I went into Oakland early last Sunday to beat the heat. My plan was to photograph the skyline from across Lake Merritt. I took some average skyline photos, then drove a short ways to be able to shoot the courthouse from across the lake—like this. The rower helps.

Back at my car, I spotted a man dressed all in white parking his bicycle. I quickly changed lenses from a 50 to a 35 and spoke to him as he passed me. I complimented him (sincerely) on his outfit and asked if I could take his picture. He said I could, and when I asked if he was on his way to church, he said he was, but could take a minute to be photographed.

So I took one full-body shot and one from closer. I like the first one, but I think the second is a better photo.

My one regret is that I didn’t move him to a different spot to get a white car out of the background, so I had to spend the time to clone it out. I know, always better to get it right in camera.

On this day, I went out to take one kind of photos—cityscapes—but the shot of the day was a street portrait. Having read the accounts and advice of many street photographers, I know that that actually turns out to be the case more often than not.