be around 100 and earlier in the year the City began a campaign warning visitors to the park not to feed the animals and that the raccoon’s can bite and carry diseases. People caught feeding a Raccoon could face fines as much as $1,000.

Okay, back to my main mission of the evening, trying to catch a sunset. The location I had in mind is up on the cliffs where the voie Camillien Houde reaches its peak (just before the descent past Maison Smith and the main car park).

I had arrived a little early, so managed to get a few pre-sunset shots.

View North West from Mount Royal
ISO 100 – 98mm – f9.6 – 1/60 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

Porsche and cyclists on Mount Royal
ISO 320 – 25mm – f9.5 – 1/90 sec

Dark Cloud over Université de Montréal
ISO 320 – 105mm – f16 – 1/15 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

Street lamp on voie Cammillien Houde
ISO 320 – 18mm – f16 – 1 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

Sunset on Mount Royal
ISO 320 – 70mm – f4.8 – 1/6 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

Sunset on Mount Royal
ISO 320 – 300mm – f5.6 – 1/8 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

The sunset wasn’t quite as good as I had hoped for, but quite happy with the crop of pics I managed to get. In any case, it was a good scouting trip to find a vantage point for shooting future sunsets.

On my way back home, I passed by the Kondiaronk Belvedere at the chalet, and although starving for my dinner, decided to quickly grab a few shots of the Montreal skyline.

People enjoying Montreal skyline at night
ISO 320 – 70mm – f4.8 – 6 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

A section of Montreal skyline at night
ISO 320 – 92mm – f16 – 6 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

The moon was out and so I took a shot at 300mm so as to be able to composite with a shot of the skyline. Due to the wide exposure difference, the moon was on a perfect black sky, whereas the skyline was still blue. To make it easier to blend the two images, I decided to go black and white and darken the sky of the city skyline shot to black.

I”m not sure if the white dots are stars or hot spots, but I’m sure I can make out the odd constellation :-/