Scott Shephard Photography

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11-27-14 Just A Second

By Scott Shephard

There was a time when cathedrals awed people with their huge interior spaces. In the first half of the 20th century, transportation hubs, such as Grand Central Station in NYC, became the interior spaces that impressed. Today, it's indoor football stadiums. You can draw your own conclusions about what that says about the evolution of western civilization. Meanwhile, I'll talk about this photo.

I was standing on the southern staircase of this amazing place when I took several photos. Even as I was taking the series, I was thinking that there must be 10,000,000 other photos of this same view. I have a "make it new" philosophy of photography, which suggests that even if there are 10,000,000 photos of the same view, there must be something I can do to make my picture unique.

And so I played with a slow shutter speed and I liked the look this gave to the people who were scurrying to get to work on time. As I was about to move on, a couple came into my frame. Oblivious to my camera, they posed for a selfie on their own camera. And I got this photo. It's a "once in a lifetime" photo in that the three of us, along with all the other people in this frame, will never converge again. Ever. Think about that for a while. . . .

Canon 5DIII 0.7s f/8.0 ISO800 16mm