100 Strangers : Round 3 : No. 258 : Lewis and Bill
I was walking Ruby (my little whippet) at the Duck Park today, photographing umbellifers on the old railway cutting at the back of the park. After I’d photographed a few, I made my way up to the skate park that sits at the top of the old cutting. I saw two skater boys, Lewis and Bill, sat on the wall beside the park.
I decided there was a potential good shot for my strangers project, so I went across to the two skater boys and started chatting to them. I asked them if they were going to skate today.
“We are just chilling out, looking cool and posing” said Bill
“Ahh right, is it a good skate park” I asked
“Yes it is pretty good, it’s very popular”
“I can’t see any helmets, do you wear them”
“No not yet”
“What about Knee and arm pads”
“If the banks were steeper we might wear them”
“What about broken limbs, have either of you done that”
Lewis had broken his hand and Bill had been injury free so far (Bill found some wood to touch in superstition, Lewis’s skateboard !!)
At that point I introduced the idea of taking their photo for my 100 strangers project… “While you are sitting there looking cool and posing, you would make great strangers for me to photograph).
As you can see the boys said “Yes” to my request.
They both put their baseball hats on for the shoot.
“Are they special skater hats, to match your outfits”? I asked
They are reclaimed clothing, mine is a corduroy, it looks cool” said Bill
I shot a few images and asked the lads if they could raise the brim of their baseball hats as they can cast shadows on their faces. At that point both Both Lewis and Bob put them on back to front !
While shooting I learnt that Bill is a student, studying event management / production and Lewis works, although Lewis joked “Skating is my job”
I couldn’t find a contact card in my bag, so Lewis sent me an email with both their email addresses on. Bill’s included the text “Charlie George”. “Did you know he was a footballer” I said
“Yes” said Bill, “I was named after him”
“He scored an iconic goal in a cup final”
“Yes I know, said Bill, “My Dad was at the Cup final that day in 1971”
That’s about it for the story, I thanked Lewis and Bill for their time and I went on my way with Ruby.
Shot on my Sony RX100 VII, edited it GIMP, shot while maintaining social distancing.
Skaters are some of the friendliest people I've met when I've gone downtown to take pictures. Several years ago, a group of them (mixed gals and guys) at Dayton's Riverscape Metropark were having a blast doing their tricks on a stretch of the Riverwalk, and let me take photos for over an hour before they (and I) were exhausted but happy. I will need to dig through my files and find those shots...
Skaters are some of the friendliest people I've met when I've gone downtown to take pictures. Several years ago, a group of them (mixed gals and guys) at Dayton's Riverscape Metropark were having a blast doing their tricks on a stretch of the Riverwalk, and let me take photos for over an hour before they (and I) were exhausted but happy. I will need to dig through my files and find those shots...