After the little diversion yesterday created by Stromae’s stunt at Place des Arts, I’m back today sharing some images taken on île Sainte-Hélène Thursday morning.
There were some great cloud formations early in the morning (as you may have seen from one of the Biosphère shots). I didn’t notice at the time I took the shot below, but – if you squint hard enough – you can make out what almost looks like two tornado funnels in the centre. The wide angle lens worked well on this shot making the clouds appear as if they were originating from this area. Just a trick of the lens, as there were no tornadoes in Montreal Thursday, as far as I know anyway.
I took this shot from the lookout just below the Lèvis tower. The skyline is somewhat hidden from view by tree foliage in the summer and is a better vantage point in the winter months.
I added a tilt-shift effect for the next shot to help pull out the detail of the Old Montreal district.
An interesting building on île Sainte-Hélène is the old Light House next to La Ronde car park (below the Stewart Museum). I shot here last winter when the weather was a lot different to Thursday.
The following shot is made from 2 images (shot landscape) stitched together to produce a panorama.
Close to the pont de la Concorde there is an outcrop of rock where birds congregate. The trees on the left hand side are on Parc de la Cité du Havre – another great spot for shooting the Montréal city skyline.
Just below the pont de la Concorde, you can walk out quite a way over a rocky outcrop which can provide some nice points of view to shoot from.
A recent addition to the eastern Montreal skyline is the new CHUM (Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal) building – the large grey building on the right. I cannot say I am a big fan of the design, from whichever way you view it, but looks particularly out of place from this angle.
A key landmark on île Sainte-Hélène is L’Homme (Man, Three Disks) by Alexander Calder that was installed in 1967 for the World Expo. The area was a lot less busy than it is each Sunday throughout the summer when it is the venue for Piknic Électronik.
Another sculpture remaining from Expo 67 is La Ville Imaginaire by João Charters de Almeida located next to the ferry dock.
There are 9 (I believe) sculptures from Expo 67 that can be seen on île Sainte-Hélène and île Notre-Dame. I have photographed a couple more of them in the past which you can see here.
I crossed the short bridge over to île Notre-Dame to get a few additional skyline shots from beside the Gilles Villeneuve race circuit.
There was the G1 Tour event taking place on the circuit, although you could still access most of the track despite Audi R8’s, Lambourghini’s and Ferrari’s whizzing past. The cost of $800 for 2 laps was a bit dear for me, so I made-do with photographing a few as they sped past. The pics were nothing great, but here are a couple, more as a record of the event taking place while I was there.
I still have a few more pics from my trip across the Saint Lawrence, but they will have to wait until tomorrow.
Thanks for stopping by. Until next time.
– Martin