“I like your coat”
“Thanks, it’s 100% Cashmere.”

Today, I met up with Spotlight celebrity MrJohn and his friend Spartan for a Leeds photo walk. I was held up meeting them due to a march taking place along the main high street. I did stop to see what was going on, and I even contemplated asking some for portraits but thought it wasn’t in the right spirit of things so I moved on.

I also picked up some prints from Jessops and dropped into Topman to drop off Lauren’s photo. I had a bit of an awkward moment as I went to the women’s personal shopping desk and asked for her and the service assistant called out and when she came out it wasn’t her. For a moment, I confused myself, thinking 'was it her that I’d taken a photo off?', 'had she changed that much?' Turned out there was another Lauren working in the personal shopping desk, in the male section - d’oh!

I met the gents in the Corn Exchange, and we made our way to the market. On the way, portrait opportunities came about for both MrJohn and I. John took some of a girl taking a cigarette break in a bright green coloured doorway, and mine was of Lewis here. I liked his coat and, as John commented, it fits in nicely with all the stylish gents I’ve been finding.

As has become customary when with MrJohn, I took his portrait wearing this hat. It’s a type of hat normally worn by men from the Sindh area of Pakistan. You can be the judge of how he looks, just don’t mention bras ;) The portrait came about when J asked a market stall holder for a portrait who unfortunately refused, but had a hat on his stall to try out. The stall holder claimed the genuine topis (hats) can fetch up to £250 with real gems!

For lunch we stopped off the brilliant Café Moor where we chatted and enjoyed the mint tea. Spartan showed me the camera he had bought from the WY Cameras shop in the Corn Exchange, and I was impressed at what he had got for the money. It was in mint condition, no scratches, marks of any kind. In fact, it looked like it had hardly been used - a real bargain.

We also bumped into Tony, who J took a photo of a few weeks ago. It turned out he was old friends with Kada, the proprietor of Café Moor. Tony had some kind of photographic project in mind for J and took his details - watch this space, perhaps. I say perhaps because Tony is one of those people who is slightly off the grid, no mobile or email, and when I asked him how people got hold off him he simply replied, “If I need to find you, I will.”

We wandered around the market some more, post-lunch, picking up a new rucksack for J, and finally made our way to the Trinity centre where I’d mentioned there was a mobile repair shop for Spartan’s cracked screen. That is where I left the pair, having to return to work.

Thanks for another fun and eventful day guys, see you again soon!


Humans of Leeds