After browsing my pictures online, a friend recently pointed out that I seem to have "a thing with windows". It had never occurred to me in quite that way before, but I admit it -- I have a bit of a fascination with windows.

A window can mean different things. In Hitchcock's "Rear Window", it was Jimmy Stewart's link to the outside world while he was confined to a wheelchair. It can let you watch life from the safety and comfort of your own home. An open window brings a bit of the outdoors inside. A closed window protects us inside from stormy or cold weather outside.

Windows are frequently decorated, especially for holidays. And is there anything as warm and hospitable as a house with candles lit in the windows at night?

A house can be just a standard feature of a house, or an important architectural detail. And in ultramodern office buildings, it can be the chief architectural material.

From the outside, a window can give us a glimpse of life inside. Or it can show reflections of the world. And what is a mirror but a window that shows us ourselves?

A window can be a means of escape in an emergency. Or it can be a means of entry. When my son, two years old at the time, locked us out of the house and couldn't unlock the door, I had to go in through the second floor window. While attending school in New York City, my sister shared a townhouse with several other women. Friends came and went through my sister's bedroom window because it was adjacent to the roof of the bakery next door. Which surprised the heck out of our mother the first time she visited.

Part of my fascination has to do with symmetry. I shoot things that catch my eye, and I tend to look for strong graphic images or geometric shapes. And windows can come in all shapes and sizes. They often stand in stark contrast to the rest of a building.

Of course, another part of my fascination is the I get to enjoy them... while someone else cleans them.

I don't do windows. I just shoot them.

You'll have to excuse me, I have to go take a couple of aspirin. I have a terrible window pane.