99% Digital

#10 Vijay, a photo by haggisandchips on Flickr.

Via Flickr:

Walking about today I walked past a girl construction worker standing in a doorway having a cigarette. After a bit I stopped and thought – she’d be excellent – but as I walked back towards her the door she had been leaning beside (a fire escape) suddenly opened and with a brief word to her emerging colleague the building swallowed her up. A definite missed opportunity.

Later on I was sat watching the world when Vijay walked past – I liked his look with the sunglasses and he also didn’t seem to be in much of a hurry but as ever I didn’t react immediately and soon he had wandered around the corner and out of sight. A few minutes later he re-appeared though and stood still apparently waiting for someone. Out of excuses now I stood up and walked towards him. This is the point I still have problems with – that first step after I’ve made up my mind.

Vijay became by far my shortest “100 Strangers” encounter. He asked why I wanted to photograph him but as soon as I handed my card to him he agreed but said he only had a couple of minutes as he was meeting someone. At this point I had my 18-200mm zoom on but I quickly took the decision that I might annoy Vijay by taking the time to change lens given what he had just said. I asked him to step into the street a bit more and he immediately took a pose at 45º to myself and I took a couple of shots like that but I also asked him to turn towards me so that I could get a couple of shots with a full on reflection in his sunglasses.

The only thing I discovered about Vijay is that he works “somewhere around here”. He did ask “why him” – cheekily asking if he looked particularly model-like so I explained about the sunglasses, so far there is generally something appearance wise about my targets that spurs me into action. At one point I said to Vijay, “You were smiling a minute ago, where’d it go?” – it did the trick as he beamed from ear to ear again but it didn’t half sound corny in my head as I said it. It’s the sort of thing I’d say to my son!

And that was pretty much it, I thanked Vijay and left him on the lookout for his friend.

I feel like I’d stalled a bit with this project – it’s only been a week since my last stranger but I’ve been out twice this week and come nowhere close to approaching anyone even when I’d spotted someone interesting – the first time I didn’t even take my camera out of its bag to photograph anything and on that occasion I really wasn’t in the mood. Today thankfully was much better and I felt much more upbeat right from the start.

Thanks very much for your time today Vijay, I hope you like the photo.
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This picture is #10 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

#9 Rob – “Monument Busker”, a photo by haggisandchips on Flickr.

Via Flickr:

After my last slightly uncomfortable encounter I found myself approaching another busker today. Rob had a reasonable crowd of people that had gathered to watch him so I guess in a sense for this encounter I did too.

Rob was extremely good and I sat and listened to several songs before I thought about approaching him. This was nothing to do with delaying, it was quite simple … he was very good, it was sunny and pleasant, and I was enjoying sitting there listening to him. Rob played a variety of stuff not all of which I recognised but Bryan Adams Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman is the one I remember (my wife will be so proud of me).

After a while I stood up to go across to him but at this point a friend of his started to talk to him so I sat back down and listened to another song then at the moment he finished that song I stood up immediately and went across to him before someone else did. As expected Rob had no problem with me photographing him but I explained about the project and handed him my 100 Strangers business card and also explained that after I had taken a few shots with my zoom lens I would like to put a different lens on and get right in his face – he said this was fine and he was used to it.

Rob also made sure that I knew what his Facebook page was and asked me to post any photos I took on his wall – I will be happy to do this but in addition (and he did not ask me to do this) I will link to his page from here – Monument Busker.

As I stepped back to let him get on with his next song Rob asked me “is that an Inverness accent that I can detect“. This may seem trivial but it absolutely floored me, my accent is not particularly strong and it is not uncommon for people to not even realise that I am Scottish so for someone to pinpoint exactly where my accent comes from is pretty amazing. He couldn’t tell me what gave it away but apparently he used to go out with a girl from Inverness and he also studied linguistics which I guess helps him to focus on the detail and peculiarities in people’s accents.

I took quite a few photographs of Rob during his song and did switch to my 35mm prime lens but not sure I actually got that close in the end – I squeezed between him and his collecting case but I was loathe to risk getting too close and actually interfering with his guitar play.

