100 Strangers : No. 50 : Gwen

I've been holding this shot back in my strangers series because I wanted a striking image to mark the half way point of my 100 strangers series.

I think this study of the elegant Gwen provides that striking image.

I met Gwen at the Nottingham Green Festival last month. The festival held at Nottingham Arboretum Park provided an eclectic mix of public information stalls , political awareness stalls, green stalls, bands, performers and people.

Gwen and her friend were on a stall for the "Friends of Nottingham Arboretum", an organisation looking after the welfare of the municipal park, raising public awareness of the park. You could say they are the custodians of it's future.

Gwen has been a "friend of the Arboretum" for about 10 years,

I told Gwen that we were frequent visitors to the park, having watched many of the Summer brass band concerts held in the Victorian Bandstand.

I told Gwen we thought the park was beautiful. Gwen asked me if I had seen the Dahlia display by the top wall. I told her I had admired it last time I visited and took quite a few photos of the wonderful blooms.

Gwen told me it was the largest / longest display of Dahlia's in Europe.

Gwen was a willing sitter for my project and posed nicely as I took a few shots

Gwen was sat under a Gazebo and the backdrop to the image was a colourful red and yellow banner. I thought the vibrant colours distracted from Gwen's portrait so went for a mono conversion.

I usually process my files in Rawtherapee, but I was having a little bit of difficulty with some Raw noise on the purple of Gwen's blouse, so opted instead to use Darktable, which is another excellent Open source editor. Darktable seemed to handle the noise better and I used the mono colour filter grid to complete the conversion. Eagle eyes among your might see a little vignette, which I added in Darktable too, oh and I cloned a little creature off the top of Gwen's hair in the GIMP editor.

Gwen handed me a leaflet for the "friends of the Arboretum" and I thanked her for the photo.

I am sure you will all agree, Gwen makes a great number 50 in my project.

Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at the 100 Strangers Flickr Group page

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

[Maggiemae]

It looks perfect and entirely natural (after reading all that you had to do to it to get it to look like this)! Her hair is beautifully done!

[Phil Howcroft]

@maggiemae thanks maggie, i am really pleased with this shot. Gwen's hair is indeed lovely

[Loopy-Lou]

Beautiful portrait, Congratulations on your half milestone, one day I will do this but must improve my photography skills first and how too you remember all the info? Your portoirt shots are always so interesting.

[Deni]

Superb portrait.

[Phil Howcroft]

@bizziebeeme Laura, your photography skills are already up to doing portraits / strangers. The camera does all the work, all you need to do is ensure the focus is on the eyes :)

@denidouble thank you for the kind comment deni :)

[Dixie Goode]

This is a wonderful story and portrait. Congratulations on the fiftieth.

[Loopy-Lou]

@phil_howcroft Thanks Phil, but how do you remember all the details, do you note it down at all or do you just have an excellent memory :-)

[Phil Howcroft]

@bizziebeeme lou, i have an excellent memory :) . i know another photographer in Nottingham who is doing the 100 strangers series and he makes notes :) In fact when I read other peoples stranger project on flickr several of them make notes :)

[Phil Howcroft]

@pandorasecho dixie thank you very much, It has took me 13 moths to get to 50 !!!

[Allison Williams]

Elegant is definitely the proper description. She embodies all the qualities of a lady. Well done, Phil!

[Phil Howcroft]

@allie912 thanks allison, that is very kind of you to say so. I really like this shot and took lots of care doing various edits before i posted :)

[Dixie Goode]

@phil_howcroft when you finish they would make a wonderful book, but I suppose that means you needed model releases all along? In any case, I find them fascinating

[colinbarber013]

Another great portrait Phil

[Judith Johnson]

What a grand lady and what a superb capture.

[Dione Giorgio]

Fav for me. A perfect portrait, Phil.

[Lee]

A very friendly looking face she has.

[Hazel]

A great halfway shot, Phil. I counted 7 b&w portraits in my strangers' projects. It's given me the idea that when I finish, I might start again taking portraits and converting them all to b&w - the sitters could receive the colour version!

[Phil Howcroft]

@maggiemae @bizziebeeme @denidouble @bizziebeeme @quietpurplehaze @gamelee @sangwann @busylady @colinbarber013 @pandorasecho @allie912 @bizziebeeme

I met Gwen at the weekend at an event at the arboretum park. The city council were putting on a Christmas in the park event . It started at 4pm. The trees were floodlit with colourful lights. Music on the bandstand. Community carol singing. Arts and crafts. Gwen was once again on the "friends of the arboretum stall" offering non alcoholic mulled wine and mince pies to the public.
I showed Gwen her picture on my phone and shared some of your comments with her. she really liked it.... "not bad for someone who is 90 next year " . I hadn't realised gwen was that old , she certainly looked well and it was great to see her taking part in a community event.
It is nice when you meet up with a stranger again 😀

[Hazel]

@phil_howcroft

It's very positive to see Gwen looking so good at 90. I think she has that spirit that my dearj Auntie Betty had.