If anyone out there doubted the public interest in photography these days, you only had to go as far as world-traveler-photographer Nevada Wier's Monday lecture at the Fresno Art Museum. It was a packed house. I saw lots of Fresno-area professional photographers in attendance, but I also saw a hefty representation of enthusiastic amateurs. I suspect that the growth in digital photography is creating whole new armies of citizen photographers who, unencumbered by the cost of film and processing, are developing skills through sheer practice. (I know that I've greatly expanded my technique by being able to take so many more photos and not worrying about the cost. I can experiment a lot more.)

So here's to Fresno for a grand turnout and mini-rock-star welcome for a photographer.

Wier, who is one of many big names in this year's California State University Summer Arts program, gave an overview of her long and sprawling professional career. Part travelogue and part pep talk, with a few photo tips thrown in, the lecture was sure to inspire wanderlust in even the most sedentary Fresnan.

Her travels include extensive work in South America, Africa, China, Thailand and India (you can see copyrighted samples of her work above and more of her portfolio here), and she's made it a special focus in her career to document indigenous peoples. The Santa Fe-based Wier describes herself as a "extrovert loner," which she says is a great combination for a photographer interested in different cultures. Relationships with people are a key to taking great photos. She's a strong proponent of up-close photography (she loves using wide-angle lenses, which require a close shooting proximity) and insists that it's up to her to build an atmosphere of respect with her subjects. No standing off at the edge of a village for her and snapping photos with a telephoto lens -- she wants to get in people's faces, and if they have a problem with it, then she isn't doing her job.

It helps to have a sense of daring and adventure to put up with life on the road, of course. An ability to roll with the punches helps, too. When she traveled to Bolivia early in her career to climb mountains, she found herself in the middle of a political coup, and the authorities confiscated her ice axes and climbing crampons. So she shifted gears and did what any good adventurous American woman would do under the cirumstances: She and her buddies built a reed boat and spent months traveling around the perimeter of Lake Titicaca.

Some of Wier's most dramatic stories come from a months-long National Geographic expedition she took in Ethiopia along the route of the famed Blue Nile. Her group never quite knew what reception to expect from people along the way, and they were greeted both with open arms and raised guns. (True to her photojournalist nature, she met those guns with her camera, and luckily, hers were the only shots fired.)

Wier started shooting in film many years ago. Yet she seems to have made the transition to digital quite easily (and without the philosophical harumphing that some photographers seem to espouse when discussing the subject). There are hassles involved with both methods, she says, including having to worry about defective hard drives. But slides can fade, and if you're careful about archiving your work, there's no reason that digital can't work well long-term, she says.

Photo fans have another Summer Arts lecture to look forward to: PhotoShop guru Tim Grey will talk about digital photography 7 p.m. Sunday, also at the Fresno Art Museum.