Photo talk

"Excuse me, can I take your picture?"

These can be difficult words for a photographer. Flickr user, stpiduko, has no trouble saying these words. His People I Have Asked photoset is evidence of this. Of course, I wanted to know more and so I enjoyed reading his entry on how he goes about asking people on the street if he can photograph them.

An excerpt from the entry:

Q: Do people ever say ‘No’ ?
A: Success rate is about 90%, never really minded people saying ‘No’, what’s worse is, if I let someone pass that I wanted to photograph but didn’t bother asking.

Do I ever see people on the street I'd like to photograph? Yes. Do I always approach them? No. I went through my flickr photostream and found this photograph of someone I asked:



(Click on image for larger size.)

The young boy was preparing to take my order at a summer ice cream spot. I like that you can tell he takes his job very seriously.

I am currently wondering if I should be branching out and asking more people, "Can I take your picture?" Right now I'm borrowing a simple point-and-shoot camera but when I have a new camera perhaps I will try my hand at being bolder.