This is Liu from China. I met her in Arashiyama, Kyoto. I was drawn to her unusual outfit. She explained it was traditional Chinese wear in a similar way to the Japanese kimono. She was very talkative and said she was flattered to be asked for her picture. She comes from the Sichuan region of China which she said is one of the only areas to still have giant pandas. She is a student studying Japanese here.

It was a windy overcast day. I chose to change this to black and white because I found the bright red of her shirt just distracted too much from her face. I think I could have posed her a little better to show her incredibly small waist, which is not so apparent here.

This picture is my nineteenth submission in the 100 strangers project. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at 100 Strangers Flickr Group page www.flickr.com/groups/100strangers/

Tags:   100 strangers happy planet human family street photography street portrait monochrome black and white travel japan chinese girl canon 50mm street smile eye contact Asia Favorites

© All Rights Reserved

We are now getting the summer we should have had in August. What's more, the state of emergency has been lifted and we are allowed to travel to other prefectures. I met Yumi and her friends on the beach in Fukui. We got into conversation as we were diving off rocks into the clear sea around Suishohama.

Yumi is a Brazillian of Japanese ancestry, also known as a Nikkei. Following the start of the first world war in 1914 vast numbers of Japanese emigrated to Brazil, mostly for economic reasons. Brazil now has the largest Japanese population outside of Japan.

These days a lot of Nikkei are returning to live in Japan again for economic reasons.

Yumi had immigrated to Japan just 5 months ago with her mother and three daughters. There is a large Japanese Brazilian population in the area and they are mostly employed as a cheap source of labor in the large factories of several well-known companies. They can often suffer bullying and racism due to their lack of Japanese skills and cultural knowledge and are often looked down on by the local population.

I spoke with the three friends for some time. Her two friends were loud and rambunctious, Yumi on the other hand was quiet and softly spoken. They said the work they do was boring but the pay was much better than back home. For them, the quality of life was also much better. They don't ever plan on returning to Brazil.

Yumi looked really good in her red bikini and I was surprised to find out she was the mother of three children. I felt a little reluctant at first about asking for a photo but she was more than happy and seemed comfortable posing.

I had been shooting landscape and had a 28mm lens on. I couldn't see the screen clearly in the bright sunlight so I set the camera to automatic and took a few shots. But in the end, I was happy with how the shots turned out - the deep depth of field and her pose on the rock gives it a kind of retro feel.

Thanks for taking part in the project, it was fun!
This picture is my 25th submission in the 100 strangers project. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at 100 Strangers Flickr Group page
www.flickr.com/groups/100strangers/

This picture also appears in the Human Family Group www.flickr.com/groups/thehumanfamily/

Tags:   100 strangers beach beauty beautiful girl bikini monochrome greyscale Black & White canon 6d canon 50mm 1.8 stranger portrait travel portrait explored explore

© All Rights Reserved

Miku was traveling in a group of 5 friends when I met her at Nanzenji Temple in Kyoto. They were a lively bunch and were having difficulty taking a selfie of the whole group so I offered to help out.

They had traveled all the way from Akita, where apparently it was still cold and snowy. They were excited to be in the Kansai area and enjoying the moderately warm weather. I told them about the strangers project I was doing and asked anyone would be interested in taking part. Initially they were a little shy but Miku volunteered. She had a slightly mischievous character and seemed to be the joker of the group - she was certainly the most talkative. The other girls thought it was hilarious that she was being asked to model. She told me that she was just and ordinary girl and felt she was nothing special.

It was bright sunlight so I moved her into the shade under the old viaduct, and had her sit against the wall. I thought the viaduct would add a bit of visual interest. Looking back it might have been better to place her centrally facing forward and use the arches as a frame. I should also have asked her to take off the bag, We had to wait a short while for the background to clear of people. I shot at f2.5 because she was sitting side on - it could still have been a little higher I think. I decided to edit this in monochrome to accentuate the lines and curves, plus her bag was a distracting strong red colour.

I would disagree with Miku, I thought she was special. I particularly liked her bright character and cute smile - and of course those dimples. Thanks for taking part.

This picture is my eighteenth submission in the 100 strangers project. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at 100 Strangers Flickr Group page www.flickr.com/groups/100strangers/

This is also my eighteenth submission to the Human Family Group, which can be found here: www.flickr.com/groups/thehumanfamily/

Tags:   100 strangers human family humanity person people people around the world Girl Japanese girl Japan Japanese Street street portrait street fashion street photography persepctive architecture Kyoto temple cute smile dimples monochrome Happy Planet Asia Favorites

© All Rights Reserved

This is Lan from Shanghai. She was traveling with her boyfriend in Kyoto and was here to take photos for Instagram. I met her in Kiyomizu Temple. Her boyfriend was carrying quite a bit of camera gear including movie equipment.

She told me her name means orchid in Chinese. She is 24 and an office worker. Apparently she is actually wearing a cosplay costume - it is kind of a play on traditional Japanese wear.

They were both very friendly and pleasant and had no problem with me taking photos. It was a bright sunny day with a large number of tourists around. I moved her into some direct sunlight so as not to get any shadows on her face. I lined up her eye line with the detail on the temple building behind her.

I took 5 pictures at 2.8 to give a shallow depth of field but not too much as she was standing side-on. She was relaxed and looked straight to the lens. I liked this shot the best because of the way she is biting her lip. I ended up changing it to back and white because there was too much colour and it was distracting.

I enjoyed this encounter because they both seemed genuinely touched that a stranger would want to take pictures of her.

This picture is my 22nd submission in the 100 strangers project. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at 100 Strangers Flickr Group page www.flickr.com/groups/100strangers/

This is also my 22nd submission to the Human Family Group, which can be found here: www.flickr.com/groups/thehumanfamily/

Tags:   black and white monochrome street street portrait street fashion japan japanese girl asian cute eye contact 50mm beautiful cosplay travel kyoto girl my streets Happy Planet Asia Favorites

© All Rights Reserved

Finally, the state of emergency is slowly being lifted in Japan and we are able to get out and interact with people more. It's been a long time since I have added any photos to this challenge.

I was waiting for the sunset at a viewpoint above eastern Kyoto when an animated group of friends arrived. They asked if I could take their group photo which of course I agreed.

They were an lively bunch made up of what the Japanese refer to as "harufu" (half). They also referred to themselves this way and it means they are of mixed blood. This term is not used in a derogatory way, rather just to refer to people who are not ethnically Japanese. Reeves is half Philippine and half Japanese, her friends were similar mixes of Thai/Japanese and Philippine/Japanese, and European/Japanese.

They were all residents of Kyoto although it wasn't clear exactly what they did so I didn't push the question. They were very talkative, friendly, and in high spirits.

After I had finished taking their photos I asked if perhaps I could photograph one of them for a project (they were all good looking) Reeves was volunteered and they jokingly said 'she's the model'

The sun was setting so I turned her to face the light. I quickly adjusted my camera to a shallowish f2.5 but I knew the background would disappear due to the bright sunlight on her face. I took just 5 shots. I showed her the photos and she asked if I could send one to her Instagram account, which I did. It turns out she actually was an amateur model!

Thanks for taking part in the project, it was fun!
This picture is my 24th submission in the 100 strangers project. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at 100 Strangers Flickr Group page www.flickr.com/groups/100strangers/


This is also my 24th submission to the Human Family Group, which can be found here: www.flickr.com/groups/thehumanfamily/

Tags:   100 strangers stranger strangers Street street portrait street photography street fashion street style streets Japan philippine girl monochrome black and white 50mm humanity in explore explore explored

© All Rights Reserved