Quebec
City has a charming European flair and is a paradise for city, landmark and architecture
photography that provides the travel photographer with endless photo
opportunities. Its most famous monument is the luxury Chateau Frontenac. The
castle like building majestically towers over the skyline and can be seen from
many corners around town. During my last photo trip I had a chance to
photograph the Chateau from many angles in the morning, at twilight and during moonrise
at night.
Morning
Cityscape Photography: This photo image was taken atop Cap Diamant near the Citadelle.
It took an extra effort to make my way out there in the early wee hours but was
so worth it to experience a beautiful sunrise over the St. Lawrence River and the
historic upper town of Quebec City. The sky was beautifully painted in early
morning pink while the street lanterns and Chateau building lighting still
provided a wonderful night atmosphere. I incorporated Avenue Saint Denis with
its historic buildings in the foreground while the Chateau majestically towered
over them. Aperture was set to f/22 providing an exposure time of 3.2 seconds
at ISO100.
Twilight
Photography: The intimate close up picture of Chateau Frontenac was taken from
my hotel room at twilight. A 70-200mm telezoom lens combined with a 1.4x
teleconverter got me in close to solely focus on the beauty of this historic
landmark in the upper town of Quebec City. I was not able to open the hotel
window which is why I set up camera and lens straight against the window. In
addition I pulled the window curtain over camera and lens to further avoid any
window reflections to be captured in the picture. I chose a Portrait over Landscape Format to cut out harbor lights and other distraction to the right of
the image. It also resulted in a more powerful composition than the horizontal
one. Aperture was set to f/11 providing an exposure time of 8 seconds at ISO100.
Night
Photography with Moon: This last picture was taken from Levis on the banks opposite
Quebec City. The small town is connected to Quebec City via a 10 minute ferry
ride and provides ample skyline views. The night I explored the photo ops of
Levis coincided with the moon rising over Quebec City. It was delightful to
witness how the crescent moon actually grew and moved across the city skyline.
I frequently had to minimally adjust my location and tripod to place the moon
in the composition. I manually focused on the scenery and metered on the moon
to not blow it out. Aperture was set to f/5.6 providing an exposure time of 5
seconds at ISO100.
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