I was sitting with my friends Kennedy Munter and Leigh Arn working on homework when I saw Kennedy looking out the window of her dorm room at Taylor Place. It was weird, but it was also interesting to see just her face reflected in the mirror, surrounded by a pool of black. There was so much mystery in the image, yet there was also a sense of comfort and sureness from her face staring back. I feel like reflections make things seem real — “Yep. There I am. I’m actually real.” I quickly grabbed a light and angled it at her face to accentuate the reflection, ran down the hall to my room to grab my camera, and ran back.
I burst in and she was, understandably, giving me the strangest look. I explained to her that this was the shot I was waiting on. It was perfect. Her look remained, but I told her to look back out the window. I set the shutter speed to a fairly low 1/30 of a second with an aperture of f/4.5 and manually focused the shot to attempt to soften the focus on both objects. Leigh was making fun of me in the background, making Kennedy laugh, and I captured that moment. Almost as if it was meant to be.
Contact the photographer at Austin.James.Miller@asu.edu. Contact the columnist at courtney.pedroza@asu.edu
