Today's front page of the Coloradoan features a photograph of Betsy Markey. Yesterday the Coloradoan published the same photograph in an online portfolio. The photo doesn't improve with repeated viewing. It's haphazardly composed; brimming with spurious detail; didactic in its depiction of an election-night champagne toast; and almost mean-spirited in its unflattering presentation of its subjects. The photo looks like a snapshot rather than the work of a photojournalist.

Betsy Markey – the subject of the photo – won her election as the Northern Colorado Representative to the U.S. House, in a race that generated national interest. Many races in Colorado generated national interest this year. So, as election-night results came in and the defeat of regressive politics became more and more apparent, I wanted to see – as if I was there in the same room with the politicians themselves – what it all looked like. Especially for the races and politicians in Colorado, where we've been saying for many months that if Obama won Colorado, he'd win the election. I turned to my local newspaper – the Coloradoan – to view its online coverage and photographs. (By this time, it was the next morning.)

The Coloradoan published two online portfolios of election-night photographs, which I've hyperlinked above – one portfolio for the Republicans and one for the Democrats.

Rich Abrahamson photographed the Republican response to their night's election loses. His photos depict the disappointment and dignity of people who are seeing their hopes denied. (And when did someone ever capture such a sympathetic photo of Kevin Lundberg?)

Michael Seamans' photos of the Democrats – including his photos of Betsy Markey – pale by comparison.

I won't belabor the differences between Seamans' and Abrahamson's photos, but if you compare the two portfolios, you'll see how a photographer can bring us closer to an event or obscure it.