The return trip this weekend (two long drives) was not as fruitful — however, they were still good experiences.

• A BK worker was chilling outside and I asked her for her photo, and she was all “No, not with me like this!!” I think she was just embarrassed about the uniform (I should have pointed out that I was a BK worker, long ago … ) but that otherwise she’d have been game. I apologized and she said no prob, and wished me a good day, so as rejections go, pretty cool.

• I approached a worker at one of the convenience stores (just did not see any customers that looked like good prospects on the return drives) and she immediately pointed to a maintenance man type o’ guy and said “Take HIS pic!” I turned to him and asked him and he said something like “Hell no!” and split. I did chat with her for a minute, though — she was nice. She asked me why I was doing what I was doing, and I gave her the full three-barreled explanation — some friends are doing it so why not, it’s helping me become more observant, and it’s helping deal a bit with social anxiety because I’m approaching complete strangers regularly, and she nodded and said it was all cool … but no way anyone around there was going to agree to it. I said that some folks do — parents with cute kids, people who are drawing attention to themselves with their hair or a tattoo or whatever, and she said she could see that. So we wished each other well, and I was off. Again, for a rejection, pretty smooth.
• I wanted to get *something* … so meet Callie and Tolstoy. Her owner seemed nice and I probably could have gotten her pic with them, but meh, talkin’ with folks is really the main goal here, so it seemed silly to ask.

Ahmed was sitting on a bench with his grandfather (I suspect) at a rest stop between Friend #1 and Friend #2, and … well, you know the drill! This entire trip I went with the “photography project/need to take a photo of a complete stranger” pitch, no scavenger hunt mentioned.

It’s tough enough figuring out who looks approachable enough that they might agree to this, after all, without worrying about a long list of attributes and whatnot.

Grandpa was a little weirded out and definitely did not want his photo taken, but asked Ahmed whether he was cool with it, and Ahmed — as you can see — was absolutely up for it!

Sorry, Gramps, but Ahmed is quite a bit more awesome than you are.

We spoke (Gramps and I) afterwards, and he asked, reasonably, why I was doing this, and I told him what I’ve told others, somewhat awkwardly — that I’d like to write, and this is making me much more observant, and then I kind of trailed off …

I asked where they were headed — Virginia Beach — and he asked where I was going, and I said Wilmington DE, and he said I should try to check out a couple of sights there, etc. So he was quite friendly, just not big on the pic — too bad, because he looked good, had some character — it would have been a good photo.

After the whiny little rant last post, you’d think I’d throw in the towel on this whole admittedly odd quest, but fuck that noise … been there, done that. I’m back on the horse, and mixing metaphors with the best of them.

I went to visit some friends this weekend and decided to see if I could get some photos at, of all places, rest stops. And, holy crap, it worked — at least, on the way down.

This is Alissa, and she is AWESOME.

She was wearing a “What are you looking at?” t-shirt so she seemed to me to be the kind of person who might be up for a photo, and indeed she was! We chatted for a bit about my odd little quest and what it takes to talk to random strangers about taking their photo — I went with the strong “I know this is really really weird” almost-embarrassed pitch — and she agreed that it has to be tough, and it’d be easier if I were a chick. (ahemStephahem)

She was on her way somewhere with her brother/friend (seemed about the same age, and (or but) there was a resemblance); when I asked her for a little something for the caption — what she was doing there, or what she was thinking about — she went with the latter. Specifically, she was thinking how annoyed she was that a piece of cheese had dropped off of her sandwich.

Other notes:

• I tried to get a pic of her eating the hoagie — she was game — but it turned out a little blurry, as you can see below.
• I wish I had taken a pic of the lonely shred o’ cheese on the table, surrounded by lettuce and a bit of onion. Ah well. I was just so happy she agreed to the pic, I wasn’t focused on the rest.
• Her brother/friend asked me what I get out of this — a question that I was asked twice more this weekend. I really need to come up with a good, *short* answer.

Alissa, you rock, wherever you are! Your general awesomeness was exactly what I needed after the rejections from before.

Not a good day for the 1000-Person Project.

I’ll get to the foul ball in a moment.

Strike Two happened outside of Fire and Ice in Harvard Square, after a book signing and before dinner with a couple of people from a Meetup group.

The target was a quirky-looking guy with two kids, one of them a girl with stringy hair and a bright red cast on her left arm. Pretty good photo opportunity, but I think I blew it when I said “Do you have a second?” instead of my usual spiel.

In retrospect, “Do you have a second?” makes it sound like I’m about to start talking to them about how to save their soul.

