The Next Challenge

As much as I love taking pictures, it can sometimes take Herculean strength to get me off my butt and out  the door to practice my hobby.

I either have to be prompted by DW to go on a nature walk or I have to sign up for one of my photography group meetups to go somewhere with my camera. And it's not because I don't want to: I really do want to take photos.

I found that giving myself challenges, in the past, got me outside. My Bate Island project, my Hog's Back project, my Photo of the Day project, my Black-and-White project, and my 100 Strangers project all got me motivated to capture images in rain and shine, day or night.

I haven't had a photo project in years, long before the pandemic forced us to avoid crowds. And it is long overdue that I start one.

I started one this weekend. Labour Day Monday, to be precise.

"Stranger" 63, in NYC.

Though it caused me a lot of anxiety and was hard to get going, I loved my 100 Strangers project. It took me far out of my comfort zone to approach total strangers and ask them if I could take a photograph of them. It surprised me that when it was done, so many people (101) had said yes compared with the few (about two dozen) who said no.

I had honestly expected that for every four people I would ask, only one would agree. People really surprised me.

I also really enjoyed my Black-and-White project, as it forced me to think about what I was going to capture before I captured it. I had to mentally remove the colour from what my eyes saw and consider the light and texture. Often, it was more miss than hit but it made me see black-and-white photography in a whole new way.

And for months, I've wanted to challenge myself by moving away from a zoom lens and concentrating on a fixed lens: namely, my 50mm lens.

And so, on Monday, I set out with my Nikon D750 and my Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 lens, and sought out more strangers to photograph. This time, I didn't limit myself to head shots, but decided to photograph the entire person.

And I did so with the notion that the completed portrait would be rendered in black and white.

Instead of wandering a neighbourhood, looking for subjects, I'm going to stay in one place and assess the environment, including the light. This will help me imagine what the photo would look like in black and white. Once I have chosen a setting, I'll wait for people to pass by. When someone strikes my interest, I'll approach him or her and introduce myself and explain my project, and ask if I can photograph him or her. Depending on the person, I'll try to pose them in a way that I think might suit them.

I may move from place to place, depending on what I see, but I'll always have to take into consideration what the setting will look like in black and white.

There are specific criterion to the project but it's not rigid.

This is not a 100 strangers project. I haven't decided how many subjects I will photograph. There's also no deadline (my 100 Strangers project was limited to 100 days or fewer). If I enjoy this project, it will be ongoing. There might not even be a frequency, though I hope to share at least one photo each week until I decide to end the project.

So far, the project is simply entitled More Strangers but I may change the name as the project grows. (If you have a suggestion, leave it in the Comments section.)

Wish me luck. After all, I still get anxious when I approach a stranger. To get them to agree to a head-and-shoulders snapshot is one thing: to pose them is entirely another.

The first photos from this project will be shared tomorrow. Stay tuned...