100 Strangers : Round 5 : No .416 : Maurice and Billy
We went to Wollaton Park on Sunday afternoon, its a a 500 acre park in Nottingham, which includes a deer park. It’s a municipal park and the people of Nottingham are very proud of it.
While walking around the park, we met Maurice, he had a Canon 5D mark III camera hanging from his left shoulder and Billy, a 3 years old parrot was also on his left shoulder. Yes a parrot on his shoulder !
It would have been rude of me not to engage with Maurice and Billy, so I started by asking about the camera on his shoulder (I am a camera geek after all). Maurice was with a young Chinese lady, Sophie, a friend if his, who had what I thought was a beautiful Nikon Z fc camera.
I had Elsie with me and she was getting very excited as Jane had walked away from Maurice, Sophie, Billy and myself as Jane knew what was going to happen next. I was going to ask Maurice and Billy for a stranger photo !
I told Maurice I was an amateur photographer and asked if I could take his and Billy’s photo for my project.
Maurice and Billy duly obliged and I took a few shots with my fabulous Sony RX100 VII
Maurice told me Billy would live another 50 years. I didn’t ask that question, it was an additional response to my question asking how old was Billy.
“He will see you out then” I said
“Thanks for that” was Maurice’s response, implying he wasn’t too impressed by my statement !
I asked Maurice if I could post the photos onto social media. He misheard me and thought I asked for a photo of me and Billy. He put Billy onto my shoulder, so I gave him my little Sony and he took some photos ! The RX100 was on it’s widest angle (24mm) and he was but one metre from me, so a wide angle shot so close to me isn’t very flattering (judge for yourself when I post it).
What a great find. Glad Maurice was cooperative and allowed you to take his picture so you could post it on 365. Fav. Now I am very anxious to see his capture of you with Billy. Wasn't Elsie jealous to see Billy on your shoulder? Another thing, Billy seems to be the prefered name for parrots. My son-in-laws parrot was named Billy too (now he's dead and buried in my garden).
I do laugh when you write about Jane & can understand completely her feelings…..I would cringe but FairPlay you get wonderful results with your brave approaches! Your photo life is much enhanced by your stranger photos.
The story is fun and I cannot wait to see your portrait with Billy!