100 Strangers : Round 2 : No. 166 : Rick

My second stranger from last weekends Vaisakhi Celebrations and Nagar Kirtan Procession in Nottingham.

Vaisakhi is a long established harvest festival in the Punjab.As the procession made it's way up and down Mansfield Road into the city it stopped outside a big temple. People were giving out food and drink to the procession members.

Rick gave me a bottle of water and I thanked him for the gift. We started talking and I asked him if I could photograph him for my project. He said yes and I asked him to move over to a wall where there was no distracting backgrounds.

I took a few pics of Rick and decided that mono was a great way to present his portrait. If you look carefully there are two types of brickwork in the image and it was quite a pronounced colour shift between old and new bricks , so I thought mono would work best.

As the procession stopped outside the temple it was really noisy. There was music, drumming ,chanting and prayer , so when I asked Rick what his name was he had to talk quite loudly for me to hear. I did google Indian male names and Rick / Ricky is correct, and means "ruler"

I gave Rick a card and he said it was OK for me to post the image online.

Thanks for being stranger 166 Rick , I hope you had a great day last Sunday.

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

[FBailey]

You have such interesting strangers Phil! So well thought out, even down to the backgrounds ...

[Phil Howcroft]

@fbailey thanks felicity, much appreciated, the Vaisakhi Celebrations was a great opportunity to add some strangers to my project :)

[Brigette]

I am quietly fascinated by this project. Respectful and quite lovely image

[KWind]

I love his beard! Great portrait!

[Allison Williams]

Very striking.

[Maggiemae]

Wow! He's a striking stranger!

[*lynn]

Your stranger portraits are always very well done.

[Christopher Cox]

great portrait - I really enjoy your strangers

[Dione Giorgio]

Love the white beard even if I have never ever grown even a moustache. It suits him well. Does he have a mouth, haha? Great portrait shot and it looks great in b & w.

[Beryl Lloyd]

Great portrait - but how does he find his mouth to eat ?

[Casablanca]

That is the most amazing beard!

[Ivan]

Elegant image...

[Alison Hewitt Bailey]

It's interesting how the colours of new bricks can look like they almost match older ones - until they're in situ and then the difference sticks out like a sore thumb! Using b&w has minimised the problem so that it doesn't distract the eye.
The light and the b&w bring out the form of Rick's turban well too. Nice one.

[Phil Howcroft]

@dulciknit thanks alison , I realised after I posted this that my previous photo is me up against a brick wall !!! I think I quite like brick walls as backdrops :) . Thanks for your considered and respectful words :)

[Phil Howcroft]

@casablanca @ivan @beryl @sangwann @christophercox @lynnz @maggiemae @allie912 @kwind @brigette thanks everyone for your kind words, Ricky appeared to be well known by everyone at the parade, he was a nice gentleman to meet and photograph

[Helen Jane]

Thanks for your detailed explanation - I wouldn't have noticed the different bricks unless you pointed them out, but for sure they would have shown up in colour. I lovely description of your stranger encounter - as always.

[Lee]

A good shot, and what a great beard the gentleman has.

[Phil Howcroft]

@helenhall thank you helen for your lovely words

@gamelee thanks lee, it was a lovely photo to create