The Spaces Between Us

On the one hand I go to Starbucks to be with people, and I've made many friends there over the past year. Most nights I'm sitting at table with a bunch of other people, and we're talking about any and everything. It could be the day's latest hot news story from the TV or the Miami Herald, perhaps just a rumor circulating about town, the weather, what one of us had done that day, maybe where somebody was planning on going for vacation. Other days, while there are people around, they are total strangers to one another, sitting alone. I've always liked this photo. This is one of the lonely times. My face is mostly in shadow as I sit at that table by myself. You can't really see an expression on my face, lending an air of mystery to the picture. Further away a woman sits alone with her coffee at another table. Two people totally disconnected from one another, complete strangers. Living in different worlds. The perspective from the ultra-wide angle of the 15mm lens exagerates the distance She's really less than 10 feet away, but the distance is there, almost infinite. I'm aways amazed at how well my hand can "see" a composition. I was holding the camera in my right hand, aimed back towards myself, yet I was able to compose so the top of my head is just inside the frame. The automobile on the far right is likewise just inside the frame, with the front bumper at the very edge of the picture. My head is neatly framed by the columns behind me.