Early in the day, shooting in the Latin Quartier I met fellow Flickr user Airos (check out her awesome fashion and food photography!), who’d accosted me to ask what I was up to… focusing at my feet and then assessing potential backgrounds in their blurred state. We’d chatted about my street portraits, and how I tried (and often fail!) to match a background and a stranger – but that I usually start with the background.

That’s what I’d done here – I had a nice background of painted window frames that blurred to columns of colour, and was just waiting for the right stranger to complete the scene.

Rich was the man for the job – his incredible T-shirt echoing the background and pulling it in an unexpected direction. Rich was over in Paris from the UK for a full two weeks, celebrating his boyfriend’s Birthday. He noted he was a little hung over; if this is his hair when hung over, then wow!

Rich – thank you for agreeing to stop, and for remaining affable and unflustered as your fellows wandered away. It was a pleasure chatting, and I hope you like your portrait.

This is portrait #49 of my 100 Strangers Project – check out the group page and get involved.

This being the end of the month I’m a little behind on conversations with contacts – sorry all. I’m catching up over the next few evenings, though work and Jessica’s third Birthday are keeping me away from normal usage levels. Hope everyone is well!