This is a picture I did not take
of a promise, a repeated photographic promise, the kind I usually make
when I'm out in the city with my camera, when I see something I want to
photograph and say, "I'll get that on the way home," but as far as routes
go, I prefer loops instead of out-and-backs and rarely return home the
same way (even though I know there's a string of pictures to take if I
did), but inevitably, there are new things to see, new shots to take or
pass by, and after a few months of this, the city becomes not just a
visual map of all the things you've photographed, but of all the places
you haven't -- the views you've passed by because you were running late to
meet a friend you hadn't seen in months, or because you wanted to save
something for next time (if you didn't save a shot for next time, perhaps
there'd be nothing to shoot next time), or maybe it just feels better to
know that there are places out there waiting for you, waiting for you to
arrive when the light is a little bit better, when the wind dies down,
when you put the viewfinder to your eye and everything looks exactly
perfect.