Photo finish | Scene Through the Lens

Even though early voters have already cast nearly 75 million ballots, Election Day is officially just one day away.

The road to the White House passes right through Pennsylvania (with its 19 electoral votes, the most of any battleground state) and former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have been here and in Philadelphia’s collar counties so many times now (21 trips for Harris-Walz and 12 for Trump-Vance) that the road has been like (take your pick) the Schuylkill, I-95, Blue Route or 42 Freeway.

As we near the end of campaigning, here’s a look back at some pictures from the periphery of presidential politicking in Pennsylvania.

We’ve not only seen a lot of the campaigns, but many non-partisan get-out-the-vote efforts, from high school students to the mural project in LOVE Park created with Mural Arts Philadelphia and StreetsDept.com founder Conrad Benner to a rave with Bill Nye and Quavo.

I received a few questions about the Quavo image, wondering if I used filters “or something.” Nope.

Those are just soap bubbles that are severely backlit (with a low in the sky 10 a.m. sun) photographed with a telephoto lens (200 mm) and a wide open lens (f/2.8 at 1/4000th of a second) to get the out-of-focus little bokeh orbs. I also had to shield the sun by standing under a tent (my lens hood was not enough) at the far end of the park, and take a whole bunch of motor-driven exposures to get one with Quavo’s face visible. He was moving across the stage even as the bubbles were coming and going above the crowd.

And, I wanted to get the word “POLLS” in my frame so it would be more than just another concert photo.

Speaking of framing, remembering that what’s outside the main part of the frame is as crucial as what’s in it, I am always aware of the backgrounds in my photos.

I constantly pay attention to avoid having distracting utility poles and signs or tree branches growing out of heads. (What! You’re thinking post-production in Photoshop or other apps? You’re kidding, right? You must know photojournalists never, ever do that. See #6.)

After many assignments in dance studios, theater dressing rooms, beauty and barber shops I am especially careful to avoid getting myself in the many mirrors that fill those spaces.

A colleague shared this Instagram photo by Pulitzer Prize and World Press photo winning Evelyn Hockstein, a senior staff photographer at the Reuters news service, while we covered the visit to Philadelphia by Vice President Kamala Harris last Sunday. The candidate stopped in at the Philly Cuts Barbershop in West Philadelphia and was directed to sit in the “Lucky Chair” that has been a good-luck charm in previous elections. The barbers told her every candidate for elected office who has sat in that chair has emerged victorious in their race.

That’s me at the upper right. Maybe I was wondering “what’s with those cameras? What’s a nokiN? Or nonaC or a ynoS? And that American flag lapel pin is on the wrong side!”

Let’s just say that Evelyn caught me as I was sizing up the scene (apparently not quickly enough) to see which way I had to move to get “out” of the background of my photo. (I guess I was the only photographer with such a concern). I did realize that it was the cluster of cameras that actually made the image more telling than someone sitting in a barber’s chair. Even it was a lucky one.

You can see my version of the mirror photo - along with the other images as Harris said “victory runs through Philly” and went to church, a bookstore, the barbershop and a Puerto Rican restaurant before ending up at a campaign rally on a basketball court.

Since 1998, a black-and-white photo has appeared every Monday in staff photographer Tom Gralish’s “Scene Through the Lens” photo column in The Inquirer’s local news section. Here are the most recent, in color: