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This is about the smartphone camera and the Photo Club.  Since the beginning of photography, professionals with high dollar cameras added photos to support their stories. Think about the high dollar war correspondents and National Geographic expeditions. The advent of the smartphone camera and social media has brought that capability to me without high dollars.  My family and I share our adventures, our good and our bad experiences, every day. We really enjoy each other so much more.  The photos we use to support our stories are real, unaltered by rules, staging, or professional know-how.  Through the Photo Club, I want to  encourage all members to capitalize on the smartphone camera.  I want to use the Club’s Facebook Group to trigger and receive new ideas and techniques for using the smartphone camera. Two of my examples from just yesterday: My daughter used her photo to support her story about seeing the first Bluebird of the season and my son supported the excitement he & his wife felt about watching the Bobcat in their back yard.

The front page sits for 15 seconds – time for you to read – before the vodeo starts. The video has audio – so turn it on!

Dave wrote: Hi Jim, Here are some pictures for the blog. I haven’t sent you anything in a while because there hasn’ been much around to shoot.  Not much like winter here in upstate NY. Bare ground and green grass. Temperature to 52 degrees F.  today. Took a ride out to Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge today. That is out in western NY. Thousands of Canada Geese , a few hundred Sandhill Cranes and 100 plus Tundra Swans with a few Trumpeter Swans.  Dave

Used my imagination and few modern tools.

Dave wrote: Hi Jim, Here are some pictures for the blog. I haven’t sent you anything in a while because there hasn’ been much around to shoot.  Not much like winter here in upstate NY. Bare ground and green grass. Temperature to 52 degrees F.  today. Took a ride out to Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge today. That is out in western NY. Thousands of Canada Geese , a few hundred Sandhill Cranes and 100 plus Tundra Swans with a few Trumpeter Swans.  Dave

I want to test using a video on the Blog. If it works I want to say I hope this guys down jacket was adequet for last night’s cool temterature:

As I travel TGO on my bike with my iPhone, I am always snapping away.  But,these are from my front porch and driveway before and after bike rides. I did crop and enhance color/contrast a little.

Most kids in my school lived in Company houses in a tiny Appalachia coal town. The view out their window was of other Company houses or the Company coal train.  I felt so privileged, at Christmas, to have a view of the old homestead barn out of my bedroom window – I dreamed of the Christmas manger being there.  So, for this image, I started with an old photo from my bedroom window, added a manger scene from Fairways Drive and a photo of our Nature Center Christmas tree . ……  My wish for you & your family is that you have a great religious holiday season.

I moved this Jeep from Windsong to an orange grove and gave it new headlights. Look at the license: ORAN JEE. (Orange Jeep). There’s a curious habit that we share – bestowing names on non-human objects: a trusty boat, a cherished golf club, or maybe even a community like TGO. On my ranch, I named dozens of animals. For example: Red (Dog), Black (Horse), Gone Again (Emu), Goofy (Cow), Barn (Cat), Not Sure (Llama). Psychologist say the act of naming objects is a way of bonding with the object – extending ourselves. The named object now flows as part of us – a conversation starter, helping us socialize and share life experiences – enriching our lives.

I like our Photo-Club’s show and tell time.  For example, sometimes the purpose of my post-processing is just to have fun.  Here, I used two photos and a screen shot with the purpose of confusing the kids. Their response was:  “Where in the world is Dad? I told you he is too old to be out there on that tractor alone”