A CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) class is being offered in Fillmore starting on Tuesday, the 4th of February. The class is free and is made possible by FEMA grants. The CERT class and program is administered by the Ventura County Fire Department and supported locally by the Fillmore Fire Department.

The topics covered during the CERT training include general emergency readiness and response, fire safety and small fire suppression, disaster medical including triage and treatment, search and rescue, team management/incident command, safe travel and disaster psychology. The class provides approximately 24 hours of classroom and field emergency preparedness and response training.

The CERT class begins on Tuesday, February 4th and will meet from 6:00 to 9:00 PM on Tuesdays for 6 weeks with a disaster simulation drill at the conclusion of the 6 classes, on a date yet to be determined. The class and training are being conducted at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints building at 1017 1st Street, Fillmore.

The class is intended for adults with possible provisions for youth aged 16 to 18.

To register for the class or with questions text Steve Lazenby at 805-794-6094 or email Steve at steve.lazenby@ventura.org

Bob Crum

For hundreds of years phonetographers have been predicting the imminent extinction of dSLR cameras. iRule with my iPhone their rallying cry. Tsk tsk. Here in the 21st Century, dSLR and mirrorless cameras are flourishing. Viva la photography!

After last week's column, many of my traditionalist readers began to wonder if I succumbed to the dark side. Rest assured that one (lucky) photo of a honey bee from my Samsung S10+ does not make me a phonetographer. Yet!

I previously wrote that I'd spend a day shooting with my Samsung S10+ to learn it's strengths and weaknesses. However, life has a unique way of intruding and messing up plans. In the meantime, join me on a brief photographic experience involving 'real' photography. The kind that makes the hair on your head curl and your ears wiggle with a giggle.

We're going back to 1987 when I was shooting with a Canon A-1 film camera. She was sleek and beautiful and had dials and buttons. And the sound of the shutter was musical. But 40 years ago, photography was also exasperating. Shooting film meant shot budgeting was critical. A roll of film had a finite amount of frames - 24 or 36. Seldom did I shoot 24-exposure film - too limiting. In many situations, even a 36-exposure roll of film wasn't sufficient. Thank goodness the A-1 camera didn't have a 10-frame 'burst' mode. Brrrrrrrrt, next roll of film please!

As associate editor (writer and photographer) for the Southern Star boating & fishing magazine, the publisher assigned me to cover a week-long marlin fishing tournament at Green Turtle Key in the Bahamas. I know, a dreadful assignment. Thrilled until the publisher gave me five rolls of 36-exposure film and said 'don't come back without a cover shot’. Only FIVE rolls for a week-long shoot? Send Larry instead, I pleaded.

On the island, I had to choose one boat and shoot happenings on only that boat. What if? Fishing Monday and Tuesday, off Wednesday, fish Thursday and Friday with 3 p.m. lines in on Friday. As feared, nothing happened on MY boat all week. NOTHING! Doom and gloom ensued! Then, at 2:30 p. m. Friday, the deckhand yelled: MARLIN! And angler Doc Copage hooked up. Hallelujah! After radioing headquarters, it doesn't matter how long it takes to boat the marlin.

I had the last roll of film in the camera. As the angler brought the huge marlin close to the boat, I began shooting, judiciously, cognizant of the significance of the moment! There were several unsuccessful attempts to boat the mighty marlin. Twelve shots taken, 24 frames left. Later, when the deckhand had the fish by the bill at the transom, this was it! I fired off fifteen more shots only to watch the marlin slide back into the water. With only nine frames left, I was sweating but not from the hot Bahama sun. I quickly climbed up on the flybridge to shoot from above the deck and waited. As the exhausted marlin was finally brought aboard, I shot the last nine frames while holding my breath.

Shooting on a white boat on a brightly-lit ocean, both with copious amounts of glare is worrisome. Too much can go wonky. Anxiety gripped my gut like a vise. Concentrating on the composition, did I nail the exposure? Did I focus accurately?

Back in Ft. Lauderdale, with much riding on the outcome, the staff held their collective breaths during film processing. At last, the photo editor came out of the darkroom with two raised thumbs. Sigh! Frame number 35 of the last roll of film made the magazine's cover. Sweet success and fulfillment. Such experiences constitute the thrill and travails of photojournalism. And the passion continues. Photo of the week is the Southern Star magazine cover featuring my photo. Happy shooting!

Send comments, suggestions or questions to: focusonphotography@earthlink.net

Katrionna Furness

The Fillmore High School Swimming Records board has been update to reflect the historic wins of Katrionna Furness during her junior and senior year at the school, 2018-19. She broke every school swimming record except the 100 Breast, which she never competed in at FHS. Katrionna won the 2018 Division 4 100-backstroke title at the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) in May 2018, representing FHS. She was the first swimmer in Fillmore High School’s history to win a CIF championship in the sport. She also placed 3rd in the 100 Freestyle in 2018, and competed in the 2019 CIFs. Katrionna now attends Cal State East Bay, where she is majoring in Nursing. She competes on the Pioneers’ swim team, and continues to improve her PRs. She is also a dual athlete, competing on the college track team. Congratulations, Katrionna!

