Candid Photography.

Sometimes what makes photos good is that they’re candid. Maybe the intent was for a posed shot, but what turned out is a candid moment before the player was ready.

The 1976 SPC set has some of those and they end up showing guys that look more approachable. I can relate to those guys.

Unlike Topps which had the luxury of selecting from many photographs, SSPCs likely had a limited selection since they had to get in and out with their photography as fast as they could. And that turned out to be a pretty good thing for us.

Steve Hargan has that split second of surprise. That’s what my face looks like when I forgot to take the trash out (and the truck’s passing by). A good complementary card to Topps Hargan.

 

Denny is lost in thought. A few more seconds and he’d be looking at us, or maybe they’d make him look at the sky. This pensive state is much more interesting. It’s the look I have wondering about upgrading my Topps Doyle card full of print streaks.

 

Here are two different sides to Willie Stargell. There’s no way I could get away with looking as cool swinging a bat as Topps Stargell. But SSPC Stargell seems more like an everyday guy.

And some players look just the same in Topps as SSPC, like Bill Hands. Looks like he’s been ready for 10 minutes and now just annoyed. Will you just take the picture? We’ve all been there… relatable.

By the way, I’ve finally got some extra SSPC cards available on COMC (look here for SSPC or here for over 800 other cards).