I was quite pleased with my stranger collection from my holidays, but couldn't resist capturing Miguel on the last night of our holiday.
I'd seen Miguel hanging around by the side of the stage in the hotel gardens. He was having a per-entertainment cigarette.
"Shall I ask him to be a stranger" I said to my wife
"I think he looks quite a character. Shall I ask him"
"You better hurry up, he is on stage in a couple of minutes"
So off I went to photograph him. By this time he was stood on the stage.
"Hola, do you speak English"
"Si, a little"
"Ah, muy bien" I say
"I am an amatuer / hobby photographer from England. Can I take your picture"
"Si....Now ... here?"
Can we move towards the pool, the light is better"
The light was pretty poor actually, as it was 9.pm and very murky.
I gesture towards the side.
"What is your name, Me llamo Phil"
My name is Micheal, Miguel in Spanish"
We shake hands and I attempt to tell Miguel about my strangers project. He appeared pretty cool about it, very laid back.
"How long have you been entertaining Miquel"
"Too many years" said Miguel
I take a few image of Miguel, directing him to point in various directions.
I then hear a voice.
"What is gong on hear, we have a show to start"
It was Francesca from the animation team who wanted to introduce Miguel to the guests.
"One minute I said"
"We have to start now sir"
Oh dear consider myself told off !
I shake Miguels hand again and shoot a couple more shots...rebel me !!!
"Sorry Franseca, I was doing a quick photoshoot"
As for Miguel, he was a bit of an all rounder entertainer. He started off playing guitar "a Spanish Carlos Santana" you could say. He then went to sing a few classic Sinatra / Rat Pack songs, before finish off singing in Spanish. My wife thought the Spanish song section was the best part of his set.
I gave Miguel a warm round of applause when he finished. After his set he had to pack all his own speakers and kit away, into his little estate car. I felt a bot sorry for him as the packing away bit isn't the glamour bit of rock and roll
I edited the photo in Rawtherapee as I recently had an automatic update to it. It is quite a grainy noisy shot, but I think that adds a bit of atmosphere to the shot.
So that's the last of my vacation strangers, I have another one, which I don't know whether to post it or not.
Thanks Miguel for your time, Muchas Gracias !
This picture is number 88 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
