Maria does not pose for photos, and I don’t ask her too, posing makes both of us uneasy. We take what we can, hit or miss.

I was trying out my new art lens at the Round House Cafe in Cambridge, where we went for lunch Friday. The lens was a small, simple 35 mm with Russian glass and I told Maria I was just practicing with it, and she rolled her eyes and went on wither lunch.

She finished her sandwich and soup and very daintily and happily started working on one of Lisa Carrino’s achingly delicious Strawberry Galettes, a French pastry that is one of Lisa’s specialties.

Maria has an incredible sweet tooth, she gets grumpy and out of sorts if she hasn’t  had something sweet to eat. I make sure to look for cookies and sweets when I shop.

Her mother is the same way, both love sweet things, are skinny and never gain weight.

My portrait bell went off and I leaned forward and took this shot. Since it is a manual focus, I never know if I got it or not, but I lucked out this time and captured something new in her face. I loved the way her face was framed so beautifully with her Beanie Slouch hat, her colorful red scarf.

She was loving her Galetle, I was not ten inches from her face, and had no idea what the aperture setting was. This is the thing I love about the art lenses, which are manual and free of electronics. You either figure out how to take a photograph and learn the light or you just don’t get a picture.

I think I caught a slice of Maria’s attitude, she has a lot of attitude, and the Strawberry Galette is her friend. She looked quite at home in that moment,  as if we were in a Paris cafe.