100 Strangers #001 – Todd Sampson

I had the pleasure of listening to a speech from Todd at a conference keynote lunch today – a very motivating thing indeed – I embarked on my Project365 (now 56 days in) to develop my photography skills, taking a photo every day, experiencing life, learn some new things and definitely trying to become more creative (something us ‘accountants’ generally are not).

I realised pretty quickly that NONE of my photos were portraits.  I started looking around flickr at portraits that I liked, and stumbled across a group called ’100 Strangers’ – the idea being to walk up to a complete stranger, talk to them, and ask to take their photo.  Then repeat another 99 times.  This group was filled with people on that journey, pushing themselves out of their comfort zones.  I was excited to try it, but almost paralysed by fear of doing it – after all my ‘accountant’ introverted tendencies shone through.  The last few days I’ve been lurking at the flicker 100 strangers group, reading others experiences and wondering if, and how, I could do it.

Todd relayed some stories from his amazing life so far (he’s only 41) explaining that “Creativity has the power to change the world, but fear, undeniably has the power to stop it from happening.  Consciously balancing both is the key to success”.

I decided then and there to take the risk, push me out of my comfort zone, and ask Todd to be my 1st Stranger … I did it, and he was happy to.  Thanks Todd.

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NB: While Todd is a stranger in the sense that I’d never met him, he is well known to many Australians.

Todd Sampson is the CEO of the Leo Burnett advertising agency in Australia, but probably more famous as a regular on the hit TV Show, The Gruen Transfer.  He’s climbed Mt Everest unassisted (i.e. solo) and is a co-creator of the Earth Hour, a global warming initiative with the simple premise that you turn off your lights & power for 1 hour … it started in 2007 with 2.2million people in Sydney, Australia … last year, more than 1 BILLION people participated in more than 4000 cities across   128 countries …. this year it’s on 26th March @ 8:30pm.