I had never thought of myself as a photographer before. I still don’t. But after coming back to the Noguchi Museum in Queens, my mind insisted on focusing on great photographic opportunities. While at the museum, I imagined taking photos of the sculptures – and having photos taken of me looking at the works from wacky angles. Coming back, I saw a sand artist at Union Square, and I couldn’t help but think of the wonderful image the vibrant colors would create against a backdrop of gray-blue cement. I bumped into my photographer friend, and he convinced me to turn my ideas into my own pictures. We walked around, and I used his camera to create the images for the ideas that I had, instead of telling someone else to take them. These images were not spectacular occurrences, but everyday scenes. I knew I wanted to do something similar for Snapshot Day.

While I was riding the M15 bus to school in the morning, I knew this was my set. An excuse to take pictures of strangers, capturing the definition of the public transportation relationship? Perfect. Everything fell into place: I saw the bars of the bus and was inspired to take the photo in this spot. When I looked closer at the people, I felt even more compelled to take it, as the men had interesting facial features, such as the mustache on the man in the purple sweater. The purple sweater added a pang of bright color to the photo.

What I focused on in the frame was actually the woman looking over to see what street the bus was approaching, which is not in the frame. This reminded me of the photos we saw in class, which tried to bring the perspective out of the frame. To achieve this effect, I tried to used the Rule of Thirds, with the pole in front of the woman about a third into the picture and the man in purple’s face at the intersection of one vertical and one horizontal line. I also turned the camera so that the lens was guided toward the woman’s gaze. But while I find the gaze interesting, the lack of a visible gaze shows the disconnect between members of New York City — at least while riding the bus.