Haze's strangers: No.96: Seán by quietpurplehaze

Haze's strangers: No.96: Seán

The day started bright and sunny yesterday and I decided to take my camera to the almshouses at St. Cross for a little photoshoot.

As I parked in Five Bridges Road, I noticed two young men get out of a gleaming orange car parked just a bit further up the road, One of them had a camera and a tripod, so naturally I was a bit curious.

While I was gathering together all my stuff, they were setting up the tripod and taking photos of the car. I got out and said hello as I walked up to them.

I'm afraid I was obviously slightly abrupt in my approach (let's put it down to beginning to be a bit excited at nearing my goal of 100 strangers' portraits, but I should really now know better!) because they both turned to me looking a bit startled.

Once we had established that I was not going to complain about where they had parked the car, or indeed, complain about anything, they were both quite happy to agree to have their photo taken.

Today I'm posting my shot of Seán and tomorrow I shall post his friend, Sam's portrait.

I asked Seán if he would stand just in front of the trees lining the edge of the road and checked there was no large blown-out area of light in the portrait and took a couple of pics. I was pleased with both photos but preferred this one. The b&w conversion suggested itself to me later.

I showed the shots to Seán on the camera screen and he said, 'That's a good camera." He expressed an interest in seeing my other portraits so I explained to use 'haze's strangers' under tags to the right of the 365 entry of his portrait.

It was a cold morning so I am grateful that Seán was willing to spend time to give me some information to accompany his portrait.

The orange car was a Citroen C3, in his possession for the week as he was reviewing it for his website which he is developing. A car is delivered straight to him from the manufacturer to review. He lives and works locally but has recently been to Spain and to Ireland to review cars.

I quote from Seán's website http://newmotoring.com/ "I love cars, love writing, love photography." He explained the concept of his website to me as an online motoring magazine, his aim being to attract advertising.

Outside business time, Seán likes playing hockey and is also a keen swimmer.

Seán has a degree in media and film from Winchester University and is especially interested in journalism. He started his enterprise in 2011. I admire his entrepreneurial skills and wish him all the best for the future.
Lovely - he is right, you do have a good camera, but it is your portraiture skills that make all these fabulous 96 images! Couple that with your most interesting commentaries and you've a winner.
February 10th, 2017  
@dide

Dianne, thanks so much for your comment. I guess when I reach 100, I shall not stop!
February 10th, 2017  
Great shot.
February 10th, 2017  
Fabulous portrait of Seán, Hazel! He sounds like a great guy. It's so cool how you meet so many friendly and interesting people with your 'Strangers' series. Love it! And I'm glad you're not stopping at 100.
February 10th, 2017  
He has a lovely smile. What an interesting chap.
February 10th, 2017  
Lovely portrait and love the story you wrote to go with it.
February 10th, 2017  
A lovely portrait, Hazel. He sounds like a very interesting young man :)
February 10th, 2017  
Wonderful portrait shot and story :)
February 10th, 2017  
Great portrait
February 10th, 2017  
Bep
Interesting young man. And a beautiful portrait. Glad to hear that you're going on with your lovely portraits.
February 10th, 2017  
Awesome portrait.
February 10th, 2017  
Thought of you today as I asked a coffee barista to take her photo ... she said no! You're so brave.
February 10th, 2017  
@pennystot

Oh dear! Well I have had about 10% refusals and 96 successes -so don't give up!
February 10th, 2017  
Great portrait lovely monotones and depth of field what an interesting pair of lads you found today loved the narrative very interesting Hazel:)
February 10th, 2017  
Super depth of field ...I so admire you for doing these.
February 10th, 2017  
A great capture of Sean he seems to have a promising future and a winning smile.
February 11th, 2017  
Such a nice portrait, Hazel.
February 11th, 2017  
Wonderful portrait! You have a good eye for capturing personality.
February 11th, 2017  
Great portrait in b&w. I love that you managed to nab two portraits for the price of one :)
February 11th, 2017  
@kazlamont

That's always nice Kazzy. What I am not too keen on is a situation like this where the 'subjects' insist on being photographed together, not because it then makes only one portrait, but because it's so much harder to get a good shot of two people.
February 11th, 2017  
Great portrait
February 11th, 2017  
Super portrait again. I like this one best of the pair. Less distracting background and a better sense of the personality behind the face.
February 12th, 2017  
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