While photographing the Alberta Legislative Building in Edmonton back in September 2023, an unforeseen situation came to humorous fruition. A group of young guys were circling the colorful, illuminated fountains at Violet King Henry Plaza on their electric scooters, popping into and out of my composition (unbeknownst to them, but mildly irritating to the photographer).
A minute or two later, one of them approached me to ask if I was a professional photographer, to which I affirmed, also stating that I was visiting Edmonton for the first time from Seattle. Interestingly, this impressed the fellow and he went back to his friends to relay what I had said. All of a sudden, the group of them uniformly approached me and asked if I could photograph the five of them. They wanted to document this rather random moment of their friendship and — of course — share this moment on their “socials”.
I hadn’t arrived prepared to capture portraits, especially under very low light conditions. It was already well into the night when I had met the scooter guys. However, when they all implored in harmonious unison in such a polite way, it was difficult to deny the request. I readjusted my tripod and conducted a brief photo shoot. The results are the featured photos in the slideshow below. One of the guys emailed me later, and I sent the photos to him to share with his scooter buddies.
Unfortunately, one moment that could not be captured took place immediately after the impromptu group portraits. The scooter guys were curious to see what I had captured and had asked to view the images. The five of them, as well as two of their female friends, encircled me.
Somehow, we quickly ended up in a huddle, each of our heads connected to the next (akin to that of a group of athletes before a sports game), all staring at my camera’s liquid crystal display screen as I displayed the pictures. Their responses indicated that I had done a good job. Also, the fact that none of them were shy about huddling in such close quarters with a stranger who looks like me — in stark contrast to my own introversion — made for a relatively endearing moment which I can only describe from memory instead of photography.
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