Back to college

My Ilford camera arrived yesterday, part of Blipfoto's 'When You're a Stranger' Project. I had to be in the neighborhood of Reed College anyway today, so I went there, feeling that after forty-five years of being a college professor, I'd be comfortable among college students. I was. There was an orientation program going on, lots of young people with tables offering sign-up sheets for clubs and organizations. These two young women were sitting on a wall, chatting, so I approached them with my proposal and my card. The strawberry blonde is Stephanie; the brunette is Hazel. I was drawn to them because I think Hazel looks like my granddaughter Bella is going to look in about seventeen years.

"I'm a photographer, and I'm taking part in an international project, photographing strangers for an online photo-sharing site."

"What kind of pictures?" Hazel asked.

Pulling the Ilford out of my bag, I said, "It's a little black and white disposable camera," and suddenly they both looked wonderfully relieved. Clearly, I wasn't out to do something nefarious, not with a disposable camera. Seconds passed, and I pulled out my Nikon, "And then I'd like to take one for the website with my digital camera." That seemed to give Hazel pause. I could feel the yes, then the no. A couple more seconds, and Stephanie spoke up,

"You're welcome to take a picture of me, if you want." Hazel moved aside, I aimed the little Ilford, shot, and it it had all taken just a matter of seconds. Then I took a couple of Stephanie for my Blip today, and with each shot we seemed a little more at ease. I said, "Would you like one of the two of you?" And Hazel moved in.

After that I asked for their names, and Stephanie explained she's a Sophomore, but this is her first year at Reed. She just transferred from Scripps. I asked why and she said she has friends at Reed, like Hazel, and it just felt like where she wanted to be.

I got Camera #9, and my picture of Stephanie will be the first portrait of a woman in that group. I'll be sending Stephanie the link to this blip and to the project. Stephanie, as you're reading this, be aware it might be as much as five or six months before the Ilford makes it around to 26 people, goes back to its point of origin in Scotland, and gets processed and uploaded. But come back to Blipfoto.com any time you like, and follow the project. There's more background on it here. All pictures made with this camera will be tagged 'whenyoureastranger9' so if you want to look at them as time goes by, just go to the fourth heading at the bottom of the main page, and you'll see Search. Click on that and enter the words 'tagged whenyoureastranger9' (no need for the single quote marks) and you'll get an array of thumbnails. Click on any one of them to get the photographer's writeup about the shoot. My thanks to you and Hazel!

Also a shout-out to Barrioboy, Fotodiario, and Felice: we're all on the same camera!