My Amateur Art & Photo Blog

I enjoyed painting with watercolors for the first time earlier this week but after watching some online videos I wanted to be more like Bob Ross so I thought I'd give acrylics a go. I purchased an inexpensive 'acrylic starters kit' that came with brushes, a palette, a plastic knife and some small samples of paper to get started with.  I felt like using the good 'canvas pad' paper was going to be a waste for my first attempt so decided to use 'sketch pad' paper instead which has the added benefit of being a small size for me to have less area to mess up having felt like I may have bitten off more than I could chew with the mountain country scene.  For today's exercise I thought I would try to replicate in paint one of my own photos, and one that I captured in Montreal. The great cathedral of Notre Dame which I thought had some great angles and I loved the aspect ratio, at least I liked it in the photo, I didn't like painting it much. There's a...

The next logical progression from panaromics, of which I seem obsessed, was to create the 'globe effect' of a tiny world from such paranomas in post processing. Thanks to such great mobile phone apps as Globe Photo (from kexxu) it's so simple to create these little tiny worlds Flags, Boston Common - Memorial Day, May 2015 Mystic River Reservation - June 2014 Charles River - June 2014 Montreal Beach, August 2014 Montreal, August 2014 Old Port Montreal, August 2014 Place d'Armes Montreal, August 2014 Boston at night, August 2014 Lynn Beach, August 2014 Nahant Beach, August 2014 Boston Skyline, September 2014 Medford Community Day, September 2014 Charles River, October 2014 Kings Beach, October 2014 Castle Island, November 2014 Sunset, Medford, November 2014

Montreal is an amazing city, one of my favorite in the world (that I know of anyways). However, parking in this fair city can be troublesome for anyone who doesnt know the rules, even worse than Boston, if you can imagine that. Bonne chance! Signs-  Où puis-je stationner ma voiture? Taken with the  LG Optimus Elite ,  handheld,  no p ost processing.

The city of Montreal provided yet another opportunity for a meeting a photography goal this year in capturing the vertical lines of the Notre Dame cathedral as it reaches for the heavens in this shot. Vertical - Facade of Notre Dame T aken with the  Canon PowerShot SX230HS , no post processing.

A walk around down town Montreal is always a pleasure. From the old city to the new and in between the two is the Palais des Congrès with it's marvelous colored glass windows which on a sunny late afternoon like this one provide a splendid opportunity for fulfilling one of my goals for this year's photography project. Glass - Colored Glass Windows, Palais des Congrès T aken with the  Canon PowerShot SX230HS , no post processing.

Hotel Night View As our last night in Montreal is upon us I snap a final view from our hotel Balcony towards the Notre Dame Basilica. With so many things to see and do in what seemed like such little time afforded to us we have yet again missed out on the chance to see the light show in the Basilica, un autre temps peut être! Here 2 separate shots taken with the Canon PowerShot SX230HS are combined in to a relatively shallow panoramic in post processing. I had actually taken 4 frames for this shot however due to the very dark nature of the scene it was proving to be too difficult to combine all 4 shots so the uploaded shot will have to suffice instead.

Mont Royal Panoramic Sticking with the panaromic theme, and how could I not with all the options given in the great city of Montreal? With the humidity finally leaving the city it was just the excuse I needed to convince the wife to come with me on a hike up to the top of Mont Royal . Little did I know that it was as many steps as it turned out to be, compounded more so by the walk we made from our Old Montreal hotel through the downtown area and passed the riot police rounding up McGill University protesters, I kid you not! We would also later find out that Lance Armstrong was in town and had an entourage following him up the mountain, thankfully we missed that media farce and managed to make it back down to our hotel without having a heart attack or some other medical condition ;) Here 6 separate shots taken with the Canon PowerShot SX230HS are combined in to a panoramic in post processing. The view of downtown Montreal is taken from the Kondiaronk Belvedere and the Chalet du Mont...

Montreal Waterfront Panoramic Another sunny Montreal morning and another day of walking for what seems like miles through the various neighborhoods of this great city. Today's walk starts with a stroll around the waterfront where unfortunately these fountains did not provide much of a respite from the heat. At least it was a little less humid today. What happened to the fall like temperatures we were promised by the weather forcasters? Here 3 separate shots taken with the Canon PowerShot SX230HS are combined in to a panoramic in post processing. I didn't see someone's kid run in the to frame during the last shot taken and I don't have the energy to remove him in post processing ;)

Olympic Park Panoramic In a flashback to the 70s and it's love of concrete we visted the Olympic Park which is indeed an impressive architectural feat of it's day but as a tourist attraction I would probably have trouble recommending it as one of the must see things in Montreal. That being said the Olympic Tower itself did give me the opportunity after a short 2m30s ride up the funicular to take this attached panoramic photograph looking north over the Olympic Park and away from the city. Here 7 separate shots taken with the Canon PowerShot SX230HS are combined in to a panoramic in post processing.

18th Century Market Another great thing to love about Montreal is that no matter what time of year you visit there is always something going on. This year we missed the big Parades (if you discount the student protests!) and one day I would love to see Just For Laughs, but this week there was this 18th Century market re-enactment going on in Vieux Montreal complete with authentic vendors and goods was a very pleasant surprised. Taken with the Canon PowerShot SX230HS no post processing

Notre Dame At Night One of the great things of staying in a hotel in Old Montreal is the close proximity of lots of great sites to see, not to mention cafes and restaurants to eat at. I captured this shot while we walk back to our hotel after a night of Streak Frites. Remember, 'Apportez votre vin!' Taken with the Canon PowerShot SX230HS color enhanced in post processing.

Continuing the theme of panoramic photos I thought I'd share my first attempt at a 'Flash Viewer' (You'll need Flash Player 10 to view these) for scrolling the large panoramic photos I've been making to them show off, So enjoy! I welcome comments on improving the viewer, I'd like to add mouse moving/dragging and also turning 360 degrees once i have the right set of photos to try out. First up is a daytime panoramic photo of Old Montreal and the harbor which was taken last summer (August '10).   Second up is a nighttime panoramic photo of the view from our hotel room in Montreal, also taken last summer. This one is a very bad photo, the individual photos taken were exceptionally noisy even before stitching and post processing. These next 2 were taken at the Maine Country Fair last October and ideally would be one large panoramic but I didn't do a very good job of taking this series of shots. So here they stay as 2 separate shots and unfortunately it...