I was assigned to illustrate a story on a proposed homeless tent city in Spokane. The reporter’s suggestion was to photograph a holiday dinner for homeless at a local church. I skipped shooting that event after seeing this group gathered in an alley behind the church. I just walked up to them and introduced myself and asked them if I could take their picture. In most cases this could go either way, but I was surprised when the all agreed. At that point they just ignored me as I slowly snapped away. There were technical challenges to overcome with this image. This photograph looks like it was taken during the day. In fact, it was nighttime in a dark alley lit only by an overhead streetlight. I jack my ISO to 3200 and turned on vibration reduction in my lens. I think I was shooting at around a 1/15 of a second. I like this frame because of how authentic it feels. Each expression is different and the guy holding the Elmo doll adds to the mystery of the image. Nikon D3s, Nikkor 24-120 mm f/4 lens