Know who you are

Ever since I've moved to Ireland 16 years ago, I have been fascinated by Ash Wednesday and its cohorts of bearers of the Mark.
Today I finally plucked the courage to go up to people and ask them if they wouldn't mind having their portrait taken (thank you Blipfoto!)

It is very reassuring to see so many people who have such great knowledge of who they are, what they believe in and what they stand for.
All these portraits were taken during my criminally short lunch break (25 minutes) and you can see how willing the participants were, happy and proud (in the best sense) of showing to the rest of world that they have no doubt about their faith.

I do not belong to the Catholic Church myself and I am not acting as its promoter.
I do not believe that all traditions are great, some are dreadfully hateful and destructive.
But I do have a soft spot for this particular one.

A big big thank you to all my models for a brief passing moment, unfortunately the portraits don't do them all justice but they would all have deserved to be the blip of the day.
There is only one spot though, and it had to go to the little old dear who asked me not to frame the shot below her eyebrows as she did not like the lines on her face.
How could I not oblige faced with such touching girly self-consciousness (ok, I cheated just a little bit, she had lovely smiley eyes).

Smile 1
Smile2
Smile3
Smile4
Smile5
Smiling nun. Unfortunately with eyes closed
Not quite sure about smiling to the nutter with the camera1

And finally a big thank you to Pete, I hope that you get to see this and sorry for not getting the focus right for smile 7