Click-click-click-click-click!

“If **** is one of yer Facebook-friends, what ya do is go to his Facebook to see all the fabulous landscape photographs he posted.”
“Is that how it works?” I asked. “Seems not long ago I was getting Facebook notifications for every post a Facebook friend made. I never understand Facebook. Looks like they changed something.”
I was talking to *** *****, a lady I once worked with at the Canandaigua Daily-Messenger newspaper. We both are ex; me retired, and she laid off.
**** is also ex Messenger. He moved to Denver. Together we did the Messenger website.
****, like me, fell to the allure of photography. With me it’s trains (I’m a railfan), with him it’s landscape, especially if weather is dramatic.
Weather is more extreme out west than here in Western NY. And landscape more interesting.
Giant thunderheads tower over purple-mountain majesties, and amber waves of grain.
**** sees it and photographs.
Another friend and I are discussing whether photography is art.
He suggests it isn’t when it’s so easy to snag an excellent photograph.
*** and I discussed this. Ansel Adams, perhaps the most famous photographer of all, was in Yosemite Valley, and had only one chance to snag his famous “Half-Dome” photograph.


Moon over Half-Dome. (Photo by Ansel Adams.)

One of my best photographs is one of 12 I took in quick succession. (Multiple exposures = “motor-drive.”)
After that I could jazz up the photograph with my Photoshop-Elements®.


Last or second-to-last. (Photo by BobbaLew.)

There’s Adams in his darkroom, burning-and-dodging his 8-by-10 negative to get the print-results he wanted.
I do that too, but on this computer. No more darkroom for The Keed.
Composition also plays a part.
*** noted how she and her husband (deceased) would photograph the same topic. Yet his pictures looked better than hers. It was his eye for composition, versus her alleged lack thereof.
“There are things I’ve learned,” I said.
“—Every picture needs a foreground. I’m at the park with my dog, and a couple is photographing the pond with their hyper-expensive camera, usually with a gigantic telephoto lens.
‘I hate to butt in, but I suggest ya move back 30 feet.’
‘I do that, and that picnic table will obscure the pond.’
‘For viewers to get a handle on what they’re looking at, ya need that picnic-table. Tree-trunks too.’


”Step back 30 feet.” (Photo by BobbaLew.)

—Simple as possible:
‘Goodie-goodie. No sky to distract; just woods in the background.’


Goodie-goodie! (Photo by BobbaLew.)

—Frame if I can get it: “That overpass will frame the subject.” Various siblings objected, but with a frame viewers can more easily make sense of what they’re looking at.


The overpass is the frame. (Photo by BobbaLew.)


Ditto. (Photo by BobbaLew.)

—Modeling if I can get it. That is, my subject partially in shadow.
Gotta be careful though. Shadows can ruin a picture. There are locations I can’t take because they’re too backlit if the sun is out.


Modeling exemplified. (Photo by BobbaLew.)

All of this is figgerin’ into whatever I take, and I’m sure **** does it too.
So there’s **** bombing along in the Colorado outback: “Wow! Lookit that sky!” Unholster camera, engage artistic input, then click; or perhaps as in my case click-click-click-click-click!

• “****” in Denver is photographer at Rocky Lakes Photography.
• The “Canandaigua Daily-Messenger” is the newspaper from where I retired over 11 years ago. Best job I ever had — I worked there almost 10 years (over 11 if you count my time as a post-stroke unpaid intern [I had a stroke October 26th, 1993, from which I recovered fairly well]). (“Canandaigua” [“cannan-DAY-gwuh”] is a small city nearby where I live in Western NY. The city is also within a rural town called “Canandaigua.” The name is Indian, and means “Chosen Spot.” —It’s about 14 miles away.)
• “The Keed” is me, Bob Hughes, “BobbaLew.”