A Picture That Tells a Story*

Hummm. When Dana was in college, she and I hiked across the Alps with a woman who was known as a mountaineer. To us she will ever be a person who is adept at recognizing other people's abilities and using them to advance her own cause.In our case the cause was showing her hiking across the Alps with her baby on her back and we were probably the only people crazy enough to sign on to such a hare brained (sorry HB) notion. Dana was designated expedition photographer and carried her camera. Since Dana made no claim to being a photographer, many lectures were forthcoming along the trail about the right way to take pictures. To this day, Dana and I will sometimes say, in unison, "you need a picture that tells mya story..."

I thought about this as I looked at the collection of pictures I took this morning--wildflowers, a little green frog, a sign warning of rattlesnakes, a child's red wagon with a jacket and a squirt gun in it abandoned by the side of the trail. I could certainly make up a few stories about the wagon, but it wasn't a very interesting picture. The little green frog didn't have much to say and was half hidden by a blade of grass, the wildflowers didn't have much to say either, especially through the lens of the camera.The rattlesnake poster said it all, but that alone didn't make it an interesting picture.

I think there is more to taking a picture than telling a story. A picture of two tiny acorn caps, still attached to a twig of last year's leaves which I placed on a galvanized drainpipe, told no story at all, but I liked the way it looked. The close-up pictures of wildflowers showed amazing detail but didn't tell the story that masses and masses of its brethren spilling down the hillside did. But masses of wildflowers definitely looked better to the naked eye. The little green frog came close, but the story was much better if you could watch him hop away and speculate how it is possible for them to travel so much distance in one hop.

I think a picture should ask a question, answer a question, tell a story or perhaps sometimes just look pleasing or interesting....

*This picture is of the Kunde Estate vineyard in the foreground with Hood Mountain and surrounding hills in the background. The untold story is the amazing shutter speed of my camera, since I took this picture from the car at about 50 mph.