100 Strangers Project: Zack
Since I recently joined Flickr to participate in the Strobist assignments, I’d been poking around when I found the 100 Strangers Flickr group. The idea intrigued me; I’d love to be able to take better portraits, and I’m not terribly good at initiating conversations with people I don’t know (or even people I do know), so I thought this would be good practice for me on both counts. I joined, and have started the project - you’ll see my entries as I go through this project. Here’s my first stranger from last Tuesday, with my journal entry under the cut.
26 Feb. 2008 -
I was hanging around the undergrad library and the columns there since it was snowing and I didn’t want to get my camera wet. I’d watched a couple of people walk by, and I kicked myself a little more with every passing stranger (opportunity?). Finally, I got up the courage to ask this man if he had a couple of minutes to help me out. He said sure and readily agreed to let me photograph him. A student here, he’d already finished a degree or two, got a teaching certificate, but he was here finishing up some pre-med classes. I was so nervous I only took two quick shots and ended up underexposing his face relative to the white snowy backgroun. (Thankfully, it was salvagable in photoshop). We had some polite conversation, I gave him my card and thanked him profusely, and we headed our separate ways.
For more information about the 100 strangers project, check out www.100strangers.com or the 100 Strangers Flickr group.