99% Digital

#50 Johnny, a photo by haggisandchips on Flickr.

Via Flickr:

I don’t think that I’m cheating with this one and I hope that others agree that this is within the spirit of the group …

We had a professional photographer come into our office today to take some photographs for our internal systems and website and one after another we all traipsed into a meeting room, had our photos taken and walked out again. This is the second time that this has happened but at no point have I been introduced to the photographer and I’ve not spoken with him before other than being directed for the photo shoot.

Sensing an opportunity I kept half an eye on what was happening throughout the afternoon and finally we reached the point that it was clear that he was finished so I introduced myself and asked if I could make use of his studio flash and moreover take a photograph of him for my project. Johnny happily agreed to this and proceeded to plug the cables that were in his hand back into the studio flash.

I had an initial idea about the shot making use of an interesting background (a framed print) but this turned out to be fairly naive and unachievable with the setup and as the studio flash got turned further and further away from the intended scene (to avoid the reflection off the glass blowing out) I decided that I was losing sight of my initial purpose which was to take a shot with studio flash so we turned the stand back the way it was and I photographed Johnny against a plain white wall with the flash bounced of a silver umbrella. The flash was an Elinchrom 500 set to its lowest power output and was positioned to Johnny’s right and raised a bit above head height.

Johnny took a meter reading for me and told me to use 1/60 @ f/11 but as I wanted to use a wider aperture I adjusted those figures but then the shot was completely blown out – a bit of progressive adjustment and I ended up back at f/11 – funny that! When I thought about this afterwards I realised that this was inevitable given that the light source was a flash and not a continuous light. After I’d finished Johnny talked about tungsten lights with the lower power and continuous light that they provide being better suited to what I was trying to achieve. Flash photography definitely remains my biggest area of confusion. On reviewing the shots on my computer the f/11 shot was actually a bit underexposed because I had left the shutter at 1/320 so the aperture that seemed to be correctly exposed at that shutter speed was f/9. I think the biggest lessons that I learned though was that when a professional photographer armed with a light meter tells you to use 1/60 @ f/11 – do it!

My time with Johnny was a bit limited because the boss wanted to use the meeting room and it’s difficult to argue against that when I was undertaking a personal project during office hours. Did I mention that Johnny is a personal friend of my boss – "Hi Gary" ;).

Johnny, thanks very much for your time today and moreover for the use of your equipment – I hope that I made good use of it.
_____________________________

This picture is #50 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

This picture is also #17 in my October Challenge project. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at the October Challenge Flickr Group page.

#49 Richie, a photo by haggisandchips on Flickr.

Via Flickr:

My family and I were enjoying a nice walk along the headlands at Souter Lighthouse when I first spotted Richie – he was about to land a fish so I pointed him out to my son (3) and told him to watch what was about to happen – but it was a false alarm and he put his rod back on its stand and resumed talking to a couple sat on a bench nearby. We headed cakewards instead.

Later though as my son was happily playing on some climbing frames I wondered if “that fisherman” was still around and moreover whether he was on his own now. Yes on both accounts although he had moved along the cliff a bit.

I walked up to Richie and for the first time in my project started talking to him without mentioning my project and he was happy to talk to me. I did get around to mentioning the photo after a couple of minutes though and he agreed without any reservations. As usual I explained about my project anyway and later handed him a card as he said he would look it up next week.

When I first approached Richie he was in the middle of recasting so I took a few “in action” shots and chatted a bit until he was finished – I then took a few “proper” shots and chatted a bit more then thanked him for his time and headed back to my family – conscious not to abandon them for too long.

I asked the obvious question (actually I think I asked it twice) but so far Richie hadn’t caught anything and informed me that the conditions were too bright as the fish (cod) come closer to shore later in the day but the conditions right now were not encouraging this – his plan was to stay out until 6ish so he still had one and a half hours to get some joy.

Some fishy facts:

1. When he cast his rod he reckons it went about 90 yards – I was too busy photographing him at this point.
2. He uses crabmeat for bait – he snapped the end of a leg off and showed the new leg growing through underneath explaining that this meant the crab was on the verge of casting its shell and that was the point it was “ready” in bait terms.
3. He does a lot of sea fishing from a boat and he also likes to compete against his mates from a local pub on a simple “who can catch the biggest fish” basis.
4. The second obvious question – what’s your biggest catch: 23lb cod
5. He started to get seriously interested in fishing when a (knee?) ligament injury prevented him playing recreational football any more.

