Martin.D
Themenersteller
Hi
Hope English is not a problem for you guys
I speak more German than I can type but feel free to comment in German if you wish after all this is a German forum 
British guy working here in Germany...
After being influenced by the likes of Markus Schwarze and similar photographers I have decided to do my own stranger project but first off only a mere 100...
My very first time photographing strangers was a few weeks back - the shot below was taken during the Carnival in Münster, Germany...
I managed around 32 portraits in total and so using this as a starting point I will continue with a 100 stranger project..
Stranger #01
.....we spotted him a good few meters away and it was people like this guy we wanted to target, people with character, people that stood out from the crowd and this guy was one of them. This was not the first person I had approached but by this time I felt comfortable enough to ask just about anyone. I asked him in English if I could take his photo but he assumed we wanted him to take a photo of us to which I replied no, we would like to take a photo of you and as you can see he agreed. We asked him kindly if he would move backwards a little, level with a large shop window that cast a lovely yellow light and made an ideal location that acted as rim light. I rattled a number of shot's off, 6 in total and this was my favourite - after the short session we said thank you and he continued on his way and we continued on ours..
Stranger #02
While waiting for the carnival to get going we snooped around the side streets, images of people in fancy dress was not our goal but rather images of people with character roaming the surrounding areas. While crossing the road between the floats we bumped into this guy, beer in one hand and his personnel bag in the other - looked like he was living on the streets and was stinking of beer!
Roland asked him if he could take his portrait, not a word of English came out of his mouth just warum and a few other slurred words, I explained to him in German as best I could the reasons why and he agreed - after Roland took his picture he asked me to take his so I did...
Stranger #03
I noticed that when photographing strangers if you target a small group of people often all of them will start asking question's about why / what you're doing, from this you have the opportunity to shoot a group of individuals in a matter of minutes. With this particular guy his wife / girl friend was the important one - while Roland was making his shot of the lady I told him about our 100 stranger project and thought it was cool and requested that I take his shot! How could I refuse, check out that head gear! awesome to say the least, even has a built in lens! He started to laugh and could not stop - nearly every time I took a stranger shot I requested that they not smile but look direct into the lens and act normal! for some this is difficult when the camera is being pointed at them, the younger generation find they have to play around while the older like to check there hair and outfit is pleasing for the camera.. as you can see from this image he looked pretty much normal! one of my favourite's from this day
Stranger #04
This guy was also interested in what I was doing and for the hell of it and in good English he said "Well, you can take my photo too" so I did!
Lessons learnt from this outing - move further back! I'm out tommorow i.e Sunday for some more stranger portraits, from this collection I have maybe 10 more that I'm totally happy with..
Stranger #05
While snooping around the side streets we came across 2 young ladies hand in hand - both drunk or seemed to be, we asked them if it was possible for a portrait and they agreed - having 2 photographers works well on a busy day and having the ability to separate and keep both occupied is a bonus.. I thought maybe this shot wouldn't work due to the bright midday sun but having her funky glasses on made all the difference..
In case I get a question as to why the crazy head gear and outfit - it was Carnival day
Stranger #06
While approaching a small church I noticed a guy dressed in a long coat and tweed cap sweeping up some old leaves, I told Roland I want to photograph him!
We made our way closer and introduced ourselves and told him about our project, we had a lengthy conversation about photography but mainly about myself coming from the UK and Roland from Hungry. We talked about the local area and how Münster was so popular for cyclists. Frank that was his name, he was the organist at the church you see behind, he also works at a local hospital. I think we spent around 20 minutes talking to him, a very interesting guy and spoke English very well - during our conversation I took several images both close up and a couple of full length shots. Once we had finished our conversation I gave him a business card and he informed me he would be in contact..
Today I received an email from Frank asking if it was possible to get a copy of the portraits I took - I can do better than that Frank! middle of this week I shall get some prints done and a close friend from Münster will hand deliver them to you!
