FARMERS ORGANIZER

While we were visiting Guanojuato, Mexico in the Fall of 2003, I spotted this meeting off to the side of a walkway leading to one of the main gathering areas of the city. The man standing tall in the background is an organizer for farmers. They are planning a protest against the government because of unfair subsidies. I thought it was interesting to see the gathering of hard working men wearing their best straw hats and dressed in their good clothes to attend the rally. They accepted my presence without a problem. One man said in english "Looking good buddy". I just smiled, nodded my head in agreement and gave him the thumbs-up sign. He just smiled and returned his attention to the speaker. I really felt right at home.

PARKER LAKE

A short hike after a short drive off of US395 just south of Mono Lake. My wife and I started our Sierra adventure with a short hike to this lake. We took sooooo much more than we needed. It was her first backpacking trip and I wanted to make sure that she had as many comforts as we could carry. She got blisters on her feet less than 200 yards from the trailhead! The hike starts with a strenuous climb from the parking area and just as we were started to adjust to the weight of the packs we had to stop and administer first aid. She was a trooper though. She started right up and packed it in to the lake and never complained. I'm sure it hurt like hell but she didn't let on. I was very impressed. The photo above was taken in the early morning just a few hundred feet from our campsite. We were the only people at the lake for the entire four days we spent there. We hiked around the area and were in awe of this beautiful place that is so close to civilization and yet far enough away to give us a feeling of being very isolated and close to nature. We recommend this place to anyone that loves the out-of-doors and doesn't want to break their hump getting there.

LIFE IS A ROLLERCOASTER

I was in Las Vegas, NV for a conference and noticed this rollercoaster that runs around most of the New York! New York! Hotel. I looked for a good vantage point and found the top of the parking structure to be ideal. It was 107 degrees when I shot this photo. I submitted to the local county fair and won a blue ribbon for it. I could tell it was going to win when I brought it in the Fair offices. Everyone really liked it. A couple of years later I got talked into riding it. It was incredible! However, I'm not very good with twists and turns like I used to be. When I got off I had to go to my room and let my dizziness subside. It was worth it.

OLDEST LIVING THING ON EARTH

If you could imagine a living tree as old as the pyramids of Egypt, what do you think it would look like? It would look like a bristlecone pine,Pinus longaeva, the oldest known tree species in the world.















The bristlecone pine only lives in scattered, arid mountain regions of six western states of America, but the oldest are found in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in the White Mountains of California. There the pines exist in an exposed, windswept, harsh environment, free of competition from other plants and the ravages of insects and disease. The oldest bristlecones usually grow at elevations of 10,000 to 11,000 feet. The oldest known tree is "Methuselah", which is 4,789 years old. To keep Methuselah from harm, this tree isn't labeled, as the other trees are. An older tree called Prometheus was killed shortly after it was discovered in 1964. This happened when a geologist searching for evidence of Ice Age glaciers was taking some core samples from several bristlecones. Just as he realized he had found a tree over 4,000 years old, his coring tool broke. Amazingly the U.S. Forest Service gave him permission to cut down the tree. Prometheus turned out to be 4,950 years old. It was a 300 year old tree when the pyramids were being built in Egypt. After people heard about this incident, the U.S. Forest Service tightened security around the bristlecones. I spent a week in the White Mountains studying with a group of photographers when I took this photo a tree at sunset. One of the many bonuses to attending was the opportunity to walk among and photograph them.