Fourth of July 2003 — Virginia Beach

I’m really anal and meticulous about my photography. I planned this shot out two days ahead of time and pre-visualized exactly what I wanted. And then I went down early in the day to grab a piece of real estate on the sand before the crowds. Everything was in place — the show was about to begin. And then these goddamn kids started running in front of my camera and getting in my shot. I was so pissed off.

Even though I had an LCD screen on my little Coolpix 995 (3.2 megapixels, baby!), it was too small to see the shots I was getting out in the field. So it wasn’t until I sulked home, kicking the curb and grumbling that my plans had been ruined, that I opened the files up on my computer and totally fell out of my chair at the final result.

I wish I could go back and thank those kids, apologize for damning them to hell in my head, and give them copies of the image.