It gives me great pleasure to announce an upcoming exhibition of my photography called Illuminight. The exhibition will feature around 25 of my long exposure, cities at night photographs at Le Meridien Versailles-Montreal from October through December 2013. There is a launch party on Oct. 3 between 5:30–7:30 pm. All the visitors of this site or Photography.ca, people who have taken the Montreal Photo Tour or taken courses with me, my longtime friends and Facebook/Twitter/G+ friends (and their friends) are invited for some wine, cheese and photography. Hope to see many of you there!

Illuminight by Marko Kulik at the Meridien-Versailles from October — December 2013.

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I wanted to assure sharpness in this image with a fairly fast shutter speed because I wasn’t 100% steady balancing on the car. The focal length was 170mm which required a shutter speed of at least 1/170 but due to not being so steady on a curved hood, I made SURE to go faster.  At ISO 400, in aperture priority mode I chose an F-stop of F-14 (because I wanted good sharpness in the mountain and the clouds) and that gave me a shutter speed of 1/200.  Due to not being on flat ground though which compromised steadiness, I deliberately danced with the ISO and made it 800. And the second I changed the ISO to 800, the camera changed the shutter speed to 1/400.  I liked that speed and aperture combination and so I clicked the shutter release button and made this image.

Cloudy Mountain Day Yukon, Canada

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For the first time in a while, I set up a conceptual scene to be photographed where I used  professional performers.  I’ve always been a huge fan of photographs that tell or suggest stories and when I want to make my story super-clear and the story involves people, once in a while I trade posing for prints or as in this case, I simply hire people.  I have been doing this on and off for close to two decades with different subject matter and it gives me a huge thrill every time I do it. It gives you a lot more responsibility though and a lot more to focus on — and I get lost in it. In a good way.

This shoot was different than previous shoots though because I used intentional camera movement to achieve the painterly effect you see here. I directed the performers to move in a way that suited this technique at the Gesù Church/Theatre in Montreal. Each of these images was shot with a long shutter speed and very little post processing is done on these images. They are mostly captured this way in camera. Please feel free to let me know which of these three images you prefer and if these types of photographs ‘work’ for you.

Midnight Ballet in Montreal — Image I

Midnight Ballet in Montreal — Image II

Midnight Ballet in Montreal — Image III

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The decorations on the outside of the church have enthralled Montrealers and tourists for a long while. The Virgin Mary Statue at the back of the church is enormous and incredibly impressive. Montreal poet/singer Leonard Cohen referred to this statue in his song Suzanne as ‘our lady of the harbour’ and I’ve taken the liberty of borrowing a portion of that lyric as titles for these images.

Camera movement allowed me to capture ‘Our lady’ as she blesses the sailors that she watches over. Here are 2 of my favourite images of her ‘blessings’. Which one do you prefer?

Our Lady of the Harbour

Our Lady of the Harbour ll

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The area was packed with people getting really close to the ice sculptures and packed with pissed off photographers who wanted to take unobstructed (people free) images of the ice-sculptures. As for myself, I was enthralled after the first frame. For me, the people added a level of abstraction to the photographs that made them much more interesting to my eye. They were unknowingly interacting with the ice sculptures for me.  I shot there for about 30 minutes as different people entered and exited the scene and I tried different angles to get as much variety as I could.

I’d like to thank the city of Toronto as well as the event’s sponsors for putting on such a visually awesome event. Here are my 4 favourite photos from the shoot.

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Given that I live 5 minutes from the event I was able to get there easily on a couple of separate occasions. It was a great scene to photograph and there were photographers everywhere. Here are a few of my favourite images from the event using intentional camera movement in order to get this painterly effect.

Montréal en lumières — Montreal in lights festival 2012 — Stairs and Ferris Wheel

Montréal en lumières — Montreal in lights festival 2012 — Slide

Montréal en lumières — Montreal in lights festival 2012 — Luminous Musical Wands

Montréal en lumières — Montreal in lights festival 2012 — Street Scene

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It’s the first year they put this seasonal village together and it’s made completely of ice and snow. It includes a hotel, chapel, bar and restaurant all made out of ice and snow — way cool if you like the cold. The icy sculptural decor is a really nice touch and the overall combination of ice, snow and light is a wonderful sensory experience. Because I went with friends I couldn’t take as many pictures as I wanted but we did take a good look around and the village is stunning. I hope to go back before the village melts and take some more shots.

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As always, there’s way too much to shoot and never enough time to shoot it all. When this happens, I have to make tough choices and this time I decided to focus on a classic, and something new. The classic is the Rideau Canal which is the longest/largest skating rink on planet Earth. It cuts through the downtown core of Ottawa and is close to 8 kilometers in length. It’s one of my favorite places to hang out in the wintertime in Ottawa.

Here are two images that are similar — I’d be curious to know which one people prefer.

This is the Rideau Canal in Ottawa, Canada with the parliament buildings in the background

This next image highlights the right side of the canal.

This angle highlights the right side of the canal with government buildings in the background

After I shot the canal I went to Confederation Park to Catch part of  Winterlude but I was stopped dead in my tracks by the FABULOUS lights of the new Rink of Dreams right next to City Hall. Skating and Hockey are such a part of being Canadian and I just hung around the rink while parents and kids skated. I took some decent shots of people for a good 20 minutes when something magical happened. Everyone left the ice because the Zamboni (ice cleaning machine) had ice to clean.

As the Zamboni started cleaning the ice, the city’s reflection in the ice became more and more prominent. I thought it added a cool layer to the scene so even though I normally like people in my scenes — the empty rink really added something for me. I could imagine parents and kids dreaming about being skating stars or hockey stars. Ottawa Rocks!

This image was taken at about 6:15 pm. I really dig the rink’s colours, the city light reflections and of course, the Zamboni.

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