Photographing Pittsburgh’s People of the Strip – District #1

I had a job postpone this afternoon and I decided to take a little walk down into the Strip District of Pittsburgh, and take along my camera.  I’m usually not a photo journalist type of photographer, but I’ve been thinking about coming up with a personal project to develop in my days off.  So out I went today and had some fun, and came up with a few pretty decent shots, if I do say so myself.  Besides being kinda fun, I think this project will help loosen me up and help me in expanding my “comfort zone”, with regards to approaching strangers…

So far, so good. :o)

Here’s what I did… I simply walked around asking interesting looking people if I could take their picture.  Sometimes they said yes and sometimes they said no…  The reactions were interesting in themselves.  Some people literally jumped in front of the camera while others said “no thank you”.

Guess what this guys said? He said something to the effect of “I’m seventy five and look at these muscles!!!”  I have to give it to him.  I was impressed!

Pittsburgh strip photo muscles

This guy was sitting out drinking coffee with his grandson from VA.  An interesting face, for sure…

Pittsburgh strip photo grandpa

This lady posed for me wearing her new hat.  Do you like my hat?  I do, I do, I do like your party hat.  I really have to take my business cards next time.  I think people wouldn’t be afraid I was going to Photoshop their heads onto some nude midget or something… :o)

Pittsburgh strip photo hat

I’m a sucker for pretty girls and it’s even better when they’re the “down to earth” type… The kid in the background is a little curious as to what the heck I was doing…

Pittsburgh strip photo girl

And when I asked this guy if I could take hip photo, his wife asked why… I said he looked interesting, and the wife laughed and said that “he sure does…”  He and I hit it off right away.  We ended up talking about his NRA life time membership.  A great guy (with a gun) and he showed me his “carry permit” too!  I tried to show him mine, but I couldn’t find it… :o)

Pittsburgh strip photo NRA

So that was my first installment of what I hope will be a series.  We’ll see…

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