Coffee Society

November 10, 2017

For a nation of tea drinkers we seem to consume an awful lot of coffee. If you decided to open a chain of Tea Shops across England's multitude of town centres I'm fairly certain that you'd be bankrupt within a couple of months. Yes, I know, coffee houses aren't anything new in this country, the first one opened in 1652. It just seems to me that you can't throw a stick without hitting one, you'd think that would make it easy to get a cup of coffee; oh no it doesn't, every one of them has a long queue of English men and women eager to get their fix, and just like any drug it's costly too! As Larry David once pointed out whilst waiting behind a line of people ordering strange variations of latte's, cappuccino's, flat whites etc..."it just coffee and milk, why all the fuss, get on with it"! Anyway they do offer some photo opportunities, coffee society has its advantages. I think there may have been some kind of plot being hatched here, the woman on the left straining to listen in, that lady pretending to drink her coffee in the window isn't fooling anyone, blatantly a spy... of course I could be wrong, I usually am!

Yesterday I decided to ride the BMW 1200GSA to Stroud in Gloucestershire, over to Cirencester and back home, a big loop. I've considered buying some kind of video cam with which I can show you the journey, I think this may get boring really quickly, but I might give it a go. That would fill some space here at least, it was dull and spitting with rain when I arrived in Stroud. So I headed for an independent coffee shop and sat there, the shot above was taken from the hip. I never use this method, the camera is always at my eye, however why not give it a go. Felt as though I was stealing the shot somehow, I can see it's merits though. Yes, all that way and all I have to show of Stroud is some people sat in a coffee shop! The good news was that it was a great ride and that next I headed to Cirencester, the bad news is that I managed to press the shutter release just three times, Here's some quintessential tea drinkers walking their dogs in Cirencester -

You can see that it's dull, light wise I mean. The day before I was in Bath, a trip to the dentist. It was one of those bright sunny days we get when approaching winter, the sun quite low in the sky. I walked around for a while, decided to get a coffee in an effort to loose the numbness from yet another filling. I've decided that you could build a career taking photos of people in coffee shops or outside them smoking; ok, I hear you, no one will want to buy the images and then there's a £1,000 per month I'd be spending on coffee and muffins! Perhaps dentistry might be a better career path; mine has a plane and a boat, I've definitely paid for a wing, mooring rights and a couple of propellers over the years...just kidding, he's a wonderful guy.

That third one I would probably call "Conversation - Keep it Light". I liked it, lens flare adds to it...possibly! Just to prove I always have the camera to my eye here's one of a guy smoking outside Starbucks, my shadow is proof -

That's just about all I have for now. Next week I'm hoping for a bigger trip, maybe Cornwall. In the meantime I'll leave you with a shot that maybe a bit of a cliché, it's been presented many times before by lots of photographers, but that contrast between light and shadow never fails to catch my eye.