As I mentioned yesterday, during my walk over on île Sainte-Hélène I managed to take some shots of the Biosphère illuminated at night.

I decided to take the Cosmos bridge near the Biosphère that leads to île Notre-Dame and stopped to take a shot from the middle of the bridge of the geodesic dome that was designed by Richard Buckminster Fuller for the 1967 World Fair Expo and which housed the United States Pavilion. For more on the background to the Biosphère, you can check out my previous post back in October –  The Biosphère on île Sainte-Hélène

It was still daylight, so first a couple of shots before the dome was illuminated…

Biosphére
ISO 100 – 20mm – f8 – 1/50 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

Once on île Notre-Dame, I headed East along the road. I had hoped to find a spot that would lead to the rivers edge, but the snow was too deep to find a safe way down – it wasn’t the weather for taking a dip in the Saint-Lawrence.

Instead I found a couple of spots next to the road that provided reasonable views. I particularly wanted to try and get a shot of the Biosphère reflected in the river.

Biosphère from île Notre Dame
ISO 100 – 20mm – f6.3 – 1/50 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

With there being so many trees along the road edge it was not easy finding good vantage points to shoot the Biosphère, but I found a spot that provided a nice natural frame.

Biosphère from île Notre Dame
ISO 100 – 70mm – f4.5 – 1/80 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

As I was making my way back to île Sainte-Hélène, the lights came on in the Biosphère.

The river current is pretty fast between the 2 islands (called Le Moyne channel) and on my return I decided to take some long exposures to smooth out the ice flow. Even though it was getting dark, I had to close the aperture to f22 to get a long enough exposure, but that had the advantage of giving star effects to the lights along the bridge.

Biosphère at night
ISO 100 – 16mm – f22 – 5 secs

Biosphère at night
ISO 100 – 10mm – f22 – 10 secs

Biosphère at night
ISO 280 – 20mm – f8 – 0.8 sec

Biosphère at night
ISO 280 – 12mm – f8 – 0.8 sec

Biosphère at night
ISO 280 – 13mm – f8 – 2.5 secs

Biosphère at night
ISO 280 – 20mm – f13 – 6 secs

Biosphère at night
ISO 100 – 20mm – f8 – 5 secs

Biosphère and Jean Drapeau Metro station
ISO 400 – 70mm – f16 – 3 secs

I decided to crop in tight on one of the shots to show just part of the dome and the main building structure inside.

Biosphère in detail
ISO 280 – 13mm – f8 – 3 secs

This led me to thinking it could work well as a pop art style image. I only spent a few minutes experimenting and I’m not totally digging my colour selection, but since I’m looking for something colourful to hang on my wall, I may play around with this a bit more as I think it has potential for making a nice large print.

Biosphère pop art experiment

I still have some more shots to share from my trip to île Sainte-Hélène, which I will likely post tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by. Until next time.

– Martin

Montréal in Pictures

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