JOSEPH STE. MARIE PHOTOGRAPHY

Dawson Photo: A Documentary of The 3rd Year Dawson Photography Students - The Final Two Epiosdes

2012-02-07T20:05:00.002-05:00

Here are the final two episodes of the documentary. I had a blast making this documentary, and I really hoped whoever watches these videos enjoy it as well....

Dawson Photo: A Documentary of The 3rd Year Dawson Photography Students Episodes 6-13

2012-02-07T19:52:00.003-05:00

Here are Episodes 6 to 13 of the documentary. All episodes evolves around the final preparations for the Verniassage as we set-up our displays. Enjoy!

Dawson Photo: A Documentary of The 3rd Year Dawson Photography Students Episodes 1-5

2012-02-07T19:38:00.003-05:00

When I was in my 3rd year at Dawson College's Professional Photography program, I filmed a year-long documentary on my class as we prepared for our end-of-the-program Vernissage.

Here are the first 5 episodes of the series. Enjoy!

Media Mentions for 2011

2012-01-03T22:59:00.005-05:00

Happy New Year everyone!

I just want to give a big Thank You to everyone who has supported this past year. I would like to say Thank You to Montreal Improv for letting me take pictures throughout the Montreal Improv Festival back in October.

A bunch of my images from the previous 2 years were part of the trailer for the festival, which you can check out below:

MPROV 2011 from Montreal Improv on Vimeo.

http://blog.montrealimprov.com/post/11540229993/from-the-mprov-2011-photo-credit-joseph

I would like to also thank TuJoHaHa for posting my pics from MPROV 2011 on their website.

You can check out these links to their website:

http://www.tujohaha.com/2011/10/wasssup.html

http://www.tujohaha.com/2011/10/thats-wrap.html

http://www.tujohaha.com/2011_12_01_archive.html

Improspection - Dec 5, 2011

2011-12-14T20:35:00.007-05:00

Here's a collection of pictures of the Bilingual Improv troupe, Improspection from their December 5th show at Theatre Ste. Catherine. Starring Tessa Maunello, Cat Moreau, Maïte Sinave, and Paul Naiman.

The Best of 2010

2011-10-20T16:01:00.013-04:00

For over a year I didn't post any of my work on this blog. Since I posted my images I took for Mprov 2011 yesterday, I felt it was time to put in more time to this blog and bring to you my recent work.

So here is a collection of my best images from 2010. Enjoy!

MPROV 2011

2011-10-19T10:56:00.008-04:00

This past week, I photographed the 6th Annual Montreal Improv Festival at the Montreal Improv Theatre (3713 St. Laurent #202, just south of Ave. des Pins).

Here are some of my best shots from the fest....

Special Thanks to the following troupes & performers:

Improspection

The Brat

Sex T-Rex

Standards & Practices

Outside Joke

Egg Zeppelin

Uncalled For

The Bitter End

Montreal Improv

On The Spot

Venezuela

Kirtsen Rasmussen

Zoey Daniels

Joe Conto

Link To My New Official Website!

2010-06-13T16:12:00.005-04:00

Hey Everyone, I have finally put up my official website!

Here's the link: http://jstemariephoto.com

Also check out the new improv show Meteor playing at Petit Café Campus from June 12 to 19th for the Montreal Fringe Festival happening now. Check out meteor.montrealimprov.com or montrealfringe.ca for more details.

It's a great show!

Catherine Kidd Says It All!

2009-07-19T13:41:00.001-04:00

A Day In Sainte-Anne-De-Bellevue

2009-06-21T20:36:00.005-04:00

I used my old Canon Powershot S3 IS to take these images, it was my first time in Sainte-Anne-De-Bellevue, lots of old building & houses, a great Boardwalk and lots of great restaurants, especially Peter's Cape Cod.

It was nice looking out at the water with all the sailing boats around as well as the open river on the edge of the island looking out at Deux-Montagnes and Hudson (at least I think it was Hudson). It was refreshing to see it all.

