Lou Janelle

     During the early ’70, I was living in Rocky River, teaching at Bay High School and taking classes at KSU. I often went into the Rocky River Reservation with my camera to photograph wildflowers (photo #1) but I limited what I did because of the cost of slide film and developing. I kept a notebook of my settings to help me better my photography.  Photographing wildflowers became a passion. 

 

     In Spring of 1998,  I retired from teaching and soon after that I joined the Metro Park Photo Club.  I learned a lot from the members, from practice, and switching to digital.  Also about this time, I started giving talks about lighthouses.  Some lighthouses are difficult to photograph because you cannot  get back far enough to get in the whole Lighthouse, right? Thank goodness for Photoshop Elements and being able to merge photos.  The two lighthouse (photos # 2 & 3) photos are merged photos. 

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     Giving talks helped me focus my photography.  What do I want to show with this photo? What story do I want to tell?  I give talks on Ohio’s Prehistoric Cultures (photo #4), the American Civil War (photo #5), My Drive to Yellowstone (photo #6) and many more.

 

      Also being a Volunteer Park (CVNP) Photographer helped me focus.  (photo #7 & 8)  iNaturalist has helped my photography and my identification skills. The goal with iNaturalist is to take good enough photos for others to identify the species.  My photos have helped with the Ohio Bee Survey, and Summit Metro Park.  There are several projects for you to join in iNaturalist.  (photo #9 & 10)