Meet Pablo and Manuel from the catering team at the Vanity Hotel Suite, Cala Mesquida, Mallorca.
I didn't know whether to post this in my strangers project because I was worried about the bright sunny background, but the smiles of both Pablo and Manuel clinched the deal, so here is my stranger number 87 submission.
I took this picture on the Gala Evening at the hotel. A fabulous event where the restaurant was moved poolside (see previous stranger shot for full details).
Pablo and Manual were serving food. Well I think you can guess that from their uniforms !
Pablo is the head chef and the hotel and Manuel tended to work on the show cooking section of the restaurant.
Pablo has been a head chef for more than seven years, although this was his first year at our beautiful hotel. Prior to moving to the hotel Pablo had been head chef in a hotel in Cala Ratjada. In fact Pablo lives in Cala Ratjada, which it is only a 10 minute drive to Cala Masquida.
I told them that they both worked hard and should be proud of the service they provide.
Pablo said he really enjoyed working in Cala Mesquida as it was a beautiful location and was set in a lovely natural environment.
I asked if I could post the picture onto social media and my project.
"The picture is yours, you must do whatever you wish with it" was Pablo's answer
As previously mentioned the image was a difficult one to edit. I usually edit my photos using the RAW file in Darktable , but this shot I edited the jpeg in GIMP.
There is a really nice filter in GIMP called "National Geographic" which does lots of faffing about and seems to cope well with bright backgrounds. So I used National Geographic and then converted to mono and made minor tweaks to brightness and contrast
Thanks Pablo and Manuel, not only for the photo, but also for your help in making the Gala night a great success.
This picture is number 87 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
https://www.flickr.com/groups/100strangers/
My own strangers can be seen here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/57144254@N08/albums/72157657822400168
They look very happy - and quite animated considering how hard they must have been working!