A Day In Mont-Royal

2009-06-08T21:41:00.006-04:00

Dawson Photo: The Days In The Life of 2nd Year Dawson Photography Students

2009-05-24T21:37:00.003-04:00

An Extended Version of "A Portion of the 185th Montreal St. Patrick's Day Parade"

2009-04-24T23:42:00.002-04:00

A Portion of the 185th Montreal St. Patrick's Day Parade 2009

2009-03-28T17:47:00.001-04:00

The Corporation Killed Her!

2009-03-18T14:38:00.005-04:00

My concept image for my Studio class assignment.

Church

2009-03-02T15:02:00.003-05:00

This is a short video I made for my 2D class. This is simply known as "Church"

Early Sunday Morning

2009-01-14T20:49:00.000-05:00

This is my latest photo video production based on a short story I recently wrote, this is called "Early Sunday Morning"

The Boots

2009-01-03T16:33:00.000-05:00

Food on Location: Delicious Cake!

2009-01-03T16:29:00.000-05:00

Noël Sur Rue St. Hubert

2008-12-01T18:03:00.001-05:00

Kiwi In The Middle

2008-11-05T10:00:00.001-05:00

Ghost In The Classroom

2008-11-02T17:21:00.000-05:00

Happy belated Halloween!

Empire Tower

2008-10-05T16:41:00.000-04:00

Having some good old fun with photoshop, I created some "advertisements" including this one here called Empire Tower. You know where this is, can you figure it out?

Last Summer Day Before Autumn

2008-09-01T20:32:00.000-04:00

The Assault on Canadian Art

2008-08-21T17:53:00.002-04:00

"I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!"

What I'm referring to is Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservative Party! A few days ago they announced that they are cutting more than $34 million from cultural and heritage programs, and there may be more cuts to come! This will greatly effect painters, filmmakers, novelists/writers, visual and graphic artists, musicians and other artist. How will this affect me & you? We will lose our identity as Canadians. Films, paintings and other forms of art are a way of promoting our country to the world, in festivals & exhibitions, it brings tourists here. The Mayors of Montreal and Toronto are irate that they're going through with the cuts. According to the Visual Arts Alliance, Cultural events generate $40 Billion in revenue per year! That's no joke! I was shocked when I read that!

The Harper Government is proceeding with these cuts because in their words their art is too Left-Wing and ideological! In a sense that may be true but then again what do they expect? The Conservatives have never supported the arts. And this move is hypocritical on their part because this action is purely ideological. What they want to do in Bill C-10 and censor our film industry is purely ideological! Evidently we have a government that does not love Canada! Unless it fits the mold of what they feel it should be, including what they feel is 'art'.

I'm gravely concerned about this as a photography student, how will this affect me and my fellow students in the future. We can only hope that one of these two scenarios happen: 1) They change their minds and back off by mounting pressure from the public and the Provincial Governments (who do receive a lot of revenue from the arts), the Opposition parties and all artist & cultural groups or 2) Hoping that an election is called this fall, start a massive campaign to help drive people to the polls and defeat Harper.

In closing I would like to say to Mr. Harper and his party, you may not like what our artists are creating and I'm sure you don't like all the criticism that you're receiving over it, but we're important. For a long time now, our identity is being slowly erased. Let's face it, most of the music and T.V. shows that we watch & listen too is American. We have Canadian made television shows on but they're not promoted enough and all the U.S. shows on CTV and Global get all the ratings, and they hardly have any Canadian made shows, and when they do it's on at horrible time like Saturday nights, early Sunday evening, that's not right. Our music industry is even worse, we so many great artists like Feist, The New Pornographers, Tegan and Sara, The Stills, the list goes on and on and on. It's really a tragedy that many of our public radio stations don't give them the time of day to play any of their songs. They fucking play Avril Lavigne or Eva Avila 5 time a day who are Canadian but so Americanized. A lot of our Top 40 stations play American music the majority of the time, and it seems more and more of the Canadian music they play these days are from Canadian Idol winners & losers a.k.a. singers no one will remember in 5 years (some of them not even 1 year). And the rest, who have been aspiring musicians since they were little don't get airtime because it's not mainstream enough. They all have to go to private radio stations and hell, a listener-supported radio station Indie Pop Rocks! Soma FM based out of San Francisco has more Canadian content than any of our stations. The same goes for Europe, they play a lot from our artist on their airwaves than ours. We deserve better, you deserve better Canada. Now to our film industry, I can't put it into words on how Canadian film is mistreated & unloved except in Quebec where in the last few years the film industry has boomed with many Francophone film garnering local & international praise form critics & film goers. Why isn't the same happening in the rest of the country? Well let's see, underfunding and lack of opportunities have sent many of our actors & writers to the U.S. and there's no real advertising of the films that are made; and it doesn't help when most of the film suck, that doesn't help nobody....Yikes I wrote a lot on what's wrong with the Canadian media.

