From the course: Street Photography: Posed Portraiture

Breaking the ice with someone who's already posing

From the course: Street Photography: Posed Portraiture

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Breaking the ice with someone who's already posing

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All right, well, we just left, we're on our way to Union Square. Often I know I'm going to be at Union Square, there's going to be a lot of great opportunities there, but I'm still looking around and if I see someone interesting that I might want to approach and as it happens, there was this gentleman, right by the pool, there. Excuse me, sir, can I talk to you for a sec? I'm a photographer and I'm always taking pictures of interesting people; would you mind, it looks like you're posing for me right now, can I take a shot of you? Would you mind, all right, thank you very much. It was kind of a real moment because when I was photographing him, he was doing the same thing that, when I saw him for the first time. So because he agreed and allowed me and knew I was there, I had permission to move around, try different things. Look my way. I generally don't like to end the session. Usually when it comes to the street people are in a hurry and they'll say, "Okay, I've gotta go," so I worked it a little bit and in my experience some of the best pictures come later in the shoot. Don't even look at me, just pretend I'm not here. Meeting George was the perfect ice-breaker for this shoot. He was so relaxed and cooperative and allowed me to take as many pictures as I wanted. So I wanted to return the favor, as I often do, I carry these business cards with me. Sir, I appreciate you letting me take your picture. If you want a copy here's my card with my email address on it. Just email me, let me know what the picture was and I'll be happy to send it. Now it's so easy to email a picture to someone, so I like the idea of making these cards with just my email address on it, so that people can get in touch and I can send them the photo.

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