Tag Archives: Montreal

Night Time HDR From the Old to the New

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Marché Bonsecours to the Montreal Stock Exchange Tower

Marché Bonsecours to the Montreal Stock Exchange TowerOlder cities like Montreal are a treasure chest of historical buildings that offer a photographer unlimited possibilities. Photographing the beauty of these historical sites for travel and architectural photography presents itself with relative ease in the daytime. Night time is a little different. The abundance of lights meant to dazzle the tourists represent a challenge in contrast with the night time darkness. In the Digital Photography world night time HDR photography techniques help us work around the problem to achieve acceptable results. Compared to Photoshop CS4, CS6 now offers a little more speed and features when creating HDR images. Naturally third party vendors want a piece of your creativity. Unified Color offers HDR EXPOSE 2 for Pro’s and HDR Express 2. NIK software offers HDR Efex Pro™ 2,  and naturally there’s the ever so popular Photomatix by HDRsoft. I wanted to maintain more of a Continue reading →

Snow Geese in Fall Migration – Réservoir Beaudet, Victoriaville

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Lunar Eclipse of the Goose - by Jocelyne Feizo http://www.pbase.com/jofe

Upwards of 100,000 Snow Geese during Fall Migration in VictoriavilleAlmost everyone within driving distance of Victoriaville, Quebec that’s into birding and Wildlife photography is heading out to Réservoir Beaudet for the fall migration of Snow Geese. Upwards of a hundred thousand Snow Geese can congregate in this quaint little reservoir across the road from the Lactantia Dairy Plant. From passionate birders to the mere curious, all assemble to admire these birds. They’re just about everywhere you look. On the lawn in the water and up in the sky. The Snow Geese feed mostly in neighboring fields devouring the post harvest left overs. Later in the day the Snow Geese return to the reservoir (Réservoir Beaudet) in clouds of hundreds if not over a thousand Geese at a time. They fly in into the late evening hours joining the already large community. This is not to say that the number of geese during the day is at Continue reading →

Summer’s Gone! Fall Colors Are In! – Landscape Photography

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River at Sunset with Fall Colors

Take Advantage of Fall Colors to Enhance Your Landscape PhotographySummer came and Summer’s Gone! It went by so quickly that all I can seem to think about are the missed opportunities. What did I forget to photograph before the end of Summer? I can’t lament and think about it for too long! Fall may be around for quite a while but in the North East and Southern / Eastern Canada the beauty of fall can be here one week end and gone the next. The foliage is changing and it’s changing at an astonishingly rapid  pace. In Montreal everyone heads North, like St-Donat, an hours drive, for some of the most beautiful colors. Don’t wait for the City colors to kick in because it will be too late to head out North. Fall Colors can be up to three weeks early just a stone drop north of Montreal. For those sleepy heads there’s always the Eastern Continue reading →

The Magic of Lanterns 2012 – 20th anniversary!

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The Magic of Lanterns - 20th anniversary!

20th edition of The Magic of Lanterns – The Celestial BanquetSound the Drums, It’s the 20th Anniversary of The Magic of Lanterns at the Montreal Botanical Garden! The tradition lives on in 2012 at the Chinese Garden of the Montreal Botanical Garden with this year’s Chinese Lantern display themed; “The Celestial Banquet”. Join Xi Wang Mu, Queen Mother of the West, as she hosts the “Feast of Peaches”. The Jade Emperor and his wife Xi Wangmu (Queen Mother of the West) ensured the deities’ everlasting existence by feasting them with the peaches of immortality. The immortals residing in the palace of Xi Wangmu were said to celebrate an extravagant banquet called the “Feast of Peaches” (蟠桃會 Pántáo Huì, or 蟠桃勝會 Pántáo Shènghuì). The immortals waited six thousand years before gathering for this magnificent feast; the peach tree put forth leaves once every thousand years and it required another three thousand years for the fruit to ripen. Statues depicting Xi Wangmu’s attendants often held Continue reading →

Killdeer Photos added to the Gallery

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Killdeer in the water keepin on eye up on the sky!

