Street portrait - 10/100 Strangers

I have been running behind on everything this week but was determined to get just one street portrait before Sunday. Saturday morning I finished a class I'd been teaching and with about half an hour to spare, started walking up the alley with my camera towards a busy urban street.

 

Had only gotten about 100 feet when James literally called out to me, "Hey! Take my picture!" What luck!

 

James was with three friends, all four of them apparently homeless and at that moment, smelling a bit of alcohol and not feeling any pain. I was very happy to oblige.

James, Mike, Greg, and the other guy whose name I don't remember were all in a great mood and joking around, teasing each other and very friendly.

I had just started looking around for where I would put him for the photo when he rather took control. "Here. I'll be over here," he said and was already starting to sit down in a cracked plastic lawn chair that was holding someone's empty parking space.

I took about eight shots and the whole time, his friends were behind me hamming it up and trying to get him to laugh.

We all had a great time. I showed them all the shots I'd taken and James asked if he came back another time, could I print one out that he could have?

 

You bet!

 

I'll have it on my desk tomorrow and leave instructions for my office staff to give it to him if he shows up and I'm not there.

 

Very unlikely he'll see this posting, but THANK YOU JAMES, for the laughs and good time this afternoon!

 

This picture is #10 in my 100 strangers project. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at the 100 Strangers Flickr Group page

Done