In the center of the small Mexican border town of Tecate, there is a well-kept Plaza surrounding a bandstand. Wrought iron benches encircle the bandstand, occupied at mid-day by Tecate residents who chat with their friends, relax in the sun, or nod off to sleep. Photographing such a place as this is really a form of “street photography,” another major source of travel picture clichés. Most street scenes are chaotic, jumbled renderings of people walking down a street. To bring fresh vision to bear on street photographs, we must find ways to simplify the structure of the picture so that the body language of the subjects is clearly defined and without distraction. When I brought my cameras to bear on Tecate’s Hidalgo Plaza, I searched for a simple background, and found it in the stone base of the bandstand and in the shadows surrounding it. This backdrop gives precedence to the bench sitters in the foreground and to the large open area in front of them. Using a 24mm wide-angle converter lens, I moved in on the fellow sitting on the bench in the foreground, and shot him for a while, using his body language as the anchor for my images. Eventually someone else wearing a western hat came by, and when he did, I photographed this scene as he and his shadow slip away from the man on the bench – leaving him alone. And that’s what this picture is about - loneliness. I would like to know what the man sitting before us might be thinking at this moment, and where the other fellow may be heading. This image is strong enough to ask such questions of its viewers, taking it out of the realm of cliché photos.