Henri Cartier-Bresson

in an interview with Sheila Turner-Seed, 1971

Sony Diaries #988: missing my bus stop

It was a damp and foggy night on the commute home and the bus was so nice and cozy I fell asleep and missed my bus stop. I got off on the next stop and what would have been a 10 minute walk home turned into 30 minutes. 

And so I imagined myself to be Henri Cartier-Bresson, with a  Sony RX10 instead of a Leica M3.

Here is what I saw on the walk home:

3 runners and 3 border collies

 shower heads for light

 parking lights

warm bus. November 24th.

Sony Diaries #987: The views around College and University

 November 24th.

Sony Diaries #986: some black and whites

The Fields Institute. November 22nd.

Sony Diaries #985: on a walkabout on a cold Sunday morning

Walking (or biking) is the way to go to see and feel the view. After an early morning taking head shots of the members of the Guelph Marlins Aquatic Club, and not having the use of a car that morning, I walked home. These are some of what i saw.

November 20th.

Sony Diaries #984: it still comes down to great service with a genuine smile

photo courtesy of bostonimages.com

For the last nine years, and counting, from the demise of film to the advent of digital, from 6MP Pro cameras to today's current 24-36MP, I have been working with Chris and Shelley at Boston Images. In a business where you're only as good as your last job, in an industry where the price of entry is as low as the price of a consumer-grade camera at Best Buy, in a world where referrals rule and fancy websites, not as much, I'm still shooting. I work alongside shooters young enough to be my twenty-something kids. What's the formula for longevity?
I think it's the same formula used by any other long lived enterprise. Great Service. Beyond a basic level of technical and artistic competence commensurate with your pricing structure, what wedding clients will remember is the atmosphere of the day (or the absence of anxiety and concern for the photographers' conduct), the agreeable "flow of events" initiated by the photographers' instructions,  and the photographers' people-management skills (some clients need bossing around, others not so much). This is for the day of the wedding. 
There's is also the front-end consult and back-end post-shoot relationship, which I'm not qualified to comment on as much. Suffice it to say that they're just as crucial; these 3 aspects are closely interrelated. 
Wedding clients won't remember (or care to know) how much your gear costs, or what f-stop was used for the portrait session. They'll remember the feeling, of how they enjoyed themselves that day. This is what leads to referrals. And longevity in this business.

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

Sony Diaries #982: Sandy

Sleeman Park, Guelph, ON

Sony Diaries #981: Patti

and then this

Lockwood Conservation, Rockwood, ON

previsualizing an image + good timing

Last night while shooting a wedding at Hart House, University of Toronto, on my way to the car (to grab my monopod), I came across the War Memorial lit up with a melancholy glow. I raised my cell phone (LG G5), set to 16x9 to capture the scene. It had been set to sepia for a previous photo and just as I was about to change it back to normal colour, a group of students walk across my field of view in silhoutte. Something clicked subliminally and what happens oftentimes is that a fully developed image develops in the brain  so quickly there isn't time to process it for articulation. One just has to go with the flow and go with the image, not exactly knowing how it will turn out. The image was that of weary soldiers with knapsacks, bowed down with the rigours of war, the sepia hinting of the past. The good timing involved some luck in that since a cellphone is not as responsive as a regular camera, I just had to hope that the the front person would be exactly dead centre when I clicked the shutter.
For more on this War Memorial check it out here.
Meanwhile, back at the wedding earlier, a harpist was entertaining the crowd.

Sony Diaries #980: the Oak Tree on Hart's Farm

The majestic oak on Hart's arm, 12.5 hectares soon to be developed into 279 units of homes, townhomes, apartments, and commercial/office space. Great news for Guelph but I hope they don't cut down this oak. An oak icon is on the development's promotional material so this could be good news for this tree.