Last night I paid another visit to the Montréal en Lumière 2014 festival down at the Quartier des Spectacles. The event ends on Sunday and since I will be otherwise engaged for the next two evenings, this was likely going to be my last opportunity to visit this year’s event 🙁
This year, the festival put the spotlight on Haiti. Among other activities that included gastronomy, music and a photo exhibition promoting the island, there was a genuine Haitian tap-tap bus on rue Sainte-Catherine that housed a Haitian tourism kiosk and rum bar.
Although I posted quite a few shots of the Air France ferris wheel in my last post of Montréal en Lumière, it seemed to always be grabbing the attention of my lens – at least this time I think I managed to get a few different angles.
Another annual festival favourite is the Urban Milk Slide (Glissade Urbaine)…
I noticed some nice reflections in the glass of the atrium over the entrance to the Contemporary Art Museum at Place des Arts.
There were a few new interactive installations featured at this year’s festival…
Montréal en Visage
The giant three storey 3D mask on the façade of the Maison du Festival Rio Tinto Alcan was one of the new additions to activities at this year’s event. The interactive installation projected peoples faces onto the mask which was then animated by people on a dance floor. A pretty cool concept that was the creation of Serge Maheu.
The Nucléus
Another crowd pleaser was the Nucléus – A giant cubic cluster of lasers, lights and smoke, with an original musical/sonic ambience. In between regular light shows, visitors could take control of the cube using their movements to generate sufficient energy to awaken the Nucléus – a good way to keep warm on a cold evening.
Finally, I tried to capture the fire performers on the Sun Life stage, but despite trying various camera settings, my results were not particularly great and not what I was trying to achieve (having movement in the flames while retaining some definition in the performers)…hopefully they will return next year and I’ll have perfected the skill by then.
Tomorrow is the Nuit Blanche where over 200 activities occur late into the night, maybe I will still have some energy to go out shooting after leaving my clashing engagement.
Thanks for stopping by. Until next time.
– Martin
Montréal in Pictures
Your virtual guide in and around Montréal