The Iconic Chateau Frontenac in Old Quebec City

The Château Frontenac is one of the very beautiful hotels that was built for the Canadian Pacific Railway company in Canada, close to a century ago. The company was attempting to lure affluent travellers to take it’s trains, and the hotels were all linked by the rail line. The hotel lies at the top of a a cape near the Plains of Abraham overlooking the rest of Old Quebec City or Vieux  Québec in French, and it has been designated as a National Historic Site of Canada. The Château Frontenac is in the Guiness book of world records, holding the title of “World’s most photographed hotel”. I guess they can add one more to that total, now that I have done my bit to help maintain the record.

I took this photograph near dusk, at the bottom of the bluff that the hotel sits on. The area just in front of the hotel is known as le Quartier petit Champlain. It is full of pedestrian streets that are lined with boutiques, bistros, and art galleries. If you didn’t know that you were in Canada, and woke up in this area, you would swear that you were somewhere in Europe. Quebec City’s historic district, which Charle’s Dicken’s once called the “Gibraltar of America”, was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985.

The best possible angle I could get to take this photo, placed me right in the middle of the street. This is where it would be nice to have an assistant, looking out for oncoming vehicles, as being run over by cars is not high on my list of things to do while traveling. So it was rather fortunate for me that out of nowhere, a big tourist bus stopped right behind where I wanted to set up to take my shot, this allowed me to place my tripod down and shoot with some sense of security. While not a perfect solution in slowing or stopping traffic, it was a welcome change to the typical situation, where a bus would park directly in front of me while I’m setting up to take a photo. To make it even better, I had about a half dozen Japanese tourists rush over to the same spot with their cameras, to try and get a photo from the same angle. So there was a small crowd of people on the sidelines looking out for oncoming cars… Perfect. Now if I could only convince people to do the same kind of thing and be a distraction for bears, when I’m shooting out in the National Parks ;)

Thanks to Applied Arts

I just wanted to acknowledge the great folks over at Applied Arts, for the article they wrote on their blog about my National Geographic cover. Applied Arts is Canada’s premier magazine of visual communications, and I’m so pleased that they are featuring me on their website. You can see the article here: Photographer Ken Kaminesky Lands the Cover Shot on National Geographic

Thanks AA!

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