Idaho is a Photographer's Dreamland

My friend, Anna Workman, is an accomplished painter. She taught art in Minidoka County Schools. I walked into a restaurant near Heyburn that she recommended several years ago, and admired the paintings on the wall. She was there and explained the work she had completed. Anna also admires landscape photography. When I sent her a wide shot I took in the Bruneau Desert, she enlarged the picture and framed it.

I’m not a professional photographer, however. I worked with some. I picked up some advice about lighting and framing from them. A neighbor suggested I would get better pictures with a few clouds in a blue sky. He also said he’ll take 400 pictures and only believes one is any good.

I’ve taken more than 10,000 pictures over ten years and now store most on thumb drives. Some are throwaways, a handful are keepers. The desert shot came out of a 114-dollar camera. It had a wide-angle function.

One of the best pictures I ever took was using a disposable camera. I had just landed on an island off the coast of Maine as the sun was setting. I scrambled up on a pile of rocks along the beach and snapped a picture of a lighthouse. So many people asked for enlarged copies that I nearly went broke.

Idaho has not just 10,000 possible shots. You could take 100,000 and not capture everything. No matter where I go, I snap off a few photos, just to have a record. And once in a while, I strike gold!

Idaho is gold when it comes to images. Credit Bill Colley.