Telling Within Showing

[DwayneA]

Some book I just finished reading had one scene where in one paragraph, a character is looking at some pictures of another character's dad. The next paragraph talks about the dad.

What is the author doing here? What is the purpose?

[Matera the Mad]

Was the second paragraph straight narration or was it in the character's thoughts?

[DwayneA]

what's straight narration?

[Matera the Mad]

Anything that is not directly in the character's POV. Sometimes it can be hard to see the distinction, depends on how it is done. A character's reminiscing might become more general, less personal. I can't see how the paragraphs you are talking about are written, so I am talking entirely through my hat. Hmm...I'm not wearing a hat. I'm also distracted by something cooking in the next room ;)

[C.bronco]

Foreshadowing?

[Barrett]

Straight narration would be something like...
"It was a photo of his dad. The old man had always looked for reasons to go fishing, no matter the season or time of day. He'd spent his last years with a hand shovel always within reach so he could excavate nightcrawlers for bait. Even when he couldn't go to the lake, he sat on his porch with a rod in his hand, casting a weight across the lawn and reeling it back."

Character thoughts would be...
"It was a photo of his dad. John leaned back and studied the framed picture, recalling his dad's constant trips to the lake, his digging for nightcrawlers whenever he went outside, his constant practice with the fishing rod. John could still hear the fishing reel in his mind, a descending whirl each time his father cast a weighted line across the lawn while sitting on the porch. In his last years the old man had lived at the lake, even when he was stuck at home."

Not the best examples, but the first is straight narration, and would qualify as telling, the sort of information some people prefer be delivered in other ways, like dialogue. The second is character thoughts, a flashback for the reader.

[Karen Junker]

I'd go so far as to say character thoughts would be italicized, like: John ran his thumb along the ragged edge of the photo. You were a tough old man, but I miss you, Dad.

I'm sure not all thoughts would be italicized, but when it's something like the character talking to himself or someone else in his head, it would be.