Michael the Muso

Last Sunday I had the privilege of doing a family portrait session on the streets of London - literally...  On the way to Waterloo station, I came across Michael.  He was playing a Berimabau which looked very African and caught my eye (and although the origin of this instrument is not known entirely, it is very similar to other instruments played in the southern parts of Africa).

Not only did his unique instrument and sound grab me, he was sitting against a massive blue wall under a bridge and the light streaming in from the right was hitting him perfectly - soft, angled, muted light; what more could you ask for!

Not wanting to interrupt his playing, but also wanting to avoid looking rude, I put some cash in his basket and held my camera up to see if I could get the nod of approval.  He nodded and I took a shot.  He stopped and asked to see the images and to my surprise he was soooo taken by the image.  It's always awesome to see people react positively to my photography and Michael was definitely doing a  grand job of letting me know he approved.

I asked if he minded me taking a photograph of his face, I just loved the life in his eyes and his gradient beard, so much character in his face.  He said OK, somewhat unimpressed with my request.  I asked why he wasn't so keen.  His response was that he just gets a bit fed up with everyone taking cheeky snaps of his face when actually he would greatly appreciate it if people would take shots of him playing his instrument and went on to say that seeing as I had taken a great shot (in his opinion :) ) he was fine with me taking a quick photo.  After getting that shot, I went back to taking another shot of the initial composition that had grabbed me.  I must say, it was so great chatting to Michael, such a character and full of life.  I think this may have sparked a little side project in me - watch this space.

Here are the results.

Michael asked me to email him the images.  I got an email back from him today:

thanks for the comment and it was good meeting you as for the colours you caught it. M
He forwarded me some links on youtube if you're interested...