Look at this Photograph

Sami Weatherholt • March 18, 2025

They say a picture's worth a 1,000 words...

But I doubt people truely understand how long and hard it takes to write 1,000 words.

I mean, not for me--Ms. "I have to start putting maximum page limits on papers" but in general, it can be hard to write 1,000 words.

That's just over 3 and a half pages of writing!

Anyway...

At our meeting on February 26th, we had our presenter, Charlie Rumschlag, give a lovely talk about his Photography medium, and the various tips and tricks he uses when he goes out into the fields to capture images!

Charlie, who works under the title of "Brest Bay Photo" on his website, talked to the Art League and a few guests about what his photography skills were like, and how others could use the medium.

One of his main points was the discussion of lenses, and the differences of view.

For instance, in this slide he's talking about a picture he took with his phone vs. one he shot with his "fancy" camera--and how much distance you get between the two of them.

He also talked about Digiscoping, where you use a spotting scope or binoculars with an attachement to your camera to record distant images. It's also a manual focus, and has a higher fstop--so less light will come in and you'll get slower shutter speeds! Which means less blurry motion in your photos!

Personally, I always thought I had a decent eye when it came to shooting picutres, but I didn't know about all the different techniques and equipment that professional photographers used to get some of their more stunning pictures.

It's extrememly facinating to me, because it's a completely unique medium to have. To be able to capture a moment in time and tell a story--it's different than in a painting. You have to convey the message from your imagination in a painting, but with a photograph, you have to capture it perfectly to display the message in your head.

It's like a game of chance.

And there are so many things you have to do to get that chance to line up perfectly for you. It's not as simple as adding in a color or line to make the perfect impression.

You have to work with tools and the world around you to capture that image--and be creative while doing it some times.

Like using shadows to tell a story, or even flashlights to illminate things at night so you just capture an image and not the full background that could distract from the story you're trying to tell.

In the end, the entire demonstration was a hit and all that Charlie set it out to be: Fun, Informative, and Relevant for You!

And we had a full house, with a bunch of questions that spanded Charlie's time to take up the entire hour he had to talk to us!

And I for one, left with slightly more confidence about just using my plain old iPhone to be able to take pictures with it. Because it's all about how you set up the story you want to tell with the lens--not necissary about how fancy your camera is!

Thanks, Charlie!

And if anyone has any questions about his work or this presentation, I do hope you'll contact him at the above link to his website!