The day was bright and fresh so we decided on a walk along the seafront at Lee on Solent. As we came out of the Haven Tea Room after coffee, a photographer was training a very long zoom lens apparently on the depths of the pond in the garden.
I watched, curious, for a bit and then he sensed my presence and told me he had a shot of an emerging damselfly and showed me the best place to stand to capture it. In spite of his careful directions, I could not locate it, even taking my eye from the viewfinder and putting my specs back on. He showed us on the rear screen of his camera.
I had another try - no use. So I asked his name. Meet Stuart. And then I asked if, instead of trying for the damselfly, I could take his portrait and explained my strangers project. Stuart told me that he shies away from social media. I explained it would just involve his portrait and his first name, said I would undertand if he said no.
Ray disappeared to sit on a seat. Stuart sat on the fence surrounding the pond and I took just one shot. I did take a couple more shots later but, as so often happens, the first was my preferred.
Stuart told me that he joined the Navy in 1958 just as he turned 15. He worked for more than 30 years on submarines as a sonar analyst.
Photography is obviously a great passion and he has more than 15,000 stored images. A framed photo behind the reception desk in the tea room is one of his. I wondered about the zoom on his camera and found it to be 500mm, plus some because of something in his Nikon.
I offered Stuart the chance of photos but he declined. I wish now that I had some point of contact because, when I loaded up my images, I found I had indeed captured the emerging damselfly, but it was necessary to know it was there in order to see it..............
Fabulous portrait shot and narrative...I must say, Hazel, you're very smooth in your approach in getting cooperation from strangers for their wonderful portrait shots. I don't think I could do it.
What a lovely kind looking man. great composition. I do like it when you talk to photographers and they are willing to share rather than keep knowledge to themselves for selfish reasons. We all love to learn.
May 13th, 2019
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I would but it is too minuscule! My lens is 105mm in contrast with Stuart’s 500mm plus.
Stuart was incredibly helpful!
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Gloria, I have to say that to me, it often seems like a two way process rather than an approach!