Stranger #87: Carmen - a photo on Flickriver

This picture is #87 in my 3rd round of the 100 strangers project. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at the 100 Strangers Flickr Group page

We'd finished lunch and headed back to Brick Lane to find some more strangers. It was very crowded and tricky to find a decent background. Arnab and Katya both dealt with this by finding subjects and walking off with them down the side streets. Sylvia and I walked on down the road a bit and I found a shutter with some lovely street art on that I thought would work with the right person so we camped for a bit and waited. Eventually Arnab arrived back looking smug and showed us on the back of his camera a wonderful set of a stylish young lady with cool headphones.
I'd barely glanced at them when I saw Carmen walking up the street towards us, on the phone. Those who've followed me for a while will know that the phone is my natural enemy. As she came closer I was willing her to hang up. I want a phone signal jammer, I really do. Sure enough, as she drew level, she made a face and looked at the phone in such a way as to suggest that she'd been cut off. I figured I had to act fast before the caller called back so I jumped in with both feet.
Carmen told me that she was looking for her friend and was struggling to find her. Honestly I didn't think I was going to have success here but I told her that it would only take a minute and then she'd be able to find her friend. I was probably more pushy than I should have been. But fate was at play and she agreed to pop over to my shutter for a couple of snaps.
I had a real problem deciding on which photo to chose and will probably get around to posting a few more because this girl is not shy in front of a camera. She kept making all these awesome expressions, she was clearly having a laugh at my expense and I didn't mind a bit. But I got her to do my 'standard' pose which doesn't work for everyone but she knocked it out the park.
So I thanked her for her time, gave her a card and told her I hoped she'd catch up with her friend soon and off she went.
We crowded round for the obligatory flick through the pictures and while we were doing this we saw her coming back up the road, clearly now having met her quarry. Then Arnab realised it was the same girl that he'd just dragged off down a side street for his photo. They were laughing as they went past with one of them saying 'You won't believe what just happened'! Well I can't believe the co-incidence that on such a busy street we managed to prevent two incredibly cool and stylish friends from finding each other, for a while. But I hope they had as big a laugh at it as we did, and it re-enforced to me (as if I'd forgotten) just how cool this kind of photography is because you really never know what's going to happen next.
See Arnab's shot here.

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Taken in: United Kingdom / England / London / Spitalfields (show map)

Taken on: August 10, 2014

Tags:

100 Strangers

85mm 1.8G

August 2014

Bomvu

Colin Strain

Katya

London

Nikon D600

Street Portrait

Sylvia

87 « less

Sets appears in: • 100 Strangers Round 3 • My most interesting pictures

Groups appears in: • Portrait (real persons only) • Brick Lane more » • Natural Light Portraiture • 100 Strangers • *Portrait de rue* • Human Faces: Fascinating Just the Way We Are • Portraits from the Street • Beautiful Young Women and Their Faces • Nikon AF-S Nikkor 85mm f/1.8G • 100 Strangers London & UK Meet ups • Nikon D600/D610 CLUB • Digital SLR Life • Humans of London « less

Camera: Nikon D600, f/1.8, 1/250 sec, 85mm, ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D600
Lens:	85.0 mm f/1.8
Aperture:	f/1.8
Exposure Time:	0.004 sec (1/250)
Focal Length:	85mm
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	+1/3 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Center-weighted average
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.5 (Windows)
Show full info

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