AP Photo.

Very rarely does a single image depict so many things in such a powerful, and concise way. Today’s lead image, a photograph of President George Bush and President Elect Barack Obama in the Oval Office is one that should be studied for all its meaning.

For a photographer, the first thing I noticed is the extreme wide angle that creates a super distortion of the horizon lines. The Oval Office in all its “Ovalness”.

Second is the subtle reversal – Bush on the left and Obama on the right. It again makes the outside photographer wonder if that is Bush’s regular spot, or if it just a random asynchronous happening.

Third, and most revealing, is the distorted wide and oval effect give the sense, the visual sense, of being inside a bubble. Now, it’s a new president’s turn to enter the bubble. The old one, beaten down, slips out through a slit in the bubble, and fades to grey. History inside the bubble. Now we start to see what we have from all sides at once.

LK with very healthy stocked Rainbow Trout on the catch-and-release area of the Blue River, Oklahoma.

We made our way to the Blue River in Oklahoma early Saturday morning, watching the thermometer on the truck drop after every few miles of white lines.

What started out at 48-degrees F., quickly dipped down to 34 within a few miles of our 90-mile destination. It was one of those moments, not unlike the moment on the boat in “Jaws”, where Roy Scheider says, “We gotta’ get a bigger boat.” But, in this case, we gotta’ get a bigger coat. No gloves and a one mile bike ride to our destination, I could already feel the pain. Borrowed gloves. The only way to overcome the pain, was to think about two hours ahead when the temperature would already be pushing 70.

We arrived at the end of the line, on the northern reaches of the Blue River, and started the bushwhack past the “Designated catch and Release” sign. It looks obvious that either a) the distance alone keeps folks pretty much out of the C-n-R area, or b) folks do get that far, but prefer not to release. No worries for killers, as the sign also reads Nov.1 to Feb.29. I can imagine the stampede that comes in March 1 to clean out the big, healthy fish before the warm weather kills them off.

Nice slab of a Rainbow. These fish are as healthy as can be found in Oklahoma, although larger fish roam the Lower Mountain Fork.

There are shallow branch creeks that are cut deep into the Oklahoma loam, that run beside the main River, and I managed to catch a couple of smaller, very healthy Rainbows that were slurping in the current below some brisk runs. Nothing larger than a 7’6″ two weight would do for my skills in these tight quarters, and with as much attention given to the backcast as the front, it did the trick.

We moved upstream where the River opens up to what I call water-park conditions, where easy long waterfalls reach all the way across in staggered formations bridged by clumps of tall grass, and healthy plant life. The great number of falls clean and aerate the water to an amazing extent. Once the sun was higher, it became very easy to see down into the water in several places.

LK read the water perfectly, and pestered a handful of trout that were hanging behind a huge boulder upstream. I was looking into the shade of a pool that was below him, and managed a decent probably 16-inch trout much like one LK had caught earlier.

All-in-all a good day with only two more souls seen on a Saturday morning in the area, and plenty of water left on the table to ply on another day.