So long, stranger

I had it all so carefully planned.
I'd walk to the East Pier, for it is the Dun Laoghaoire landmark.
And I'd photograph my stranger in the bandstand, with the lighthouse in the background.
To give the portrait a sense of location. When you get one shot at it (quite literally), there is no point in being too subtle. It's a good thing that I have a PhD in Advanced Subtlety!
I would pick a man. I know from experience that it is always harder to get a natural and relaxed portrait from a woman who has just been stopped on the street by a rubicund sweaty 200-pounder male stranger with a missing front tooth (and a disposable plastic camera) who has just asked if he could take her photograph...
I would picked an older guy, with strong lines in his face, a weathered look that works so well in black and white.
With dark trousers and a white shirt. That works so well in black and white.
Better, still, a priest! With the black shirt, and white dog collar. That works so well in black and white.
And holding a pint of Guinness. That works so well in black and white!
It was all planned, all decided.
A priest, drinking a pint of Guinness, in the bandstand, on the East Pier in Dun Laoghaire, with the lighthouse in the background.

So I left the Mistake Factory at 1 pm on my lunch break.

And photographed the first stranger I bumped into (I had to kick a few colleagues and smokers-I-have-already-photographed and grannies-with-shopping-trolleys-I-have-already-photographed and Carlos out of the way before meeting a genuine stranger), about 300 meters from my place of work.

I never made it to the pier.
Or the bandstand. Or the priest. Or the pint.

A premature shutterator I am...

Nic(holas) was most obliging in accepting to be the first frame on the spool (it being the first, I would not be surprised if it ended up being half of him).

I explained to him what I was doing.

I gave him the blipcard.
As I was handing it to him, I did realise that there was no url on it. Just " Blipfoto - save your life" and I did feel a little bit like a recruiter for the Redemptorist Church of Blipology.
But then I turned the card over and it read "Create your free daily photo journal today."
And I totally felt like a recruiter for the Redemptorist Church of Blipology.

The B&W disposable camera is ready to find a new home.
If you want it next, and if you haven't already received one from the ever-so-efficient Gordon in Blipcentral, please leave your name below. A name will be picked out of the hat (no woolly hats at the moment, a swimming cap it will be) at 2 pm tomorrow, and posted onward to the next Hunter of Strangers.