Come to think of it, this was a long time coming, above I wrote that we might lose our identity as Canadians, that's exactly what's been going on, it's too bad only some notices it. We need very strong investment not less to our culture or it will fade away and never return.

WHO'S THERE!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

2008-08-03T19:26:00.001-04:00

Is it Aliens? Is it God? WHO IS IT!?!?!? YOU DECIDE!

Sunset Clouds

2008-06-09T20:46:00.000-04:00

Montreal: A Photo Documentary

2008-05-26T14:18:00.000-04:00

This is a small photo slideshow that I made for one of my classes. I ended up making two different versions, Fullscreen & Widescreen.

This is the Fullscreen version...

...and this is the Widescreen version...

After completing this, I decided to make this a continuing project, focusing and documenting all of Montreal, it's all in pre-production, it'll take a few years possibly to do.

Hope you enjoy it! Tell me what you think.

One year of Photography school down, Two more to go

2008-05-26T10:46:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, I completed my second semester at Dawson College's Professional Photography program. It was filled with ups & downs but I made it. As I look towards the next two years of my studies, I'll write where I think I am going in photography.

I came into this program not knowing where in the profession I want to venture into, my attitude was to sample everything and decide in the end. But now I feel that I'm leading more towards the fine arts spectrum of photography because I love & prefer the full creative control that comes with it. With commercial work, you'll have many clients and they all want certain aspects in the shots, I'm not saying that you can be creative but it can be stressful. Plus I'll most likely to do work some clients myself for financial reasons.

Photojournalism is something else that I would go into, mainly for sports events, more in particular, professional wrestling events. I've been a fan of wrestling for years, I watched the WWE (formally know as the WWF), WCW, ECW (The original one, not what it is now), lately I've been following the independent promotions like Ring Of Honor & SHIMMER Women's Athletes, and I also watch TNA Wrestling which is becoming the new competition for the WWE. They always have photographers around the ring taking pictures of the action inside the squared circle, that's what I would really love to do!

Check back often, there'll be more blogs coming in the near future...

Holding Her Coffee Cup

2008-05-19T11:02:00.000-04:00

Orchestra in the Metro

2008-05-19T10:49:00.000-04:00

Going home from school one day, I discovered an orchestra playing inside the Metro at Place-Des-Arts station. They played all the classics from Bach, Mozart to Beethoven. It was relaxing to hear, too bad I didn't stick around.

Studio Work

2008-05-15T16:04:00.000-04:00

Doing portraits in the studio are a lot of fun. I enjoy it a lot and I can't wait to do more espically with more creative freedom. These are some of the shots I did for my Studio 2 class where we have to learn all the different lighting positions. Most of these have rembrandt lighting where the model is at a 3/4th position and where one side of their face is lighted and the other side lighted with just a triangle shape just below the eye. The other lighting positions I used were Side (Top Picture), Short (one side has a open triangle), Back 45 (where the lighting is behind the subject and whose body is positioned to his side), and Broad (Bottom picture (where 3/4 of the face is lighted). The problem with doing portraits is positioning the lights where it's needed, puting your camera on the right F-Stops and Aperture so you have the right skin tones and details on your models, which are important to have if you're going to print your photos.

The Devil's Tale Experiment

2008-05-09T23:45:00.001-04:00

The Devil's Tale is the last project I had to do for my visual language class. It was a body extension project.

