Julia and I walked past a cafe close to her flat, and she noticed a friend sitting alone at an outside table, having a glass of white wine.

"There's Berthold," she said, as she approached him at his table and leaned over to say "Guten Abend."

I liked him immediately, although I don't speak much German and had now idea what they were conversing about. While watching them chat, I decided I HAD to try to get some shots of him.

I pulled out my iPhone and launched Lightroom Mobile so I could shoot raw. Hiding the phone under my arm, aimed in his direction, I clicked the volume button several times as he talked, grabbing various expressions and reactions. 

After I got back to Julia's, I opened them and adjusted them in Lightroom Mobile, then showed them to Julia, who shared them with her mother, also a friend of Berthold's.

In the end, he was pleased with the photos, so I decided to make some prints of them for him. It was enjoyable hanging out with him as he dropped by my flat to pick them up. Julia is a kind translator.

Bertold has agreed to let me photograph him for real. 

My plan is to shoot film and to use cameras made right here in the former DDR (East Germany). I have a Pentacon Six that will be perfect for it, but also a couple of EXAs, a Practika, and a Werra. Since the Pentacon is 120mm, I'll probably shoot that.

In talking cameras with him, Bertold told me he has his father's old cameras. I offered to use them to shoot his portrait, which I think would be pretty cool.

We're still making a plan. With winter here now, and Covid-19 surging again, my guess is that project will have to wait until Spring 2022.

You can see the few, simple, Lightroom steps I went through to go from camera to final product here: 

https://lightroom.adobe.com/learn/discover/45942bde-35f2-4c3a-9b24-685fcc6c9d11