That mini ramp / pool is the funniest thing on earth

That ramp is so fun we had to go back!
South Parc last hour of the day for 5$ only.

Me, footplant in the bowl part

Julien asking for peace in the middle east

The man behind the camera for the night; Charlo

Julien has a lot of hair


Side note:
20-25 cm of snow in the forecast at the country house, possible The Stash style snowboard session on sunday. Pictures will be posted.

Fun sesh at South Parc

Winter schedule is back at South Parc, 9 to 12 is pad less on monday, thurdays and saturdays!
Photog: Charlo
Gear: D70, Tamron 11-18, sb-600 wireless on a flash bracket attached to the camera.
Settings:
ISO 400
Shutterspeed 1/80
Aperture f6.3

Julien Lauzon


Myself


Myself


Rest of the series at http://s110.photobucket.com/albums/n85/Gnyus/South%20Parc%20monday/

RCR (stoneham and MSA) ban jumps in their snow parks

The decission was taken last week, probably by a board of directors whose members are probably exclusively angry ski monkeys. They are angry because they are not as cool as us, snowboarders.
Their official reason for the ban is to inscrease the security of their sites. We all know this is total bullshit.

Sign the petition here:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/SnowparkRCR/

A $35,000 starter

We went snowboarding last night for the second time of this young season. Our rugged starter broke so we decided to team up and use the synergy hence created to come up with a creative idea; use Julien's truck as our starter.


It resulted in various tricks. Here are some that are pictured in my poor photographies.
Charlo, five-0 fun.


Julien Lauzon, bs nosepress to pleasure.

Osheaga 2007 - Montreal

Last week end I went to the Osheaga music and arts festival with friends. (thanks to 6 free tickets - thank you Lisa!)
I attended on sunday.
My favorite bands / artists were (in order)
Gotan Project (Electronic Tango)
Peter Von Poehl
Interpol

Althought the assistance went up from last year, the Osheaga Festival will probably see important changes for next year. GEG (Gillett Entertainment Group) hasn't been making any decent money out of it for the past 2 years. They say the festival isn't in danger but the format will probably change for next year.
Interpol
Shot with cellphone - Sony k790

Mini skate session

On a windy september afternoon
Pictures were taken with:
Nikon D70
Tamron 11-17mm
Off Camera sb-600 at full power
No post processing

Me, air to fakie
Photog: Ju Lauzon


Ju Lauzon, frontside five-o
Photog: Me


Ju Lauzon, some exotic trick
Photog: Me


Me, rock'n'roll revert
Photog: Ju Lauzon


On a windy september afternoon

Sony K790 review

I bought this new phone 3 weeks ago.

What I wanted was a very good phone with good reception and sound quality that would act as as a Point and Shoot camera. The K790 seemed to be the best option to me.

The camera is a cybershot 3.2mpx, the lens is a fixed focal lenght at 5.2mm f2.8 with autofocus and there is a small xenon strobe.

The pros about the camera:
- Phone came with a free 2 gb micro memory stick.
- Manual control of the exposure from -2.0 to 2.0 with increments of .3 that is easily accessible via the joy stick.
- Anti red eye pre flash works quite well
- The strobe is very usefull and doesn't eat the battery too fast.
- Autofocus actually works, even in low light conditions. While other camera phones offer fixed focus at infinity which gives blurry picture.
- 3.2 MPX is more than enough for me. It is good for internet picture and to print 5X7s. The resolution of the pictures are 1536 X 2048. Files weight about 900ks
- The dynamic range is acceptable.
- ISO 400
- Manual white balance

The cons
- The flash can't be set manually, limiting dawn shooting possibilities
- The camera sometime loses the focus spot once you've set it after pressing the shutter button half way and search for it after you press that perticular button completly. Resulting in a lag between the time you press the shutter and the moment the photo is actually taken.
- Unlike today's point and shoots, there is no optical zoom.
- Digital zoom is useless because of the small resolution.
- ISO can't be set manually
- Noise

Conclusion
It is a great camera phone, but it still lacks a couple of features to be on par with dedicated point and shoots.


Self shot (arrrr ;) )

It's good to take pictures of pretty girls in club too!

Sunset shot

Skate Sesh w/ Cadieux

Missing winter

Terribly missing snowboarding
Ju Lauzon and Charlow
D70
Tamron 11-18mm

Sweaty Julien

I recently added a second sb-600 and manfrotto 52b light stand to my camerabag.

Julien after a skate session on a very how night in St-Lambert.
Nikon D70
50mm 1.8d
SB-600 X2

It is obvious that I'm not yet mastering portrait lighting. I should've positionned one of the flash as a key and the other as a fill in. That would've help reducing the shadow on Julien's face. I also need to get / build some type of umbrella/softbox/reflector to get a softer light.

