This post begins with the kind of photograph I’ve avoided making for years. Decades ago, at the beginning of my professional journey, newspapers continually asked us to take group photos, winners of sports events, church groups, garden club officers, people shaking hands, etc., all of them posed. Most of us referred to those as “grip and grins.” In the years since the birth of social media, this type of photo has taken on new life. I still don’t like them, but for some reason, this one works. Friday evening, looking for a 4th of July holiday weekend setting, I saw this group of family and friends gathered on the banks of the San Gabriel River in Georgetown. The light was warm and crisp, the group enjoying fish they’d caught earlier. The only issue was they spoke only halting English, and despite almost four years of studying Spanish in both high school and college, my Spanish was lukewarm at best. But we managed to communicate well enough after explaining I was taking photos for a newspaper. Be yourselves, I urged, but for a while they were focused on posing. Finally, I took the opening photo. Not posed. With that one taken, they continued enjoying their relaxing afternoon, allowing the type of photographs I sought. Included are a father and mother, their two children, a grandfather, and another couple, close friends. It all seemed to work. The grandfather offered me a Coca Cola, not accepted, but an appreciated kindness. Photography is a language, its communication not bound by mere words. It was a good evening, even with a grip and grin. 
