From Outta The Past

Mom and Dad on their wedding day … their second wedding day, June 18, 1955. They were first married in a civil ceremony on June 17, 1955, but then has a ‘real’ ceremony the next day; something to do with Dad being in the Air Force and stationed in a foreign country … or maybe it was so nice they did it twice.

Mom and Dad some forty years later. They were married 51 years until my mother passed away.

My sister Jeri and I looking thrilled at:

A] going to church; or …

B] those horrid outfits

C] going to church in those horrid outfits

A few years later, dressed  a bit more, um. ‘Christian’ for Easter Sunday.

And then this one, clearly it’s my brother’s birthday because as the gay one I’d be wearing the crown most days.

Lastly, Carlos and I on our first date … it was a long date. I travelled 3000 miles to meet him and then spent eleven days there. But, looking back, well worth it.

Stop Posting Unflattering Pictures of President-elect _____

Last week President-elect Donald _____ met with a group of about 25 television executives and anchors and told them that he wants a “cordial” and “productive” relationship with the media.

But then, as he does _____ went on a tear aimed at one news agency, NBC News, and complained about photos of himself that NBC; photos _____ found unflattering. He especially does not want anyone to use that photo there at the top.

Seriously ... President-elect ____, with all the problems facing the country, his administration, his family, his cabinet, his transition team, took the time to turn to NBC News President Deborah Turness and ask her is the network might just once run a nice picture of him, instead of choosing “this picture of me,” as he made a face with a double chin.

So, I have decided to only post nice picture of _____; trouble is, I can’t find one:

But some nice folks on the web did manage to turn him into an all sorts of #Trumplechins:

And then I found this one ... I think he looks pretty good in this one:

A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words

"Ever since I began photographing then Sen. Obama in 2005, I've tried to keep my eye on how people react to him. Yesterday, at the town hall in Baton Rouge, I noticed this young girl in the audience. I hope she vividly remembers this day so that someday she can tell her kids that she saw, and later shook hands with, the President of the United States when he came to town." 

– Official White House Photographer Pete Souza

Starting Off The Week With A Giggle And A 'WTF?'

I like PETA, I do. I mean, what’s not to like: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. A person who doesn’t like PETA has got to be nuts, though there are time when PETA itself gets a little crazy.

British nature photographer David Slater went to Sulawesi in 2011 and created a book called "Wildlife Personalities" with the pictures taken on that trip, and that’s where PETA is pissy.

See, while taking photos Slater left a camera on the ground and a macaque monkey took a series of selfies that are, well, fabulous. Selfies that prove this macaque is the Selfie King and every single person on the planet needs to stop taking selfies right now because, in the words of The [t]Rump, ‘You’re a loser.’

But, and this is the WTF I referred to up top, a novel lawsuit was filed in federal court in San Francisco by PETA saying the court should issue an order allowing PETA to administer all proceeds from the photos for the benefit of the monkey, which it identified as 6-year-old Naruto, and other crested macaques living in a reserve on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.

Yes PETA is claiming that since the monkey took the selfies that PETA should become the administrator of the income generated by the selling of the selfies—they appeared in Slater’s book, and at many online sources—so they can care for the monkey and others.

Seriously; PETA maintains that no one owns the copyright to the images because they were taken by an animal, not a person.

Again, seriously. And they have a leg to stand on because last year, the U.S. Copyright Office issued an updated compendium of its policies, including a section stipulating that it would register copyrights only for works produced by human beings. It specified that works produced by animals, whether a photo taken by a monkey or a mural painted by an elephant, would not qualify.

And so PETA struck, and used Slater’s own account of his interaction with Naruto against him stating that Naruto "authored the monkey selfies by his own independent, autonomous actions in examining and manipulating Slater's unattended camera."

Slater, for his part, believes the British copyright obtained for the photos by his company, Wildlife Personalities Ltd., should be honored worldwide. And he has offered to sell copies of one of the "monkey selfies" and will donate $1.70 per order to a conservation project dedicated to protecting Sulawesi's macaques. But he also wants some of the money from the sales for his daughter:

"I sincerely wish my 5-year-old daughter to be able to be proud of her father and inherit my copyrights so that she can make my work into an asset and inheritance and go to university. I have very little else to offer her."

