Bob Crum

Considering the variety of 'photos of the week' published, I often receive questions asking how do I stay inspired? Answer: Life! In spades! Life in its multitudinous forms present unlimited fascinating photo opportunities every day, so staying motivated is easy.

Another question often asked by a few of my 1,286,328 readers is about a photo walk in Fillmore. Done! Last Saturday. I announced it here twice but should have advertised it on a billboard. Sad to say, not one photographer, or phonetographer, from Fillmore, participated.

Not only was the photo walk fun, but also an excellent opportunity to practice the art of "seeing." I've observed that too often, people look but don't 'see.' If a scene or object is seen without total apperception, looking is not seeing. Some conclude that photographers have a third eye, referring to 'seeing' what most overlook. And let's acknowledge previsualization (previs) with the 'mind's' eye, a topic for another day.

I scheduled the photo walk to begin at 5 p.m. to take advantage of the late afternoon light. What's better than downtown Fillmore during the golden hour for photographic inspiration? A photo walk is not unlike street photography. Street photography is a genre that I don't engage in often enough. Though photos made are often fortuitous, they are nonetheless revealing of life. Connect the dots.

Phonetographers continue to write about, ahem, the inconvenience of photography.

This topic came up during my discussions with my Truckee photography friend. Upon ruminating the subject, we mutually concluded that phonetography is all about instant gratification. To opine, it seems that the world, because of technology, is running at a much faster speed. It is often feeling like hyper-speed. No time to make a RAW photo, and later have to post-process it. Snap the picture with a cell phone and instantly zap it to social media. Every day, millions of phonetographers post snapshots on Facebook and Snapchat. All shot without any regard to composition, but so what? There are so many snapshots to see that at best, they get only a quick glance, then it's on to glance briefly at the next snapshot. The next day, who remembers the snapshots? Snaptography is like ghostography; we think we saw a photo, but we're not sure.

In spite of apparent obstinacy, I remain motivated to beat the creative drum. I'm passionate about photography because I'm enamored with creativity. But as my friend and I discussed, if creativity means nothing, it follows that photography means nothing. But I am not yet disposed to believe that creativity is kaput. Yet I remain befuddled. Photography is the perfect medium for those who like me have no artistic talent for fine art painting. So it seems that only two obstacles prevent or hinder more from engaging in the joy of photography: Cost of gear and editing software. I get that. But a quality point-and-shoot camera can be bought for far less than a large screen tv. And surely photography is so much more fun than watching a tv sitcom. Arguing this opinion is futile!

On the recent photo walk, a photo op magically appeared. It happens when you believe in serendipity. Truth be told, anticipating such possibilities, I scheduled the walk to include the golden hour before sunset. At the right time, I maneuvered into position to capture both the sunrays and the long, gorgeous shadow. Bidda-bing, bidda-boom: Ecstasy! BTW, the sunrays are done in the camera, not added during post-processing. The technique is revealed in the photo data.

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