Montreal In Pictures

July 13 2012

I had the grand plan today of going and shooting subjects related to the fact it was Friday the 13th…but it’s not easy finding black cats roaming around downtown or broken mirrors (unfortunately moving day has past), not to mention Jason look-a-likes (thankfully). So in the end, I decided tonight to head down to the Quartier des Spectacles and check out the latest festival to hit Montreal – The Juste pour rire (Just for Laughs) comedy festival which is celebrating its’ 30th edition this year.

Although I love a good laugh, to be honest the comedy festival has never ranked at the top of my favorite Montreal festivals. I put this down in part to the language barrier – while I get by in French, live comedy acts I find, require a much greater level of French comprehension than my current ability in order to get the nuances that are often associated with comedy. There are Anglophone shows, but then my girlfriend suffers a similar issue (and she is perfectly bi-lingual).

The other factor is that there are less free shows than with the Jazz or Francofolies festivals – I’m still looking for work, so buying a ticket for a show is currently not a priority – I nearly caved in to go see Jimmy Carr (love his style of humor) and I may even have been pushed to sell body parts to see Michael McIntyre, but luckily he isn’t performing, so my kidneys can breath a sigh of relief.

Despite this, I will likely check out the festival a few times and soak up the outdoor fun. Although the festival began yesterday, the outdoor venue around Place des Arts didn’t seem to be fully up and running tonight, so there wasn’t actually much to shoot. I did grab a couple of shots though:

Juste pour rire comedy festival
ISO 4000 – 32mm – f4.5 – 1/40 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

Juste pour rire comedy festival
ISO 1000 – 70mm – f4.5 – 1/20 sec

Reflections at the Juste pour rire comedy festival
ISO 400 – 105mm – f5.6 – 0.5 sec

Mount Royal Cross
ISO 4000 – 300mm – f5.6 – 1/160 sec

Silhouette
ISO 4000 – 195mm – f5.3 – 1/125 sec

Mini Eiffel Tower
ISO 4000 – 10mm – f4.5 – 1/80 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

Children playing in fountain
ISO 4000 – 105mm – f5.6 – 1/200 sec

Victor the Just pour rire mascot
ISO 400 – 62mm – f5.3 – 1/13 sec

I plan on going to see the Canadian team’s firework display tomorrow night, so hopefully will find an hour or 2 during the day to start working through the shots taken earlier this week in Quebec city and Ottawa 🙂

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