Kaffee Mit Karl

I got an Email from Karl Georg Wolf in Germany a few months back. I'd originally met him through the Leica Photography forum on Photonet. http://www.photo.net He and his wife were planning on a few days stay in Miami and he wanted to know if I'd be free to get together for a couple of hours, have a coffee, and talk photography. "Sure" I replied and asked if his English was good enough or should I bring a translater. My ex, Claudia, is from Karlsruhe and we're still good friends. He asured me that his English was OK. He called when he got to town and since he had a rental car and wanted to tour the city anyway we agreed to meet at my local North Miami Starbucks which is right on U.S. 1 at 13503 Biscayne Blvd., and is easy to get to from both Miami Beach and I-95.

I brought along a couple of boxes of prints and he had no trouble finding the place. That's him on the left, his camera in his outstretched right hand with an ultra wide angle lens. He didn't get but a fraction of his wife in the lower right corner but the couple at the next table really make the picture! They were fascinated by our photographing one another, looking at each others photographs, and probably wondering what that strange accent was.

A week or so ago he sent me an envelope with photos from the meet. I still haven't printed the ones that I shot. I've been spending too much time fighting city hall, literally, about that illegal fence my next door neighbor put up two years ago. It's still there. He's got about 3 more weeks to get it to conform to code, based on when he was given notice. I'd like to know why he wasn't given notice a year and a half sooner. The department head seems incapable of giving a straight answer.