Seriously, PETA, aren’t there bigger fish to fry? Perhaps a lawsuit, or even a request, that Slater donate some of the proceeds from his book to a conservation project in Sulawesi might have made you look better and less like a monkey with a camera.

And again, selfies addicts of the world: when a monkey takes the Best Selfie Ever it’s time for y’all to stop.

HuffingtonPost

Jeb Bush's Campaign Strikes Again With The Stupidity

I’m kinda wondering if Jeb Bush’s campaign team doesn’t actually work for one of his opponents.

I mean, last week they announced that he’d had a meeting with Black Lives Matters activists and that turned out to be a big fat lie — see post HERE — and now this?

Jeb’s SuperPAC, Right To Rise [whatever that means] has raised some $100 million to buy him, er, elect him president, but they made a huge gaffe this week when they mailed a flier to 86,000 Iowa households touting Jeb’s candidacy.

Look closer, at the Jeb on the right. It appears that one of Jeb’s hands is black.

Uh huh.

Now, by way of an update, Right To Rise says the reason Jeb’s hand “appears” to be black, is that in the original image he was standing next to a woman, who cast a shadow on his hand. The image was altered and then used in the mailer.

But it makes you wonder … with a $100 million war chest they couldn’t Photoshop Jeb’s hand back to its natural color?

Seriously?

Think Progress

Ed Freeman Recieves Death Threat Over Ten-Year-Old Iwo Jima Photo Homage

During World War II, on February 23, 1945, Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal snapped a picture of five Marines and a Navy corpsman raising an American flag on Mount Suribachi, the highest summit on Iwo Jima, an island in the Pacific island.

Rosenthal’s photograph received a Pulitzer Prize; it became the centerpiece of a multi-billion dollar war bond effort. And it inspired the Marine Corps War Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery.

It’s one of those iconic images; it stands for struggle, for battle, honor, perseverance, and a fight for freedom and equality.

Some ten years ago photographer Ed Freeman recreated that same image to capture the struggle for LGBT rights, featuring four men raising the Rainbow flag. To me, and I would think to many, it represented our struggle, our battle, our perseverance, and our fight for freedom and equality.

In other words, both images speak to me in the same tone.

And yet, in light of the recent Supreme Court ruling making same-sex marriage — or as it is called now, ‘marriage’ — legal in all fifty states, Freeman’s image was resurrected around the internet and, well, people, some people, are not happy.

In fact, the resurgence of a decades-old photograph spurred a gay rights struggle in a photograph for the cover of Frontiers, a backlash against Freeman, including a death threat he reported to the FBI.

“He said if he ever saw me, he’d kill me. I got swamped with vitriolic hate mail.” — Ed Freeman

Reaction on Twitter was also bitter:

Taylor Paulk @taypaulk

“Altering the American flag colors & trying to remake the "Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima" photograph with the gay pride flag is degrading”

First off, Tay, the colors of the American flag were not altered; in fact, the original photograph was not even used at all. Freeman’s picture is a recreation, and an homage, to the original. Get you facts straight, for lack of a better word.

Jacob Anthony‏ @LabGrappler_95

“The gay flag remake of the flag that flew at Iwo Jima is just insulting to America and those who have died for this country”

Well, Jacob, is it a disgrace to all the gay men and women who served in this country, most in secret for fear of repercussions, even criminal trials, were they to be openly gay? And, to be queer, there were a lot of gay men, and women, who have died for this country.

B-Ryan Cranston‏@ryan1357nayr

“Alright, I'm glad for gay marriage but I've been seeing the flag changed to rainbow. And in specific The Iwo Jima depiction, that's not cool”

Again, the American flag was not changed one bit for Freeman’s picture; his was a new image, m’kay?