A tree in the field

I took this picture this week end.
D70
Tamron 11-18mm
SB 600 triggered by the D70 built-in
Click for high resolution version

Car Audio

Summer 2006 I took out the whole interior of my 2006 Yaris to apply sound isolation.
The Yaris is truly a thin car of steel and plastic. Needless to say it offered very poor sound isolation on the highway and in urban areas. This was bugging me seriously. Hence, I decided to isolate the whole car. The materials used were Raamat BXT and Ensolite, both sold by Rick at raamaudio.com
Here is what my car looked like in the middle of the process.

Pentax Optio MX

Montreal Sunset

Been quite a while since my last blog entry. Been quite busy lately.

Here's a shot I took last winter. It is Montreal at sunset.


Click to access higher resolution file.
D70
Tamron 11-18mm

Matanza (Cuba)

On our way to La Habana, we drove through Matanza. Matanza is situated mid way between Varadero and La Habana. It's quite a large city. Matanza's most important features are its port and university. Matanza is situated around a bay feeding the Atlantic. The bay is about 3 km wide but 600 meters deep.

Here's a Black and White shot depicting a typical Matanza Street
D70
Nikkor 28-70




The university of Matanza is located on a beautiful site. It is just too bad the buildings are lacking maintenance since the 1990 economic crisis



Next stop is "La cité perdu", La Habana.

back in town!

I just got back from Cuba. It was crazy, very nice weather and sea.
Photowise, I've got a lot to do this week, I have a couple shootings from before my vacations to edit + I have a shit load of pictures from La Habana, Matanza and Varadero to edit.
Keep visiting for further and more regular updates in the days to come.

Skate Sesh

Mtl --> T.O. transplant Frank C. back in Mtl.
D70
SB - 600
Nikon 50mm F.18
Tamron 11-18mm
BW Polarizer
Olie

Backside flip

Crazy Surf Sesh at Habitat

Amazing weather, inspired surfer, eager photographer: good session.
Pictures were taken with a Nikkor 80-200mm AF F2.8 two ring, D70 and BW Polarizing Filter.

If you want to get shot at Habitat 67 leave a comment with your e-mail address and I'll get back to you. French or english.

Click on the thumbnail to access larger photos.

Leave me a comment!

Time lapse photography

Jul Lauzon (http://shredbuddiesproductions.blogspot.com) sent me this link.
http://599productions.com/599/Timelapse%20480p.html
This really got me hooked to time lapse photography. I'm currently debating wheter I should buy an electronic shutter release / intervalometer. This device act as an automated shutter release. Coupled with the intervalometer, it can release the shutter at every given time.
How is it possible to make video with a DSLR?
It is very simple, a Cam Corder is able to record 24 or 30 frames per second (FPS) a DSLR is able to record from 2.5 fps to 8 fps at its fastest burst settings. Time lapse photography consist in stiching all those photos taken in burst in a video format.
Why is it that time lapse photography is like fast fowarding?
Well it's pretty basic. If you record 1800 frames at 3 fps you did record 600 seconds of "real" time. Now, you want to merge those 1800 frames together to get a video. The legit fps rate in video is 30 fps. Therefor those 1800frames at 30 fps will result in a 60 seconds video (1800/30).
How do I transform the pictures into a video motion?
You need quicktime pro and you simply have to "import a new photo sequence". That's it.

Time lapse using DSLR will result in a high resolution video, far beyond that what our conventionnal HDTV capabilities. Hence, I recommand using the smallest resolution on your DSLR. On most camera it'll result in a video with just a tad more resolution than 1080p.

Time lapse photography is probably the most damaging use of a DSLR. The shutter on the prosumer DSLR (D40, D40x, D70, D80, 300/350/400d and their Pentax, Olympus, Sony counterpart) has an estimated life of 50 000 frames. Make the calculations, that is about 27,78 minutes of video (50 000/1800), but also 166,67 hours of shooting at 3fps.

I don't think it's a good idea to use semi-pro and pro bodies to do time lapse photo. I'd even call it stupid, you don't need all the extra goodies and extra resolution these bodies offers. Just grab a used prosumer that got upgraded because its previous owner wanted the extra features on the latest body available. It is quite unusual to see prosumer bodies used to up to 50 000 frames. D70, D50, 350d and 300d can be bought for about 400-500$ used.

New mods on the car

Lately, I've been quite busy with final exams. Hence, I hadn't have a chance to go out an shoot. Here's little photoshop of my car.
Before


After

Surf at Habitat 67

We celebrated the 40th aniversary of the Habitat 67 project our own way
Julien Lauzon and Rene Caza braved the cold water and surfed the river waves.
Julien Lauzon pictured
Nikon D70
Nikkor 28-70mm
B+W Circular Polarizer on some shots

Click the picture to access larger size (800X5xx)

Snowboard Photo selection - Winter 2006-2007

Here is a selection of my favourite snowboard pictures from this year. Partners in crime pictured are (in no particular order): Julien Lauzon, Alex Lopes, Fred Lacroix, Renée Cazaa, Charlo a.k.a. Macko, Kevin L., Julien Levesque, Sam Samson, Matty Lefebvre, young buck Yannic and Matt Gui.
To access the larger size (800X550), click on any thumbnail

Don't steal my photos!