Yohei from Tokyo

I was waiting in the park for Tyler, and this friendly stranger approached explaining he had just arrived 3 weeks ago from Japan. Every day he comes to this same park and speaks with native English speakers to practice listening and speaking (he wants to have better scores at school for listening tests). So he's spoken with 60 people in 3 weeks, and takes a selfie with each one. We scrolled through a few of them on his phone. And after all the leg work of the stranger project was done (minus me actually taking a photo as well), I asked if I could get a photo of him too. There's his thumbs up! Yohei really enjoys Vancouver and said it's full of much more nature than Tokyo. He seemed impressed by how many people ride bikes and go running in the city here. After about 10 minutes he politely said goodbye and carried on.

Saturday with Warren Roll 1

Hey guys,
I met up with Warren and a couple other photography (/gear) enthusiasts in SF a couple weekends ago. I developed a roll of film from that day and here are some of the pictures.
I know this is the friendly photo forum but some friendly constructive criticism goes a long way :)
Best,
Keshav

Leica M6
CV 35mm f/2.5
Superia 400

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

#9

#10

#11

#12

P.S.Thanks for the critique on the last post and a special thanks to Warren for getting the word out :)

Veteran dogwalker

I often see this old guy walking his dog on my way back from work. I usually stop and talk with him and he tells me about the dogs and stuff. He told that he used to be in the Navy at some point.

Fuji Superia 400

Leica M6

CV 35mm f/2.5

I need some help with editing. I'd be very grateful if you could help me edit these down to the top 3 images. Let me know in the comments why you feel some images should be included and others not.

Thank you!

- Keshav

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

Alex

Lumix G5, Lumix 20mm f1.7

This is Alex. I met him at the new San Francisco Leica Store. Alex is the gallery manager of the store, and his job is to line the brick walls that you see behind him in this picture, with selected works from Leica photographers. Alex is a photographer himself, but he has been too busy to shoot lately. He gets to use his choice of Leica gear from the store, lucky guy!  :)

--Warren

San Francisco, CA

I saw her lost in thought at the side of the road. She noticed me an instant before I took the photo but played along. I love it when people do that.
- Keshav Mahendru
Fujifilm X100s
Critique encouraged

Stranger Becomes Friend

Here's is Keshav, a very nice guy who I met the other day because he bought one of my lenses, the Voigtlander 35mm f2.5 Color Skopar Classic. We arranged to meet at a local coffee shop (picture #1) to do the deal. I really took a liking to him, so I invited him to lunch where we ordered one of his favorite dishes, Szechuan Shrimp (picture #2). After lunch, I invited him over to our house where I gave him my Fed 3b w/ 50mm Industar 61 (picture #3). I was planning to give away the Fed anyway, and I couldn't think of a more deserving photographer. Keshav is currently in the Bay Area for a summer internship, and he will be returning to Duke University in the Fall to finish his Business Degree. I also asked Keshav to join our blog. You'll be seeing more from Keshav soon. This series is interesting because each picture was taken with a different camera (Lumix G5 w/Lumix 20mm f1.7, HTC One X cell phone, and finally, Nikon D200 w/24mm f2.8 AF)

Keshav  is relatively new to photography, but very enthusiastic. He primarily shoots the street genre. 

--Warren 

Practicing Photographer

Lumix LX5 @ 24mm

This is "Kirk". He was practicing in the field with his newly acquired Canon 100-400mm zoom. He will be going to Tanzania on a photo safari, as well as climb to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro. He showed me a picture on his iPhone that he took of a tiger in India, and he told me a great story of how he got that picture.  I took the opportunity to do a combination project picture :).

--Warren

Pacific Coast Cyclists from Finland

My cousin introduced me to this pair of cyclists on Facebook before they arrived in Vancouver over the weekend. They are biking from Vancouver, Canada, to Buenos Aires, Argentina, along the Pacific Coast this year. Miina is a meteorologist and weather forecaster and Otto is an engineer of fire sprinkler systems on ships. They decided two years ago that they would do this trip and are planning on taking one year to complete.. Bus, ferry, and train may or may not become a part of the journey.. Either way, I'm sure it will be interesting for them! This shot was taken on Monday after riding around the city for a couple of hours. I took them through Stanley Park and to Granville Island. This morning they jumped in for a (very) quick swim in the chilly ocean to wake up before heading out for their next destination.

