99% Digital

#70 Paul & James, a photo by haggisandchips on Flickr.

Via Flickr:

I first noticed Red and Green stood at the bottom of Grey’s Monument looking up at it. They then wandered off and Red started trying to photograph Green whilst he was perched precariously on the wall of the nearby Metro Station – it was clear that they were trying to get a shot of him with the monument in the background. Still not happy though they wandered down the street perching on bike stand after bike stand and they were obviously struggling to get what they wanted. So I decided that what they needed was yet another factor to cope with …

… when I approached the pair, Red was lying on the ground and Green was attempting to float mid air so I waited until they were stood with all four feet upon the ground then asked if I could take their photo. They agreed but it was only when I explained a bit more that they actually stopped and paid me any attention. They said that they didn’t want to give me their names so I asked them if they would each make one up instead.

At this point I learned that they were doing a series of challenges for charity each one demanding photographic evidence – right now they were attempting to stand on poor Earl Grey’s head! I also realised at this time that they didn’t really want to hang around although I didn’t ask exactly how many challenges they still needed to complete.

I asked them to pop back up onto the bike stand and I took a couple of shots (although as you can see Red didn’t fancy the pair of them trying to balance on one stand). None of the shots were great and I knew it but I didn’t want to impose on them too much since they were obviously in a hurry.

When Green jumped down again I asked what their charity was and when he replied the Army Benevolent Fund I realised that they were soldiers and that was why they didn’t want to give their names – which they confirmed.

Nonetheless, I turned to Red and said "Go on then, what’s your name?" – I actually meant what made up name had he come up with but he surprised me by giving me his real name and his mate followed suit. I generally don’t include surnames so I’ll simply introduce them as Paul (Green) & James (Red).

Paul & James, thanks very much for taking part today – I hope that you completed all your challenges and raised lots of money – you were obviously having fun trying anyway.

Afterthoughts …

With hindsight I really regret not at least trying to get a better shot – perhaps they wouldn’t have appreciated me taking too much time over my shot but if this was the case I’m sure they would have just told me politely that they needed to get on.

I know that I should have exposed for the background, selected a narrow aperture to keep the shutter speed below 1/250, lit Paul & James with my speedlight, and possibly even deliberately underexposed to add a bit of pop to the subjects … see, I am learning the theory at least!

I’m also a bit annoyed with myself for the pose as well – a good idea occurred to me afterwards – both stood on the ground facing each other – arms crossed – turned to look at me with the monument bang in the middle of the background. When I look at what I got I realised just how rushed an encounter it was and I think I should be doing better by now but I still lack the confidence to really impose on someone! I didn’t even notice the Asda bag – doh!!!

I’ve been dreading this day since I started the project but today was the day that I took a photograph so bad that I was tempted not to post it but right from the start I’ve always told myself I would post every shot. This project is a learning exercise after all and it would be unrepresentative to omit a shot because it wasn’t good enough. The simple fact is that 70 strangers into my project I took a really, really poor photograph and my project must include that just as it includes a "Page 1 Explore" and all the photos that I’m personally proud of.
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I wouldn’t bother providing critique on the technical aspects of this photograph. I know it’s poor ;).

This picture is #70 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

#69 Barry, a photo by haggisandchips on Flickr.

Via Flickr:

A couple of months ago a friend asked me if I wanted to go and see Shinedown at the O2 Academy in Newcastle – possibly, I replied, but in all honesty – I’m not a concert person.

Nonetheless, today, as I was walking to work past the O2 Academy in Newcastle I realised that there was a big band on tonight and when I got to work I had a look out of curiosity and discovered that it was Shinedown. Damn, I had completely forgotten about this gig!

Ignoring any other thoughts for the moment, I wondered what the chances of "strangering" the band would be so at lunchtime I walked past backstage but when I asked the security guard if Shinedown were inside he said that he didn’t know – I took this as a ‘get lost’! I walked to the end of the road and whilst trying to decide if I was in the mood to go looking for a random stranger I noticed that there was some movement from one of the tour buses so I walked back down and asked a stage hand that had appeared if there was any chance of meeting the band – no was the simple answer – two of them were asleep and two were "wandering around" – when I asked how to go about meeting them he simply said that he didn’t know but I could try coming back around 5pm – I took this as another ‘get lost’!

