Sebastian Smith

The nice thing about being out and about in interesting places is that you often bump into interesting people. I was recently down in the gallery of the Royal West of England Academy in Bristol and bumped into a really interesting man named Sebastian Smith We went there because there was a big photography exhibition on, but on the way out I spotted an interesting poster advertising an exhibition of abstract paintings. So we thought why not check it out.

The exhibition was by Sebastian and he was sitting in the room and happy for a chat. As always in situations like this I end up having a chat, I can't resist a conversation with someone who looks interesting. So after a good natter about anything and everything Olga and I left the gallery and started to walk down the road on our way to another photography show.

The thing was, all the time I was chatting with Sebastian I kept thinking what an awesome face he has and what a great character he would be to photograph. So about 20 meters down the road from the gallery I stopped and told Olga that I had to take his photo. I turned around, run back to the gallery and asked him if I can do so. He said "sure", so we arranged a time.

A couple of days later I arrived at the gallery with my camera gear. I had an awesome time taking portraits of and having a chat with Sebastian.

The moral of the story is, if you want to take a photo of someone, always ask. The worst thing that could happen is that they say "no" and the best thing that can happen is that you get to spend a little bit of time taking photos of a fascinating person.