Day 71: Comic Celebration Trivia

2026-04-18

Limited permission was granted to use photos taken for these events on this site.

Hello! This busy week still hasn't ended yet; I've still got a few more events to get through.

I love this photo for so many reasons. First, the silly reasons: the photo hides a lot that you don't see. I've done a pretty good job at keeping my face off this website for now, so you don't see just how sweaty I am in this week of thermal heat, jumping around and capturing the best moments. But oh my god I'm ready to sleep now — and I just woke up to write this.

I'm able to photograph and archive a perspective that no one else will see. If I was attending this event as a regular participant, I would never get behind the host's table and capture this angle — it's not where a spectator should be.

But I snaked my way around some chairs, ducked under the new school videographer, squatted right in front of the trivia panel, and took this photo when everyone raised their hands to answer a question, hoping for a chance to claim a prize.

The camera takes photos for others to observe a moment closely. But it also allows me to look closely at artistic composition and challenges me to capture action and feeling in a single image, in a way words can't.

Still, I try to transcribe my feelings into words here on these posts, but lately I've been failing at that. The downside of the camera becoming a natural extension of your eyes and arms is that photography becomes a more subconscious habit rather than an intentional undertaking.

That subconscious habit means that I'm not trying anything new. I'm reaching into the bag of tricks I've collected and pulling out the same stuff I've done before. Different subjects, different events, sure. It's still enlightening for others to see. But it's not challenging me.

I want that to change. I want to resume looking at life closely and discovering new things, and I want to allow the photos to leave a deeper impact on me. Otherwise, it would feel like anyone could take this photo. And I hope that not to be true.

If you want a more eloquent telling of a similar story, the New Yorker let Leise Hook sketch the intimacy and importance of photography in the form of a comic — appropriate for today's photo, I'm sure.

Cheers,
David