IT'S ONLY MY DOG WALKING HAT

[FUJI]

I see this lovely lady in her splendid hat on a regular basis, I did attempt to take a portrait of her about three years ago, but it wasn't really sharp enough, she was wearing the same old hat back then.

 

On Sunday she was walking her Whippet through the Super-Car Rally, so I made a pont of politelty requesting that she have another portrait taken.

 

After a split second hesitation, this wonderful smile lit her faceand her eyes twinkled... I hit the shutter:

 

I mentioned her wonderful headgear......................" It's Only My Dog Walking Hat".....she replied.

 

Best viewed LARGE............Click on Pic:

 

FUJI

[bugmeister]

That's a great street portrait. Full of detail and character, especially that hat, and with the background suitably low key but still with content for context.

[Barbara]

Don't think I can add anything more to Bug's comment

[KateW]

A lovely portrait.

[ChrisLumix]

Was the background really that high key, or did you process it that way?

[NannyFerret]

Perfect!

[FUJI]

Was the background really that high key, or did you process it that way?

Look closely Chris and you will realise it is a double stack of outdoor stainless steel cafe chairs.....they were extremely intrusive, so I had three choices...

1/ leave things as they were and get the busy background noticed.

2/ Darken the background until the chairs and the rest merged.....I tried that but it ruined the whole tonality of the portrait overall,especailly that distinctive old hat.

3/ My choice was to very carefully, use all of my processing skills, to step, by step, lighten it to an over all light tone.....this, I decided, worked best.

FUJI

[ChrisLumix]

It's worked out well

[Kobione]

Lovely portrait Fuji, well done!

[FUJI]

Thank you all......I gave the lovely lady a couple of prints of this, she was more than delighted, we had quite a long chat......apparently she has loved hats since she was a little girl in the mid 1930s, she has over fifty hats now.

Today, she was wearing a cloche hat with a big red Rose on the side......she looked great.......like me she is growing old with spirit, not just fading into a slippers, pipe, Zimmer frame and Tena pads existence and into oblivion!

Be eccentric......it pays!

FUJI