Brian challenged me to "take a black and white portrait of a street character. Try to tell a story." Good challenge. I'm not shy about talking to strangers. I'm VERY shy about asking to take a photo of them. Friday evening I dropped off a library book and decided to go a few more blocks over to the downtown blocks on Poyntz Ave and see if I could find someone to photograph and the courage to approach them. Well, downtown was not very lively since the high that day had been 105 F and most sensible people were spending as little time outdoors as possible. But this man was picking up trash along the sidewalk outside AJ's Pizza. So I crossed the street and asked if he worked for the pizza place, or the city? He said just the downtown area. I think he may work for the downtown council. We talked a bit about the weather and I explained my 365 challenge. He kindly agreed to my taking his photograph. It's Confession -- I forgot that I was supposed to be shooting in black and white. It wasn't until I was about to upload this and the other portrait I took that night that I remembered that. So I took both to ribbet.com and desaturated them both and adjusted exposure.
Thanks, Cindy! If I hadn't been so nervous I might have noticed the shadow falling over him and gotten him so he wasn't looking into the evening sun. Ah, well. He did have a nice smile. Nice guy.