More Blogs to come this summer. It's been a busy few months, now I'll have more time to showcase more of my work and my thoughts & perespectives on them.

The Unforgettable Masterpiece!

2008-04-17T10:50:00.000-04:00

My second project fo my Visual Language class. Pretty cool eh?

Motivation & Unmotivation

2008-03-10T18:53:00.000-04:00

In the past few months, I've felt uninspired, unmotivated and sometimes frustrated. Luckily things have turned around in the past few weeks with a side project I worked on with my friend Mark whose a musician and is working on an album. He wanted me to do a photoshoot of him for the album artwork. It was a lot of fun, it was productive and my creative juices were flowing. That shoot was exactly what I needed, total motivation & inspiration.

Fastfowarding to today... In one of my classes, Photo Tech 2, we needed to do an assignment using eggs. We had to use them as an element with a story or theme. A composition really. I had three weeks to do it...and I did it last night. These are some samples of those shots.....

These are some of the shots I took. The bottom shot on top of this text is the kind of shot that I'm not supposed to take because The egg is blown out meaning that it's too bright. I didn't put any effort into this assignment, and my teacher noticed that. I'm going to reshoot this assignment but right now I can't help feeling unmotivated. I'm starting to wonder if taking this program is a mistake? Then again, I've been asking myself that since I started the program! The reality is there's going to be a lot of assignments that I'm not going to like. In this case, I failed to be professional, and I'm in a career program where we learn to be a professional in our field. So I have to be better than this and I will.

Through The Looking Glass

2008-03-06T09:36:00.000-05:00

These are some experimental shots I took for an upcoming assignment for Visual Language class.

Mid-Winter Sunrise

2008-02-04T17:50:00.000-05:00

On my way to school one morning, I turn and looked at the apartment building on Saint-Roch from afar and I noticed the rising pink sky. I had to take a picture. I ended up taking about 5 shots. I tried to avoid overexposing the shot because I wanted the colour of the sky to be visible as possible and the focus of the shot. I took this on F5.6 @ 1/250 sec.

Somewhere in Mont-Royal

2008-01-16T21:49:00.000-05:00

I went up to Mont-Royal yesterday for a good walk and for an opportunity to take some good shots. I wasn't successful because I was there back in summer and I wasn't getting much inspiration. Out of the bunch I took yesterday, this one was is the best one. It's underexposed, but it darkened all the trees and the light from the sun that's in the centre of the shot becomes the centre of attention and it something you would stare at because it's one of those harmonic portraits where when you stare at it, you feel at peace with the world, finding serenity and inner peace. I took this @ 100 ISO, 1/4000 @ F5.6 on Manual.

More samples of my work

2008-01-11T17:47:00.001-05:00

Here's some more of my best shots. I'll be writing some future blogs on my photos and where I think I am going with my photography. Don't forget to check out my other blog, The Montreal Democrat. the Link is on the right side of your screen. I'll be updating it as well in the coming weeks.

Best Shots Of The Year: Some Samples

2007-12-26T22:52:00.000-05:00

Broader Themes

2007-12-21T16:19:00.000-05:00

As we enter a new year, I've been left wondering about the future and where we're going as a civilization. Our governments are failing us, with ego and arrogance cluttering the heads of politicians. While they're focusing on their corporate buddies & giving them generous corporate tax cuts which they don't need at all, the lower & middle-class population are being overwhelmed with rising costs of oil, electricity and education, which is being under funded. Schools & teachers don't have all the resources they need for kids with special needs; children are not being encouraged enough to follow their dreams and now more kids are joining street gangs. This needs to be stopped. We blame rap music and violent video games for the rise in street violence. It's true that some video games & rap music are getting too violent, but the reality is, it's more society's fault. We're not doing enough to curb it. The best way to fight this is for parents and teachers to be more involved in kids' lives. Many kids have fallen under the radar like every single school shooter since the 70's when the first shootings took place. We need more social programs, more programs that reaches out to kids who are feeling depressed and who are in trouble.

