"Solo"
Interesting shot of her looking down the trail, checking out the house...
Solo's been around the property for a couple of years now...

Red Fox
back acre, 3:00am
(slightly) manipulated image

Early AM 
at
 Deacon Rock Area

untitled
~photograph taken by tree mounted Bushnell Trail Sentry camera~
end of a long day, fire mitigation work...

American Idol Auditions
Denver's Invesco Field
6:10AM

untitled

"Man"
Fernando Botero

Botero's paintings and sculptures are, on first examination, noted for their exaggerated proportions.
His work makes me feel better.

Botero?s penchant for over-inflated forms parallels my general chaos lately,
most assuredly due to a newly encouraged blossoming of lateral micromanagers....
Individuals specifying and employing techniques,
even when the work being done is far outside their areas of responsibility or knowledge.
Since establishing and consolidating personal power is their primary focus,
the group's results are not at all central.

Photographed on the Galleria, Denver's Theater District

My contribution for the 51th Anniversary Of The Peace Symbol 
One of the most widely known symbols in the world.

The Origin of the Peace Symbol
The Peace Symbol was originally designed in 1958 by Gerald Holtom, a professional designer and artist and a graduate of the Royal College of Arts. He showed his preliminary sketches to a small group of people in the Peace News office in North London and to the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War, one of several smaller organisations that came together to set up CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament).

The Direct Action Committee had already planned what was to be the first major anti-nuclear march, from London to Aldermaston, where British nuclear weapons were and still are manufactured. It was on that march, over the 1958 Easter weekend that the symbol first appeared in public.

The symbol almost at once crossed the Atlantic. Bayard Rustin, a close associate of Martin Luther King had come over from the US in order to take part in that first Aldermaston March. He took the symbol back to the United States where it was used on civil rights marches. Later it appeared on anti-Vietnam War demonstrations.

Deliberately never copyrighted, no one has to pay or seek permission before they use it.
As a symbol of freedom, it is free for all...

Coastal Sunset ~ Lincoln City, OR 
(ks photo circa 1975)
Kodachrome

Kodachrome Retires Today   

ROCHESTER, N.Y., June 22
 
Eastman Kodak Company announced today that it will retire KODACHROME Color Film this year, concluding its 74-year run as a photography icon.

Sales of KODACHROME Film, which became the world?s first commercially successful color film in 1935, have declined dramatically in recent years as photographers turned to newer KODAK Films or to the digital imaging technologies that Kodak pioneered. Today, KODACHROME Film represents just a fraction of one percent of Kodak?s total sales of still-picture films.

?KODACHROME Film is an iconic product and a testament to Kodak?s long and continuing leadership in imaging technology,? said Mary Jane Hellyar, President of Kodak?s Film, Photofinishing and Entertainment Group. "It was certainly a difficult decision to retire it, given its rich history. However, the majority of today's photographers have voiced their preference to capture images with newer technology ? both film and digital. Kodak remains committed to providing the highest-performing products ? both film and digital ? to meet those needs."

While Kodak now derives about 70% of its revenues from commercial and consumer digital businesses, it is the global leader in the film business. Kodak has continued to bring innovative new film products to market, including seven new professional still films and several new VISION2 and VISION3 motion picture films in the past three years.These new still film products are among those that have become the dominant choice for those professional and advanced amateur photographers who use KODAK Films.

For all of its magic, KODACHROME is a complex film to manufacture and an even more complex film to process. There is only one remaining photofinishing lab in the world ? Dwayne?s Photo in Parsons, Kansas ? that processes KODACHROME Film, precisely because of the difficulty of processing. This lack of widespread processing availability, as well as the features of newer films introduced by Kodak over the years, has accelerated the decline of demand for KODACHROME Film.

During its run, KODACHROME Film filled a special niche in the annals of the imaging world. It was used to capture some of the best-known photographs in history, while also being the film of choice for family slide shows of the Baby Boom generation.

James Van Praagh
Denver
I had the pleasure of meeting Van Praagh at the studios the other day...
I was able to make a couple of quick images...

Van Praagh is a spiritual medium who has dedicated his career to helping people understand that the spirit never dies and that our loved ones never leave us.
Van Praagh claims to be clairsentient (able to perceive the emotions of the dead) and clairvoyant (able to see the dead).
For more than 20 years, James Van Praagh has been speaking and teaching on the subject of life beyond death. Today, Van Praagh is recognized as one of the foremost mediums in the world.

Van Praagh refers to himself as a "survival evidence medium" -- his objective is to give proof of the existence of life after death. The proof he offers is through spirit communication. "We live in a three-dimensional world, and we're limited to those dimensions. So we communicate in a way that we understand each other -- with words. In the spirit world, because they're in a different dimension, they have to communicate in a different way. Everything is done telepathically -- mind-to-mind communication, which, in a way, is spirit-to-spirit communication. So their spirit is communicating with my spirit on this earth."

Van Praagh is also a proponent of reincarnation -- the idea that we all have past lives, and we will return again.  "There are other forms of life, there are other planets, other solar systems, there's other experiences and other expressions of life. There are many places we can go back to; this is just one place. You have to remember that your soul being is more than just a physical body. So even though you're not aware of the other dimensions, it doesn't mean they don't exist."

?This idea of never-ending life leads us to how we act and react in our lives right now.
It's the concept of Karma -- that each of us gets back the good we put out, as well as the bad??

Van Praagh points out that there is punishment and reward for our actions, but we don't need to wait for death to receive it. "Once you realize that there is no death, how do you live your life on this earth respectively?  The good things you do will come back to you. It's like a rippling effect in a pond, when you throw a pebble into the water. That's what energy is. The good that you put out there ripples out, and the bad also ripples out."