When I received a text message from Jasmine Karlebach inquiring if I could take photographs of her rehearsal for “The Last Five Years” my heart near literally jumped inside of me.

And it did not settle, not once, until the following evening came to an end, Scott and I walking hand in hand towards my car in the dimly lit parking lot. I watched the street lights brighten in his hazle eyes, a triumphant grin upon his face. “I’ve learned Manual!” he stated quite proudly, understandably so. I cast him a very cheerful smile, still recovering from the emotions which had come over me in the past two hours. The entire way home we discussed how light tends to work and how the stage lighting had worked ever so vainly to throw off our light meters. He began to explain how he had to ignore his meter and increase the speed of his shutter, to which I explained, in near awe, that he had learned to override his light meter. Instead of wallowing in frustration at overexposed skin tones, he had actually made adjustments within 3 or 4 shots, starting to produce consistent exposures the entire evening.

I sat in front of my computer that night, skimming through my images with tired and anxious eyes. I was quite disappointed at how the lighting seemed to shadow the actors’ faces, but overall I was quite pleased with many of the photographs I had created. I stopped on one image, staring at it intently. I had not remembered capturing the actor at that angle, confused at the shot I was examining. I knew it was not mine, as the composition was not one I had done that evening. My jaw dropped as I realized that it was Scott’s. The grittiness of the noise reminded me of film, a medium I am ever so fond of, and within the constraints of the rectangular piece of art I saw a glimpse. A glimpse of a developing artist and an amazing eye. Oh, how beautiful those glimpses are!