Nigel's First Stranger Shots

Never really felt too comfortable about doing this kind of thing, but have seen so many of this type of pic lately that I'm prompted to have a go. Took off from work early evening on a break to see what I'd find. Felt a bit nervous at first, but soon warmed up and was put at ease.

A bit worried these first efforts might look a bit rigid or wooden, but guess its down to 'practice practice & practice'. Hopefully if I head back sometime soon I might find them there again.

All with the K7 & Tamron Adaptall 135mm f2.8, all at f4.0. As always, C & Cs most welcome!




















































Thanks for checking them out

Rather fixed facial expressions on this set, Nigel.

Could you engage the subjects a little more?



p.s. #4 is the best image here IMHO - something about the strap - but would be even better with a tiny bit more space at the top?

You've taken stranger shots than these Nigel

Nigel, these are head and shoulders above any portrait shots of mine.

Cheers.
Philip

A great idea, Nigel. Very quirky and original.

Very interesting. Given that you can't exactly focus traditionally on the eyes, keeping nearly everything in focus as you have was probably quite a sensible option, since there's lots of line, colour and pattern to maintain the interest.

They clearly work best as a set, rather than individual images. So I'm wondering, once the novelty wears off, whether a collage of maybe the first six (since the last two seem to be different framings of the same models as the first two) of these might give you a single large image that will be a bit more durable in terms of impact and appeal. It would need to be printed, though - at web sizes the whole thing would be harder to get the full impact.

Not sure what a six-image triptych (sextych?) is called, but when I say collage, I don't necessarily mean overlapping. I'm not volunteering to arrange them!!

As above - quirky, but interesting. I think ChrisA's idea of a 6 image triptych is a good one - that would need printing to get the effect.

Number 3 image composition; I thinks it's right though as you have offset the 'neck' from centre, my eyes wants to see a bit more of the 'shoulder' area

Brilliant set.. Loved them...

Interesting stuff. I like those!

Andrew

I mustn't get out much 'cos these could have been an original idea to me.

I think they're great

I love them all!

Some are sharper than others, the best ones are great, a really good idea. And no complaints about the colour of these!

That was the idea! A different take on the 'strangers' theme Glad they've gone down well. What might surprise perhaps is the fact that these are not indoor shots - these are taken from the street through a shop window on a walkabout around South Kensington. True street portraits

A testimony to Pentax technology & 40 year old optics - as well as to the very expensive window cleaners employed around this part of town!

Well that's even better Nigel. Well done. Although I try to be inclusive in life I didn't previously see you as the kind of guy that likes to dress up dolls. All's well in my little world haha