Photography is my right brain outlet for art, for there seems to be no other means to allow artistic expression to escape. I can't draw, I can't paint. Photography is the one expression of art that allows you to partner with others to make it happen. If I capture a street scene, is it really an artful project conceived in my own mind? No, others are providing the palette. It's the same thing with creation...one of my favorite photographic subjects.

Photographic history...As a journalism/Communications major in college, I was hired by the school to be the Public Relations photographer. After graduating, I immersed myself in various aspects of professional photography...catalogs, ads, weddings, and the like. When there was time, I would go out and photograph subjects of my choosing. All on film. All black and white. In time, I was hired by a publishing company as art director. After three years, I got a job offer to be a civilian photographer for the Department of Defense...at an Air Force Base. Following that, I became a photographer full time for Arizona State University. It all grew terribly shallow. Spending hours shooting and hours more in the darkroom. At times one could insert 'art' into the subject, but mostly not. With the boredom and pressures of a growing family, I left photography as both profession and hobby.

Fast forward 25 years, and I'm shooting again. The digital age passed me by...really. I tried, and failed to connect with digital photography...a system born with an inability to interface with humanity. In fact, digital photography by-passed humanity to enable the picture with minimal intervention by the owner of the camera. I couldn't contend with that. Enter the Fuji X system...primarily the X-T1, X-T2, and now the X-T3. These cameras enable me to shoot entirely manually. The Fuji system is a brilliant throwback to an earlier era, which interfaces analog thinking into a digital process.

So the bottom line...I enjoy photography again. I no longer shoot what others want to see, but I shoot what catches my attention. There is an exponential increase in photographers these days. Exponential. It's huge. Everybody can produce great images with the right camera. Wedding photographers abound. It's okay. I'm not competing. I shoot what looks interesting, and if someone else finds a shot interesting, then I'm thrilled. Photography is significantly more momentary than it was. A finished photograph at one time...one that was guided through the process of concept, writing the score, and playing the score (As Ansel Adams would say), would spend hours of time coming up with one photograph to hang on the wall.

Photography today is more virtual. Very few photos make it to a form that is not digital. And because photography is easier, there are exponentially more photos being taken. They exist almost entirely in digital format. There, and gone. To be replaced by the latest photos, which become passe, and are replaced again. And again. We get to see a lot of photography work on the web.

So here is my small astroid speck of contribution to the galaxy of digital images floating in cyberspace to be enjoyed or not. For me, the enjoyment was in the scene presented, and the process of capturing that scene according to...what I saw.