However …

… at 5pm, as I was walking past backstage four people came out of one of the tour buses and one of them looked familiar – whilst I am a big fan of Shinedown (or at least their music) I don’t go to concerts and I’m not a teenager so although I recognised him I didn’t know exactly who he was. There was only one way forward from here …

Me: Excuse me, are you from Shinedown?
Stranger: Yes, I’m Barry … bit of a pause … the drummer.
Me: Cool …

I explained what I wanted and he said sure no problem explaining that after every gig they come out to sign autographs. I knew this wasn’t going to work for my project so I pushed a bit more but it was no go as the rest of the band were currently in interviews but Barry said I could take a photo of him on his own if I wanted. Good enough for me – I was more than happy with that!

As it was late and dark I looked around for some light but there was absolutely nothing usable nearby so I started digging out my pocket wizards for their inaugural appearance in my project praying that I didn’t mess this up but thankfully they started flashing their little test signals as soon as I switched them on. Three shots later I got a keeper with a nice dark feel to it (not sure that I’ve quite achieved Chiaroscuro – but I like it anyway).

Whilst I was setting up the flashes I explained to Barry that I have a question I like to ask my strangers and if I couldn’t ask a Rock Star then I really couldn’t ask anybody!!!

I got three answers to my "What’s the maddest thing you’ve ever done?" question …

"Played in front of 100,000 people"

"Had 15,000 people sing Happy Birthday to me"

Cool, but not quite what I was after but Barry left me with this little nugget – "I once wrestled an alligator with my bare hands" – excellent, that’s the sort of answer I wanted – I don’t want to know the details, the headline is good enough!

Whilst Googling aimlessly I found this link about Barry which I think is pretty damn cool!

Barry, thanks very much for being in my project – I might not have recognised you individually but that doesn’t take away from the fact that I love your music and I can’t wait for your next album to finally come out.
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Please feel free to provide constructive critique on the technical aspects of this photograph.

This picture is #69 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

#68 Amie, a photo by haggisandchips on Flickr.

Via Flickr:

I was on the way back to my office when I spotted a young couple and the guy was carrying a Canon with a fairly large lens on (things like that always grab my attention). As I walked past them I noticed that he started lifting his camera and she was posing for him. I wondered for a while if she was a model but the whole thing seemed very impromptu and she was eating her lunch so I hung around for a few seconds until he had finished then approached them. I must admit my approach was a bit clumsy as I tried to determine if they were "working" without actually asking if she was a model. I’m normally very direct on the basis that they can only say no so I’m not sure why I beat about the bush so much today. Eventually though I got my request across and after she checked this was OK with her photographer friend, Amie agreed.

Unlike with Jaclyn, her friend immediately beat a retreat to sit in a bus shelter and didn’t get involved other than to take some more photos.

Amie was really at ease in front of the camera and there was even a point at which she took a bite of her lunch and I kept the camera up waiting for her to finish and when she did and realised that I was still pointing the camera at her she immediately flashed a really natural smile again. At one point she put on a "cheeky" expression which I include below alongside a couple of others – it’s been a while since I couldn’t quite decide which shot to post to the group and when I enlisted Mrs H&C’s help I ended up with another contender rather than a decision ;).

Amie is in her second year of an Art & Design course at college. I asked what she wants to do afterwards and she hopes to become a primary school teacher. As with other strangers much younger than myself I ran out of conversation very quickly so I wished Amie well with her future plans and left them to it.

Amie thanks very much for helping me today, good luck with your studies and whatever life holds for you thereafter.
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Please feel free to provide constructive critique on the technical aspects of this photograph.

This picture is #68 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

#67 Jay, a photo by haggisandchips on Flickr.

Via Flickr:

Many months ago I passed a couple of performers, one on drums and one on bagpipes and they were very good and extremely animated, clearly reveling in their music. Having interrupted street performers a couple of times in the past though I decided not to do so again and took that approach on several more occasions when I saw the pair of them. Today however I saw the piper on his own and he hadn’t started yet so without any further ado …

… I approached Jay and asked his permission to take his photo, explained about the project and Jay happily agreed and was familiar with Flickr, explaining that he was "already all over it".

Jay has been performing with the bagpipes for 25 years and it is purely a passion of his (for his day job he works in the hotel trade). He was encouraged to take up the bagpipes from a young age by his Uncle whose badge he wears proudly on his regimental cap. Jay used to be in the Gordon Highlanders and did tours of Iraq and Northern Ireland. The regiment has since been disbanded but before this happened Jay performed with them at the Queen Mother’s funeral and is clearly very proud of this honour.

