Activities on ice in Old Montreal

A bit late (again) posting the images from the weekly photo project, and I’m only at week 7 🙁

On Monday I went down to Old Montreal initially with the thought of shooting rue Saint-Paul and the numerous art galleries that this street is famed for. The reason for shooting art galleries was for a new side project I’m currently beavering away on (and the main reason being late posting here) …I will be sharing more on this project in the very near future.

Ice fishing in downtown Montréal

Having walked to the eastern end of Saint-Paul I decided instead to wander down to the Ice Fishing village at the clock tower marina and had a change of plan…rue Saint-Paul will have to wait for another day.

Ice Fishing Village in the Old Port of Montreal
ISO 100 – 100mm – f5.6 – 1/60 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

This is the first year that an ice fishing village has been set up in the Old Port and I think it’s a great idea and I’m sure it will be the first of many years Montréalers and visitors will have the opportunity to go ice fishing without the need to drive to places such as Sainte Anne de la Pérade. I didn’t see many people there Monday, but a recent article reported that at the weekend it gets pretty busy and reservations are recommended.

Ice Fishing Village in Vieux Port de Montréal
ISO 100 – 20mm – f8 – 1/90 sec

Ice Fishing Village in Vieux Port de Montréal
ISO 100 – 116mm – f8 – 1/45 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

For more information on the ice fishing village in the Vieux Port, head on over to the Old Port of Montreal website. Prices range from just 6$ per day for kids up to 70$ for a hut (5-12 people capacity).

On a side note: I heard that firemen were called early Tuesday to extinguish a small fire on board the tanker in the above images – thankfully they extinguished the fire before it spread.

Okay, I know I have posted many pics of the clock tower in the past, but it was looking great in the early evening light, so here’s another…

Clock tower and Pont Jacques Cartier
ISO 100 – 70mm – f8 – 1/30 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

And ice skating…

I followed the sound of Madonna blaring from the speakers at the Bonsecours Basin ice rink to grab a few shots of ice skaters enjoying an early evening skate.

Ice skating at The Old Port ice rink
ISO 100 – 10mm – f8 – 1/8 sec

Ice Skating in Old Montreal
ISO 100 – 10mm – f11 – 1/4 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

Skating in Old Montreal is pretty reasonable at just 6$ per day (plus 8$ rental if you don’t have your own skates). If you are local and skate regularly, then a season pass is a great option at just 29$ ! For more info on opening times and musical theme nights, check out the Old Port website.

Depending on the weather, I hope to go down to the Old Port again on Saturday when hopefully the larger rink on the Bonsecours Basin will be full of skaters – plus there’s the Montréal Ice Canoe Challenge race 🙂 This will be the first time Montréal has held such an event and I’m really happy since I never made it up to see it in Québec City where it’s been an annual event for years.

Bonsecours Basin in the early evening
ISO 100 – 20mm – f9.5 – 1/10 sec

Bonsecours Basin in the early evening
ISO 100 – 100mm – f9.5 – 1.5 sec

Marché Bonsecours
ISO 100 – 16mm – f9.5 – 0.5 sec

My last shots of the evening were taken next to rue de la Commune. Having just removed my tripod I shot these with the camera mounted on top of a waste bin. It was really more of a pre-test to shoot the lights that run along the wall for the entire length of rue de la Commune. I didn’t get the results I was looking for this time around but thought I would share, partly as a note to self that I need to go back and try shooting the lights again.