I spoke to Rob again after he had finished his song and learned that he is originally from Wiltshire but has lived in Byker (Newcastle) for the last 10 years. He likes to busk whenever he has time and its sunny – I can understand that, it really was very pleasant sitting there listening to him today. He also mentioned a few monetary figures which I won’t repeat here but suffice to say I’m in the wrong job ;).

I guess I’m playing it a bit safe with my last two encounters approaching people that are used to performing in public and inevitably get loads of pictures taken and published with or without their consent but nonetheless I really enjoyed today’s encounter and if I spot Rob again I will have no hesitation going to say hello.

Today’s technical musings: my focus was a bit off – for some reason the focus is on Rob’s right eye when his left one would have been the choice and moreover I didn’t take any shots with the triptych in mind so his left hand is soft because I at no point tried to focus on it – however I still like the end result and will start thinking about getting a bit more creative now I’m getting much more comfortable with the social aspect.

Rob, thanks for taking part in my project – you gave me a lot more time than I expected given the number of people watching which was great – so thanks again and I hope you like the picture.
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This picture is #9 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

#8 Neil, a photo by haggisandchips on Flickr.

Via Flickr:

Neil is a busker that I met in Newcastle’s Central Arcade where he was playing the Irish Pipes. I walked past Neil once because another man had just interrupted his playing to speak to him. After a few minutes though I went back and he was alone – as I approached I could see that he was texting on his mobile so I walked up to him but waited until he looked up. I then asked to take his photograph and he said no problem but could I wait a minute. “No problem” and whilst he finished what he was doing I switched lenses on my camera and checked a couple of things. Once he’d finished I explained about the project and again confirmed that this was OK now that he knew what I intended to do with the photograph.

Neil has been playing the Irish Pipes for 20 years and he also likes to make them and made this one that he is playing. He reports that they are very difficult to play and if I heard the quote correctly they are the “opposite of a piano, a bit like a guitar” – by which he apparently meant that some notes don’t come out when you want them to and others do when you don’t!!!

Neil seemed to me to have quite a strong Irish accent when I spoke to him but apparently he is from Edinburgh originally but has spent time in Cork as well as Newcastle – the Cork influence was by far the most prominent to my ear.

In a way I’m a bit disappointed with this encounter – I found it quite difficult and a little bit awkward as the conversation didn’t really flow. Neil went back to his mobile a couple of times during our meeting and I got the impression that I was interrupting something. I suspect that I chose a bad moment and then didn’t take the hint.

I also had a couple of quid in my pocket that I had intended to chuck in his case as I left – unfortunately I forgot to do this. Obviously from a project perspective buskers are no different from anyone else that is working but I felt it was the least I could do given I was disturbing him at work.

Thanks for taking part Neil – I hope I wasn’t too much of a pain!
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This picture is #8 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

#7 Lex, a photo by haggisandchips on Flickr.

Via Flickr:

Today I set off to my usual haunt, a route which frequently takes me through the Grainger Market, which is where I first spotted Lex but as ever I found myself clinging on to those weak excuses. First he was being served at a market stall so it would be rude to interrupt, and then when I saw him again he was on the phone so it would be rude to interrupt (both valid points but hardly insurmountable). So, the opportunity passes and I continue on my way.

My next stranger attempt didn’t work out at all – I was sitting on the step of Grey’s Monument with my 70-300m on my camera waiting for an interesting candid to present itself when I suddenly noticed that the girl beside me had a tiny kitten poking its head out of her jacket … there you go, one of those "you don’t often see that" moments! However when I moved across to talk to her the cat started to look nervous, tried to escape out of her jacket then burrowed down into it instead. Hmm, time to cut my losses and say Goodbye. I’m pretty sure I was about to get my first rejection anyway.

Not wanting to continue sitting where I was I moved off to another area to watch the world go by and shortly after, I noticed Lex’s friend come out of Starbucks and sit at one of the street-side tables. Sure enough, seconds later out comes Lex as well.

This time I only took a few seconds to mull things over then went across to speak to them. Yet again I am received pleasantly with no hint of suspicion or irritation and before I know it I’m sitting beside them taking a couple of shots.

