August 25, 2019 - What a great breakfast - Coffee, bacon, eggs, fruit cup, and fried phone. Read on for the recipe.

Hey, I have been thinking about how to make the TGO Photo Club fun for more TGO’ers. – I want to invite, into the club, people who never think of themselves as photographers or artists! “Birds-of-a-Feather” is one idea that may make the club inviting for many.

Digital cameras – especially the cell phone camera – made each of us a photographer and artist. We now transform our very own unique vision of the world into digital art every day – without a lot of expertise in equipment, processes, or knowledge of the elements of art. Mobile devices bring new possibilities to the table.

Mobile devices are discrete. Moments are not disrupted by balky equipment.

Mobile devices are ever-present. We capture fleeting moments unavailable to bulky equipment and artists pallets.

Mobile devices are immediate. You can review your shot on the spot and redo it to be sure to capture your own unique vision of the moment.

Mobile devices are collaborative. The social networks allow us to share and get feedback in an instant.

Hey, I want to diverge and tell you a story about a cell phone – just for laughs:

My daughter Heather taught me, or did I teach her, to stay busy and enjoy each day and each moment. We share a lot of moments via social media – in our case, e-mail and text.

She earns a living by thinking – but her schedule is so busy that some things must get done without thinking – she prioritizes – thinks about the new challenges and does the routine things automatically.

This morning, she was in the kitchen on the phone talking to a prospective buyer, sorting papers, thinking about how to make the sale, preparing a cup of coffee to put in the micro-wave and take with her as she drove to meet a prospective buyer. Phone conversation over, she opened the micro-wave and popped the phone into the micro-wave, gathered up the papers and ran for the car. Oops, said she, I forgot my coffee, back into the kitchen – opened the micro-wave to get the coffee and was met by a cloud of stinky black smoke and a smoldering cell phone!

Yep, after a successful sales meeting – off to the Version store to spend much of her commission on a new cell phone. Like the insurance advertisement says “We have seen a thing or two.”

Immediately, with her ever-present new cell, she sent me a photo of the smoldering old phone to ask me what I thought her daily pace did to her brain. – Together we laughed. (In this case the new phone camera made sharing the days happening immediate and collaborative.)

Hope you loved that true story – OK, back to the TGO Photo Club. I want to make the TGO Photo Club a place for all of us to learn more, share, and collaborate according to each of our own interest. I want it to be a place for those who fully comprehend the power of the latest cameras and expensive lens, those who know the complexity of post processing software, those who have studied the elements of art, and those who love the ever-present aspects of mobile devises. Some parts of the club will fit all of us. But some of us must gather in smaller groups like Birds-of-a-Feather.

More on that later.

Here are some examples of digital sharing from Jim Dick, Bob Hazlett, and myself:

Bob Hazlett

Bob Hazlett

Bob Hazlett

08 25 2019 – Jim Dick – I was finally able to get a couple of shots of a Great Blue Heron that has been hanging around the pond. Usually it is on the other side. I was surprised to see the beak is black on top since in Florida it is yellow.

08 25 2019 Jim Dick – Spotted two of these birds. Not sure what it is. It might be some kind of Sparrow. It looks like a young one.

Jim Brubaker – In my horse coral. Strange looking horse. An immediate always present cell phone camera snap.

Up close – Jim Brubaker – In my horse coral. Here’s looking at you. – Processed up close.

Jim Brubaker – On the TGO nature trail – here’s smiling at you.

08 25 2019 Jim Brubaker – Could not help myself – had to take a photo of a garden wall and digitally paint it and send it to Gloria the artist – to show her my digital watercolor