A few days ago, I saw a news report from Rick Sanchez who went down to Mexico to report about "the lost city" where people who use to work and live on farms are now living on the hillside where they made their homes themselves one on top of the other with whatever they can find. Why is it called the lost city? It's because no one knows they are there! They're the people who have been affected by NAFTA. Many farms down there are suffering because no one is buying the fruits & vegetables that are grown there because it's cheaper to buy U.S. grown products than Mexican grown products! Does this make sense to you!? It certainly doesn't make sense to me! They're suffering down there and the government is doing anything about it! Free trade is not free! Never has been. People are getting screwed over left and right and the rich gets what they want, they get richer. It's about time for someone to stand up to this injustice, it's time that we stand up to the Canadian, U.S. & Mexican Governments and demand trade justice or for the agreement to be scrapped. Farms everywhere in all three countries especially the independent family farms that are not owned by corporations have been in trouble since this agreement. Also, the human rights abuses concerning the Maquiladoras along the U.S.-Mexican border where most of the workers are woman. They work long hours with crappy pay, where they would be fired if they become pregnant. What's worse is that these factories are in dangerous places where many of them have either disappeared or have been sexually assaulted. No justice is done because the police are corrupt. That's what's going on. If that is not enough reason for the governments to change the what's going on or anything for that matter, then I don't know what will.

There is a lot more that I can say. We do need changes in our society and abroad, but we need a "hero" someone that'll stand up for those who can't speak for themselves. There's a lot of them who do, but sadly.....many of them don't get heard. If nothing is done, all the injustices will be forgotten and blown away like this page ripped from a book and thrown onto the street on a cold night.

The Holiday Season & The World Around Us

2007-12-11T17:51:00.000-05:00

Last week, I took a picture of my medium-sized Christmas Tree (1600 ISO, F5.6 @ 8 sec.) and a Hanukkah Menorah (ISO 100, F5.6 @ 15 sec.), with those symbols of the holidays & religion, I have a few things to say about the whole issue of reasonable accommodations here in Quebec. Once upon a time, everything was fine, there were no hassles, no complaints. In general everything was OK. However in the last few years, there's been more complaints about immigrants and others religions, more specifically Islam. Most of the complaints were towards them and other South Asian cultures. People seemed to be threaten, many feel they're not integrating, but the reality is many of them are, the problem is that it's going unnoticed. At least the people that I've meet & seen have integrated, it's mostly the very religious that have not fully adjusted and/or refused. And focus is completely on them. Many people are afraid that their demands are going to swallow Quebec traditions whole.....of course that's not going to happen.... The most interesting thing I realize of all this is that this is part of a generations gap. It's mostly the late middle-aged & the old that are fueling the debate and the younger generations have a better understanding because are schools here in Montreal are very multi-ethnic and have a better sense of the different cultures around them than the older generations. Am I saying saying things are perfect? No. Sadly there is some prejudice out there, but with that, those problems can be fixed & cleared up, it's easy if you try. With the Taylor/Bouchard hearings on Reasonable Accommodations, the situation has stirred up more complaints like the one where one guy said that we're being forced the eat kosher food in our Kraft dinner! WTF is that!?! The Commission has made things worst! What we need is leadership, someone that'll cut the crap and make everything better. For example, to settle the complaint of immigrants not learning enough of English and/or French, it simple, BOOST FUNDING FOR POST-EDUCATION & VOCATIONAL STUDIES!! That'll include adult-education centres and they'll have more resources and more spaces available for everyone who want to learn French because many immigrants that are here want to learn French! Problem solved.

In conclusion, there needs to be better communication on all sides. We all have a part to play to end this debate once and for all. We just need the will and the inspiration to do it.

Beautiful Red Sky

2007-11-30T12:53:00.000-05:00

I took this in the summer of 2006 with my Canon Powershot S3 IS. I did most of my shots on auto mode at this time, This great shot was at F3.2, 1/15 sec., I don't know which ISO I used for this. Because I sort of fooled around with the brightness of the shot. I should not have done that because it varies depending on the settings of your computer screen!

If I had to set up my favorite 100 pictures I've ever taken of all time, this one will definitely be in the top five! It's one of my best, better than my best. It could be a long time before I get another amazing shot to top this one. I noticed the sun setting and this pink-red sky emerge, I just had to go out and get a few shots of it, and I got this!!

