Chelsy (Stranger #100/100), London Marylebone

This is portrait #100 of my 100 Strangers Project - check out the group page and get involved.

I first typed that paragraph, with a #1 rather than #100 back on the 5th January 2013, when I kicked this project off with Michael. Three and a half years later, there's probably some space for reflection, but not wanting to de-rail this post - which is Chelsy's - I'll save them for a later date!

I will just note, that it's taken a little longer between 98 and 100 than I'd hoped! This year's been a busy one for work and exercise (find me on Strava fellow runners!), and Flickr has been squeezed into third place. It's not for want of trying though - Saturday I was out for 8-9 hours, revisiting all the stops on my 100 Stranger journey - through Brick Lane, through Soho - yet without success. Six rejections out of six, and some three or four thousand people I wasn't inspired to ask, I dipped back into London again Sunday. Whereas Saturday I'd given myself too much time perhaps, on Sunday I left refrigerated food in my car's boot/trunk... that way I had to be quick! It injected a little dose of urgency that perhaps had been missing the day before.

Despite light rain, there was a bright sun behind the cloud, turning the sky into a vast white softbox. Perfect light for portraits. I'd chosen to jump off the tube early, in the quieter, more local streets around Marylebone - rather than the busier locations that hadn't worked out the day before. There was a neat, covered mews entrance with a dark wall.

With the bold silver light of the bright, rainy cloud the shadowy covered alcove would hopefully drop away to darkness, especially with a pop of foreground flash to lift the as yet unknown subject!

Now armed with a background, I wandered out into the drizzle to see if there was anyone game for a portrait! With umbrellas out in force, one could only see the lower portion of most faces as people shuffled along the pavement in the drizzle. Most people, that is, as Chelsy sailed boldly along, confronting the weather with an engaging, dark stare. Very obligingly she stopped in the rain, and agreed to pause a moment from a suit hunting expedition to walk back up the way she'd just come to the background I'd prepped.

Chelsy was in need of a suit for an upcoming interview with a major financial software/media company. She outlined the roles she was going for, her network of friends there and general excitement to secure a job at an energetic firm in the heart of a city in which she was keen to put down roots for a little while yet. If I can offer a reference for that interview, I'd say Chelsy offered a poised blend of confident action and patient listening that's extremely rare and valuable. We set up and shot for ten minutes or so, with her braving the rain, de-jacketing so her black print dress offered a cleaner, less cluttered contrast with the background and mastering the reflector, and she was generally great fun to chat and shoot with.

Thank you Chelsy - I hope you like your portrait! I really appreciated the thought and effort you brought to our shoot, and hope your interviews go stunning well later this week!

Info for Strobist;

There's a Canon 600EX-RT camera at 1/16 power left in a white shoot through umbrella, about 45* up and to the side. It's positioned just back from the mews entrance, so that the wall is flagging it (preventing it from spilling on the dark wall that's serving as Chelsy's background). It's triggered by a second Canon 600EX-RT on the camera, that's firing through a 28" on camera softbox at 1/128 power. Meanwhile, Chelsy's holding a 1.2m silver reflector just below shot. As she's stood just out of the mews entrance, the reflector is catching all the bright light from the street and bouncing it on her, whilst the far wall remains in shadow behind. Really that would have been enough for her skin, but the two flashes - especially the 1/16 in the umbrella - are there to add extra zap to her hair that I feared would otherwise be too dark against the shadowy backdrop. With another pair of hands I might have introduced another flash or (more likely) reflector to give more rim, but I'm not panicked - with the weather as it was, a rim would have brought out a lot of fly away hairs, and I quite like the balance as it is.

Meanwhile, apologies to contacts for whom I've been something of an absent partner the last couple of months. I'll be following up with some images and blog posts reflecting on the project. I'm also planning to continue. This first 100 were all shot with the same 5Diii and 100mm f/2.8L macro. I'm wondering whether I'll continue in that same mode, or whether I'm going to switch the lens out for the 35mm f/1.4ii - with the same crop, just closer in. Lots to think about, which I'll look forward to sharing, hoping that the weeks ahead are a little kinder with time to do so.

Taken in: United Kingdom / England / London / Fitzrovia (show map)

Taken on: June 12, 2016

Tags:

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Sets appears in: • 100 Strangers • Europe, City more » • Headshots • Filtered Street Portraits « less

Groups appears in: • Londonist • London by Londoners more » • Red Rule • Canon EOS 5D Series • Strobist.com • The Portrait Group • 100 Strangers • Shooting Strangers • Canon EOS 5Ds/R, Mark 1, 2, 3, 4 • Canon EF 100 f/2.8L IS Macro • PHLEARN • Portraits from the Street • PurplePort « less

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark III, f/3.2, 1/1000 sec, 100mm, ISO 400 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 5D Mark III
Lens:	EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
Aperture:	f/3.2
Exposure Time:	0.001 sec (1/1000)
Focal Length:	100mm
ISO:	400
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	On, Fired
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4.4 (Windows)
Show full info

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