After successfully capturing my first Mallorcan stranger portrait of strangers 84, Cristina and Esther on our morning trip to Cala Ratjada, I was feeling quite confident in my "strangerdar".
It was raining hard at lunchtime, but after the rain stopped we went a walk through the boardwalks in the dunes and up into the hills surrounding the playa at Cala Mesquida. On the way back we walked along the beach, which was very quite given the lunchtime rain.
"I'm going to ask one of the lifeguards for a photo", I told my wife.
"You are wasting your time, they will say no. They saud no in Fuerteventura last year"
"Well I can try"
"Well let me get out of the way, I will walk back to the hotel"
"Just wait for me at the top of the steps"
So I approached the Lifeguard team , the "socorrista". I walked up to two of the socorrista's sat on the beach.
I pointed at my camera and asked if it was OK to take their pictures. I tried to explain I was an amateur photographer rather than a professional.
Serge, nodded and gave me quite a nice glance. In most of the shots he is looking onto the playa rather than me. I assume they are always in duty and shouldn't really engage with the public.
Serge has been a socorrista on Cala Mesquida beach for two years. His colleague who was with him quickly disappeared as I was taking Serge's pictures . I shook Serge's hand and thanked him for the photos. His name may have been Sergie or Sergio, but it did sound like Serge the way he pronounced it. I was lucky that it was a cloudy day as the team always seemed to have sunglasses on when I saw them.
i did see his colleague in action the next day as he had to warn a family and their children not to climb on the rocks (they were taking two little children across the jagged rocks).
I walked over to my wife and showed her the pictures on my camera.
"Look they are crackers" I said with a smile as big as Serge's
I was tempted to do a mono shot of Serge, but I think the bright T-Shirt helps tell the story.
This picture is number 85 in my 100 strangers project. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at the 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
@gamelee thanks lee :)
@quietpurplehaze thanks haze. ETA for finish is still September 2016
You are going backwards?!!
Time flies - even backwards!!
I can't quite put my finger on what you've done to achive it - angle probably - but there's that 'eyes following you round the room' effect to this - full of life.