Via Flickr:
“I’m not very photogenic” … I’ve read that so many times on here but Fiona is the first person that has said it to me. I beg to differ and told her as much which in itself elicited a nice smile!
When I first walked past Fiona she was wandering about clutching a microphone for a local radio station but as she was also having her lunch she obviously wasn’t working right at this minute. When I asked her if I could take her photograph she looked slightly bemused and answered “Really?” but she soon agreed after I explained about the project and handed her one of my cards.
At this point we were standing quite close to a street vendor’s awning and the light seemed a little dull so we moved over a bit and I took several photographs because her expression was changing quite a lot as she was animated and talking and smiling all at the same time.
Fiona was on the street to interview people in the light of the imminent public sector strikes to ask if they could afford to take a day off work – she then asked me if I could and after I answered she decided that her lunch break was over and asked if I would repeat my answer into her microphone, pointing out that she had helped me and now I could help her. I think she was just after soundbites and that’s certainly all that she asked for and got from me before she turned her microphone off and we went back to talking about her.
I asked Fiona what she likes to do outside work and she replied that she lives in Hexham and loves walking (making Hexham a fantastic base) but says that her job is her life at the moment. Whilst mulling over her answer a bit more Fiona commented that she is used to being on the other side of the questions! Something possessed me to try my “craziest thing you’ve ever done” question again and it certainly moved the conversation in a different direction …
Whilst neither of us were convinced that this actually amounted to crazy, Fiona did live in a convent in India for a while as part of her gap year whilst she was teaching English as a foreign language. This then led onto the nugget of information that she fell off the back of a motorcycle whilst over there – there were three of them on it at the time and the rider was stoned. She asked me not to mention the latter part but when I asked if she was serious she thought about it then relented. As much as anything else I like the way that this ties in with Lester’s “craziest thing” answer – there’s a bit of a common theme appearing here ;).
Fiona, it was lovely talking to you and thank you very much for taking time out to help me with my project. I think that you are very “photogenic” and I hope that you like the photo when you see it.
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This story continues and may or may not finish with Jaclyn.
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Please feel free to provide constructive critique on the technical aspects of this photograph.
This picture is #59 in my 100 strangers project. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at the 100 Strangers Flickr Group page
99% Digital 