When in Montreal with a few days to kill (and in order to get out of the freezing cold for a few hours), you really can’t beat the biodome. It’s up near the Olympic Stadium, yes the same stadium that a 50 tonne block of concrete fell from some time ago. That stadium.
There are fish (obviously), tropical animals and…. Ok it’s a biodome. Four seasons under one roof. Nothing finer for hopelessly fogging up your camera lens after you come in from the cold to the baking heat. After the lens cleared up, with a little help from mr. t-shirt, I was able to properly capture a whole host of interesting plants and animals. Well, capture from a distance. For some reason which still escapes me, I brought the 30mm prime and left the 70-200 IS back in the house. Crapola.
I’ve been reliably informed that the above is better viewed large so in an unusual turn up for the books, here it is, large as life. There, hope that was enjoyable. Although it was a deceivingly small building, we managed to counteract that by going around a second time and swapping lenses. G’wan diversity!
I managed to get some decent shots, despite leaving my zoomy zoom lens back at the house (and running through the ‘bat cave’ screaming like a little girl, twice. No, I don’t like bats). Was pretty happy with what I got with the macro but vowed to return with the big white fella (the lens people, the lens) after our trip to New York. One of my favorite parts of the outing was the fish tanks. They were interestingly lit, which proved to make the fish very photogenic. Other than that, the penguins were entertaining. This shot reminded me alot of the current Guinness TV ad.
Yes? No? I could photoshop in a bar and a couple of pints if that’d help you. That is to say I could, if I wasn’t too lazy to. Alot of the animals seemed to be engaged in some kind of peaceful protest and/or union action. Like the two crocodiles/alligators (no, I don’t know the difference).
Despite my gentle directions that they should move and possibly eat something, they lied and lied some more. I assume they were tired, or of course on the aforementioned work stoppage. So we toddled off back out into the cold after a less than satisfying feed at the pricey biodome cafe. No, I didn’t get back there this time with my longer lens. Next time gadget, next time….
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great shots, as usual. There’s a biodome in Gothenburg (smaller than the Motreal one, I’d imagine) which I visted a few winters ago. You’re right about the lens-fogging - nothing worse than a tropical habitat when you’ve just come in from a below-zero street.
Beautiful shots. I’m very impressed and green with envy.
Hi Ryan,
One more thing - I’ve volunteered to put together a powerpoint slideshow for the Photoblog Category at the Blog awards on Saturday that will be run behind the stage before and during the awards. The slideshow shows screenshots of each of the nominees’ websites. They had the same last year and I remember that the screenshot of my site had probably the worst picture I took that year. So this time, I’m asking each of the nominees to pick their own entry to be the screenshot (rather than me randomly picking one). Just send me the link and I’ll add it to the slideshow. I also want to include a picture of each nominee - it could be from the site or you can send me a picture as an attachment (blog AT monasette DOT com). See you on Saturday,
Best of luck,
John
Ahh, good to have you back Ryan, all the shots from Montreal have been fab.
I think those are alligators - they have a rounder jaw than crocodiles.
sweet site and great pics