Lex works as a promoter for a couple of nightclubs (so here I am finding excuses not to approach people only to find out he does this for a living) including Tiger Tiger which I often walk past at lunchtime so I’ll keep my eyes peeled in case I get a chance to follow up and discover if he looked at the portrait – he seemed interested so I hope he will. He and his mate work together and I was actually interrupting them discussing work so I didn’t stay long but given the nature of the imposition (gate-crashing their coffee break) this was never going to be a long meeting anyway.

This shot was a bit of a departure for me for a couple of reasons – firstly, this is the first time I have approached more than one person but asked to take a shot of only one of them and secondly this is by far the most close up shot that I have taken but the fact we were sat beside each other at a small table kind of forced that anyway so there were no real personal space issues.

My nerves during encounters are now almost completely gone so I just need to keep telling myself that and stop procrastinating so much when I spot someone interesting.

Today’s technical error was to forget to check my aperture setting before approaching my ‘stranger’ – given how close up I was there was a real opportunity to make Lex pop out from the background but at f/6.3 the background is far too distinct for my liking. The annoying thing is I’d been keeping an eye on this throughout my lunch break but then forgot about it at the crucial moment.

Thanks for taking part Lex, hope you like the image and as I said, if you have any problems getting hold of the original image then drop me an email!

PS: Lex follows my #6 Alex – anyone up for a 100 Linked Strangers group ;)? Tomorrow I shall go in search of someone that drives a Lexus!
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This picture is #7 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

#6 Alex, a photo by haggisandchips on Flickr.

Via Flickr:

I am really beginning to warm to this project now – yet again I popped along to Grey’s Monument in Newcastle but this time I was trying my hand at street candids and I had some success there as well. This shot had just made me smile from ear to ear when Alex walked past – I stared after her for a few seconds then decided I couldn’t pass up this 100 Strangers opportunity so I chased after her and I can honestly say I did so with purpose but she was a quick walker and it took me a while to catch her.

Once I caught up with her and explained about the project she seemed quite receptive to the idea and again, like Robbie & Eve, asked where I wanted to take the shot so we moved back towards Grey’s Monument a bit to give a nice backdrop. I took 3 shots all about ¾ length but I really wish I had taken one up close as ultimately I decided to crop in close instead. The tattoo is what caught my eye initially and I wanted it to be dominant. With hindsight, using the monument as a backdrop was a bit of a distraction.

I did talk to Alex throughout but didn’t find out too much about her other than that she lives just outside Newcastle and wasn’t working today but the very obvious response to that fact went unasked so I don’t know why she was in the city. She did tell me that her husband bought an SLR about 4 months ago but it has barely come out of its packaging – what a shame with such a fantastic subject so readily available. Towards the end of the encounter Alex asked if anybody could take part in the project so I asked if she was thinking about encouraging her husband to have a go to which she replied that she was.

Alex says that she hates posing but seriously, could you tell? I’m no expert but that looks a pretty great pose to me, angled away but looking at the camera, nice natural smile and even the poise of her right leg (see additional photo in the comments) is straight out of a magazine. This was all Alex’s doing, there was no direction from me.

What was going on at Subway today? Both outlets that I passed had queues out the door and my encounter with Alex started right in front of one of these queues and then played out in full view of it and I never gave it a second thought as I knelt on the road photographing a complete stranger. I only really thought about it as I noticed several of them looking at me as I set off after saying goodbye to Alex.

Whilst talking to Alex a man asked me to photograph him and his son (?) with their compact – which I did but only very quickly (hope it’s OK – sorry, but I took very little time to compose it). So in the space of about 5 minutes I photographed 3 strangers – one candid, although he knew I was doing it, one 100 Strangers encounter and one because they asked me to – life’s weird!

Alex, thank you for taking part, I really enjoyed our brief encounter and I hope you manage to persuade your husband to get started.

PS: It occurred to me today that “photogenic” is a cold, soulless word to use when speaking to someone – fine when speaking about a person but I’m not sure I’ll ever say it to the person’s face again.
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This picture is #6 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

#5 Robbie & Eve, a photo by haggisandchips on Flickr.

