The light was particularly nice yesterday morning and so after a coffee, I headed downtown to get a shot of the cool little building that sits above Birks Jewelery store near Phillips Square. I’d spotted the building the other day when passing by and in the morning the sun reflecting off the nearby KPMG building illuminates it perfectly and provides a nice juxtaposition against the new Altitude condo’s. I don’t know if this is simply an office or some lucky person actually lives there.

Old meets new
ISO 100 – 70mm – f4.5 – 1/250 sec

Since it was such a nice morning, I decided to go on a little photowalk starting with the corner of Boulevard René-Lévesque and Côte du Beaver Hall, with a shot looking west up Blvd René-Lévesque.

Morning light on blvd René Lévesque
ISO 100 – 70mm – f8 – 1/250 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

I made my way down Côte du Beaver Hall to Square Victoria and stopped to take a shot of the wonderful Tai-Chi Single Whip sculpture by Ju Ming (1985).

Tai-Chi Single Whip sculpture by Ju Ming
ISO 100 – 10mm – f8 – 1/160 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

I continued down rue McGill and paused in the middle of the street adjacent to Place d’Youville to take a shot looking north. You can see the Altoria office/condo development rising at the end of the street. The 35 story tower is due to be completed this year.

Looking north up Rue McGill
ISO 100 – 20mm – f8 – 1/160 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

Since I was in the area, I headed down to the Promenade du Vieux-Port. One thing I love about cold weather are the ‘steam’ clouds emitted from buildings. The Farine Five Roses was partially obscured by emissions and looked particularly great in the morning light.

Farine Five Roses
ISO 100 – 70mm – f7.1 – 1/5000 sec

Farine Five Roses sign in the mist
ISO 100 – 300mm – f8 – 1/400 sec

I noticed the trees over on Windmill Point were covered in frost/snow, so I popped across the Bota Bota bridge to get a closer view.

Grain Silo No 5
ISO 100 – 18mm – f11 – 1/80 sec

Windmill Point
ISO 100 – 13mm – f11 – 1/400 sec

Windmill Point
ISO 100 – 10mm – f11 – 1/160 sec

I had hoped that there would be some ‘winter steam’ rising off the Saint Lawrence river given the low temperature, but there was only a trace, so I decided to call it a day for shooting at the Old Port.

Thanks for stopping by. Until next time.

– Martin

Montréal in Pictures

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