Striking A Proper Pose, River Festival, Maidstone

Today was the day of the annual Maidstone River Festival so, of course, we had to go in and photograph it. We decided from the outset that we would work our way from the far end to where it ended in the centre of town, then go for a pint (to review the images we'd taken so far) and then do the whole thing again but in reverse.
I'm trying to get better at interacting with people and the main image was an example of this. I spotted this group dressed in their costumes (I think they were going to be taking part in the raft race later on) and asked the man on the right if I could take a shot of them. He affirmed I could and I joked "strike a proper pose then!" and he gave me his best bemused/bashfully awkward Englishman
look. We both laughed a little bit afterwards - it was just a simple, enjoyable interaction. With the second extra we met this lovely couple, Annette and John, who were sitting opposite their boat. We got chatting and I said I loved their outfits and would it be alright to take a portrait of them in front of their boat.
They were really friendly and said of course I could. I thought rather than just have them look at the lens I'd ask them to look at each other and they obliged. I'm not one hundred per cent sure the shot quite works but it was so nice to meet them and talk to them I just had to include the image. I feel I'm getting better at this kind of thing (I'm a natural introvert) so I'm so glad I'm giving it a go - what's to lose, more often than not you meet really interesting people, have a nice conversation and get a photograph!
The other two images could not be more different. I was trying to take on the fly, "hunting" type shots rather than my more usual "fishing" style. It's something I struggle with as I often find my timing is off or the composition doesn't work but in both of these cases I think I caught a fleeting moment I'm quite pleased with. The frames themselves are on the "messy" side with maybe too much going on all at the same time but I do think they represent the atmosphere of the event so I'll take that.
We had an enjoyable couple of hours, met some really lovely people and got our images for the day so, all in all, not too bad at all!