Stranger 2 of 100 Stranger Project

anonymouscuban

Stranger 2 of 100: Vince, Friendly Neighborhood Conductor

I met Vince while taking a ride down to Fisherman's Wharf in SF. He is a conductor of one the Hyde & Powell cable-cars, although on this day he was collecting fares. He approached me to ask why I was carrying two cameras - I had my D700 and D300 bodies. The former with a normal zoom and the latter with an ultra wide angle.

We discussed the reason for the two different lenses and that I carried to bodies so I don't have to switch lenses. He explained that he recently bought his first DSLR and asked a few different questions about lens aperture and why the lenses I had are so much more expensive that the kit lenses that came with his body.

Vince has been working the cable-cars for 11 years. What struck me about him is that he was so happy and seemed to love his job. He told me that he used to drive a bus and he had a very different attitude then. He never spoke to any of his patrons. Later while working the cable-car, he realized how much better he felt when he engaged with people and found that most are very friendly. He also said that many of his customers are visitors to San Francisco and he feels a responsibility to make a good impression on them.

It was a joy talking to Vince and he made the ride on his cable-car a nice experience.

zoomer

I just noticed you are actually on the cable car when you took this. Is the car moving along...?
You really got some nice isolation on him in this shot.

anonymouscuban

zoomer wrote: »

I just noticed you are actually on the cable car when you took this. Is the car moving along...?
You really got some nice isolation on him in this shot.

Yup. I was inside the car and we were moving. He had made is way back to the end of the car. He was standing on the rear platform so I got up and walked to the middle of the car and told him to pose quickly. I cropped it to 4x5 because the car roof was slightly in the frame. Didn't think it added much so out it went.

The other shot - 1st stranger - was also taken while riding the cable car but the day before. That was quite interesting. I was seating and she was standing right in front of me. So I decided what better chance than to chat up a pretty girl and talk her into letting me take a photo her to post on the interwebs. It worked.