I've been holding this shot back in my strangers series because I wanted a striking image to mark the half way point of my 100 strangers series.
I think this study of the elegant Gwen provides that striking image.
I met Gwen at the Nottingham Green Festival last month. The festival held at Nottingham Arboretum Park provided an eclectic mix of public information stalls , political awareness stalls, green stalls, bands, performers and people.
Gwen and her friend were on a stall for the "Friends of Nottingham Arboretum", an organisation looking after the welfare of the municipal park, raising public awareness of the park. You could say they are the custodians of it's future.
Gwen has been a "friend of the Arboretum" for about 10 years,
I told Gwen that we were frequent visitors to the park, having watched many of the Summer brass band concerts held in the Victorian Bandstand.
I told Gwen we thought the park was beautiful. Gwen asked me if I had seen the Dahlia display by the top wall. I told her I had admired it last time I visited and took quite a few photos of the wonderful blooms.
Gwen told me it was the largest / longest display of Dahlia's in Europe.
Gwen was a willing sitter for my project and posed nicely as I took a few shots
Gwen was sat under a Gazebo and the backdrop to the image was a colourful red and yellow banner. I thought the vibrant colours distracted from Gwen's portrait so went for a mono conversion.
I usually process my files in Rawtherapee, but I was having a little bit of difficulty with some Raw noise on the purple of Gwen's blouse, so opted instead to use Darktable, which is another excellent Open source editor. Darktable seemed to handle the noise better and I used the mono colour filter grid to complete the conversion. Eagle eyes among your might see a little vignette, which I added in Darktable too, oh and I cloned a little creature off the top of Gwen's hair in the GIMP editor.
Gwen handed me a leaflet for the "friends of the Arboretum" and I thanked her for the photo.
I am sure you will all agree, Gwen makes a great number 50 in my 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
@denidouble thank you for the kind comment deni :)
I met Gwen at the weekend at an event at the arboretum park. The city council were putting on a Christmas in the park event . It started at 4pm. The trees were floodlit with colourful lights. Music on the bandstand. Community carol singing. Arts and crafts. Gwen was once again on the "friends of the arboretum stall" offering non alcoholic mulled wine and mince pies to the public.
I showed Gwen her picture on my phone and shared some of your comments with her. she really liked it.... "not bad for someone who is 90 next year " . I hadn't realised gwen was that old , she certainly looked well and it was great to see her taking part in a community event.
It is nice when you meet up with a stranger again 😀
It's very positive to see Gwen looking so good at 90. I think she has that spirit that my dearj Auntie Betty had.