Feeling lucky I fired off my "maddest thing …" question and he replied that he once attended a gig where he had to change in the back of a wet fish van … nice!

When I was photographing Jay he looked off to the side but I asked for some eye contact at which point he turned directly towards me and opened his eyes wide – I missed the shot and got a sleepy eyes half closed shot instead which I will not be sharing. Jay played around with his eyes a bit more whilst I was photographing him and I seemed to end up with a mix where the eyes are slightly wide or partially closed and the shot I used is one of the "wider eyed" poses. I asked permission to post a full length performance shot as well but my focus was a bit off in that but I don’t think that I could not include it. The tune that you "see" here is Banjo Breakdown.

Jay, thanks very much for delaying your performance a little to help me with my project. I enjoyed our chat and listened to a couple more songs as well while I wrote down a few notes afterwards (I’m giving away trade secrets now).
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Please feel free to provide constructive critique on the technical aspects of this photograph.

This picture is #67 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

#66 Jaclyn, a photo by haggisandchips on Flickr.

Via Flickr:

Today turned into quite a "100 Strangers" day … one new Stranger, two old Strangers and a rejection.

First of all though, let me introduce Jaclyn … she and her partner were walking slowly down the street when I passed them but after only a couple of seconds of deliberation I chased after them, planted myself squarely in front of them forcing them to stop and as with Liah apologised to the man for interrupting and then posed my request directly at the lady. Jaclyn didn’t reply at first but her partner asked why so I explained and Jaclyn agreed.

At no point did her partner remove his arm from around her shoulder although he seemed quite chilled throughout so I didn’t get the impression that it was a protective thing. Nonetheless this forced me to go in quite close but I was quite happy with that and everybody reading this has probably seen enough of Northumberland Street in my project anyway.

I don’t know much about Jaclyn – her partner had just picked her up from University and they were off to do a bit of shopping enjoying some time away from the kids (a 1 and a 2 year old). Other than that we spoke very briefly about the project and what I get out of it and she asked if I had a card which I handed to her so hopefully she will have a look. And no Jaclyn … you are not going to appear on Crimewatch, at least not for any reason to do with me – my intentions are entirely honourable!

I thanked Jaclyn and carried on wandering up the street which brought me to Liam who was performing his Faces of Disco street act again. Whilst watching Liam an extremely fashionable (and I mean Vivienne Westwood levels of fashion) gentleman passed me so I chased after him but he was in too much of a rush and politely declined – I couldn’t really argue – I literally had to run to catch up with him so yes he was in a rush.

The day started however with me pausing to look around Old Eldon Square and noticing a lovely young lady wandering about but I immediately realised that I knew her – it was Fiona and she was out interviewing for BBC (Radio) Newcastle again. I waited for a chance when she wasn’t speaking to someone and jumped in to say Hi. We chatted for a bit about her question for today and whether she had looked at her photo (she hadn’t) and then she surprised me by asking if she could interview me about the project – it felt like ages before I managed to get an answer out and within a fraction of a second of my agreeing she had the microphone switched on and was asking me "Who are you and what do you do". The interview only lasted a couple of minutes and she doesn’t yet know what she is going to do with it but she said that she would be in touch and might use it when I finish the project … watch this space! I told her that I would probably finish my project on 21 May 2012 and funnily enough it was only when I reread her story this evening that I realised that it was as that time that I decided I wanted to complete my project over the space of a complete year

Anyway, much more importantly right now … Jaclyn, thank you very much for taking time out to help me with my project – you have certainly added a touch of style.
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Please feel free to provide constructive critique on the technical aspects of this photograph.

This picture is #66 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

#65 Matt, a photo by haggisandchips on Flickr.

Via Flickr:

As often happens whilst walking along Newcastle’s Northumberland Street I was approached by one of the charity workers. On this occasion it was for Marie Curie and I gave my usual spiel that I contribute every month and that normally concludes the meeting other than a “Thank you” from the volunteer but on this occasion Matt started chatting so I stopped and talked for a bit.

After a while I decided that Matt would be a good stranger so I asked if I could take his photograph and paused for a few seconds enjoying the rather shocked expression before I explained why – to which he readily agreed.

