100 Strangers In One Year (or so)

As part of a personal challenge, I've started a new project - 100 Strangers. I'm more of a landscape and abstract/macro/fine art photographer, I don't do portraits, and definitely don't do weddings. I've played with street photography, but have always been shy when it comes to shooting people - Thus this challenge: Meet and photograph 100 Strangers in the next year (or so).

I've only started about a week or so ago, and have 3 Strangers on my Flickr site so far, but I've got others lined up and plan on getting more as I can. It's not been easy, and I have been turned down, but that's part of the challenge.

I encourage all of you to find a project that gets you out of your comfort zone and out shooting more. For some people I know, who are more comfortable shooting nature and wildlife, shooting landscapes is difficult, while those who (whom?) shoot weddings, can't figure out how to shoot anything else except people. Find a weakness that also interests you, turn it into a project, and go for it. Having a project is almost like having a goal that needs to be met... But in a fun way.

Here's the description of the basics, taken from their site www.100strangers.com

100 Strangers

Step out of your comfort zone to a new level of portrait photography: take 100 portraits of people you don't know.

The idea

The One Hundred Strangers project is a learning group for people who want to improve the social and technical skills needed for taking portraits of strangers and telling their stories. The method is learning by doing.

The project is lots of fun and improves photojournalistic skills. During the process you might expand your every day living experience - and who knows, maybe you will even get a couple of new friends during the process.

We welcome both beginner and advanced photographers. You may be new to photographing strangers or already have experience of this type of photography.

The challenge

Take 100 photographs of at least 100 people you don't know. Approach a person or group of people and ask for permission to both take a photo of them and to post it to the flickr 100 Strangers group. Get to know your subjects. Who are they? What is their life like?

Try to tell a small story with each photo you take. This may be a story about the person or how you felt approaching that particular individual. You may have, for example, tried a new approach or used a new photographic technique. Try to learn something from every encounter you make.

This site

The project can be seen at the 100 strangers group in flickr. This site is to showcase the project outside the flickr framework.