Shaddup-and-shoot!

(Photo by my aquacise-instructor.)

—“I’m probably mistaken,” I thought to myself. “But what I see here are my first attempts at photography eons ago.”
My aquacise-instructor had been to a park in bitter cold at the north end of Canandaigua lake.
The light was fantastic. I did the same thing with my silly dog perhaps the same day. The lake was frozen as far as my eye could see.
The sun was out to the south. It reflected off the lake ice, a thin horizon.
She unholstered her iPhone and started photographing. I almost did that myself, but didn’t. 89 bazilyun geese were huddled on the lake ice trying to keep warm. With the sun behind they woulda silhouetted. I also abstained because I felt this lady would be my only audience, and I already caused enough trouble.
But the light was fantastic. She flew her photographs on Facebook.
I’ve come a long way over 40-50 years. No longer is photography a feeble attempt to make myself feel talented. Back then it offset my tortured childhood, and I’ve gotten good at it over the years.
My artistic bent is always at play. My brother and I take train photographs near Altoona PA. (We’re both railfans.) From him I learned the importance of lighting.
Years ago an Altoona railfan showed me many good train-photo locations. But I look at some of my early photographs with him, and “the lighting is awful!”
Photographing into the sun tends to silhouette content, which is often okay, except you hafta know content will silhouette.
As always, what yer camera sees is not what yer eye sees. But it’s gotten better over 40-50 years. Shadows used to overload: they printed black. Your eye would compensate to fill in detail. Photography has improved, and beyond that Photoshop® — good old Photoshop — can bring out detail in shadows.
But 40-50 years ago I wasn’t so cognizant of lighting. I still wasn’t until recently, when my brother made me more aware.
Plus the lighting-jones can lead me astray. The lady made a point: “shooting into the sun can be fun!” she commented.
Witness her photo above. I have many of my own photographs that were immensely successful despite “the lighting is wrong!”
Her photos remind of my first attempts at photography, more demonstrating my mastery of technology than art.
A Smartphone masters technology for you. (And her.)
At least she’s putting a foreground into her photographs, perhaps not intentionally, but maybe so. (I doubt I was.)
That’s applying a rule I learned from experience: “Every photograph needs a foreground to be successful.” That lake was dramatic, but needed a tree and benches for comparison.

• “Shaddup-and-shoot” is a rule my brother and I have about train-photos. Just take the picture; it may look pretty good. Digital images — in digital photography — are dirt-cheap. Many of our exceptional photos are pot-shots = “shaddup-and-shoot.”