Street Portraits

As it turns out, it's not actually that difficult to ask someone if you can take their photograph.  

It was getting ominously close to the Saturday deadline and I had yet to press the shutter release on my 450D, so I made the most of the good weather on Thursday and got outside.

It was actually really productive and I just ended up shaking off my fear of talking to people and got to it.  There were some characters about that morning and everyone I spoke to was really friendly.  I took a picture of a homeless guy sitting just beside the High Street subway who was as well dressed as the best of them and a guy standing outside the tax office at Customer House.  The most interesting person I got talking to was a Scottish guy called Alex.  He was walking though Hill Street near the Duke of York when I spotted him and I just got chatting and asked if I could take his picture.  Turns out he's been living here for fifteen years and knows mountains more about Belfast than I do, and a really nice guy too.

Here are a few of the shots a picked up through the morning:

As it goes my favourite is the last one of Alex standing in front of the black doors.  The light is great as there was a big white van just off to the right of the frame bouncing the light back on to the side of his face.  Lucky I guess, but I'm not going to miss those opportunities.

I'll be going out this weekend to take some shots and we'll probably go out with Belfast Exposed tomorrow morning.  I'll stick to it and keep the blog updated as I go.  I think the next step is to get someone roped into modelling for me, just to get some good portfolio shots.  Who will the willing friend be then?

More to come!