Dr.db Loc: Central Point, OR

Posting this here because I have a number of unrelated questions - for our consideration...

First, a little story: Last month, I was at Crater Lake overnight, shooting what turned out to be a surprisingly quaint set of photos (as pic #1) with long exposures under a near-full moon - mostly a fun learning exercise for me, with plenty of rejects - but this is not really about that... ;)

In the morning at about 7:00, I went over to the Lodge to try and find some coffee, with camera in hand, of course. As I came around to the lake side, I suddenly found myself at a photo shoot with none other than our own Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), striking his superhero pose (pic #2), and all of a sudden I was paparazzi - shooting the photographer shooting the Senator. I got a whole bunch of stills, and some mostly bad handheld video with an occasionally amusing audio track. Their photographer (with 2 assistants & LOTS of gear) got a lot of shots of me as well. At one point when I walked into the lodge, one of Wyden's staffers hurried after me to ask for my contact info, and I asked if she could send me the photographer's contact info also, to which she agreed. But I'm pretty sure she just wanted to run an instant background check to make sure I wasn't dangerous, and of course I have not heard from her since. And despite various efforts, I have not been able to figure out who that photographer was, because I wanted to send her some shots of her working, and I'd also be curious to see her shots of me hiding in the vegetation, etc...

So, following this experience, I have some questions & some photos for you guys, ...for your consideration:

1. Would you regard it as completely amateurish to be enamoured of the effect of the sun blasting into the top of a photo such as in pic #3? And on a personal note, is this one of those "phases" that old-timers have gone through before and "been there, done that" (sorta like shooting a full moon in a clear sky)?

2. A related question - Do you think pic #3 is any good at all? Please critique me to death on this one, because I just plain do not know! I was trying to get about 50% less sun flare in the shot, sort of as a time reference, but between trying to frame it right and staying out of her way, that's the best one of its flavor that I got.

3. If you were the hired photographer, would you care at all about seeing other peoples photos of you at work, for your own marketing purposes or otherwise, or...

4. Are people like me nothing but a total irritant in a situation like that? (For the record, I WAS doing my best to stay out of her way and out of her shots, but she did purposely shoot right at me a few times - I have it on video! And I was there at the tail end of a paid shoot for a tourism company as well, so I was sort of at the location for business anyway.)

5. Should I try and sell some of the video to Senator Wyden's Republican opponents? It may be entertaining for the bits where he's getting makeup and she's telling him what a rock star he is, and he does the strategic clothing changes, his best "model walk", his geekily awkward posing, etc....

6. DOES ANYBODY KNOW THIS PHOTOGRAPHER? pic #4

...reminds me of a gingerbread house

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oh. my. gawd... really?!?

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ouch. I think I got a better shot than she did!

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Do you know this photographer?

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minniev Loc: MIssissippi

I don't know the photographer but the poor senator should fire/sue whoever had him pose like that. You could have a lucrative blackmail operation if you want. Perhaps you could offer to "sell" the file for a good price. No one should be allowed to pose that dreadfully in a beautiful location like Crater Lake.

I like to fool with sun flare too, but am no expert, so I'll hope someone else will offer an opinion. It's a challenge to control, and it'll take over everything if you're not careful, creating lovely purple and green blobs everywhere. However, that might have improved the senator's posed image...

Frank2013 Loc: San Antonio, TX. & Milwaukee, WI.

It's pleasing for what it is, nothing wrong with it compositionally. Just work it some more in pp.

Dr.db Loc: Central Point, OR

I have been suspecting that I should go back to the raw original and have a stab at it again from scratch... Thanks!

selmslie Loc: Fernandina Beach, FL, USA

Your narrative was worth the price of admission. All we needed was #2 but the others added context. It shows that having an ego is a prerequisite for running for office.

It's humbling for the rest of us that have egos but try to keep then out of sight.