If you are like me, talking to strangers is a chore. Well, not always, but most of the time I don't like to be a point of focus and usually try to blend into the background. When I get the opportunity to do group or venue type of photography session, I make a conscious effort to introduce myself and have a short conversation with people before taking their photographs. Most of the time I have had people ask me if I was taking pictures for a newspaper or if the pictures would show up on the evening news. When asked these types of questions I am more than happy to explain why I am taking pictures and share with them how the photos will be used, if that has been explained to me. The images used in this post are from a community volunteer day to clean up the river banks. The effort was organized by a local non-profit and I was taking photographs for them to use for their own marketing materials. When I was asked questions about taking photos, I was more than happy to explain this to the person asking. By having a short conversation and building that rapport, you put the person at ease and if they understand what the photograph is for they are usually more than happy to smile wide for the camera. For as shy as I am, when it comes to strangers, I still like to joke and laugh to break the ice and set the tone. In these two images, after explaining why I was photographing that day we were trying to stage a photo and after snapping the first image, I stopped to check the image on my camera. The gentleman had dropped whatever he picked up into the bag and when I said I wanted to take another shot, he joking screamed at the bag because he had already dropped the garbage into the bag. You can see from his facial expression and the lady's that we were having some fun with it. The crew on that had come back on the pontoon were great to work with too. I did not have a lot of time with this group to snap the photographs. It was getting late in the afternoon, it was a very hot day, and multiple boats were coming back and everyone was wanting to wrap up for the day. Knowing that everyone was in a hurry, I quickly explained what I was hoping to capture in a photograph, and let everyone get situated on the boat. I did take some photos while they unloaded the pontoon boat and after they had all of the stuff unloaded, I asked if I could snap a few more shots with them standing by the stuff they collected along the river bank. While they moved stuff, I causally listened to their conversation and asked some questions about boating along that stretch of the river. They were more than happy to answer questions and left me wondering if I might get an invite to join them sometime. Well, I did not get the invite, but I did get a couple nice photographs to remember the day.
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AuthorAs a photography enthusiast, I hope to share some of my experiences, good and bad, with others that want to learn more about photography. Archives
June 2023
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