Hope English is not a problem for you guys
I speak more German than I can type but feel free to comment in German if you wish after all this is a German forum British guy working here in Germany...
After being influenced by the likes of Markus Schwarze and similar photographers I have decided to do my own stranger project but first off only a mere 100...
My very first time photographing strangers was a few weeks back - the shot below was taken during the Carnival in Münster, Germany...
I managed around 32 portraits in total and so using this as a starting point I will continue with a 100 stranger project..
Stranger #01
.....we spotted him a good few meters away and it was people like this guy we wanted to target, people with character, people that stood out from the crowd and this guy was one of them. This was not the first person I had approached but by this time I felt comfortable enough to ask just about anyone. I asked him in English if I could take his photo but he assumed we wanted him to take a photo of us to which I replied no, we would like to take a photo of you and as you can see he agreed. We asked him kindly if he would move backwards a little, level with a large shop window that cast a lovely yellow light and made an ideal location that acted as rim light. I rattled a number of shot's off, 6 in total and this was my favourite - after the short session we said thank you and he continued on his way and we continued on ours..
Stranger #02
While waiting for the carnival to get going we snooped around the side streets, images of people in fancy dress was not our goal but rather images of people with character roaming the surrounding areas. While crossing the road between the floats we bumped into this guy, beer in one hand and his personnel bag in the other - looked like he was living on the streets and was stinking of beer!
Roland asked him if he could take his portrait, not a word of English came out of his mouth just warum and a few other slurred words, I explained to him in German as best I could the reasons why and he agreed - after Roland took his picture he asked me to take his so I did...
Stranger #03
I noticed that when photographing strangers if you target a small group of people often all of them will start asking question's about why / what you're doing, from this you have the opportunity to shoot a group of individuals in a matter of minutes. With this particular guy his wife / girl friend was the important one - while Roland was making his shot of the lady I told him about our 100 stranger project and thought it was cool and requested that I take his shot! How could I refuse, check out that head gear! awesome to say the least, even has a built in lens! He started to laugh and could not stop - nearly every time I took a stranger shot I requested that they not smile but look direct into the lens and act normal! for some this is difficult when the camera is being pointed at them, the younger generation find they have to play around while the older like to check there hair and outfit is pleasing for the camera.. as you can see from this image he looked pretty much normal! one of my favourite's from this day
Stranger #04
This guy was also interested in what I was doing and for the hell of it and in good English he said "Well, you can take my photo too" so I did!
Lessons learnt from this outing - move further back! I'm out tommorow i.e Sunday for some more stranger portraits, from this collection I have maybe 10 more that I'm totally happy with..
Stranger #05
While snooping around the side streets we came across 2 young ladies hand in hand - both drunk or seemed to be, we asked them if it was possible for a portrait and they agreed - having 2 photographers works well on a busy day and having the ability to separate and keep both occupied is a bonus.. I thought maybe this shot wouldn't work due to the bright midday sun but having her funky glasses on made all the difference..
In case I get a question as to why the crazy head gear and outfit - it was Carnival day
Stranger #06
While approaching a small church I noticed a guy dressed in a long coat and tweed cap sweeping up some old leaves, I told Roland I want to photograph him!
We made our way closer and introduced ourselves and told him about our project, we had a lengthy conversation about photography but mainly about myself coming from the UK and Roland from Hungry. We talked about the local area and how Münster was so popular for cyclists. Frank that was his name, he was the organist at the church you see behind, he also works at a local hospital. I think we spent around 20 minutes talking to him, a very interesting guy and spoke English very well - during our conversation I took several images both close up and a couple of full length shots. Once we had finished our conversation I gave him a business card and he informed me he would be in contact..
Today I received an email from Frank asking if it was possible to get a copy of the portraits I took - I can do better than that Frank! middle of this week I shall get some prints done and a close friend from Münster will hand deliver them to you!
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