Figure 1 – Interior of the Sofra Bakery, Watertown, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2013.

Cartier Bresson aside, I am like many photographers shy about pointing my camera in the faces of strangers.  So I have to force myself, if just for the practice, to find nonthreatening situations and snap a few street photographs.  On a recent Sunday my wife and I ventured into Cambridge, really for the glory of the sunshine.  On driving home we found ourselves in search of the perfect Turkish coffee served up with Turkish pastries and if you want other middle eastern specialties such as the most wonderful lamb swarma ever.  The choice here is an obvious one for people in The Hub – Sofra Bakery in Watertown.  This bakery is the creation of two master Boston chefs: Maura Kilpatrick and Ana Sortun.  Honestly, I’m getting kind of hungry just thinking about it.

One of the elements, besides the food, that I love about Sofra’s is the subdued backlit atmosphere on a summer’s afternoon, the unassuming way the menu is listed on free-handed paper signs, and the cozy seating around round metal drum tables.  I have in the two figures here attempted to catch the coffee house atmosphere.  There’s nothing Starbucksian about this – just great food and wonderful deep rich coffee.  It offers a perfect opportunity at a bit of street, or at least coffee house photography.  Everyone is so fixated on all the goodies that they are oblivious to the occasional unobtrusive photograph – no flash of course.

Let’s see – taken with my Canon EF-S 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 IS STM lens in aperture priority at f 7.1 with an ISO of 3200.  Figure 1 is 18 mm at 1/125 s.  Figure 2 is 24 mm at 1/250 s.

Figure 2 – Interior of the Sofra Bakery, Watertown, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2013.