Bob Crum

Without assignments on the calendar, and the weather lately quite hot, why not go standup paddle-boarding with the mermaids? Great idea until my frontal lobe considered it too dangerous given my propensity to collide with sea buoys, sail boats and whales migrating south. The parietal of my brain said HA, you know how sensational paddle-boarding is with the mermaids... GO! Not so fast, said the occipital part of my brain... visually processing my falling off the paddle-board. The basal ganglia assured me all would be OK if I went. Besides, with mermaids to help me back on the board... falling off frequently would be fun. It was. The plan was flawless.
Sorry, no photos. My Canon camera is not waterproof. Did I hear a boo??? Speaking of cameras, so many questions. Why do I need a digital camera when my smartphone camera does the job? Egad! Smartphone cameras are indeed improving at the speed of an asteroid. And they fit in your pocket or purse. All is well and good... for snapshots! SNAPSHOTS!

As most of you know by now, I often exhibit tendentiousness. Bias! By now, y'all should know that phonetography is NOT photography! Let me explain why... again.

Seriously, photography is so much more than the equipment. It's a creative endeavor... a process so engaging that all who partake experience time standing still. It's an indescribable feeling: The photographer... camera... subject... oneness in a creative realm. Quite mesmerizing! It's not unlike the high a runner gets. Or the feeling a plein-air painter on scene experiences.

For this delightful, surreal experience, one needs a CAMERA! Herewith I'll present (at no extra charge) a few important things your not-so-smart smartphone camera might not be able to do that a digital camera can.

Zooming. Look. Way off to the right, there on the breakwater, you see a vivacious mermaid. You zoom the smartphone but it looks grainy. Most smartphones can't actually zoom. Instead they re-frame and crop the image to create the illusion of closeness. Real digital cameras with an optical zoom lens can zoom into the mermaid and capture a crisp in-focus image.

Self-expression. An important component of creativity. Smartphones are fine for utilitarian tasks but offer limited visual options included in digital cameras. Without using an app, your smartphone's camera probably can't change your aperture for genuine depth-of-field effects or use long exposure to capture the motion trails of taillights in the city.

Nighttime phonetography = frustration. Most smartphones lack light sensitivity, fast image processors and long exposure times of digital cameras. Long story short, digital cameras have a much larger dynamic range for a much larger range of conditions.

The ability to shoot longer with a digital camera is a big benefit. Battery fully charged, I'm lucky to get through the day with my LG-G3 smartphone. Digital cameras employ battery packs good for 300-600 photos depending on the camera & how much you chimp. Remember, photo ops wait for no one. Takes less than 15 seconds to swap camera batteries or memory cards. Can you do that with your smartphone?

Resolution. Megapixels don't just sound cool on paper - they're crucial in determining the clarity of your pictures. Most smartphone resolution ranges between 8 – 12MP. Most digital cameras sport 20 or more megapixels. For social media on the Net, smartphone resolution is OK. For anything more than that, not so good.

Good news. A few present-day cameras now feature Wi-Fi. Aha! Now you get great quality photos and can send out them out instantly to your FB page via your smartphone. Best of both worlds and you are now out of excuses for not photoing with a 'real' camera.

This week’s photos are a select few left-overs from the Fair. So many photo ops. I hope you enjoy.

Happy photoing (with your camera!).

Send your questions, comments, suggestions to bob@fillmoregazette.com