On Saturday we went into Nottingham for some shopping and lunch. I went off looking for strangers for an hour before lunch. The city was pretty quite and my usual haunts, Hockley and the Lace Market didn’t prove successful. I decided to explore a new area of town and went up towards the castle.
As I approached Maid Marion way, I noticed hundreds of people queuing to go into St. Nicholas’ church. I thought it might be a special service, but when I looked closer it was a “Vintage Clothes Sale”. The offer was fill a bag full of clothes, £15 per kilogram in weight.
I saw two young women in sat in a doorway just down the street from the church. They had several big bags with them, so I assumed they had just been to the sale.
I went over to them (Emma and Francesca) and asked them if they had been to the sale. They had indeed been to the sale and had bagged some good bargains. £80 pounds worth of bargains ! Although it was free to enter the sale, they had bought a £1-00 early bird ticket, which guaranteed them early entry to jump the queues and bag the best bargains ! They had travelled from Mansfield to go to the sale.
We had a chat about what type of clothing they had bought and they showed me some nice fluffy coats.
I had walked across to them with my camera in hand, so I then asked if I could photograph them for my 100 strangers project. They both said yes. I said could I photograph them individually and they both agreed. I shot Emma first and then Francseca.
So meet Francesca, before I started to photographing her she asked me If I was on “Purple Port” (that’s a web portal where models and photographers collaborate together for photoshoots). I told her I wasn’t but I knew some photographers who were on it. Francesca told me she was on Purple Port and showed me some photos on her phone. “They are only photos from the back of the camera, I’m in lingerie, are you OK with that?”. She told me who the photographer was, but I had not heard of him.
I took quite a few photos of Francesca. She was really interested in my 100 strangers project , so I showed her and Emma some of my strangers on my phone. She was impressed with the diversity of strangers and the stories I was telling her about them. “If you want a back story for me, I’ve just returned from 3 months VSO in Kenya (Voluntary Service Overseas). I was helping children with special needs”.
I gave Francesca my card and she gave me her email and mobile phone number.
She said she wished she had put some make up on, but i told her she looked fine as she was and besides this was urban street photography not studio work.
I was struggling getting catchlights in her brown eyes as it was a dull day. I got them in Emma’s blue eyes. I actually used fill in flash on a few pics, but the pop up flash on the Sony A6000 can be a bit harsh. The image I posted is with natural light and there is just a hint of catchlights.
I showed Francesca the images and she liked them and said she would love to receive some.
So that the story of the meeting. My next stranger is Emma :)
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
She has a lovely tawny look accentuated by that warm coat...sounds like they were both canny shoppers! My granddaughter went to a vintage clothes sale in Lancaster recently...they tour the bigger towns ...it’s very popular with young & older!