Brass cold

A wonderfully strange moment reflecting the great vignette of life that I was, unfortunately, unable to adequately capture.

Wandering around Kensington in Calgary, I stumbled on a trio of brass players entertaining the Christmas shoppers near this old telephone kiosk. As I was about to take their picture, I was distracted to find that the trombone player was a recent widower: I had known his wife well and been to her funeral. While trying to "catch up" on recent events in his life, the scene was stolen by a group of pretty young figure skaters on a scavenger hunt. They needed proof of having been in a telephone kiosk.

As they squeezed into the kiosk, they were briefly serenaded by the brass trio two generations their senior who had been charmed by their youth. I managed to get the camera to my eye and snap one shot. Then it was all over! They thanked me for providing the photographic evidence for their hunt before running off to the next listed item. The brass trio continued to play, now with extra gusto.

Despite the void middle, the poor light control and my shadow obscuring the trumpet player, I will love this picture for a long time.