Richie is a Contracts Manager for a firm that makes fireproof doors and a recent job for him was supplying doors to the hospital where my wife works. His job entails amongst other things scheduling the whole process and ensuring that the factory floor knows the details of the contract sufficiently to fulfill the order. (One of the first things he said to me was that he’d had a hard week.)

Richie thanks very much for your time today and for helping me with my project – I hope you landed a whopper after I left!

PS: #49 … next one’s a biggie!!!
_____________________________

This picture is #49 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

#48 Katerina, a photo by haggisandchips on Flickr.

Via Flickr:

Katerina was sitting in the grounds of the Newcastle Civic Centre with yesterday’s stranger Matthew. Their purpose is described a bit more under Matthew’s portrait.

Katerina was quite reluctant and at first said I should just photograph Matthew but she agreed when I pressed her although I don’t think she ever really engaged with the whole thing and seemed quite ambivalent throughout and more so towards the end when I was checking how to spell her name. Unfortunately I think Katerina possibly regarded the whole thing as a bit of an intrusion and having only just met Matthew she perhaps viewed her time with him as quite valuable. However …

… just look at that smile in the comments shot 😉 – perhaps I am reading things into some of her responses that simply weren’t there – the fact is I don’t and never will know what her thoughts on the encounter were.

I took a couple of shots of Katerina using off-camera flash again but the focus was a bit soft on them. The main shot was Katerina listening intently to Matthew and the comments shot shows her smile but is a bit too soft to be the main shot.

Thanks for agreeing to be in my project Katerina (and Matthew) – I hope that I wasn’t too much of a nuisance.
_____________________________

This picture is #48 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

#47 Matthew, a photo by haggisandchips on Flickr.

Via Flickr:

I saw Matthew and tomorrow’s stranger Katerina in the grounds of Newcastle’s Civic Centre – they were sitting on the grass and a brief tap-tap on his drum is what first caught my attention.

I approached them and, mostly speaking to Matthew because he was the one facing me as I approached, asked if I could take their photograph. “Is it for your own personal use” was the reply to which I replied “sort of” not fully understanding the purpose behind the question (which I now presume simply to be checking whether there was any commercial aspect).

I explained about the project and handed him my card … he immediately pointed at it and said “I know him”! I couldn’t see the front of my card or who he was pointing at but I knew without a shadow of doubt that it would be Jez – which it was and whom Matthew knows through his (Jez’s) storytelling business.

In response to my request for a photograph Matthew said fine for his part but I would need to ask his friend directly – this I would have done anyway and have done very deliberately for every other couple that I have approached.

Roughly at this point I discovered that Katerina and Matthew are strangers to each other and had only met today at a Medieval Fayre. Katerina was looking for some information and help with the craft and Matthew was willing to sit down and help her out. Matthew has been playing medieval instruments for around 10 years if not more and he would love to do more of what he was doing with Katerina … spreading knowledge to others, possibly via a scholarship from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust. This would involve travelling overseas learning about the craft then bringing his new found knowledge and skills back to the UK to impart on others.

In terms of the photo it was getting darker and since flash was going to be a sensible option I decided to go the whole hog and use off-camera flash – the first time that I have tried this in my project. After I’d taken an initial shot Matthew started drumming again which meant that he was moving about slightly which I always find challenging so I backed off a bit and took the comments shot for a bit of context.

Matthew (and Katerina) thank you very much for your time this evening and for helping me out with my project – I hope that you like the photographs.
_____________________________

This picture is #47 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

#46 John, a photo by haggisandchips on Flickr.

Via Flickr:

Having previously photographed two professional photographers I today bagged a 2nd year BA(Hons) Photography student so perhaps some day my project will grow to three pros.

When I first saw John I thought he looked quite interesting but although I was aware of the camera draped around his neck it wasn’t really anything to do with my decision to approach him other than as an indication that he might have a few minutes to spare. As I approached though I realised that it was a film camera (Nikon FM2 I think) so our conversation immediately turned to photography.