Warren, they'll be in San Francisco in about a month if you care to show them around your city by bicycle!

Abbey at Ocean Beach -- Strangers Project

Nikon D200, Nikkor 35mm f2.0 AI

This is my first contribution to our Strangers Project. Meet Abbey from Washington D.C. She moved to San Francisco about 6 months ago, and works at Stanford (Palo Alto). She was enjoying a book while stretched out on the seawall at Ocean Beach. It was near sunset and the light was nice and warm, I liked her orange outfit which was a nice contrast to the rather neutral tones at the beach, so I introduced myself ask her if I could take her picture. She graciously agreed, and this is the result. I only took these two shots, but they both turned out well, IMO. :)

Thanks Abbey!

--Warren

SUPERHERO SCRAMBLE 2014 # Strangers Project

Got a call from Muscle Milk through my girlfriends friend that they needed a photographer for the Superhero Scramble. After some lunch and AC, I am headed back out for round two. I have already been approached by several other companies to do some photos for them. Having a blast feeling how out of shape I am. =)

~Carl~

Ringing in the New Year # Strangers Project

Maggie from Toronto










Ricardo's family & Friends

I hope to see them again.

 

Hugo - From Miami








Anthony or Elvis depending on when you talk to him.










I had my camera in a bag in my buddies hotel room collecting dust  because carrying my Nikon D7000 and an SB700 flash. Taking photos of strangers on New Years was better as a great thought then actually getting the guts to follow through. But after running to the oversized Christmas tree 7 times to take photos of people with their own phones because they couldn't get their significant others in the frame and then getting ditched at 11:30 by my buddy, sparked me to grab my camera and strap up for humility and a little one on one. What I found were amazing subjects, gracious hosts and possibly a couple new friends. One step into street photography and no regrets.

Edited in Lightroom


~Carl~

Virgin de Lourdes

Adding to the Strangers Project!

I was wandering outside a church in Naranjo, Costa Rica. This gentleman came up to tell me about the structure. His name is German. The 'G' is pronounced as an 'H'.

The stone cave was built 65 years ago and it is to honour the Virgin de Lourdes. There is a rock plaque beside him that you are supposed to touch while visiting. The rock is supposed to have been from the cave that is of significance in the story of the Virgin de Lourdes.

German was very friendly and spoke pretty good English! He was interested to know where I was traveling from and welcomed me and wished me well on my stay.

Summer Time Coffee, Costa Rica

Adding another pic for the strangers project.

There is a long break from school beginning tomorrow for these four young siblings. Their family grows coffee beans and harvesting takes place over the children's break from school (now until February). So it is their work for summer, to pick the berries.

The red coffee berries smell great and are very sweet. Two kinds of coffee that can be made are red coffee, and green coffee. The difference is whether the berries were red or green. Red is more sweet; green is more bitter. (I had a chance to try a cup of both, and thought they were both nice!)

They have dogs and puppies and a swing out there with them to help enjoy the time and take breaks. But it is still a lot of work. They have very positive attitudes and enjoy their homestead. I felt very lucky to have met them. The brother loves all the puppies. The youngest enjoys the swing. The second oldest is smiling all the time, I think she has a calming influence for the others. And the oldest is the responsible big sis who keeps them all together and leads the way.

Blue Dress at the Soap Shop

I thought I'd add this pic to the long-term Strangers project. This woman works in a soap/cream/shampoo shop in a tiny town in Costa Rica.

The shop employs five women and they use plants grown on site to infuse aromas and health benefits.

This is the back yard of the shop. She is standing beside a big leafy tobacco plant, and holding on to a plant with smaller leaves that smell like delicious lemon.

I thought the colour and pattern of her dress was beautiful in front of all the greens & browns. It connects just a tiny bit of the dark blue showing through in the background.

She later gave me a sample of some eucalyptus gel which seemed like Vicks VapoRub.

I do not speak Spanish and she does not speak English so it was mostly gesture-conversation between us... So that's about all I learned about her. ;)

She seemed really sweet.