Flavia (Stranger #99/100), Ischia Italy

Added 1475624560 by flatworldsedge.

Away in Ischia for a week's holiday, I headed out late on a Saturday night. The island's small main town offers a small sweep of restaurants along the harbour, and a few winding alleyways behind, where dim electric lighting throws interestingly distorted colour across the tired old walls of shops and apartments.

Even off season there's a charmingly exotic energy to it - a warmth in the air and the drifting scent of orange blossom beneath shadowy palm leaves.,

With a neat background to showcase the odd colour cast of the streetlights, with a hint of charming dilapidation, I met Flavia and her party of three friends zipping along. Over for the evening from Napoli, an hour's ferry away, they spoke only a little more English that I can manage Italian, making for an interestingly energetic, confused, but good natured ramble through the idea of the strangers project. Kindly, with the broad thrust of the endeavour outlined, they agreed to take part.

Flavia had an especially Italian intensity, which I thought the relatively plain background would showcase especially well, and so we started shooting with her friends holding reflectors, umbrellas and lights - all attracting a large excited, occasionally interactive, crowd. Nonetheless she held her own, offering an expression she queried as potentially "arrabiata", but full of character and more than a little edge.

We shot images of everyone, and all will be processed and shared with them via Facebook. I wanted to post this main portrait of Flavia first, ahead of a little more travel... I type this waiting for a delayed flight to leave LHR.

Flavia and friends - Grazie mille! Thank you getting involved, and I look forward to sharing your pictures in the next few days. I hope you all like the results and offer some return on the time we shared. It was great fun shooting with you all, and I especially appreciated your taking a moment out of your evening on Ischia!

This is portrait #99 of my 100 Strangers Project - check out the group page and get involved.

Info for Strobist;

There's a Canon 600EX-RT camera right in a white shoot through umbrella, about 45* up and yet only just off axis. Rather than use a light stand, it's held (along with the flash unit itself) by Flavia's friend Ornella. It's triggered with an ST-E3-RT on Manual 1/128 power, with a large silver reflector just out of shot left, held by Flavia's friend Martina.

More and more I'm trying to blend the strobe dramatically with ambient lighting; hence harnessed a bright streetlamp to light the background and offer some oddly toned rim highlights - hopefully anchoring Flavia in the scene more as a result, with the trade off of some harshed contrasts and odder colours than one might normally seek.

Every time I try to get back on Flickr work explodes into an even more frantic pace to keep me away! All exciting, and a nice challenge to have, but the reason for slower recent posting. Thanks for bearing with me!