I explained about the project as normal and handed him my card and it turned out that he was doing something not dissimilar to me and was out today photographing strangers – he however had already photographed 12 and with a theme as well … he was photographing smokers for a project looking for stereotypes. (John is also giving up smoking and hasn’t had a smoke for 2 weeks!)

In terms of particular interests within photography John is really getting into street photography and would like to someday get himself a medium format camera although it is prohibitively expensive at the moment. In honour of medium format though I have cropped his two photographs to 6×6 and 6×4.5 – hopefully that will do him for the moment ;).

John talked about his course a bit and it was interesting to learn that it does not teach people how to use a camera or even take a photo (other than 1 workshop) but rather is more about why you are taking shots and the whole philosophy behind the art. I spoke to John for a fair while and it was interesting hearing about the other non-hobby side of photography and John encouraged me to research some of the masters and perhaps even develop a style of my own.

John said that he doesn’t like being in front of the camera but he agreed to the photograph before hearing what the project was all about – but that said the only time he really smiled was when he thought he had blinked in the previous shot (which he hadn’t) … this is where digital comes into its own – without building up a real rapport with the stranger digital allows several shots with a much higher chance of getting one with a nice relaxed pose and on this occasion it allowed me to capture that very brief smile. That’s probably anathema to John and his fellow students but it’s worked OK for me so far ;).

Thanks for your time today John – I wish you well with your studies and I hope you get that medium format camera sometime soon!
_____________________________

This picture is #46 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

#45 Leanne, a photo by haggisandchips on Flickr.

Via Flickr:

I saw Leanne on the opposite side of the road, looking very stylish and she didn’t appear to be in much of a hurry so I crossed the road and asked her if I could take her photograph. She stopped and looked quite open to the idea but hadn’t said yes or no and her eyes were asking why so I briefly explained about Flickr and the project and asked her again and she agreed but asked “will it take long because I have to catch a goat”? Erm, “excuse me” I replied? “A bus, I have to catch a bus”. Ah OK, although I was a little confused how I managed to confuse the two words but further enquiry revealed she had called it a coach the first time ;). I didn’t admit at the time what I thought she had said so if you read this now Leanne I hope it gives you a chuckle.

After Leanne agreed I asked her to step into a bit of shade just enough to be out of the direct sunlight but having got that bit right I forgot to check my camera settings and took the shot at f/5 which was a bit of a schoolboy error. I’ve also noticed that when people are asked to move somewhere they always go and stand with their back to a wall – I really need to think about this in the future because we were at the end of a quiet alley and if I had asked Leanne to stand in the middle so that I was shooting into the alley the aperture would not have been a problem and the background would have blurred sufficiently and been a lot darker as well. Anyway, this is a learning process and I still have a long way to go in that respect although forgetting to check my aperture is a bit disappointing.

Leanne, thanks very much for taking the time to help me with my project – I hope you had a good time wherever that goat took you.
_____________________________

This picture is #45 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

#44 Eric, a photo by haggisandchips on Flickr.

Via Flickr:

I was out looking for shots for my October Challenge today rather than “strangers” but when I walked down a set of steps and saw a bloke lying prone on the road with a mahoosive lens directing someone out of sight I started to get interested. When I got to the bottom I stopped to watch for a few seconds and it appeared that they were finished so I asked the photographer if this was the case and he said “yes”. At this point I would imagine that he was quite surprised when I asked to photograph him rather than the beautiful model but nonetheless he said “sure, no problem”.

I paid little attention to the camera but based on the lens it was obviously a Canon and the lens alone undoubtedly cost more than my entire kit. He was doing a photoshoot for Lifestyle magazine but I didn’t ask any more than that because he had two models and an assistant with him and although he was finished taking photographs I don’t think he was actually finished (when I glanced back after I left he was showing the models some of the shots on his camera).

Similarly, I don’t know much about him, gleaning only that Eric is from Glasgow originally but has lived in Newcastle for 20 years now and is “not leaving”.

I’m not entirely sure, but I don’t think that I left a business card with Eric … nonetheless, if you do somehow come across your portrait Eric then many thanks for taking part in my project.

PS: The vision in purple to the bottom left is the model that he was photographing – perhaps blurred a fraction more than I intended but a bit of context anyway ;).
_____________________________

This picture is #44 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

#43 Keith, a photo by haggisandchips on Flickr.

