Thursday, November 17, 2016

Sony Diaries #983: a renowned mathematician, and the Sigma 35F1.4ART

It was a distinct honour and a pleasure to cover the 2016 Symposium at the Fields Institute, esp since the guest of honour was Manjul Bhargava, Canadian-American mathematician, awarded the Fields Medal (known as the Nobel Prize for Mathematics) in 2014. Manjul, who combines sky-high intelligence with a beautiful personality, can mesmerize an audience of mathematicians and lay people (like myself) with the same material: quite a feat!
As he was being introduced for his talk, Manjul was in the back of the theatre, in the upper stands where he seemed to glow with an electric energy, in the dark. Wanting to capture this image in my head, I knew I had to shoot wide-open, slow shutter speed (1/30, Sony SteadyShot helped avoid camera shake), high ISO (6400). I chose the Sigma 35 F1.4 ART, one of 2 lenses I own that is sharp wide-open.  He was looking straight ahead, slowly shifting from left to right, wanting to avoid being in front of me, thinking that he was in the way of my shooting. I kept the camera pointed at him, hoping that he would turn to his left side for a profile. For a split second, he did! and the light reflected off of his glasses was perfect, punctuating what would have been a profile all in shadow. I only took 1 shot.
More photos of Manjul in "sufficient " light:
University of Toronto, November 2016

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