Behind the Camera

or In Front

Jean started toward the lake but Ed stopped her. He pushed his camera at her and made a running dive nearly as impressive as Wylie’s into the deep water. Again silence, with the incongruous quacking of ducks complaining about the commotion. Then the men broke the surface, Wylie and Ed blowing air from exhausted lungs and supporting a limp Matt between them.

From Rendezvous, the Second Falls Bend book, available from Amazon.

Ed Graham is the town photographer and newspaper editor, but in a dire emergency he came forward as a hero who changed the course of an event rather than just recording it.

I was for many years the family recorder of events, getting double prints to pass out to others of the picnic, wedding or whatever. But when you are behind the camera you are not a participant. You are less than social. When I came out from behind the lens I had more fun. I felt I was part of the event.

Other changes came along: electronic cameras and the near impossibility in getting film. Suddenly six dollars and a mailer did not get you 36 double prints. You had to confront the technology of a printer at the drug store. Shudder. So I stored pictures on my computer. Where they became useful for illustrating writing and book covers. All the covers of the Falls Bend books are pictures from our farm.

I still take pictures but of plants, wildlife and weather. The meticulously kept albums are still there as sources for scenes that are gone. You just take a new picture of what you want. Visuals can be so much more evocative of mood than words.

Prompt: Find a picture, even from a magazine, and write a mood piece about it: a description, character study or micro story.