The Making : 9Portrait Strangers

No speedlite, no modifiers, no names, they were total strangers..



These are fun + save to do, you can do it yourself.. Just challenge yourself to shoot portraits of people you did not know, not your friends, not your girlfriends, not your mother. Walk along the street, set your target hours, pick your subject, smile, approach and shoot.



Inspired by Zach's series of shots on his '10 portraits of 10 strangers in 10 hours', so I geared myself a single 50mm f1.8 lenses mounted on 7D body and walked along the Tun H. S. Lee Street here in Kuala Lumpur during the Deepavali with a target to get some nice portraits of the Indian community that celebrates Deepavali.

Sri Maha Mariaman Temple

The journey tooked me to the Sri Maha Mariamman temple where I spend almost 5 hours to get some nice character of the Indian community that celebrates Deepavali during that day.

Interior of the temple

On Zach's series, he get to shoot only the people he did not know, and the same idea applies to my journey. Just, I set myself a simple rules to follow, NO artificial light! meaning to say, during my shots, I banned myself to use any lighting equipment like flash, speedlite, or any light modifiers.. and this left me into just one solution.. "available light"

I'm shooting at clear bright afternoon sunlight at around 1pm which means the sun are just right on top, which the ''5 o'clock shadows'' could became very obvious on the subject eyes. Also, I'm shooting indoors, well not really indoors actually, most of the shots are shoot in an open-covered building temple. Here's a tip that I learned during my journey, shooting portraits with available light is really getting my nerve, always try to get your subject expose into the light.

Before the shot

Here are some of the list of things you need to know before you go out and shoot your next 20 portraits 20 strangers 20 hours..

The DO'S

• Always first greet your subject + introduce yourself and explain what you want.
• Always ask permission before you shoot the subject. 
• Try get some light chit chat with your subject after the shots.
• Bring some friends with you to tag along or just to be your bodyguard.
• Good pick-up line when it comes to approaching female.. or I mean babes..
• Smile

The DONT'S

• Always not to approach people you see that are rushing on something. (example.. going to work, going for meeting)
• You don't have to explain everything A-Z of what you're doing from taking their photos, upload to the internet, and get people commented about their photo that you tooked. (some people might a low profile and they want to keep it that way)
• Don't go to a dangerous or hazardous place to look for more interesting characters

Have fun.. and do write me some comments and reply of the outcome..



See more of the photos here!

good luck shooters!