Via Flickr:

Finally, an encounter that I’ve actually enjoyed from start to finish. This is Robbie and Eve – I saw this couple at Grey’s Monument in Newcastle but didn’t approach them at first. After a while I spotted them again … escaping, so I chased after them. It took me a while to catch up with them (partially because I was checking a couple of things on my camera including the light now that they had wandered into shadow, and partially because they were going my way and I was in no particular hurry). Once I caught up with them I asked for a photo straight up and Robbie answered “depends on what it’s for” – good start! I explained about the project and whilst at no point did I suspect they were going to say no they really seemed to relax a bit when I mentioned that thousands of people have undertaken this project. They did seem quite amused when I later mentioned that I had first spotted them at Monument and had to chase after them. When I had first spotted them however they were having a moment that I couldn’t possibly have interrupted and since voyeurism’s not my thing I moved on!

Robbie offered to move into the light so we wandered away from the rather ugly shops providing the current backdrop and settled on a spot at the top of the Bigg Market with an interesting fortune teller’s caravan to provide a more pleasing backdrop. I then took a handful of photos including a couple of individual shots but from the outset I’d settled on Robbie & Eve being my first “couple” shot – the shot above completely captures the happy, intimate couple that I had first spotted so it was a no-brainer that this was my strangers shot. However I love two particular individual shots as well which I will post in the comments.

They both live and work in Newcastle but have taken the day off just for the sake of it and to spend some time together. Robbie is a Performance Artist (and loves his job) and Eve is a vintage clothes designer. Eve’s hair is what caught my attention initially so I couldn’t let the moment pass without asking about it, so … yes she does change it quite often but it’s been pink for quite a while now and she’s due a change – if you live in Newcastle keep your eyes peeled!

On a final note, Eve mentioned that she has seen various bad photos of herself on Flickr – I hope that today I rectified the balance a bit.

You were a lovely couple and both great to talk to and helped my confidence a lot – as you say “Not everybody is cold”. Many thanks Robbie & Eve.
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This picture is #5 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

#4 Maria, a photo by haggisandchips on Flickr.

Via Flickr:

For the third day this week I took my camera along to Grey’s Monument in the centre of Newcastle hoping to photograph another stranger and as my lunch break ran out I was very close to returning empty handed, also for the third time, without even a rejection to talk about.

Then I spotted Maria … tall, slim & beautiful she walked with an air of confidence and boasted a pair of long earrings that had caught my eye. Most importantly she was browsing some stalls and not in any particular hurry. After a minute or two to compose myself I approached her and asked if she would mind if I took her photograph, she asked why and so I explained about the project. She wasn’t familiar with Flickr but she said that she would be interested to look at the photo online so I gave her one of my cards and asked her name. To my shame I know nothing else about her or what she was doing as the social aspect of the project completely went out of my mind as I turned into a shaking wreck behind the camera. I couldn’t believe how much I was shaking – I guess it was to do with being in such a public area. Anyway, I tried to hold the camera as steady as I could and took one photo which was too dark so tried a little fill flash (this is how much of a wreck I was – given an initial shutter speed of 1/8000 it never crossed my mind that fill flash wasn’t going to work). I quickly deleted that one and dialled in some exposure compensation instead and fired off another which looked better on the screen and I was pretty sure would be fine once I was out of the very strong sunlight. At that I thanked Maria and we both went our separate ways.

It was another few minutes until the concept of sync speed occurred to me and explained the almost entirely blown out flash attempt. Once I reached a more shaded place I had a look at the photos and my fears were realised – the correctly exposed photo was disastrous with absolutely nothing sharp because my hands were shaking so much. However, the first looked nice – sharp around the face and also better exposed than I initially thought (sorry about the deep shadows though).

Another one in the bag and this time I really have pushed myself out of my comfort zone – I made the first approach, in a very public location and there was absolutely nothing notable or unusual about the situation to make it easier (as had happened with Mike (#2) and Victor (#3)).

Maria, you are beautiful and I’m pretty sure you know it – you posed so naturally with a lovely smile – thanks for taking part.
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This picture is #4 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

#3 Victor, a photo by haggisandchips on Flickr.

Via Flickr:

This is Victor, he is a colleague and friend of Mike (#2) and this photo was taken during the same encounter so I will not recount my approach again. Suffice to say that they were climbing an archway wall beneath the metro bridge that runs past Newcastle’s Castle Keep.

Victor is from Northern Spain but I’m not sure exactly where (I thought I’d heard the name OK but then couldn’t find it on the map, it could have been Estruduero).

