Today I have the last shots that were taken in May (shot on May 26, 29 and 31) that include images of; Mount Royal, Dorchester Square, Philipps Square and views from a car park on rue Saint Antoine.

Mount Royal

The forecasters were warning of thunderstorms, so I decided to go up on Mount Royal in the hope of trying to catch some thunder clouds and lightning approaching Montreal. Unfortunately the storm didn’t materialize, unlike the apocalyptic storm that hit us Tuesday – which unfortunately I missed getting any shots of 🙁

The first shot was taken on the path that leads up to the Camillien Houde lookout. I wanted to get the yellow flowers in the foreground as well as the stadium in focus but with the tree line blurred. With this in mind, I took 2 exposures (1 focused on the stadium and the other on the flowers) and then merged the layers using Photoshop Elements.

Olympic Stadium from Mount Royal
ISO 100 – 70mm – f8 – 1/640 sec

Since the storm was supposed to have been coming from the North West, I headed to the lookout on the other side of the mountain.

View North from Mount Royal
ISO 100 – 18mm – f5.6 – 1/320 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

Looking out toward the Saint Joseph’s Oratory, the shades of green of the trees in the Notre Dames des Neiges Cemetery caught my attention.

Saint Joseph’s Oratory
ISO 100 – 112mm – f11 – 1/100 sec

Having given up on my storm chasing idea, I headed over to Beaver Lake. On the way I stopped to grab a shot of the wild flowers (I believe they are Trillium’s, but I may be wrong) growing in the forest.

Wild flowers on Mount Royal
ISO 100 – 12mm – f8 – 1/160 sec

Beaver Lake
ISO 200 – 85mm – f11 – 1/320 sec

The shades of green around Lac aux Castors were particularly vibrant. I’m looking forward to having many picnics up here this summer.

Beaver Lake
ISO 100 – 70mm – f6.3 – 1/320 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

As I was making my way to the Kondiaronk Belvédère I passed these gentlemen and the guy in front wearing a green turban and white clothing contrasted beautifully against the dark background of the forest. I waited until they passed a line of trees to make for a more interesting composition.

Forest contrast
ISO 200 – 230mm – f5.3 – 1/320 sec

I decided to add some selective streaking using Topaz Labs Lens Effects to add a bit more punch to the image.

Forest contrast with creative streak

Since I was in a bit of a rush, I stopped only briefly at the chalet lookout to get a shot of the skyline.

Kondiaronk Belvédère
ISO 200 – 10mm – f7.1 – 1/320 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

Dorchester Square

May 29 was a beautiful sunny morning and I was downtown early so popped over to Dorchester Square which was looking great in the morning light.

Dorchester Square
ISO 100 – 14mm – f7.1 – 1/160 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

Dorchester Square
ISO 100 – 14mm – f4.8 – 1/640 sec

Just across boulevard René-Lévesque, work has started on renovating Place du Canada.

The work is scheduled to take 18 months and cost around $9 million. Being the former Saint Antoine Cemetery, an interesting note in regard to the work involved, is that around 150-200 bodies are to be moved and reinterred in Notre-Dames-des-Neiges Cemetery…although there’s believed to be up to 38,000 human remains beneath the park.

The same landscape architecture firm that carried out the recent Dorchester Square renovation are also in charge of the Place du Canada project. The renovation includes the planting of nearly 100 trees, granite walkways, lawns, flower gardens and new lighting.

Place du Canada renovation start
ISO 280 – 16mm – f6.3 – 1/1250 sec

Phillips Square

After Dorchester Square, I passed by Phillips Square

Square Phillips
ISO 100 – 14mm – f6.3 – 1/125 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

 Rue Saint Denis and rue Saint Antoine

Following brunch on Saturday May 31, we headed down rue Saint Denis.

Flower stand on rue Saint Denis
ISO 100 – 70mm – f6.3 – 1/160 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

Near the new CHUM site, there’s an entrance leading to the tunnel that runs from the Champ de Mars Metro to the south side of rue Saint Antoine. The circular opening in the outside wall drew my attention.

Champ de Mars metro entrance on rue Saint Antoine
ISO 100 – 21mm – f8 – 1/400 sec

Through the round window
ISO 100 – 25mm – f8 – 1/1000 sec

View from car park on rue Saint Antoine
ISO 100 – 18mm – f8 – 1/1000 sec

View from rue Saint Antoine
ISO 100 – 70mm – f8 – 1/250 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

That wraps up shots taken up to the end of May. I’ll try to get a few more posts up this week in order to catch up with shots taken over the last week.

Thanks for stopping by. Until next time.

– Martin

Montréal in Pictures

Your virtual guide in and around Montréal

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