Via Flickr:
Today’s stranger first caught my eye a few days ago but I had already resolved not to add any more charity fundraisers to my project having amassed three so far. When she approached me I had my headphones on and was in full-on stranger hunting mode (a day that ultimately saw 5 rejections – or 6 if you include the person I didn’t even ask) so I politely declined to stop. Not much further down the road though I spotted a perfect "bucket list" stranger disappearing into a shop so I parked myself across the street and waited for her to re-emerge. During this time Laura had drifted up the street towards me and kept me amused with her exuberance, literally jumping beside people, putting up her hand like a traffic warden and smiling all the time trying to persuade people to stop. At one point she caught my eye as I was smiling at her antics and I wondered if I freaked her out a little as I loitered for another 5 minutes at least and she did look over a couple more times. Eventually though I realised that the shop that I was staking out had a second exit that I hadn’t been watching … Doh! … so my bucket list stranger escaped and I went on my way. Today I did stop though and grabbed my chance to ask her and also learned that not only had I not freaked her out (which she thought quite funny) but she didn’t even remember seeing me – I think I worry too much ;).
When I asked her if I could take her photo she looked really taken aback but agreed once I explained why but said that she would have to take her coat and lanyard off which was even better – no way could a ***** jacket do anything other than ruin her fantastic bright and individual style! Laura struck the thumbs up pose straight off and I took two shots of that and then asked for a close up of her face to focus more on her earrings and the flower which is what caught my attention in the first place.
I only spoke to Laura for a fairly short time during which I learned that she likes to ride horses and she has a 2 year old foal called Precious. As she was working I went for my "maddest thing" question quite early on and after she’d given it some thought commenting that she does lots of mad things I learned that on only the second time that she went snowboarding she tried to do a jump and almost broke her wrist – she doubled up when I told her that a friend of mine tried the same thing the first time that he went snowboarding and he broke his leg.
Laura, thanks very much for helping me with my project today – I hope you like the pictures.
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Please feel free to provide constructive critique on the technical aspects of this photograph.
This picture is #94 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 