This photo was taken aboard a ferry in May of 2010 about midway in the San Juan de Fuco Straits, a waterway extending from the Pacific Ocean to the area between Vancouver Island, British Columbia, and the Olympic Peninsula, Washington State. It was a moody image even in color. In black and white the few passengers seem isolated and estranged, unsure of their place or even where they're going.

It's a seafaring reference to the famous Edward Hopper painting, Nighthawks, in which strangers are together, but separate in a cheap 1940's restaurant. Critics have found it portrays isolation and despair. Interestingly, Hopper is seen as influence in the photo realism school of painting.

The image was taken with a Canon 30D body and EF 15 - 85 MM lens. Settings were 1/60th of a second, f9, with an ISO of 100. The color image was rendered black and white in Photoshop.