Walking at Old Portsmouth on an impromptu outing with Ray, my eye was drawn to a lady, beautiful in pink, and her partner coming out of Spice Island Inn. As we drew closer he made a comment about the rain just stopping which led to us passing the time of day. I soon asked this lady in pink if she would let me take her photo.
She did look a little surprised but agreed, saying, as folk are wont to do, that she did not 'make a good photo'. Introductions exchanged with Hannah and Phil, I explained my strangers' portrait project and took some shots. What was in Anna's glass? Pink gin with raspberry and orange soda, she explained. Hannah told me she has lived all her life in Portsmouth, has five children and works at a nursery with little children from the age of 18 months. I can imagine how lovely she is with them.
Phil said he likes photography and asked me my opinion about photos on his phone which he had just taken of the Spinnaker. I thought they were great and suggested maybe cropping out the rubbish bin by the fence. Whereupon he showed me the next photo in which he had done just that.
Feeling confident enough by then that Anna would not mind me asking about her hair I wondered if she coloured it herself. She told me that Phil's daughter, Charlotte, who is a hairdresser, colours it for her and that it had been blonde before the current pink and no doubt would soon be another colour. I asked Phil about his work and he told us that he is with an insurance company, as it happens also Ray's line of work for 37 years before he retired.
A juvenile seagull, speckledy brown and plump-looking, suddenly alighted near Hannah's shopping bag which she had put down and was showing a bit too much interest in the contents. Phil 'shooed' it off and I said I would have taken its photo first.... Hanna told us that inside was a special bottle of whisky, 'orange whisky' I believe she said, a gift for her father's birthday.
Rain was quietly falling again as I offered to take a portrait of Hannah and Phil together and also send to them. Hannah put her email address into Ray's phone; I thanked her for being in my project and we said our goodbyes.
https://flic.kr/p/2nVGdnM