November Winter

2007-11-24T14:13:00.000-05:00

These are the first winter shot I took with my SLR camera, This one above I shot at 1600 ISO, F4 @ 1/20, and on the bottom, I took it at F4.5 @ 1/20 1600 ISO. I'm surprised that winter came early this year. Last year it came after Christmas (Boxing Day to be exact), when I was at my company's Christmas party, it was 15C! That was a strange winter!

I've always liked night shots in winter, they're always filled with some kind of wonder and harmony. I was walking home and I looked up at the trees and I found it illuminating with the light from the street lamps reflecting off the snow from the tree. I had to take a shot up-close of the tree and of the street lamps near the side of the frame. I had to raise the ISO for this and I used the light form the lamps to help me out.

The Solutions For A Better System

2007-11-19T10:59:00.000-05:00

Last week, another batch of student protest took place in Montreal for better education and lower tuition fees. I supported the strike because I believe that students shouldn't carry the whole load of debt on their backs and that education is a right and not a privilege like many people believe. But something was bothering me about the whole thing. For starters, I didn't like how the voting for the strike came about. It should of been secret ballot instead of a head count, the venue (Conrad's) was way too small and cramp and it didn't represent the entire school, I got irritated by this and left for class. But that wasn't the main thing that was troubling me. It's how nobody was speaking up to change the system. On the first day of the strike, I met two guys who were against the strike and had their own little protest of how taxpayers have rights too and that their against a free education system. I chatted a little defending the strike, but at the same time I was talking about the problems in the system and how the tax system should be adjusted so the rich pays their fair share and how the poor don't pay for everything. One of the guys stared at me for a second, I think he was wondering if I was actually a supporter of the strike or if I was actually agreeing with him. The fact of the matter is that nothing in the protest was talking about changing the way government works and how that can truly help out the students. Think about it, there's a lot that can be done; like what I wrote above, change the tax system where the poor/working class/middle-class people pay less and the rich pay their fair share after years of getting tax cuts they have no business having. Secondly, there needs to be fair trade! Many jobs outside Montreal are being lost overseas because of free trade agreements like NAFTA and other agreements that outsources jobs to countries with crappy pay and horrible working conditions. And it affects countless sectors across the province, and because of that, parents can't afford to pay to send their kids to CEGEP because they have to save money to put food on the table and trying to find a new job in areas that are dependent on a factory, a mine, a plant, etc. Because of that, the kids themselves have to find jobs to pay for & attend school at the same time, putting a huge load of pressure and stress on them. It's unfair. What would also help is more emphasis on post-secondary education where people can learn a new trade and can be prepare to enter a new line of work with plenty of jobs, hopefully those people won't get screwed over in the future. Trade Justice is essential and needs to be considered.

It is true that Quebec has the lowest tuition fees in the country, however CEGEP and universities are underfunded. Instead of asking the government for better funding, they look to corporations for money. The problem with that they'll get a say to where the money goes and what the priorities should be by deciding which programs are the most important. Who the fuck are they to decide that? We have dreams and freedom to pursue it and who the hell are they to decide which are the most important programs! I understand if they say the medical programs because we are short on doctors and nurses, but with that, the Quebec Medical System needs to be overhauled so they can convince graduates and those currently working in our hospitals to remain there! What I'm saying is that no program should be labeled as unimportant.

I can go on and on with ways we can change how governments & societies work. But the tragedy of writing this article is that IT WILL FALL ON DEAF EARS. The political will in all of us are needed to tackle these issues. If not, nothing will change and we will continue on complaining about everything that is wrong today. Hopefully this article will make you think about everything and have some kind of discussion about what's happening.

Studio Portraits

2007-11-13T19:21:00.000-05:00

Before a few weeks ago, it has been two years since I did anything in a studio. I only learned a few things about lighting, now I'm learning the different positions of lighting and how to use the diffuser & the reflector (I didn't use them at all two years ago). These shots here are some of the best ones I took in studio class last week.