Donor Justin Turner, third baseman for the Los Angeles Dodgers, was looking for a "little boy who loves the Dodgers" to receive a signed baseball glove and Dodgers picture.

Lynda Miller, Support for the Kids Founder was the person who received the glove originally and chose Fillmore as the city to locate a Dodger fan.

Several young boys and girls were found, but none met the highest criteria to receive this great honor. Finally, after a week of searching, he was found! Miguel Martinez is a straight-A 6th grade student at Fillmore Middle School. He is well liked by his school peers and teachers. His 6th grade Counselor Steven Jerrems says; "Miguel is an outstanding individual in every sense of the word. A compassionate friend, respectful to all, and a dedicated student. I cannot begin to imagine a more deserving or kinder kid to receive Justin Turner's signed glove and picture."

Upon receiving Justin's wonderful gifts by Ms. Miller at the Fillmore Middle School office lobby, surprised and full of emotions, Miguel said, "It is exciting and a once in a life-time thing. It's cool to have received this gift. Most of my cousins like baseball, too."

We are all happy for our student, Miguel Martinez, and his proud parents, Angelica Andrade and Jesus Martinez.

Bob Crum

Are you keeping your New Year's resolutions? As customary, I made one perfunctory annual resolution, one that I know I can keep: I resolve not to make any New Year's resolutions! See, I win all year.

A slice of Yogiism: “When you come to a fork in the road, take it,” said Yogi Berra. At the outset of 2020, I am confronted with a fork in the Focus on Photography road.

Photography is dead, proclaim the prognosticators. Some readers boldly suggest that I give more credence to phonetography because the majority of my column's 2,496,390 readers are 'phonetographers' . That might be true. Until recently, my cellphone was an ancient LG G3. A Samsung Galaxy S10+ replaced it and the S10 camera continues to surprise me. So, what to do?

New technology entails a learning curve. Oh joy! If I press this and click on that-uh, not what I expected. I quickly realized that making a photo with the S10 is dramatically different than my Canon 7D2. The S10 has a few interesting camera 'modes', but no knobs and dials! Nevertheless, what the S10+ does it does remarkably well, to my astonishment.

Camera modes include food, night, panorama, pro, live focus, standard photo, video, live focus video, super slow-mo, slow motion and hyper-lapse (time-lapse). Food mode? Great. Imagine a picture of one of my gorgeous hard-boiled eggs as photo of the week. Digital noise is minimized in 'night' mode. Oh yeah, mermaid boudoir phonetography by, ahem, candlelight! Pro mode permits the capture of both RAW and jpegs. Viva la RAW! Video mode is self-explanatory, but there's also 'live focus video' mode which initiates both the wide-angle and telephoto lenses to capture the subject and background separately, resulting in photos with near subjects in focus and the background out of focus. Sounds like 'auto bokeh'! My Canon 7D2 doesn't have that! Hmm.

Pro mode permits considerably more control over the picture-making process. I can adjust ISO, aperture, shutter speed, color temp (white balance), tint, contrast, saturation, highlights and shadows. All adjustments performed with on-phone sliders. But I want KNOBS & DIALS! Samsung says that these adjustments typically made during post-processing but can now be done in-camera. Yeah, sure, I'll see. BTW, Samsung, you forgot bracketing--maybe next iteration.

While the camera performs remarkably well, it has the same problem I have shooting videos with a dSLR camera: Form factor. Because of its physical design (form factor), making adjustments on the cellphone (and dSLR camera) while shooting video is cumbersome. Though the S10 (and my Canon 7D2) are capable of recording fantabulous video clips, they aren't the best tools in the shed for the task. The better tool for shooting video is a camcorder, in my opinion.

Regardless, this S10+ cellphone exhibits promise, so I will give due diligence and spend some time photographing with this marvel of technology. I'll practice until I'm proficient with this 'pricey' device. And I will either capture some fantabulous photos or, with a dash of melancholy, gingerly toss it into the Ventura Harbor. Stay tuned.

I used the S10+ to make the honey bee photo of the week. I saw the bee flitting from one flower to another so I grabbed by S10+ and quickly made several photos in the default 'standard' mode. Because I'm so used to my Canon camera's viewfinder, handling the S10+ while trying to pan and get it to focus on the fast-flying bee was a challenge, and frustrating. Out of several photos, I particularly like this one of the bee getting buzzed at the Nectar Bar.

Next, in-camera photo editors? Is anyone interested?

Send comments, suggestions or questions to: focusonphotography@earthlink.net