Locking and Loading

Alright, folks. I placed my order yesterday at B&H for a bulk roll of Delta 100: my favorite portrait film in 35mm. In a few days, I'll have 100 feet of that stuff in the loader and I'll be ready to shoot.

I'm going to California pretty soon, and I'm going to try and be sure to bring my film camera in addition to my regular digital gear that I carry everywhere. Strangers will abound. After California, I will plan a couple of a day trips down to Salt Lake City. Things are going to pick up soon.

All Aboard!

So what is a 100 Strangers project? Well, it's pretty much exactly what it sounds like. I go out and, over the course of several months, take a portrait of 100 people whom I have never met. The 100 Strangers project was conceived somewhere on Flickr. I don't really know when. So as you can see, I'm an expert, and very qualified to explain it to the entire internet.

Anyway, the idea is to get out of your comfort zone, while simultaneously improving your portrait skills. To be honest, talking to complete strangers isn't really out of my comfort zone. But I still think there is a lot of fun to be had and a lot of great photos to be taken with a project like this. And, of course, I am always looking to improve my photography skills.

For the duration of this project, I want to focus specifically on getting across that metaphorical chasm that separates a nice picture (or even a really technically excellent picture) from a true photograph that makes the viewer emotionally connect to something, or understand the story of the person in the frame. I don't want to capture what you can see. I want to capture what you can feel. That sounded pretty dramatic, didn't it?

Since I'll be doing this project on film, I can't promise to post every day or every week. As a roll finishes, I'll do my best to develop and scan promptly, and then post a new photo daily until the hopper is empty again.

Good luck to all of you. I'm not sure why you need luck in this situation. But it seemed like a good way to end this post.