I went on a photowalk in Nottingham with my whippet Elsie this afternoon. It was dry when we left Arnold, but by the time the bus got into the city centre it was raining. I put Elsie’s raincoat on and we walked through some of my favourite locations. We were getting rather wet so I decided we ought to shelter from the rain.
We ended up at the Broadway cinema and sat on some comfy seats just inside the automatic doors and just before the front of house reception. We people watched for some time but the rain continued. I sent a text to my wife telling her what we were doing. “Why don’t you get a beer?” she said.
The venue is dog friendly, but I wanted to make sure the bar area was OK for dogs, so I went to the front of house reception / booking desk and spoke to Abigail.
Abigail nipped into the bar and confirmed Elsie would be OK. I then had a chat about Elsie with Abigail and then asked if I could take some photos for my strangers project. Abigail said “Yes” without any hesitation. I was shooting with a wide angle lens which meant I could get some of the reception items in the frame to help tell the story. Abigail is in the second year of a BA degree in “Design for Film and Television”, a degree course preparing students for a career in production design, art direction or art. I asked if working front of house at an independent cinema was part of the degree or would it help with the studies. Abigail told me it wasn’t part of the degree and was working part time for the money!
Abigail asked me about my camera and I said it only shot in black and white. I showed the photos on the back of my camera and Abigail was impressed. Abigail took a look at my Insta’ account and added me on Insta’ saying it would be good to be part of my project
I thanked Abigail for the photos and made my way to the bar area to order a beer. I had half a pint of IPA and the bartender offered my a dog cocktail for Elsie ….. a bowl of water …. and a co-worker carried the water bowl to my seat ! How nice was that ?
The photo is shot wide open at f1.7, to cope with the dark light in the front of house area.
I like the fact that Abigail is shown with some of the trappings of her employment for context. Very nicely composed image.
Btw, I noticed you've closed your Flickr account; I guess there's more interaction on Insta?
@dulciknit Alison , I closed my Flickr account because Flickr turned into a horrible place . I had nearly 12 million views of my photos but lots of my strangers , especially female strangers , received faves and comments from people, with how can I say , unsavoury photos and faves . It was totally unacceptable and my strangers deserved better than that . Insta seems to be policed better , but with less interaction. Lots of my strangers are on insta so it's a good way to share the photos.
@phil_howcroft Oh, no wonder you gave up with Flickr! I understand your concern; I have one of those unsavoury followers (but it looks as if their account is now redundant). I wondered if they followed a few 'innocent' accounts to try to make their own look less salacious/suspicious.
@dulciknit Alison , it was all the time , every post I did received too much 'unwanted' attention , I tended to post my photos into lots of groups and I had lots of "Flickr explore" shots. I would block them but in the end I decided the platform was no longer a good place to post !
@rensala thanks Renee that's so kind of you, I never ask any of my strangers to smile , I just take their photo while chatting !!!
Btw, I noticed you've closed your Flickr account; I guess there's more interaction on Insta?