Overlooking the city

Went out a few nights ago to the top of Mount Royal here in Montreal to get a few shots of the city. I got this shot below while I was up there.

This was a 20 second exposure, then I sharpened it up in photoshop.  I must say I live in a very beautiful city, sometimes I get so caught up in trying to find neat things to shoot outside of my surroundings I forget to look around my own neighborhood. I think I will take a day one of these weekends to just wander the city and be a tourist for a day, try and see the city as if it was my first time here.

Shocking…

Yes, so I have been lazy and did not get to witting up about my new toy and how she performs. I will get to it, but until then I thought I would at least share a picture. I took this shot while I was away this weekend with my girlfriend and her family up north.

I always wanted to try shooting lightning, and this was my first attempt. I think it came out pretty good, I can’t wait for another storm to try again.

New Layout

So I think I am done, and I think I am happy. I like the simple design of this template, easy to see everything, and goes well with the photography theme.

If anyone is reading this blog, let me know what you think.

Making changes

Trying to get a different and unique style for my blog, since I don’t want to just use one of the ones 5 million other people are using. So I thought I found a nice layout, with an original style, uploaded it, and I was all impressed with how sleek it looked. Then it was brought to my attention that in IE you could not see any of the text. Oh how I despise IE, always ruining all my fun. So I am back to another generic template until I can find one that works in both Firefox and the evil IE.

Anyone know of a good place to find templates?

Goodbye Canon, hello D3

So, I did it, I made the swap from Canon to Nikon. It was not an easy decision, but one that I feel I had to make. When I say it was not easy, this is based on the fact that I have put a lot of money into building up my Canon gear and it will cost me quite a bit to build it back up with Nikon stock.

Why did I change? The main reason is because this is the one camera that can do everything I need. When I am not here at work at the office I like to shoot sports (snowboarding, biking) , weddings, urban landscapes, etc… so I needed a camera with good high ISO performance but also a fast shutter speed for my sports shooting. The D3 does it all, and it does it well. Here is a quick sample that was taken on a terrasse at a bar last night around 23:30, we were having drinks for James birthday. Hopefully Elise does not mind me posting this.

Notice the lack of noise in the picture, this was taken at ISO 6400 and the only light was from the parking lot and the inside of the bar, I still can’t get over how much detail it captures.

I will post more about my impressions of this camera tonight after I have a chance to really use it.

Watching Traffic

Here is a shot I took last night with James on an overpass overlooking highway 20 in Montreal. 30 second exposure, F22, ISO 100. Took it into Photoshop and sharpened the walls and worked the colors to make them pop.

I am quite happy with the results. Going out again tonight to try a few more long exposure shots.

First Post

First time trying out this blogging thing. Maybe I will like it, maybe I wont. Time will tell.