During a discussion with my daughter’s neighbour, an amateur ornithologist, I discovered St-Bernard Island and its fragile ecosystem, threatened by the expansion of urban habitat south of the metropolis of Montreal.
Saint-Bernard Island is located in Lake Saint-Louis at the mouth of the Châteauguay River. It measures 15 km in circumference. It is accessible by a small bridge near the municipal park of Châteauguay.
In February 2024, the weather was getting milder, leaving an abundance of slush and puddles. The gloomy weather and the rain discourage me from taking the wildlife trail (fee). I therefore went to the viewpoints near the reception buildings. The ice that covers Lake St-Louis usually breaks up against the shores of the island, forming spectacular scales. That was much less so that day. Usually, I prefer to dwell on the reflections that populate the puddles. I saw one promising, but the reflection was still limited. I came back an hour later and noticed the landscape that had formed, has enlarged. It almost looked like a cameo set in a silver-plated frame. I pressed the shutter several times, trying different compositions. As soon as I started to shoot (even before shooting), I imagined it in black and white.
The one I’m presenting here is the first of the series. After basic processing of the RAW file in DXO, I processed the black and white image using Silver Efex Pro.
