Back on May 5, I was down in Old Montreal and it was good to see that the trees were at last beginning to come out of winter hibernation.

It was around mid-morning and the light falling on the trees along rue le Royer was particularly beautiful.

Springtime on Rue le Royer
ISO 100 – 11.5mm – f4.5 – 1/400 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

Umbrellas in the sun

I headed down to the Old Port and even though the sun was not that strong, I spotted these 2 ladies using their rain umbrellas as sun shades…made a nice change.

Ladies with umbrellas
ISO 100 – 210mm – f5.6 – 1/200 sec

I managed to capture them a few minutes later from the raised vantage point on the Jacques-Cartier pier, which also provided for a nice view up to Place Jacques-Cartier and City Hall.

Place Jacques Cartier
ISO 100 – 13mm – f5.6 – 1/2000 sec

Promenade du Vieux-Port
ISO 100 – 250mm – f5.6 – 1/500 sec

While I was up on the elevated walkway, I grabbed a shot of the Marché Bonsecours.

Marché Bonsecours
ISO 100 – 70mm – f9 – 1/1000 sec

After leaving the Old Port I passed by the Appeal Court of Quebec on rue Notre Dame.

Quebec Court of Appeal
ISO 100 – 26mm- f18 – 1/200 sec

On another shot, I processed using Topaz Labs software – both the Black and White Effects and Simplify – to both bring out some of the detail of the buildings, but also give them a bit of a stylized texture. I decided to brush back in the foreground pedestrians, road and cars – a pretty easy process in Topaz Labs that saved me exporting over to PS Elements and playing with layers and masks.

Quebec Court of Appeal
ISO 100 – 28mm – f11 – 1/200 sec

I passed through Place d’Armes. I decided to take a long exposure using the ND filter. Part of the reason was to help bring out some of the detail in the shadow, but also I wanted to get a feeling of motion from a group of people passing through a band of light just behind the Maisonneuve monument.

Place d’Armes
ISO 100 – 18mm – f6.3 – 3 secs

Another method of working with the high contrast between the bright and dark areas was to take a number of bracketed shots and blend into an HDR image.

Place d’Armes HDR
ISO 100 – 12mm – f5 – 1/400 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

I took a few long exposures close up to the Maisonneuve monument looking skyward. I had wanted to get the passing clouds to streak, but they ended up not moving sufficiently quickly. So I decided to share this next shot that with a little tinkering in Lightroom I was fairly happy with the result. You can just make out the red, white and blue stickers on the faces of the statues featured on the monument. Even the statues and monuments are getting behind the Habs to go all the way in the Stanley Cup this year.

Maisonneuve Monument
ISO 100 – 18mm – f11 – 20 secs

I still have a number of shots taken back on May 5th, but I will leave those for another post.

Recently sold prints

Although I have a few galleries in the online store, in many instances, people contact me with interest to purchase other prints they found on the site, but were not featured in the store. So, I thought it might be interesting to report some of my recent image sales.

I may make this a regular postscript to posts – partly hoping that it may inspire other sales, but also to highlight some popular images that have become buried in the over 7,500 images I’ve posted since starting the blog.

Thanks for stopping by. Until next time.

– Martin

Montréal in Pictures

Your virtual guide in and around Montréal

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