Early in the day I’d spotted this amazing wrought iron gate on Drottninggattan and hoped to find someone for whom it would serve as a fitting background.

Late afternoon I wandered back past and met Carly. Originally from Georgia, her orange/black spectacles indicate her move north to college in New Jersey. I now guess that’s Princeton, which (whilst being awesome nonetheless) should no doubt have inspired some suitably partisan war cry on my part – Go Big Red!

Carly is a classics student at the start of an amazing adventure; visting Stockholm and Copenhagen at the start of a journey down through the Alps and into Italy where she is studying Italian through to Christmas time.

In terms of creating the portrait, her friend Sabba helped with the gold reflector camera right, whilst she held the sunfire disc. I never use on axis flash with glasses anymore, so although the 600EX-RT and softbox is mounted on the camera, it’s switched off.

I really liked how Carly and the background interacted to give what I feel is quite a vintage feel. Her well matched hair, glasses and knitwear contrast nicely with the bluer notes of the background, but they all have that consistent stylistic thread somehow.

This is portrait #66 of my 100 Strangers Project – check out the group page and get involved.

Finally, I’m now live on Facebook; www.facebook.com/Flatworldsedge