Merle - stranger 047/100

A visit to Nottingham’s annual Riverside Festival gave me plenty of opportunity to add to my stranger project. There must have been thousands of people enjoying the attractions giving me an almost endless supply of strangers to ask. The biggest problem was finding uncluttered backgrounds.

 

Spotting three girls sitting by an old bridge I decided to ask if any of them would be willing to let me photograph them for the project. Two of them quickly nominated the third, Merle.

 

I photographed Merle under an arch of the bridge, needing to get her out of the harsh, early afternoon sun. Moving under the bridge gave me a beautiful soft light to work with which stopped the highlights burning out as they did in a couple of other pictures I took of Merle in the direct sunlight.

 

Merle has lived in Nottingham for ten years, originally coming from Estonia. She hopes to settle here for ever as she feels Nottingham is now her home. She works as a project manager for a company of software developers.

 

Thank-you so much Merle for allowing your sister and friend to volunteer you for my project and I hope you like your portrait.

 

This picture is #047 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

 

This is my 018 submission to the Human Family Group. To view more street portraits and stories visit www.flickr.com/groups/thehumanfamily/

 

 

Done