Along the prom at Lee on Solent, I saw ahead a man sitting on a wall with his dog on a lead which looked like a small St Bernard. As we drew level I stopped and, said hello, and asked after the dog and found she was Gracie, a 14 week-old St Bernard puppy. I asked for photos and then for some of Gracie with her owner Graham and finally asked if he would have his photo taken.
Graham was quite happy with all of this. The photos of Gracie inevitably often had human shoes in them and it was a little difficult to get a good shot of the height of both of them from the vantage point of my mobility scooter plus not really being able to use different angles/distances because of consideration for other folk walking along.
When I had explained my strangers' portrait project including the difficulty of finding photos during the lock down period of 'stay at home', Graham was quite happy to be included.
He and his wife Linda have just welcomed Gracie into their home and still have Reggie, an older cocker spaniel, living with them. Graham felt that Reggie had found a new lease of life with Gracie now as his new companion.
It was sometimes a little difficult maintaining social distancing and conducting a conversation so I hope I have not missed, or added, anything to Graham's story. He told us that he and Linda have always had dogs: 3 labradors, 2 Yorkshire terriers, a standard Schnauzer, Reggie the cocker spaniel, and now, Gracie. They were tempted recently to take on dogs from a Rescue but have six grandchildren and felt it would not be fair ether to the dogs or the children.
I admit to being a little surprised when Graham told me he also manages to fit in some private gardening hours' work.
Gracie during this interlude was just sitting quietly. She has apparently made a good start at training classes. I guess it's really important for a dog which could grow to weigh around 14 stone to be well trained! I offered Graham photos and he was happy to take my card to write to me.
What a beautiful dog! Sounds like this was a relatively easy one for you. It’s easier to get chatting outside & with the dog as a point of interest. I love your “stranger stories”, not something I would be good at myself .
A really lovely set of photos Hazel... everyone of them are just perfect plus an interesting history of Graham’s dog owning days. Quite a commitment to take on such a large dog but they sound well experienced.
Splendid portraits as ever Hazel. I have been unable to get in touch with you by email for a while because my old laptop is irredeemably broken with all my contacts and passwords locked inside. I now have a new one with a new email: lostphojo@hushmail.com
I admit that these encounters mostly seem to just happen now!!
It must have been difficult during lockdown to find any strangers to photograph
Pat, thank you so much. I spent quite a bit of time sorting and arranging the photos this time