Both Mike and Victor are geologists and I wish I’d enquired further about this (and specifically whether his job and rock climbing were in any way linked) but that just didn’t happen as it was at this point that Victor got significantly near the top for the first time so I stepped back to take a photo instead and didn’t really get much conversation going again afterwards. By this time I’d been hanging around with them (bad pun intended) for quite a while and didn’t want to intrude too much as they only had a limited time to practice.

Whilst I was watching, only Victor climbed right to the top of the archway and only once, a lot of what they did seem to be focused around the lower half of the wall and was very much a training exercise rather than “conquering” the wall.

Victor confessed that Mike is the better climber but to me there didn’t seem to be much to grip at all, definitely strong fingertips required!

Victor provided a great random fact … he plays the bagpipes! As a Scotsman that really appealed to me ;).

On the technical side I’m a bit disappointed with my focusing – most of the images were a bit soft around the face. This one was by far the best but even then the sharpest focus was on the left eye rather than the “leading” right eye. The light was great though – it was a very bright day but because they were under a bridge the light was very easy to deal with and there was nice contrast in the wall showing the texture and lack (to my eye anyway) of areas to grip.

Thank you to Mike and Victor for being my stranger #2 & #3.
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This picture is #3 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

#2 Mike, a photo by haggisandchips on Flickr.

Via Flickr:

I saw Mike and Victor (#3) climbing an archway wall beneath the metro bridge that runs past Newcastle’s Castle Keep and I decided this was too good an opportunity to continue this project (it’s been two weeks since my #1) and if I passed it up I might as well give up.

I checked my camera settings in an adjacent archway and “sized up” a couple of shots at which point I decided to switch from 50mm to 35mm – even so I wish I’d had my 18-200 (or even my 12-24) with me on this occasion but will probably continue to leave them at home on the assumption that my next encounter (hopefully not another 2 weeks) will be a more “standard” portrait.

I approached the two and asked if I could take their photos – both agreed before I had even explained the project or its purpose. They then quite happily got on with their activity and I snapped away trying to not get in the way – sincere apologies if I failed in this aspect. They explained that this was simply a training exercise and there are a few locations around Newcastle that they have used but obviously they would prefer to be doing this type of thing in the countryside.

I didn’t speak to Mike as much as Victor but he did talk about training mats and being able to fall happily from heights of 4-5 metres – yikes!!! He did fall off at one point (sorry Mike – I said I hadn’t photographed it, I didn’t say I wouldn’t mention it) and I’m sure you could easily get hurt if you fell from the top and landed awkwardly – but then you could say the same about many things we do every day without thought.

I found this a much more comfortable encounter than my #1 – probably because they were doing something quite unusual (once you take the location into account) and therefore there was an actual purpose to photographing them.
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This picture is #2 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

#1 Lesley, a photo by haggisandchips on Flickr.

Via Flickr:

This is Lesley, we met in the lounge waiting for the Belfast – Stranraer ferry and she started talking to us (well my 2 year old son really) at which point I discovered that she hates Man Utd, likes Liverpool FC and has recently realised that her son prefers rugby over football. We then said our goodbyes and departed to get onto the ferry. Later my wife mentioned a bit more that she had gleaned whilst I had disappeared briefly and at that point I decided that with the ice already broken this was a good opportunity to get my #1. I kept my camera with me on the ferry and sure enough towards the end of the journey I spotted Lesley near the soft play where my son was playing. So I approached Lesley, explained the project and she agreed to have her photo taken. I enquired further about the purpose of her journey which was to go to Perth to listen to a reading by her favourite author, Philip Yancey, a Christian author that Lesley has been reading for 10/11 years. For the photo I asked Lesley to pose reading her book as this was the sole purpose of her trip.

Sadly I didn’t have my pre-prepared business cards on me for about the first time in a week but I left Lesley with the necessary details and my email address in case she changed her mind.

I can honestly say that I was very nervous throughout and as a result the "conversation" was perhaps more of an inquisition and the end photo very much a snapshot but Lesley was very easy to talk to and I would like to say thank you – if you’d said "No" I might never have got started – I’ve already lost count of my excuses not to approach various people throughout the previous week!
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This picture is #1 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