Another picture from this weekend

The story behind this picture:
Saturday morning, we headed over to the local cafe in Chappell Hill for breakfast. Our table was in one corner of the small diner and I had my back to the room, but there was a frame with glass on the wall, so I could see the reflection of the room very clearly. On the complete opposite corner of the room, I saw an older gentleman drinking his coffee. I mentioned to my friends that I'd love to take his picture, but just as a passing comment. Through their encouragement and pushing, we ended up asking the waitress to ask the other waitress to ask him if we could take a picture of him. He obliged and I asked him to sit back down at the same table.
I really liked his rough look and that he completely represents small town people in his appearance and demeanor. I wasn't using my own camera and using a Nikon at that (that's a whole other story) and he was already on his way out when we stopped him, so I only took about a minute to take his picture. I wish I had more time and my camera and variety of lenses, but that's the beauty of just catching an image 'in the moment.' And I think it's great that he was sitting in front of a Coca Cola sign, which is an icon of small towns, almost a snapshot of the past. There's a sense of simplicity and comfort in this image.
So, I introduce you to 'Walter.'

(This post was written with the help of Amy Littlepage because I'm soooo not a writer and I had a hard time putting my thoughts about this scene into words that would make sense and possibly create the same feeling of nostalgia in others.)

Monday thoughts

The weekend was great! We stayed at a bed and breakfast in Chappell Hill so that I could get some work done and others could relax. I'm about to head out to a workshop with Mike Colon today so I can't say much else at this moment. But here are a few pictures for today from this weekend.