Samantha

She was sitting on the bench at Civic Centre just right in front of Borders. I passed her twice before I approached her. It's really hard to ask a total stranger for a photo and there's that fear of getting rejected. I went for it and asked her politely if I can take some snap shots of her, explaining my purpose of taking street photos while trying to build a connection with my subject. I have to admit, it's not that easy to make your model feel relaxed, to trust me and my camera. Our chat was cut short when her friends arrived. But I'm happy that people like her give their time to be part of something relatively creative such as my street portraiture.

Someone asked me how many times I've been rejected. Only once so far. I spend 30mins to max of 45mins just walking around looking for the right person to approach. Unfortunately, there are nights when I don't have anybody to shoot because I can't find anyone who seems willing to be photographed.

Nationality: Kiwi