Today’s post starts with 2 shots taken downtown during my little walkabout last Tuesday.

A giant banner advertising H&M featuring Beyoncé on rue de la Montagne certainly helps brighten up what is otherwise a plain brick wall.

Larger than life Beyoncé
ISO 100 – 25mm – f4.5 – 1/400 sec

This time next week, rue Crescent will be buzzing with F1 Grand Prix festivities and I will no doubt be posting some shots of the street action. The following shot was taken from Sherbrooke street which provides a nice contrast of the old buildings that line Crescent street with the background Crystal Hotel and CGI modern towers.

rue Crescent
ISO 100 – 70mm – f11 – 1/100 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

Yesterday I purchased a new lens – the Nikkor 85mm 1.8G. Since my camera (Nikon D7000) has a cropped sensor, the lens is effectively 127mm. I’ve been wanting to get this lens since it came on the market and looking forward to using it, specifically for those low light moments and getting some nice bokeh shots in addition to using it for portraits.

Being used to shooting with zoom lenses, it will probably take me more effort in framing with a fixed focal length, but that’s not a bad thing 😉

I took it out for a quick try this morning and grabbed a couple of shots…

Feminine Landscape sculpture at Place Ville Marie
ISO 100 – 85mm – f1.8 – 1/1000 sec

The Altitude condo tower
ISO 100 – 85mm – f5 – 1/500 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

With festival season around the corner and lot’s of low light opportunities that come with early evening outdoor shows, I’m probably going to be relying on the f1.8 to get shots that would otherwise require high ISO and the resulting grain. In the meantime, I will take it for a few tests this weekend.

Thanks for stopping by. Until next time.

– Martin

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