One Year Ago..........

2007-10-27T18:26:00.000-04:00

One year ago, completely out of nowhere, Mayor Tremblay announces that he is going to rename Park Avenue/Ave. Du Parc in honor of his former boss and former Premier, Robert Bourassa. I was saddened because like many other Montrealers past & present who have either lived, worked, visited, shopped, or went to school on Park Ave. had a hugh connection to the street filled with lots of memeories and stories. The street is a part of our lives.

On October 21st, 2006, a rally took place organized by the Louder sisters, Alison & Rebecca to protest the name change. With my strong connection to the street by living in Park Ex. and going to elementary school on Jeanne-Mance & St. Joseph years ago. I joined the protest and the cause to save the beloved Ave. du Parc. Many showed up young & old alike, with lots of support from people in their cars and buses honking their horns for the love of the street. We marched along Park Avenue and towards where the Mayor lives. Obviously he wasn't home. The main speakers, Alison Louder & Mario Rizzi addressed the crowd that brave the cold that day for democracy and for their voices to be heard. Tremblay & his party didn't listen. A month later, the motion was passed to rename the street to Robert Bourassa Ave. It was devastating. Everyone that was in City Hall to watch the vote from close circuit TV were heartbroken. Tremblay played political games by stretching the debate before the vote all night to have the vote the next day to exhaust everyone who was watching. Mario was able speak to the city counsel to oppose it but Alison was bumped from her spot to speak. They voted the next morning. There was hardly any support for the name change at all. Tremblay said that they have the silent majority. I never understood why nobody from Bourassa's family spoke about it when the vote happened.

Nobody gave up.

Many weeks after, many letter & e-mails were sent to the Commission de Toponymie in Quebec City. They're the ones who gives final approval to any street names, new or renaming. The decision from the commission was taking longer than expected. Apparently they contacted Tremblay and recommended that they have Robert Bourassa Ave. as a honorary name similar to the "Street of the Americas" on 5th avenue in NYC or visa versa. He wouldn't budge. Then on the first saturday of February, Francois Bourassa, the son of Robert Bourassa and a touring jazz musician was interviewed by The Gazette and voiced his opposition to the name change and said that his father was a modest man and would not do anything that offended a lot of people. Days later, Tremblay backed down, Park Avenue was saved!!!

It was the right thing to do. Tremblay said he was disappointed with the opposition of the name change in his press conference, what did he expect? There was NO public consultations at all before this all got started, he looked like a complete idiot in all of this. In the Montreal Charter of Rights & Responsibilities there's a section that states that any major changes that affects the citizens of the city requires public consultations before a final decision is made and voted on!!!! That's not being responsible. Luckly he did back down when he did, because all the Robert Bourassa street signs would have been facing vandalism for the next 10 years, maybe beyond that! Plus it will remind the people of the controversy and not the man itself. That's no way to honor him, that's no way to honor anyone.

The morals of this story are the following: Never rip out the soul of the city!, Don't rename city streets that have been around for many decades and for over a century(unless him or her was a real jerk), Public consultations are important, and most importantly, Never give up! Fight for what you believe in because you'll be surprised what can be accomplished!

Beautiful Night Sky

2007-10-20T17:47:00.001-04:00

It was the first time I did night photography. I've done a few night shots but it from my balcony. This was my first night outing. It was difficult that night getting the right exposure, the right shutter speed and focusing was a huge problem too. Many of my classmates from both groups had similar problems. I got really frustrated. I then talked to Richard who was in the other group and he said that the problem was that I have been moving my camera when I took my shots. In my first attempt of taking the shot and making sure I didn't move the camera so the image can be exposed, I got this. Tungsten lighting, F5.6 @ 4, no flash, 100 ISO. This is one of the best shots I've even taken! It's one of those once in a lifetime shots.

All all the landscape shots of Montreal I've taken, this is the best one and it'll be hard to top. I love this city!

Welcome to my Photo Blog

2007-10-19T12:35:00.000-04:00

I have created this blog to showcase my latest work and my thoughts on the images. Also I will write about my future in photography and which specialities I want to venture into.