For the next forty minutes, the Best Buy transformed from a big-box retailer into a classroom. They moved from cameras to memory cards, then wandered over to the laptops because Elias realized his ancient PC would probably explode trying to process 4K video.

"I want something that can handle the glare at the stadium," Elias said, gesturing vaguely toward the hills. "And maybe some shots of the surfers at C-Street later."

As he drove down Main Street, the camera sat in the passenger seat. He looked out at the ocean, the Ventura Pier silhouetted against the fading light. He pulled over, unable to wait until graduation. He took the camera out, clicked the lens into place, and framed the Pacific. Click.

The sun was dipping toward the Pacific, painting the Ventura sky in streaks of apricot and violet, but inside the , the world was neon-bright and humming with the static of a hundred flat-screens.

As they walked, the store felt like a cross-section of the city. A couple was arguing over the dimensions of a French-door refrigerator, trying to figure out if it would fit in their mid-town bungalow. A group of teenagers were huddled near the gaming section, their faces illuminated by the flickering green of an Xbox demo. An elderly woman was being patiently shown how to use a jitterbug phone by a Geek Squad agent who treated her like his own grandmother.

The image on the small screen was perfect—crisp, deep, and true. He wasn't just buying a gadget in that store on Telephone Road; he was buying the ability to hold onto the sunset just a little bit longer.

Leo nodded, stepping in. "You’re going to want the long lens for the pier, but for the graduation? You need something fast. Let’s look at the autofocus specs."