Well the new football season is now well underway after the summer break, so my strangers project will once again include it's share of football related strangers.
Today Bolton Wanderers played host to MK Dons and before the match I managed to capture stranger number 45, David.
David is a steward for the Wanderers and was happy to participate in my project.
David was standing on the concourse outside the ground.
"What's your role as a steward David?"
"Turnstile watching"
"Turnstile Watching? What does that entail?"
"I watch the turnstiles, looking out for rowdiness or people with ticket problems or issues"
"Ahh right"
"So how long do you watch the turnstiles for?"
"I stand here until about 10 minutes after the kick off and then we start closing the turnstiles. I close them from inside the stadium, it is about 3.50 pm before I get to watch the match (the match kicks off at 3.00 pm).
I went on to ask David how long he had been stewarding for. David Told me he had been working for the Wanderers for well over 20 years and used to be a turnstile operator before he was a watcher .
I asked him if he knew Ian Duckworth a friend of mine from back in the day who used to work in the ticket office in the 1990's. David did remember Ian.
At this point I was joined by two of my friends from back in the day (Alan and Jimmy) and they gave me a bit of banter about my 100 strangers series, telling David they were my 'fan club'. We all had a bit of a discussion about how we had seen some rubbish over the years at the old ground (Burnden Park). We also discussed some of the managers over the years, with David telling us a few anecdotes about some of the managers.
David is 75 and lives in Farnworth, Bolton.
I told David I would print a couple of pictures from the meeting and bring them to the next match.
I always find it difficult taking pictures of people in hats as the shadows they cast over the face can be difficult. David's coat was also an issue as the material is slightly high vis and reflected light. As with all my pics I edited this in Rawtherapee and in this case used a Kodak Portra 400 film emulation as it seemed to do a good job on the blues and seemed to lift the colours too.
Oh and as for the football, the game finished 1-1, with the Wanderers remaining on top of the league
This picture is number 45 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
100 Strangers Flickr Group page
https://www.flickr.com/groups/100strangers/
My own strangers can be seen here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/57144254@N08/albums/72157657822400168
@sangwann cheers dione :) Glad you like my commentaries and strangers Dione :) Yes the Wanderers are doing OK albeit we are not playing that well !!
@kerristephens thank you kerri
@happypat thanks Pat, I think we are slowly recovering from almost 6 years of awful football :) About time I think :)
@quietpurplehaze lol.... no recording haze...I just remember the conversations well...although I tend to forget when Jane gives me jobs to do ☺ !!!
I can remember well but not in as much detail as you!!!