This week I had the pleasure to come across a whole bevy of Killdeer and a few different Sanderling on the outskirts of Bolsa Chica Nature Preserve right here in Socal! Although the mid-day light was harsh and less favorable I had an absolute blast photographing these birds for a couple of hours. Like all good things the opportunity came to an end when one of the Killdeers took panic and the whole lot evacuated. Keep an eye on my Plover Photo Gallery: http://www.trolettiphoto.com/wildlife_photography_birds_plover_pluvier_charadriidae_limicoles as I’ll be posting a few more photos in the coming week. Don’t forget you can keep track of all the posted images by following my TWITTER, FACEBOOK and GOOGLE+

Spotted Sandpiper – Added to the Photo Gallery

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Lesser Yellowlegs on the run

Just added to the Photo Gallery: A Spotted Sandpiper on the run along the river jumping from rock to rock… More Bird Photography: http://www.trolettiphoto.com/birds-oiseaux-photo-galleries  

Killing Spree in Montreal’s Ile de la visitation Nature Park

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Dead Blackbird after Killing Spree

Teens use pellet gun to bring down birds…Litter, trash, broken glass bottles, prostitution, used condoms and drug paraphernalia are all common sites in Montreal‘s Ile de la visitation Nature Park. (Photos: GALLERY1 – GALLERY2) What I wasn’t expecting was a killing spree in Montreal that left a large number of dead birds along it’s shoreline. As I was taking photos an elderly man approached me and started a conversation. I brought up the dead birds and he informed me that young men were shooting at birds and squirrels with a pellet gun (Hand Gun). It goes without mention that I’m already disgusted by the general state of this nature park. The rest of Montreal and it’s parks are not much better. Even paid outdoor venues like the Montreal Botanical Garden are seeing a local crowd that grows less and less respectful every passing year. A lack of responsible and mature Continue reading →

One Month After Earth Day Montreal is Still an Environmental Tragedy

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Snapping Turtle in Trash along Montreal River

A few years back I was appalled by Montrealers who carelessly threw their trash all over the city streets. Even more appalling was how they brought that same behavior into the surrounding Nature Parks. Coming from California this was a total culture shock. At the Time I decided to document the over abundant accumulation of trash on the banks of Montreal’s Back River (Rivières des Prairies) along the Île-de-la-Visitation Nature Park. With a bit of pressure from my videos and pictures it appeared that the overall problem was at least being addressed by park and city officials. Time Warp to 2012, 12 days after Earth Day 2012 (Aprill 22) and what I witnessed was even more shocking. On Friday May 4, 2012 I found myself in Montreal. It was a cloudy day that didn’t inspire me much as far as photography was concerned. I decided to go for walk and Continue reading →

The Call of the American Bittern (VIDEO)

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Male American Bittern Calling Out

What’s that deep bellowing sound in the marsh?The American Bittern is an elusive and timid bird that is rarely seen in proximity of humans. They are also experts at camouflage in marshes and wetlands regardless of their larger size. The only thing that will give away the presence of this medium sized member of the Heron family is its distinctive bellowing call. Almost everyone who visits marshes as part of a nature walk during the mating season is sure to hear this low billowy sound engulf the marsh. At first not everyone identifies the sound but once you know it you won’t forget it! Yesterday I took the time to visit a Marsh encompassed in a large natural preserve, a Nature Park! I hadn’t been to this particular Marsh in nearly a year and wanted to investigate the early spring arrivals. To my surprise both the female and male American Continue reading →

The sky is falling!

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Canada Goose - The Sky is Falling

“O Turkey Lurkey!” says Goose Loose ” the sky is falling”Photographing a Canada Goose can get very mundane for a wildlife photographer. By the end of Spring the abundant numbers of these large and vocal birds make photography less than challenging. We can however not resist the temptation as we get excited to see them arrive early Spring year after year. Although I try hard not to publish too many photos of Canada Geese, I found this one way too amusing to keep for myself. MORE CANADA GOOSE PHOTOS ON WWW.TROLETTIPHOTO.COM I observed her on her nest staring into the heavens with what seemed to be a look of worry. The Chicken Little story, claiming the Sky is falling, immediately came to mind. When I proofed my photos the result was better than I had expected. I quickly searched for the phrase “The Sky is Falling” and found plenty of Continue reading →