Sometimes you just get lucky, all of the planning, all of the practice and sometimes it’s just luck. I heard the street seller long before I saw him, he was hollering in Spanish up and down the streets of Casco Viejo. My Spanish is non-existent so I didn’t know what he was doing until I saw him stop with his plastic bags and hand over a palm leaf wrapped lunch to a customer. I was standing outside a very interesting building covered with beautiful textures and colours, (1) hoping that he would stop there. He did. I waited some more hoping for him to reach into his bag and hand over the palm leaf lunch or for the man inside to reach out. The door opened just enough and I could see the interior light bulb;(2) I slid to the right a little. I thought the image would be stronger if we couldn’t see all of the man inside. I waited intently concentrating only on the doorway. The man inside reached out with his wallet (3) and I started snapping away. I didn’t even know that the woman in the purple shirt (4) had been there until I looked at my photos on the computer. She is the strongest graphic element in the frame and I didn’t even know she was there. Sometimes you just get lucky. I just wish I had been lucky enough to have the car drive off at the same moment.
For a wider view of this building and more info on how I processed this image check out this post
-Russell Berg