'Twas a busy week. Numerous school graduations. Happy days for hundreds of youngsters. At the Fillmore High School graduation ceremony, I was surprised to be suddenly recalling my own high school graduation. Ahhh, the wonders of nostalgia.

Another interesting experience happened last Saturday. I rode on a Fillmore & Western train to the Bennett Honey Farm near Piru. The occasion was the Honey Festival... a sweet event. Hmm. Anyway, I was preoccupied shooting photos as the crowd made it's way through the facility when along came a boy of about eight years of age, taking photos with A CAMERA! Incredible! I wanted to hug the lad!!! I knelt to ask him what he thought about photography. “Love it,” he said with a grin and immediately turned to take another photo. Interview over.

At the Fillmore High School graduation ceremony a gentleman was on the event side of the fence near me. I noticed that he was holding a up a smartphone taking 'snapshots'. Hmm. I patiently waited, biding my time. When appropriate, I sashayed over and introduced himself. He told me his name, (which I won't divulge) and who he was … ahem... photographing for. Suffice to say that his employer is a daily newspaper. Imagine that! A phonetographer shooting for a daily! This is bizarre! What's next... photos by smartwatch?
To my utter and total dismay, phonetographers are rapidly proliferating! Which brings me to wonder just how relevant this column - Photography Know-How - is in today's world. Especially considering that for every camera I see out in the wild, there are at least 170,297,014 smartphones! Including yours!

Last week I encouraged “photographers” to download Google's NIK collection... plugins for Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. Should I have been listing the top ten photo editors for smartphones instead? For instance: Lightroom for Smartphone dummies? Oops... I'll rephrase that. Smartphone Lightroom for Dummies. Anyway, the number of photo editing apps for both Android and iPhones is bewildering. Which is best? I don't know! Who cares? Tell ya what. Five thousand emails could motivate me to download the Adobe mobile Lightroom app. Tutorials to follow. Deal?
Though it disturbs me immensely, I too am a phonetographer OCCASIONALLY! (It's my column so I can yell when I want.) I have an LG-G3, a remarkable camera that also serves as a phone. When the occasion warrants, I take a “snapshot” to promptly email to my friend in Slaphappy, Slovinsky. I now have 11 unedited photos in the gallery.

Back on topic, the Sierra High School & Heritage Valley graduation held at the district auditorium was a huge photographic challenge. The lighting there is, to be polite, a tad deficient. Just in case, I brought my flash that I haven't used since... I think... 1922 or '24. Sometimes it worked... sometimes it didn't. I have a few magnificent photos of stark black. Conversely, sometimes someone turned on the 'spotlight' just as I was shooting a photo... resulting in an overexposed photo. No time to change camera settings! Exasperated and frustrated, I was tempted to whip out my LG-G3 to finish the shoot. JUST KIDDING!

The other two shoots – high school graduation and honey fest - were outside so quite straight forward. Manual mode, set aperture and shutter speed depending on circumstances and intentions and the light... put ISO on automatic and let it float for proper exposure. There, how many of you phonetographers can do THAT with your silly smartphones??

Honey festival and BBQ contest photos next week.

Happy photoing!

Email your questions, comments and suggestions to bob@fillmoregazette.com