Sony Diaries #1040: Clouds

the sky seen from a Greyhound bus on the 401

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 #949: Fast and Wide Primes for Portraiture

Ask most photographers, amateur and professional (paid amateur?), what lens(es) they use the most for Portrait Photography and the answer is very likely the focal lengths ranging from 70-200mm. Perhaps 50mm for environmental portraits where the background is essential for describing the subject. Wider lenses usually don't enter into the equation since one loses shallow depth-of-field, subject becomes too small within the frame, and distortion becomes a factor.

The following photos will show that one can   negate the 3 "negatives"mentioned. Wide lenses can have more impact, a more "in-your-face" feel since by necessity, particularly for a 24mm lens, one has to shoot as close as 2 feet  away from the subject.

A few housekeeping items to remember: centre the subject, at least within the middle third of the frame, keep level to the horizon, and observe proper posing techniques to accentuate positive features (sparkling eyes), and deemphasize negative features (prominent noses). And as always with any portraiture shoot, elicit a spontaneous happy look from your subject.

Minolta 50 F1.7, shot at either F2 or F2.2

 Sigma 35 F1.4, shot at F1.6, F2

Sigma 24 F1.8 macro, shot at F2, F2.2

All photos shown full-frame, shot with a Sony a99, no cropping. Photographed for TrilliumWest Real Estate Brokerage, Guelph, ON.

Sony Diaries #930: 35F1.4 ART

March 10th.