I recently posted a Black and White photo of the Denver Art Museum ( DAM) to my instagram account.  I then got this reply from them:

I never heard from them, not that I really expected them to.  I then proceeded to skewer them on Instagram:

I posted a picture of the Hamilton Building of the Denver Art Museum (DAM) the other day. I got this response from DAM. No they haven’t asked to see my release document. So apparently if you are an artist DAM feels that they can get artist to do work for free. Not even an offer of a gratis pass or year’s membership. They do ask permission which is good but that’s the least they could do. Artist should not have to work for free. And no you can’t use ‘exposure’ to pay for gas or groceries. 

In the past I’ve tried to go on their web page to engage DAM in a discussion about their photography department. No place to really contact their leadership or board of directors. So I guess I will use this forum to say your photography department sucks. 

I don’t expect to hear anything from them but it’s worth reminding these people about what they are asking for

A suggestion from one of my followers in jest was to start a Prairie Madness Museum.  This was in response to getting the trademark by the same name.  I did think that if I did have this fictional museum the first traveling exhibit that I would seek it the world’s largest hairball currently residing in Garden City at the Finney County Museum

THEY ALL BELONG - cuz they all happened today. It was one of those days where things ( stars ) were aligned.  Today after much angst trying to find a place to get my COVID vaccine I finally got one - of all places my local Safeway!  Next I received in the mail a package from Germany that I’ve been literally waiting for  two months for.  Contains Scala BW slide film and chemicals to develop same.  Next started the afternoon of zoom webinars - Jason Lee and an associate talked about their photographic style.  Jason Lee has had several careers - notable as the star of the TV show ” My Name is Earl” which I used to watch .  He then went on to have some notoriety in the skateboarding world.  Now he’s an accomplished photographer whose shooting style  I closely identify with.  From there it was onto to Zoom presentation by Heart Mountain which was one of the incarceration camps for Japanese Americans during WWII. Finally after my wife lost her $5500 pair of tinnitus reducing hearing aides, I found them this evening avoiding the expense of replacing them.  To say the least I’m exhausted but that could just be the dinner time whiskey and COVID vaccine ?

Finally after about a year I’ve gotten the phrase “Prairie Madness” trade marked.  A trade mark is an entirely different beast than copyright.  As soon as you create something it’s copyright protected.  You gain extra protection by registering it with the copyright office.  This doesn’t require anything special.  But getting something trade marked is something you apply for and can be rejected if it doesn’t meet requirements.  The process is complicated and in the end I succumbed to one of the multiple inducements from lawyers to get their help.  It cost me a flat $125 to get my application on the straight and narrow.  So now I’m free to make all the mouse pads, T shirts I want with this logo - tell me what size you want.

I’ve learned to not be afraid of shooting outdated Black and White film - it works out fine.  No adjustments in ISO or development times.  This is NOT true of color film especially E-6 slide film.  Anyway I found an 8 year old roll of Rollei RPX 25 and shot it.  Very happy with the results.

I find dZihan and Kamien to be the perfect music to work at the computer with.  Highly recommend it.  May not be for everyone.

I just self published a book of my photos that emulate the New Topographic genre.  This new way of looking at landscape photography got it’s start in 1975 when the George Eastman House sponsored an exhibit displaying the works of: 

The photographers who were featured in the exhibit were relatively young in their careers, including Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Joe Deal, Frank Gohlke, Nicholas Nixon, John Schott, Stephen Shore, and Henry Wessel, Jr. Looking at the photos from that exhibit 45 years ago, it seems like current landscape photography wholeheartedly embraces “new topographic” principles.

This is now a series of posts about this amazing tornado photograph taken out by Simla, CO where I was born.  I actually have a large print of this in my house.  At one point I thought it might be fake but realized it was picked up by National Geographic and they tend to do a good job of vetting their photographs.  I just discovered on DPreview that this photo won a travel photography award:

WINNER, BEST SINGLE IMAGE IN A LANDSCAPE & EARTH ELEMENTS PORTFOLIO: James Smart, Australia

James Smart/www.tpoty.com

Location: Simla, Colorado, USA

Artist Statement: This ‘drill bit’ type of tornado is a rare anti-cyclonic tornado, which happens in around 2% of tornadoes. It touched down in open farmland, narrowly missing a home near Simla, Colorado as it tore up the ground, gathering the soil giving it its brown color.

Gear and Specs: Canon 5D Mark II 70-200mm lens, F4, 1/90 sec, ISO 100

Just a few images I just received from the developer.  These are from Riverside Cemetery here in Denver.  It takes about 2 months to get the slides back which is a bit much.  I’ve got some chemicals on their way from Germany to allow me to do this at home.

This is the third time to the Last Chance Module.  I wanted to see what it would look like shot with BW InfraRed Film.   Really the only film for me is Rollei Infrared 400.  It’s a film that should be bracketed in order to get the exposure you want without having to do a lot of sketchy post processing.

The Losers Collection -= Photos selected for exhibition but not purchased.  Essentially every contest I’ve entered is now part of the Losers Collection.  All have been professionally framed .  Frame dimensions are listed with each photo.

Burlington 15 x 13

Monument Rock 16 x 13

Boot Hill 13 x 11

Personality 18 x 18

Zoo 22 x 17

$175 each includes shipping.  Discount for more than one purchased.  Interest or Questions 

I don’t remember how I stumbled upon this book - the cover is obviously very familiar - see my post on the Last Chance Module.  I have just started to read this book but it appears to be just what I was looking for in terms of another set of opinions about the West.  It has also introduced me to the Autry Museum in LA, started by Gene Autry of Movie fame.

Vicki stuck to just 5.  Interesting that we had one in common - Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey - she has not read it but found it and thought I’d be interested in it!

This year my S.O. came up with a cheap way to do stocking stuffers - simply put a list of 5 books to recommend to the other person.  I went overboard and put 10 - didn’t cost me anything to add 5 more.  These are NOT guaranteed to be crowd pleasers - just books that I think have merit. Here are my recommendations:

1 The Leftovers Hardcover by Tom Perrotta 

2  Ilf and Petrov’s American Road Trip: The 1935 Travelogue of Two Soviet Writers 

3 The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring Illustrated Edition by Richard Preston 

4 In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin Hardcover by Eric Larson 

5  Last Exit to Brooklyn (An Evergreen book) by Hubert Selby Jr.

6 God in the Wilderness: Rediscovering the Spirituality of the Great Outdoors with the Adventure Rabbi Paperback by Jamie S. Korngold

7 The Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin American Journey by Che Guevara

8 This Land, How Cowboys, Capitalism, and Corruption are Ruining the American West. Christoper Ketcham

9 Desert Solitaire -  Edward Abbey

10 Young Men and Fire Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean

This is what a quarter century of photography looks like.  4Tb to be specific.  Dad taught me photography when I was about 13 but I really wasn’t serious about this pursuit until his passing in 1996.  Since then I’ve made it my passion.  In the last three years I’ve done more film photography than digital but I still do both.  So here ya’ go 4 TB of mediocre photography!

Vicki had this idea that I should gather all the photos that have been accepted into the various contests that I’ve entered over the last year or so.  Safe to say that my non-professional status is holding up as I have not sold a single one! ?