I chatted a bit more and learned that Matt has only just started collecting for Marie Curie and has only been in the area for 3 weeks. He used to live in London with his girlfriend but got evicted when his landlord decided he wanted the flat back and gave them a somewhat unceremonious ultimatum to get out and take their stuff with them or lose it. So they moved up to the North East as his girlfriend is from Durham.

This also brings him closer to his football team, Newcastle United, and as a Toon supporter myself I can’t resist mentioning that the first live game he attended was last season’s 5-1 thrashing of local rivals Sunderland – it doesn’t get much better than that (although 5-0 would have been nice). He has also watched them play Manchester United and if that was this season’s 3-0 thrashing of the Premiership Champions then I would highly recommend that the club sends him a season ticket for life.

Matt has obviously done a fair amount of charity collecting and is quite accustomed to marching up to strangers and talking to them and after the first time of being told to **** off he can shrug it off quite easily – something we would perhaps all like to be able to do but it’s not that easy (not that I’ve ever received a rebuke as offensive as that). Not so easy to shrug off though … he has been assaulted 3 times so all credit to his continued dedication.

Matt used to be a teacher in a couple of subjects but the conversation veered away from this and much as I would have liked to return to it and learn a bit more I didn’t get the chance.

Sometime in the middle of all this I stepped back and took a couple of straightforward shots – no flash, no difficult light and nice tight framing to keep the background out of it and I was instantly happy with the shots which is good as 3 of my last 4 strangers have involved a degree of bungling.

Matt, thanks very much for taking part in my project – that hospice I mentioned was St Benedict’s not St Mary’s … goodness knows why I had such a mind block – I knew it wasn’t the right name but I couldn’t for the life of me dredge up the correct one!
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Please feel free to provide constructive critique on the technical aspects of this photograph.

This picture is #65 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

#64 Liah, a photo by haggisandchips on Flickr.

Via Flickr:

I first spotted Liah and the man she was with walking in the opposite direction to me but I didn’t immediately run after her because I am not keen on interrupting couples when it’s only one of them that I want to photograph. Nonetheless, after a bit I decided to ask her so I strode off after them. En route I had a chuckle to myself as they walked past a pub and 3 smokers stood outside turned and stared and then another two appeared from nowhere and stared after her as well … at least I’m assuming it was Liah that they were staring at ;). I’m sure she gets that all the time.

Another "thing" that happened en route though is that I decided that they were working – they stopped twice with the man pointing at the buildings around them. The second of these two occasions I walked past not wanting to impose but after a few more seconds deliberation I decided nothing ventured, nothing gained – they could only say "No, we’re busy". So I walked up – apologised to the man for intruding and asked Liah if I could take her photo – to my surprise the man took this opportunity to say "Not of me you won’t, I’m just going", said goodbye to Liah and left!!! Not quite what I had expected.

I explained about the project and Liah was more than happy to be involved. It turns out that Liah was about to go for a job interview and her other half was simply dropping her off as he knows the area and she doesn’t. A quick check with her about times as I didn’t want her to be rushing in as a result but we were fine so I hope that I proved a welcome distraction so she could forget the nerves for a few minutes at least.

Liah is from Manchester originally but has lived in Spain for the last 5 years but was involved in a very bad car crash last year and in her words, "Spain lost a friend" and she is now looking to come back to the UK to be with her partner who lives in Newcastle. When she was in Spain she lived in Benidorm and Cartagena and the second of those two rang a bell with me in a "I know that place" sort of way (as opposed to knowing of Benidorm) and it turns out that she used to live within 20 miles or so of my in-laws.

I should add that Liah has a very strong Manchester accent and there was a fair while that I was confused as I thought she had said that she was from Spain but she neither looked nor sounded Spanish – I caught up eventually though. I was also confused when she said that she had been a pole dancer for 32 years – not bad for a 24 year old. Did I mention that she used to be a pole dancer? Well she was, for 2 years and she loved it. Now you might understand why the smokers were falling out of the pub staring – Liah has very long legs!

I had more trouble with flash again – having asked Liah to move into the low sunshine I failed to notice that my shutter speed was too fast so I had several attempts before I got a properly exposed shot with the flash but ultimately I went with one of the natural light shots as the low sun had produced some catchlights anyway. I also took a couple of full length shots but the background was awful with all the traffic so I gave up on that and felt that I’d already taken enough shots.

Perhaps I should have made more of this opportunity – with Liah being an ex-performer and used to lots of attention maybe I should have persevered to get the full length portrait but I generally start to feel a bit uncomfortable myself once I’ve bungled things a bit too often.

