Montreal In Pictures

Project 52 – Week 9: Saturday marked the 10th edition of the Nuit Blanche when Montréal sees many venues (including museums and art galleries) stay open until the early hours of Sunday morning.

Nuit Blanche marked the end of the 14th edition of Montréal en Lumière Festival which had been on since February 21. Unlike last year when I was doing the 365 project and managed to get down to the festival a few times, this was actually the first time I managed to visit the festival this year.

Nuit Blanche this year had over 185 events going on in 3 districts (Place des Festivals, Vieux Port and Le Plateau) as well as the Olympic Stadium and the Underground City which marked the start of this years Art Souterrain. I hope to visit some of the 120+ art installations and perfomances on display over 7km of the underground city while Art Souterrain is on over the course of the next few weeks (it ends mid-March I believe).

Anyway, back to Saturday night and my fairly quick walk around the Quartier des Spectacles. Although there was so so much to see and do until 5am I decided to stick with just covering the action around Place des Arts. Unfortunately I was late leaving a restaurant and missed the fireworks and David Usher’s performance, but there was a big crowd enjoying the sights and sounds provided by a couple of VJ’S on the Place des Festivales together with people toasting marshmallows around the numerous braziers.

Montréal en Lumière festival
ISO 1000 – 10mm – f5.6 – 1/15 sec

It seemed appropriate that snow was falling for Nuit Blanche and with it not being too cold there were many people out enjoying the festive atmosphere.

Nuit Blanche at Quartier des Spectacles
ISO 4000 – 11mm – f5.6 – 1/45 sec

Nuit Blanche at Quartier des Spectacles
ISO 4000 – 11mm – f5.6 – 1/15 sec

Nuit Blanche at Quartier des Spectacles
ISO 4000 – 20mm – f5.6 – 1/15 sec

Nuit Blanche at Quartier des Spectacles
ISO 500 – 12mm – f11 – 2 secs

The ferris wheel was back again. I took so many pictures of it last year that I didn’t spend too much time shooting it this year, although it did find its’ way into a few shots…

Montréal en Lumière Festival
ISO 250 – 20mm – f27 – 4 secs

Montréal en Lumière Festival
ISO 4000 – 10mm – f4 1/90 sec

Montréal en Lumière Festival
ISO 4000 – 10mm – f4 – 1/90 sec

Building projections are a common sight at the festival and UQAM’s Président Kennedy Pavilion was again used as a giant projection screen.

Montréal en Lumière festival
ISO 500 – 10mm – f4 – 1/6 sec

Montréal en Lumière festival
ISO 160 – 11mm – f16 – 10 secs

Montréal en Lumière festival
ISO 500 – 18mm – f3.5 – 1/8 sec

Montréal en Lumière festival
ISO 500 – 34mm – f4.2 – 1/3 sec

Montréal en Lumière festival
ISO 1250 – 20mm – f5.6 – 0.5 sec

The Urban Milk Slide was a popular attraction again this year on the Esplanade de la Place des Arts.

Montréal en Lumière festival
ISO 500 – 10mm – f4 – 1/90 sec

The last few shots were a bit of an experimentation again of blurred photography – a good excuse for when I mess up my camera settings 😉

Montréal en Lumière festival
ISO 500 – 10mm – f4 – 1/6 sec

I quite liked the abstract result of a slider descending the milk slide…

Montréal en Lumière festival
ISO 320 – 11mm – f4.2 – 1/8 sec

This next one would in my mind have been better if a few people had just kept still long enough to be a little more in focus, but I liked the colours and the movement of the people dancing to the beat of the VJ’S.

Montréal en Lumière festival
ISO 800 – 122mm – f4.8 – 2 secs

So another Nuit Blanche passes and alas the end of another Montréal en Lumière festival but they sure help in fighting off cabin fever. Hopefully next year I will manage to cover a little more of Nuit Blanche and the Lumière festival.

To view the images in gallery format, click on one of the images below.