telephoto

The Queen was on Parliament Hill on Canada Day…so were about 100,000 other people. Did I arrive early to get a good spot? No, my husband and I strolled up onto the Hill just as the Mounted Police were entering to start the Musical Ride …about 10:30 am. We listened to the music and watched the tops of their flag poles bounce past. After the barriers were opened to allow more people onto the grounds, we surged forwards with the rest of the crowd in hopes of getting an unobstructed view of the stage! Ha! Ha! Ha!

Then we waited.

There was a lot of red.

There were the Snowbirds.

There were many wonderful performers.

I made good use of the ‘live’ feature on my D5000 which allowed me to hold my camera above the crowd to photo the performers on stage. It’s a bit tricky to get the right angle and get it to focus on what you want, and also quite tiring to hold it up for long but I’m only 5’3″ so it was handy.

And… there was the Queen!

I was on the opposite side from the podium where she made her speech so…not so great for photo ops, but after the show she moved to the other side of the stage and I was in luck…I got my much desired photo of Her Highness as well as Prime Minister Harper and Prince Phillip. Using my 55-200mm telephoto lens I managed to just catch her between all the heads in front of me. A little blurring is visible from the heads but hey, I was along way back.

I love this image of the Queen and Prince Phillip back to back, both greeting people, she with her bouquet and he with his fedora behind his back.

I missed watching her enter or leave the Hill area, the crowd was too thick. Wellington St. was teeming with people afterwards. It was a good opportunity to try out my new 10-24mm, wide angle lens.

This was pretty much the view for most of us in the crowd, but all in all, a successful day. And I got my photo of the Queen!

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Receiving his diploma
Originally uploaded by Janice Saunders

My oldest son graduated from Algonquin College’s Paramedic Program yesterday. It’s hard to articulate the enormous pride I felt watching ‘my little boy’… he’s six feet tall… graduate in his chosen profession and enter the world of work. My funny, charming son will now be out there helping to save lives. Well done Chris!

We got a good seat in the second row at floor level but we were still a long way from the stage so I used my AF-S NIKKOR 70-300mm 1:4.5-5.6G lens. It’s a bit of a beast… heavy and difficult to hold still at anything over 200mm but it was the only way to get some nice close-ups of my son walking in and receiving his diploma. I used the arm rest of my seat to help stabilize me whenever possible. It was still on the camera when I captured him coming back into the arena.. he walked quite close by me… but the lights and happiness apparent in the face of this ‘new graduate’ make this an effective picture even with the obvious grainy texture. Later I switched to an AF-S NIKKOR 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6G for the shots outside with family. They are just quick candid photos…we were ready to go out for dinner to celebrate!

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