He answered “Only if it’s really quick” and because I didn’t want to be a jerk, I said “Oh, never mind then” even though it would have been only a half-minute. So I let that opportunity go.

Strike Three happened when I hit Porter Square because, goddammit, I was going to get a photo. So far, all four photos have been of guys, so it was long past due to get a female-type, and two of them were chatting at a table outside the bookstore.

I approached, said I know this is weird, but I’m doing a photo project where I need to get a picture of a stranger, and do they have five seconds, and got a “No thank you” because I’m an old creepy loser, so, you know, fair enough.

I then apologized, crept away, and went to Shaw’s to buy some incredibly overpriced Builder Bars for the loooong road trip tomorrow.

At Shaw’s, there was a woman who didn’t grab a basket but was trying to carry seven hundred things, so I came to her rescue and gave her mine, and she was quite thankful. I decided to not ruin the moment by being incredibly creepy and asking her for a photo, but I think I could have. But … well, the Strike Two rejection was still stinging.

The Foul Ball was another screw-up on my part.

Meet Eric:

Eric and his family are visiting from Florida. Eric was cool about my getting his photo while taking his photo, and has an awesome face, very full of character.

Can’t you tell? Oh, that’s right, you can’t, because I didn’t get a follow-up photo of his face, only this one. Brilliant.

Concluding Thoughts:

1) I think that the best intro is the scavenger hunt intro. Kathy, one of the Meetup people, suggested that I say “photo project” as it sounded less weird, but I don’t know now that I agree. I think that it sounds odder, almost suspiciously vague, and that a “scavenger hunt” sounds cooler — AND it sounds like you’re being more helpful/special by getting your photo taken.

2) Women are going to be a lot more difficult to get photos of than men, because I’m a guy and it will seem creepy/potentially threatening. If I was shorter, with breasts (ahemStephahem) I think I’d have a lot easier time. Amazingly easier.

3) The best course of action is for me to flush my camera down the toilet and never expose myself to rejection of this type again. I may give it one more shot, though. Ugh. Ughughughughugh.

“Cute With Stripes”

• Taken at Lesley University after my pseudo-writer’s-workshop

• The dad was very cool about the whole thing. I have a hunch that parents with cute kids are going to agree pretty easily to having their photo taken

• Crappy lighting — my best pic so far by far, “The Felcher” (I know, huuuuge sample size) was outdoors, I think I need to aim for outdoors photos in the future

• The kid was wandering around all over the place, and as soon as I wanted to take a pic … just stood there staring at me, making my life easy.

• The caption he suggested isn’t bad, but I think he could have done better. People really should be prepared for this sort of thing.

• Taken at the CVS at the intersection of Route 28 and Route 16
• Seemed a little weirded out by the request but rolled with the punches
• When I asked him if he wanted to give me a caption suggestion, nickname, or what he was thinking about, he said “oh, nothing, go crazy”
• So this is just Brandon and his Beard
• Which, he told me off-the-record, is currently home to a small family of gnomes. He’s trying to evict them, but it’s tough, because his beard is rent-controlled and they just don’t want to leave.

Other notes:

• I wish I had gotten a better close-up of his beard, but it’s awkward to zoom in on someone when they’re standing there in front of you, already weirded out.
• Almost asked (at Chipolte) an annoyingly attractive couple if I could take their pic, but I have a feeling the guy would have thought I was doing it as an excuse to take a photo of his ridiculously hot girlfriend. 
• Damn, she was hot.
• Almost asked a couple of guys if I could take their pic — figured it would be a good ‘contrast’ photo, one short guy w/black shirt, one big guy w/white shirt, but it was a little crowded and I felt a little odd.
• I couldn’t pass up on going back to CVS to get a pick of B’s beard, though. (First time I was there it was just too busy.)
• I am MUCH more observant now than I was before. Looking at everyone trying to figure out if they’d make a good photography subject just does that to you. Pretty awesome. 
• I would prefer to get photos of people “in action” and then ask for permission, but it’s tough, and might get me punched.

In which The Grumpy Buddha attempts to take pictures of one thousand strangers (or groups of strangers) over some sort of long period of time.

And perhaps, with help. It’s quite stupid to post this before I’ve even figured out the system, but c’est la vie.

Rules to follow!

“The Felcher”

• Taken when strolling the Rock Circuit Trail at the Middlesex Fells. Some fires sprang up (from idiot 4th-of-July fireworks?) and they were making sure that they didn’t spread too far.

• I failed to capture his goofiness, unfortunately. He seemed like a cool guy, though.

• His boss suggested the name for the caption, and he clearly got a kick out of it, so there you go!