It would be a lie to tell you I wasn't enjoying some green beer like everyone else, but I also had my camera with me, ready to shoot if something seemed appropriate for the assignment. While walking through the Lexington Ridge Apartment complex, I found a party in building Q. Inside, there were various people playing beer pong. I realized immediately that I loved the layering on the table. So I started shooting.
The first thing that struck me was how hard it is to get random people, who are unaccustomed to me and my camera to STOP LOOKING AT ME. Obviously we all have this problem from time-to-time, but usually people who are the subject of a photo story are told to ignore the camera and just go along with their day; they get it pretty quickly. But it has obviously been hard-wired into the brains of all college kids at CMU that Camera = Stare. Wish this wasn't the case :) So, it took me a good 15 or 20 minutes of just pretending to take photos for people to finally get the point. I didn't even press that button, but they didn't know that. Even after this, there were a few times the party-attendees still reverted back to the staring-mentality.
But here's what I got:
This is Jim Gerhart, 26, and Jough Lenneman, 32. They are both students at CMU.
I'm really happy with this photo because of all the layers, not just one. The beer cans, the cups, the two guys, the ball in the air (my favorite part), the paper towel roll, even the festive CMU banner on the wall. It all adds together well, in my mind at least, to something that really shows that night and how intensely these guys were taking their beer-ponging.
So, hopefully you like it as much as I do. And don't worry, they won the game by three cups :)
