Gentle .....

..... giant.

That's the best description for John in this photo. I bumped in to John today, he's a plumber and plumbed all the gas fittings in to my kitchen extension a few years ago. We got chatting and as he's a budding photographer himself the subject of photography came up and I took the opportunity to ask him if I could take a quick portrait shot of him, which he happily agreed to.

The only nearby backdrop were the wooden doors of a lock up. the lighting wasn't great and I took a few shots of him looking in different directions to try and get the lighting better on his face, but this is the first shot I took of him without any direction and I feel it is the most honest representation of John. Portraits should be about capturing the spirit of a person and although built like a brick s**t house, John is a really kind and gentle soul. He even kindly offered to pose for me again another time if I wanted to take another portrait when the lighting was better ( I will have to take him up on that offer when I get the DSLR )

In other news, this evening has been the Inaugural unofficial Ilkley Harriers bike tootle out to Bolton Abbey. After discussing the possibility of Monday night bike rides in the pub after last Tuesday's run, nine of us turned up for the ride on various bikes ranging from state of the art road bikes, to old heavy bikes that had been dragged out of skips. I went along on my mountain bike and had lots of fun trying to keep up with the much better cyclists. We made a rag tag group, but everyone had fun and next Monday's ride is already planned.

I took a few photos on the bike ride without checking the camera settings, resulting in some dreadful shots, so as this one is at least in focus and John was kind enough to pose for it, today's blip is John, the .....


..... Gentle giant.

Post script :

Thank you all once again for the lovely comments and all the stars and faves for yesterday's lightening blip. For a photo that was more luck than judgment, they were unexpected, but much appreciated. I've had a long day and and have only just sat down to eat, but I will do my best to catch up with all your journals before bed.