A magic moment with Abdou Diouf

It was July 20. When passerby saw me with my camera at the Chateau Frontenac, everyone was thinking that I was going to shoot Paul McCartney, who was giving his historical concert in Quebec City. But it was for Abdou Diouf, general secretary of the French speaking country organization (organisation de la Francophonie) that I was there with a Globe and Mail reporter. It was an advance interview for an article to be published during this week-end summit (Le Sommet de la Francophonie), so I was not able to show you what I did before today.

With such an important person, you never really know how long you will have. So I let the reporter do is stuff and I started to photograph him with a single gridded flash. I switch between my 50mm and my 85mm, keeping a very shallow depth of field of f1.8. I also used my 70-200 for even more reach, keeping only his face (or part of his face) in the frame. I liked so much what I shot that after the interview, I only spend about 2 minutes for a quick portrait (4th photo), shot with flash thru an umbrella – if I recall correctly.

Technical: Canon EOS Mark II, 1/250 at f2,8 with a 24-70 at 200mm – ISO 200, one gridded flash on camera left

Technical: Canon EOS Mark II, 1/250 at f1,8 with a 85mm prime lens – ISO 200, one gridded flash on camera left

Technical: Canon EOS Mark II, 1/160 at f2,8 with a 24-70 at 70mm – ISO 200, one gridded flash on camera right

Technical: Canon EOS Mark II, 1/200 at f1,8 with a 85mm prime lens – ISO 200, one flash thru an umbrella on camera right (I think…)