Long time readers of my blog will remember that back in October 2009 I took part in a take one photo a day for the whole of October challenge. With me being me, I decided to make it even more challenging and took a portrait of a stranger a day.
My friend Julian organised the challenge in 2009 and he ran it again in 2010. I missed it last year but I was determined to not miss it again this year. As with 2009, photographers taking part don’t have to take photos according to any particular theme. But I enjoyed taking photos of strangers so much 2 years ago that I decided to repeat this is 2011.
A number of my friends in internet-land and in real-life are joining me this year so it will be fun to see what they all come up with. One of my friends in real-life joining me is Dave and we went on another photowalk today so that we could both get some shots for Day 1 of our challenge. Dave took a variety of photos while I just stuck to taking portraits of strangers.
As with my October 2009 challenge I decided to take photos of more than 1 person so that I had plenty to choose from for my actual entry. Usually last time I would take photos of three or people on each day. But today I went a bit crazy and took photos of 22 different strangers! And if everyone I asked had said yes it would have been more like 35!
After a lot of deliberation I chose this photo as my entry for today. It is of a lovely old man who I saw walking towards me slowly in Endcliffe Park. He was very keen to have me take his portrait taken and he was even keener to show me on his digital camera a photo of a drawing of him by a young artist (plus a portrait of said artist!)
The rest of the photos that I took are below, some of which I think are equally as good as the one I entered. It was a really difficult choice as to which one to enter – but the old man was such a character that it just had to be him. Tomorrow I think I will only take one photo as it will make choosing so much easier!
The first two were taken in the Winter Gardens while I waited for Dave to arrive:
I went out into the Peace Gardens and snapped the next few:
The next two cost me a £2 donation to The Red Cross as these guys were students raising money:
Dave and I then headed off round town and I snapped these few:
This guy reminded me of Marouane Fellaini, the Everton footballer…
We then ran in to a lovely couple down from the north-east for a day trip. He was a fellow Canon shooter – he was a 40D man – and he was extremely interested in what we were doing. He was only too keen to be one of my strangers but his wife took a bit more persuading!
This next stranger I spotted as he walked past me on the other side of the road. As soon as I saw him I knew I had to chase after him and ask him – what a ‘tache! And thankfully he said yes:
This next photo cost me another £2. Worth it again I think:
This guy reminded me of a young Michael Jackson before he’d ruined his looks through surgery:
It was getting extremely hot in town so we headed back to my car for some air-con and then headed over to Endcliffe Park. Dave took some photos of waterfalls while I continued on my stranger quest.
I spotted this young couple walking towards us and I knew they would make lovely subjects, especially the girl. And I was right:
This is the last stranger from Endcliffe Park:
We then headed out of the park along a long path through some more woods to find another waterfall for Dave to shoot. The light by now was glorious and I snapped these last three strangers while Dave was playing with long exposures:
So, that is Day 1 over with. Roll on Day 2!
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