Via Flickr:

When I first approached Keith he said “No” but for the first time I followed up by saying “it will only take a minute” and handed him a card anyway. Keith stopped, glanced at the card and relented … “yeah sure, if it’s for something artistic”. Nice one!

I took a few shots of Keith as my camera was over-exposing for some reason even though I was on spot metering – possibly because I was focusing close to his sunglasses which I guess contributed to a darker reading than the whole scene merited. Nonetheless, a bit of trial and error and I ended up with a shot that I was happy with after dialling in -1.7 exposure compensation – although it took me a few attempts to get there (that’s the problem with over exposure – it’s a bit of a guessing game). Then I noticed the composition was a bit tardy with a dark sculpture in the background half visible behind his head so I took one final shot to sort that out. Keith was very patient throughout although the whole thing only took a couple of minutes at the most.

I didn’t learn much about Keith but he was on his way to visit his girlfriend and he is a painter, sculptor & musician and plays percussion in a death metal band. Unbelievably it never occurred to me to ask the name of his band so if you’re reading this Keith (and I think you will based on what you said) then it’d be great if you would email me the band’s name or add it to the comments below.

Thanks very much for taking part in my project Keith, I hope you like the photo!
_____________________________

This picture is #43 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

#42 Sophie, a photo by haggisandchips on Flickr.

Via Flickr:

Sophie joined my stranger #41 Kilian whilst I was still trying to catch up with him (long story already described under Kilian’s shot) but I thought she would make a great addition to my project and I had little hesitation asking her as well.

When I caught up with them I asked Kilian first and Sophie took a step backwards and laughed saying he should go for it – to which I replied "you can laugh – I was going to ask you as well" ;). Sophie agreed but insisted she kept her glasses on because she had no make-up on – I’m not very comfortable coercing my "strangers" but I think I need to try harder … I bet Sophie doesn’t need any make-up. Sorry everyone!

I took a few shots of Kilian and Sophie then asked if I could also take a full length portrait but unfortunately the focus on those two shots was very poor so sadly I have decided not to post them which is a real shame because my project is distinctly lacking these and Sophie would have been perfect.

I don’t know anything about Sophie but she laughed and smiled throughout and Kilian and Sophie seemed to be a really nice couple to me. Thanks very much for taking part – I hope that I didn’t take up too much of your lunch break.
_____________________________

This picture is #42 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

#41 Kilian, a photo by haggisandchips on Flickr.

Via Flickr:

Kilian strode past me today and his style caught my eye so I chased after him but just as I was catching up with him he crossed the road in front of a bus and left me behind. When the bus passed though (which took a while due to traffic) he was just on the other side of the road but he was now talking to a pretty girl. As photographing an individual from a couple is something I am not particularly keen on I hesitated but quite quickly decided that she would be great in my project as well … but then the girl introduced him to another girl that was stood beside them – this was too much for my liking so I gave up on him.

Seconds later though, and I still had not managed to cross the road yet, the group split up with the second girl going her separate way so off I went again. When I caught up with them I asked Kilian if I could take his photo for my project and he said yes then asked what the project was about so I handed him my card and explained. I also asked the girl, Sophie and she agreed. So yet again I am faced with the one shot or two dilemma but on this occasion I decided to photograph them separately – mainly because I originally set out to photograph Kilian and also because I asked them separately.

I took a few shots of Kilian and Sophie was doing something out of sight but it was making Kilian laugh so whatever it was was fine by me – I eventually chose the above shot because I think it was in keeping with the sharply dressed man that I first started chasing but I like the expression that Sophie managed to elicit as well so it can be seen below.

I only spoke to Kilian very briefly after I had photographed Sophie and learned that he works for Cruise – which is great for my project as I am still entertaining the idea of drawing a line through all my strangers linking each one to the next somehow – and Cruise forms a neat link between Kilian and my #24 Jonathan that was photographing people on behalf of Cruise when I photographed him.

Kilian cut things short at this point though by shaking my hand which was fair enough – he was on his lunch and had only just met up with Sophie so taking any more of their time would have been intruding.

Kilian, thanks very much for taking part in my project – my wife thinks you look like David Ginola … rightly or wrongly you can probably take that as a compliment 😉
_____________________________

This picture is #41 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