So with that I wished her good luck with her interview and said goodbye.

Liah, thanks very much for getting involved with my project today – I hope the interview went well. If you get the job then I can highly recommend Tony & Frankie’s for a lunchtime sandwich and maybe I’ll see you in there to say "Hi" some day.
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Please feel free to provide constructive critique on the technical aspects of this photograph.

This picture is #64 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

#63 Dave, a photo by haggisandchips on Flickr.

Via Flickr:

When I spotted Dave I had no hesitation crossing the road and chasing after him – he had earphones on at the time so I failed to catch his attention for a few seconds (not helped by the fact he happened to look in the completely opposite direction just as I caught up with him) but once I had attracted his attention he took one of the earphones out and listened to my spiel before agreeing – and smiled when I pointed out that I couldn’t possibly pass up the opportunity to photograph the monkey hat!

Dave was carrying what I thought was a violin case but just as I was about to start talking about it I realised that it was too small to be a violin. It turns out that it was a ukulele and Dave is a singer/song writer – I asked what kind of music he played and he replied that it was a difficult question to answer and handed me a badge with his website address (www.davejgiles.co.uk/) as way of an answer. On his website he describes his style as acoustic folk rock. I had a listen to a few songs but I’m going to mention Bangarang as the one that stuck out – it’s a really cool happy song … and it features the ukulele so it’s the perfect song to mention here.

I took a couple of shots without flash then tried using flash and rather embarrassingly Dave pointed out to me that it wasn’t firing … so I switched it on and tried again … Doh! Dave seemed happy enough to be involved but didn’t give the impression that he wanted to stop and chat for hours so I thanked him for his time and said goodbye once I had a shot that I was happy with.

Thanks very much for taking part today Dave – I love that hat and "I don’t ever want to grow up" either ;).
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Please feel free to provide constructive critique on the technical aspects of this photograph.

This picture is #63 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

#62 Lee, a photo by haggisandchips on Flickr.

Via Flickr:

Lee has been on the streets for around 10 weeks now and spent Christmas Day on his own on the street …

I was walking around the Haymarket area of Newcastle when I walked past Lee who was sitting huddled in an alcove outside the Metro station.

Lee: Excuse me, do you have any change?
Me: No sorry!
Lee: OK, have a nice day.

I didn’t stop throughout this exchange but when I got around the corner I stopped and thought about the brief scene that had just played out. Now I must confess that "100 Strangers" was in my thoughts from pretty much this point forward but I did give some thought to what I was about to do in order to do it as compassionately as I could. Whether I managed or came across as patronising or exploitative I don’t know, but I hope not.

I walked back and approached Lee, crouched down and explained that I was sorry and that actually I did have some change and that I could spare it. I offered to buy him a drink at which point Lee explained that what he really needed was another £3 to make up the £18 he needs to stay in the Backpackers hostel near Central Station. So I dug out £3 handed it to him and then asked again if he would like a drink, which he accepted. We started walking towards Starbucks and at that point I explained that this might smack of exploitation a bit but I would like to take his photograph and talk to him for a project that I was doing. I explained very clearly that my buying him a drink was in no way dependent on his answer. Lee seemed quite open to the idea and I left it at that – I had already resolved to spend a while talking to Lee if he was willing and having broached the subject of the project up front I was happy to leave it and possibly even not return to it. I just didn’t want to spend time with Lee then surprise him at the end with the request.

I bought a coffee for me and a tea for Lee (he hates coffee) and we sat outside and chatted for quite a long time …

Lee was living with friends when they were burgled and in his words his mates took advantage – I never found out exactly what he meant by that but the upshot is that he went to live with his sister for a bit but when he came home he was met by a pile of letters from the courts and a repossession order had already been passed. He came home one day not long after to find the locks changed – and that was it, Lee was now homeless! As far as I can gather he was under the impression that the rent was being paid but it wasn’t – so my best guess is that the flat was in his name and he thought his friends were paying the rent as they were still living there – but they weren’t. So Lee lost everything and he now has 2 changes of clothes to his name and has only had a roof over his head twice in the last 10 weeks. He mentions that his friends have offered him a bed but he doesn’t like to intrude and quickly feels that he has outstayed his welcome and on the whole he appeared to lack any confidence.

