I’ve been looking at 100 Stangers (and the related flickr group) for a while now. At the weekend the fact that it was truly autumn really struck me and the pleasant weather prompted me into a trip to the park. Whilst I was there I decided I’d try and get started on a 100 strangers project of my own. The prospect of walking up to some random person and asking if you can take their photo is frankly downright impossible sounding at first. But I walked around a while, took some photos of the lovely colours of autumn building up some confidence. I eventually struck on a friendly looking student who told me his name was Dan. Unfortunately, in the heat of the moment, whatever photography skills I may have were completely absent; I got the focusing and composition all wrong.

Growing in confidence with approaching people however I walked over to a guy who was doing some incredible circus style stuff with a long stick which he refered to as a fire stick (presumably because when performing with it you actually set the two ends on fire). Anyway, the photos again didn’t work out particularly well. This time I was thrown off by some annoying (read chav) girl shouting “Paedo” at me simply because I was a man near a park with a camera. Anyway I should try not to let these things get to me, but it did strike me that in a 100 strangers project being male is definitely a distinct disadvantage. I am a little bit worried about people perceiving me as creepy or even worse threatening, and so far thats put me off approaching any females to ask to take their portrait.

Anyway now that I’ve given it a try (I’m putting those first two down as approaching practice) I’m even more determined to give the whole project a proper go, so hopefully expect my first stranger soon!