And Then There Was Alastair

Took a bath today, and thought the bubbles and splashes looked cool. The white background and short exposure proved to be a bit of a problem, and didn’t get anything close to what I wanted. However I quite like the way that the auto correct “I’m Feeling Lucky” in Picasa has made this look.

Twitter | Blog | Facebook

Sadly my lens was a little damp and steamed up when I took this, thus the diffusion of the light at the top and the slightly soft focus. So this isn’t the portrait that it could have been. Taken on a bus, there wasn’t much I could do. I should have tried standing and taking it from the aisle, then I wouldn’t have been shooting against the light. Live and learn, and this goes to having the confidence to moving and taking a few photos of the person in question without annoying them or over extending the permission.

I met Oscar in the village shop in Thornton Hough after interviewing the office manager of a local private Dentist practice. I was sheltering from the rain, waiting for the bus to come. He walked in and bought a coffee.

We got talking at the bus stop and described what It was that I was doing and had a chat about how he got into delivering cars for a living. Apparently he used to be in information collection and aggregation before the internet became predominant, and lost his interest in it after that, so did a string of jobs after that, most recent of which is delivering cars, and was on his way back from such a job.

The day was too wet for me to take photos in the area, which is really disappointing because it’s really beautiful. Maybe I’ll be able to go back on a better day soon and take some good ones.

This picture is #019 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

Twitter | Blog | Facebook

Today saw me going to my real assessment and introductory meeting with the Job Centre Advisor. A lot more useful than I’ve ever really found the Job Centre before. She booked me onto a Reed job searching and CV writing course for professionals on Tuesday, with a one-to-one session on Wednesday. She also advised that I continue doing what it was I was doing, and that I might consider TEFL /TESOL teaching in the UK as well as the other things that I was up to. A large improvement from the “I’m sorry there’s nothing I can do for you” which I’ve had in previous visits.

This sign was outside the Weatherspoon’s in Liscard (opens at some ungodly hour and I’ve seen people drinking pints there at 9AM). It was behind a parked car and completely obscured from traffic. I have no idea why they need a sign like this, I suppose it is water works and they might need to reassure people that the shops aren’t closed due to this. Such is the way that UK legislation works.

Twitter | Blog | Facebook

I got talking to Karl and his 2 mates at the bus stop after they asked me how much my camera was worth. Given the area I thought this was a prelude to them nicking my camera, but they were nice enough.

Karl wanted me to advertise the poor service of the Mersey Travel buses, and to take a picture of him to further the cause, saying that he hoped I could get it into the Liverpool Echo and maybe even on the front page. Much hilarity was had at this.

I posted this picture on RenRen (Chinese version of Facebook) and one of my old students said that he was “Hot” because he was bald. I’m not sure that I really understand Chinese attractions, but I think she was seeing the similarity between him and the main character in Prison Break who is a very popular male figure in China.

Composition and lighting in this photo I think are good. Background and bus stop give a taste of the environment and adds to it. All in all not bad.

This picture is #018 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

Twitter | Blog | Facebook

Attended a network marketing event this evening in the very lovely Layland hotel. Saw this bust on the way out and thought it looked interesting. There are a few others that have more photographic merit, but this is probably the most interesting subject I took, and represents the day better. Feel it’s like portrait in my 100 strangers project.

Twitter | Blog | Facebook

Postman going about his business. Asked for a photo, explaining what it was about, he said yes.

This portrait is too cluttered to be a good portrait, and in retrospect having the Royal Mail van in the picture might have been a good idea. I like the inclusion of the postbox and the fact that he isn’t square on to me. Night pictures don’t generally work out for me, because I either can’t hold it still enough to get enough light, or the subject I’m trying to get moves, so I’m happy that this turned out the way it did.

I had to straighten and crop the photo to simplify the subject and composition.

This picture is #017 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

Twitter | Blog | Facebook

Having fostered a bit of a friendship on Flickr after discovering each others photos on the Wirral photographers groups, we swapped numbers. I got a text from him saying that he’d just purchased some lenses from Cash Converters, we discovered we happened to be in Liscard at the same time and met up in the local Subway.

We ended up chatting for a couple of hours about photography, and thought we’d take a portrait of each other for the 100 Strangers project. A few of my photos were of him using his DSLR, which felt really weird as it’s a familiar, almost clichéd, self portrait that most DSLR owners do.

Khufu can be found on flickr here: www.flickr.com/photos/62508524@N07/

This picture is #016 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

Twitter | Blog | Facebook

Another day, another trip to the Job Centre, another useless appointment where no benefit was brought. Such is the machinations of claiming JSA.

Building on a few trips down to New Brighton trying to photograph the seagulls and other flying creatures, I reacted very quickly to this low flying bird and am happy to have been rewarded with quite a nice shot. It makes up for the lots of attempted photos of pigeons I have from Liscard today, where I put into action some advice I received and got lots of “this photo would have been nice if it weren’t for the focus / framing / background” delete as appropriate. A lot of them were very close to being nice, but none of them were good enough for me.

Fine this photo isn’t perfect, the definition on the bird could have been better, and I also had to brighten it up and crop it, but it works. Comments, advice / suggestions welcome.

As part of the path to self discovery I’ve embarked on since the new year, I’ve been interviewing local business people, giving them a good write up and helping market them though a local community website.

Melissa was kind enough to agree to be photographed as part of that and to help me improve my skills. I love the fact that she is happy in herself, and seems to really be into helping people heal. Her energy was intoxicating and I came away from the interview with more energy than I went into it.

While I know this isn’t strictly what 100 strangers is about, I hope it’s understood that this was a stranger who was helping me be better at portraits.

I’m not sure the mirrored image really works as the angle isn’t as flattering as I’d hoped, but it was worth a try. There’s a few others, but this seemed the most worthy.

Melissa can be found through her website fresh-start-health.co.uk/ or her twitter feed twitter.com/FrshStartHealth Interview to come as a link once it’s been written proofed and published.

This picture is #015 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

Twitter | Blog | Facebook

Empowered by the addition of business cards to my arsenal I asked to take a portrait of a man and his dog. The owner didn’t want to be photographed but said I could take a few of his dog. A rare opportunity for me, not owning any pets. I love the clarity and life in the eyes, perked ears and blurred background.

This shot was taken at Birkenhead North Station on the Wirral, on the way back from giving a contact some tech advice, and arranged an NLP session in a couple of weeks with her to see if she could help me with residual issues I’m having over my breakup with my ex-fiancée.

It feels like it’s been a long day as I was up at 5AM this morning to go to a business networking meeting. The cards I got printed up with all different photos of mine on the back worked a treat, with some attention given over choosing which one to keep. Impact and memory inducing ability good, however someone pointed out a spelling mistake later, so in fact I’m an idiot, but for use with the 100 Strangers project it’s fine, and I love the fact that a woman in West Kirby saw me taking photos, asked me what I was doing and took a card saying she’d look me up. Indeed I saw the owner of this dog looking my blog up on his phone while waiting at the station, so pretty successful so far.

Twitter | Blog | Facebook