I do a lot of curiosity buying; I buy it if I like the album cover, I buy it if I like the name of the band, anything that sparks my imagination. I still like to go to record stores, I like to just wander around and I'll buy whatever catches my attention.
—a quotation attributed to Bruce Springsteen by the internet, as usual without specifying its source.
It is hard to choose an album cover, or, as the case may be, a page of content’s social image. I started with the first image, my nephew Dolan, looking over his shoulder, laughing to acknowledge some bit of badinage barked by a classmate. It’s the definition of a candid: natural and unposed. Its spontaneity makes up for the fact that it’s not particularly crisp.
But also it’s my nephew, the primary reason I went and dragged along all my gear. So I favor the image, but who wants to look at a bunch of pictures of my family besides a bunch of people in my family? I need to get Bruce’s attention. I want to quadruple my audience. I need a spike on my analytics.
So I changed to the second image, Joey and his gf. Joey is a kid I have taken a lot of pictures of over the years; his role as perennial front-runner in a lot of the races I covered inured him to the idea that I have a camera. He is not surprised to see me there calling his name.
The photo itself isn’t all I want. It was my first shot after stepping out of the darkened arena. The ASA is still at 3200 accounting for the lack of definition in the sky. I’d also just swapped lenses but hadn’t yet reset my aperture so I got the 5.6 I had been using with a long lens as the kids crossed the stage. In another minute I’d stop down to 1.8 and get that nice fuzzy blur in the background that your iphone calls “portrait mode.”
Either way, I’ll take it. It’s a portrait but not staged—two kids just turned, looked at me and smiled. They held up their new diplomas and we see two vibrant young faces in a classic moment of American transition. Here is a link to the whole gallery, maybe there will be some familiar faces.