Lee’s upbringing was "normal" but he got in with the wrong crowd and many years ago he had problems with drugs and ended up in jail (I don’t know if that was drug related or not) and his parents disowned him. With no home or address (I don’t think his sister lives locally) and nowhere to go this leaves Lee outside the system, unable to claim benefits, unable to get a job and therefore unable to pay for a roof over his head, but he does say that he is starting to think about accepting his friends’ help and if nothing else having a "care of" address could make all the difference to him and get him back into the system. Lee has an NVQ of some sort and had an apprenticeship as a painter/decorator so perhaps all he needs is a little help to get started again.

I quite bluntly asked Lee what his darkest hour was but regretted it when he recounted the day he took a drug overdose and "died" before being resuscitated. Lee got visibly upset at this point and I decided that my probing had stepped over the line so I recounted a story of my own regarding the fragility of life and we sat quietly for a bit before Lee asked "so what about this project of yours then?". So I explained a bit more about the purpose of the project and dug out my phone to let him have a flick around my strangers to date.

We chatted a bit more then a couple of lads that he knew walked past and he asked them to hold on and he would walk down with them – they didn’t wait though and Lee seemed keen to chase after them. Lee was the one that mentioned his photo at this point and I checked with him that he was sure and then as quickly as I could dug out my camera, slotted the flash on, pointed it upwards with the bounce card out (there was no surface to bounce the flash off) and took a single shot. At this point he stood up shook my hand and said that he hoped the photo came out and I wished him all the best for the future.

I have left a few details out deliberately and a few loose ends exist in my head as the conversation moved on quite quickly at times but the one comment that I vividly remember is Lee stating that “Newcastle has a very dark side”.

I sincerely hope that life takes a turn for the better for Lee – he came across as genuine and whilst his history obviously involves some wrong turns he doesn’t deserve to be where he is now – at least not the Lee that I met anyway.
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Please feel free to provide constructive critique on the technical aspects of this photograph.

This picture is #62 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

#61 Joseph, a photo by haggisandchips on Flickr.

Via Flickr:

Today was a day of contrasts! My first “Stranger” was well within my comfort zone and the second (#62 Lee) well outside it. My first has the world at his feet and my second has recently seen his world well and truly fall apart.

My previous stranger was back in November so this is by far the longest absence I have had since I started this project and to be honest I’ve found it difficult to get started again … Monday brought a load of silly excuses, Tuesday the same although I finally did pluck the courage up but then got rejected! Today though after a few more excuses I finally spotted Joseph and was spurred into action. One cheeky grin and a positive response later and my project is in full swing again.

Originally hailing from London, Joseph is a 1st year Maths student at Newcastle University, he chose this particular degree largely because he enjoys the subject and is not yet sure what he wants to do once he graduates – pointing out that it is still a long way to go. Teaching seemed to be top of the list at the moment and he has no interest in going into Finance unlike most of his coursemates.

Although it was mostly his degree that brought Joseph to Newcastle he told me that he also plays the fiddle and Newcastle has a particularly lively folk scene which was an added attraction. If you’re really quick then you will be able to catch him playing at the Cumberland Arms in Byker tonight.

Feeling on a roll I traipsed out my favourite “What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?” question … well, apparently at the peak of his teenage angst years he told his parents he was going away and wouldn’t be back for “a while”. He then travelled to his mate’s house in Derby and just started walking – sounds a bit “Forest Gump” now as I write this! He stayed in youth hostels along the way before finally ending up in Birmingham (about 40 miles way) after dodging across the multiple lanes of Spaghetti Junction in the dark. If I understood correctly he was following the motorways as the most obvious way to navigate. That’s fairly crazy in my opinion ;).

I used flash again as the light was fairly dim, bouncing it off the window of Fenwicks, but the first couple were overexposed so I dialled in -1.7EV and was pretty happy with the results that gave so took another 4 shots mixing it up a bit although when I asked Joseph to turn away slightly but maintain eye contact I stupidly kept focusing on the same eye which was now the “back” eye. My focus was spot on and that left the leading eye a bit soft – quite ironic really when it’s normally my actual focusing that is the problem … Stupid, Stupid, Stupid!!! As a result this photo is one of the over-exposed shots – rescued in Photoshop.

Thanks very much for taking part in my project Joseph, I liked your general bemusement throughout and I think it helped to get a nice cheery portrait. Hope you enjoy your gig tonight and good luck with your studies and the future.
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Please feel free to provide constructive critique on the technical aspects of this photograph.

This picture is #61 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