Ed Freeman, who just happens to be gay, was also attacked on Facebook when he posted this:

“When I took this picture almost ten years ago, it never, never occurred to me that it would someday come to symbolize the victory we are celebrating today. Congratulations to all of us! Love to you all.”

And this is what he got back:

“Im all for gay rights and equal for all but DO NOT DISRESPECT THOSE WHO SERVED, SACRIFICED, AND DIED FOR YOUR COUNTRY AND YOUR RIGHTS AND FREEDOM. Its this [expletive] that will drive ppl to hate on you. You WANT RESPECT THEN GIVE IT TO THOSE WHO DESERVE AND EARNED IT.”

Um, wow. So gay people do not deserve respect? Gay people have not sacrificed and died for their country in war? And again, this a ten year old photo, that Freeman created suing models and Photoshop, to represent the struggle, and the battle, for LGBT rights.

It is not disrespectful.

“The principle complaint that people have is that I am equating the gay struggle with the contribution and sacrifice of American servicemen, but there is no equal sign here. This is not meant as a sign of disrespect. For God sake, no. I totally support people in uniform. There is no comparison going on here. The comparison is going on in people’s heads, and they’re spoiling for a fight. They’re already on edge because of the gay marriage decision.” — Ed Freeman

And it’s annoying because this image has been used for other groups, too, with little to no outrage. I mean, where was the shock and vitriol when Old Glory beer used the image? Or when the Hard Rock Café used a similar image to create a button they could sell for a profit? Howsabout when Time magazine used a similar image on their cover, with a tree replacing the American flag for an article about global warming?

Are people upset only because there’s a Rainbow flag? And if that’s the case, maybe these people better get their panties fully twisted because, as a joke, mainly, someone suggested to Ed Freeman that he recreate the planting of the American flag on the moon with the planting of a Rainbow flag up there.

Look, here’s the deal: Freeman’s picture is an homage; it compares the struggle during war time for freedom with the struggle for decades and decades for LGBT rights.

It symbolizes perseverance and struggle, and how is that ever a bad thing?

Original image by Joe Rosenthal/The Associated Press.

Second image by Ed Freeman/ Getty Images

Washington Post

Old Glory Beer Image

Hard Rock Image

Time Magazine Image

Photo of the Week

Pretty bird, right?

At first glance, this photo appears to be a parrot perching on a tree; the curved beak, colorful feathers and a pointed tail. 

But, in fact, it is a woman whose entire body has been cleverly painted by body painter Johannes Stoetter to resemble the tropical bird.

Stoetter, who lives in Italy, spent four weeks painstakingly planning how he could transform the female model into a parrot, and then took four hours to paint the woman's body using special breathable paint. 

The finished creation shows the model's outstretched left leg has become the parrot's tail feathers, while her right leg and arm become its wings; her left arm, wrapped around her head, forms the bird's beak.

Take a closer look. It's amazing!

source: The Daily Mail via Towleroad

Pretty Things

Last week we took our houseguests down to Brookgreen Gardens, which is along the coast, south of Myrtle Beach. 

It was founded in 1931, by Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington, as a kind of “garden museum’, to preserve the native flora and fauna of the Low country, and to display objects of art within that natural setting. Brookgreen Gardens is a National Historic Landmark with the most significant collection of figurative sculpture in an outdoor setting by American artists in the world and it also has the only zoo accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums on the coast of the Carolinas.

It’s quite a peaceful place to spend a day ……. and I took all kinds of pictures that day, with the hope of turning some of them into photographs to hang along the walls of a hallway in our home. These are some of the pictures i took, along with some of the ways i manipulated the photos to frame.

Click to emBIGGERate.

The original photo...

... and after playing with it.

I loved the simplicity of the faces ....

This is a Native American statue that is quite morbid,
but ultimately fascinating to look at ....

.... a little contrast .....

.... and a little color.

Lily pads ......

.... turned brilliant

Up into the trees ......

.... and then highlight some color.

The stairs to "Beyond The Garden Wall" ....

I love playing with the photos, cropping, coloring, contrasting. Some of them turned out so much to my liking that it's just a mater of mattes and frames and :::bam::: art wall.