It’s funny how there are a number of things in life that give an immediate high. Like eating pieces of honeycomb dipped in chocolate, or jumping from a plane at 1400ft if that’s more your style. Personally I prefer the chocolate – that’s enough adventure for me. But I never would have considered experiencing that reaction after approaching a total stranger and asking to take a quick portrait of them. But indeed, I walked away feeling like I could conquer the world. Before lunch.
Following on from my recent post I have issued myself with a little challenge. Ten portraits, of ten strangers, in one month – on an ongoing basis. Initially I was inspired by Zack Arias and this post. The line “there are times you have to get over your anxiety about talking to strangers and pursue what it is you want to do” particularly struck a chord. I want to be taking photographs. Sometimes I need to be taking them. And I want to be challenging myself, to become better at what I do and to become more comfortable approaching people I don’t know. Zack also said in his post “Get over talking to strangers. I know your mom told you not to but seriously, it’s ok. You will be amazed at how many people open themselves up to you. It’s a great experience for them and for you.” Personally I find it a terrifying experience – to start with anyway. But it ends up being a great experience. Just yesterday, only my second attempt at it, I spoke to a lovely guy, who lives not that far from where we’ll be building. We got to chatting about the area, and our experiences during the bushfires, and to laughing about what his wife would think when she came back to find a ‘young’ woman chatting him up so she could take his photo. I spent about 7 minutes with him, and apart from the first fear-filled thirty seconds, I enjoyed every one of them. I’m sure it gave him something to talk about over dinner too.
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I’m not like Zack, however. I have more of my mum’s voice in my head, telling me not to talk to strangers than I do of Zacks, telling me to get over it. So for now I’m going to settle for ten stranger portraits a month, though I have a feeling there may be more. After all, I can conquer the world now. Before lunch.
I’m in the process of starting a blog, for those interested in conquering the world with me. Or maybe for those that are just interested in pushing themselves a little, and meeting some wonderful people along the way. Please feel free to send me a message if you’d like to know more details, and contribute your own stranger portraits. I’ll still be posting mine here, but I thought it would be great to have a place where we all meet, and share our portraits, and the wonderful people that humour us.
Narrelle x