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3/14/2019 Skull and antlers at hunting cabin near Poolville, TX
Nikon D5300 Sigma 17.0-50.0 mm f/2.8
This fully restored Mitsubishi A6M Zero is on display at the museum of the infamous Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, Japan. 修復されたゼロは靖国神社で出展されている。
The guy on the left habitually sits in the plaza in Harvard Square taking on all comers for $2 a game. He's been there for as long as I can remember and, judging by the times I've watched, there are few who beat him. A couple of weeks ago I was sitting there waiting for someone and got to watch him in a different mode. This youngster played with him about half an hour, watching the eyes of the master to decide whether or not a move was correct. The teacher was gentle with him, soft-spoken, and never talked down to him... explaining in detail why each move was a good one or a bad one. Then, a while later, I watched the same sort of lesson with an older teenager. I guess Harvard University isn't the only place thereabouts where real learning occurs. :-)
The original intent for this shot was a simple landscape with no people in it. After setting up the composition I waited for the scene to clear, and waited, and waited and waited. Lol!
I was about to give up when this couple sat down and started looking over the park. Instead of being a distraction they completed the scene and gave it the element that it was missing all along.
Taken at the top of the "Crack" Trail in Killarney Provincial Park, Ontario.
What happens when you've run the course, been downgraded to a historical footnote, tossed on the cultural reference trash heap, and relegated to Wikipedia?
Only Johnny Horizon can say for sure, but he has definitely experienced all of these things as a result of the shifting sands of time. Which has led some folks to ask...
For the uninitiated, Johnny Horizon was cultural icon - well, that might be a stretch. But he did, after all, have his own Presidential Proclamation in 1976 - even if Johnny wasn't what you'd call a "franchise player." He was a dash of Clint Eastwood, a pinch of strong-jawed western inventiveness, part silent cardboard cowboy cutout, a little Mark Trail, and, most simply, a member of the same club as Smokey Bear and Woodsy Owl.
Public interest in Mr. Horizon peaked with the 1970s LP (long play) record that Johnny Horizon cut with the well-known Burl Ives giving the listening audience a better understanding about this newly created agency mascot. When posed the question, "Who is Johnny Horizon?" the album answered, "Johnny is a symbolic character representing thoughtful users of publicly owned lands. And he has a message: "This Land is Your Land - Keep it Clean!"
According to National Public Lands News, Johnny began his humble career with the BLM in 1968, when the "Johnny Horizon" program was initiated by BLM to promote public awareness of BLM-administered lands. Several years later Johnny Horizon teamed with such notables as famed folk-singer Burl Ives, country music upstart Glenn Campbell, and psychedelic variety show stars Sonny and Cher. Eventually, under the aphoristic slogan "Do You Care?" the Johnny Horizon campaign used its new-found star power and variety show cred to focus on litter and pollution efforts. In turn the success of Johnny's anti-litter work begat toys, coloring books, watches, environmental test kits, stamps, and strangely - matches.
Shortly after the hoopla associated with the Nation's bicentennial in 1976, Johnny Horizon slowly faded into the history books. One would think that with the success of the earlier litter campaigns, celebrity endorsements, a nod from none-other-than President Ford, the dawn of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, and the stamp of approval from Peanuts creator Charles Schulz, that Johnny Horizon would be a stable fixture much like that of Smokey Bear. But alas, that just hasn't been the case.
Was Johnny Horizon a victim of his own success? A casualty in the waning days of Disco? Caught up in the pitfalls of agency budgeting? Or was it just his time to hang up his (cowboy) hat?
With successful national campaigns and endorsements from Peanuts creator Charles Schulz and President Gerald Ford, one might think Johnny Horizon would be an icon for the ages.
No one knows for sure. But a 1977 report from the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights titled "Sex Bias in the U.S. Code" written by esteemed U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg discussed Johnny Horizon by noting "...A further unwarranted male reference appears in 18 U.S.C. §714, which regulates use of the 'Johnny Horizon' anti-litter symbol. According to the congressional reports, this tall lean figure with sports clothes, hiking boots, and a field jacket is 'a representative of a rugged outdoorsman who loves our forests, deserts, mountains, lakes, streams and terrain.' This sex stereotype of the outdoors person and protector of the environment should be supplemented with a female figure promoting the same values. The two figures should be depicted as persons of equal strength of character, displaying equal familiarity and concern with the terrain of our country."
Burl Ives and others continued to push for the expansion of the Johnny Horizon program, but the times they were-a-changin'. Maybe it was just too much for the agency to contemplate a "Jane" Horizon, maybe Johnny needed to be a little more anthropomorphic like his buddy Smokey, or maybe with the emergence of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act it was just time for something new.
Like many artifacts from the past, it's tough to say the exact time, day, or year they ceased to be in circulation. Sometimes there is no retirement party for our beloved friends. Sometimes they just need to make way for the new generation of mascots and symbols. And sometimes, perhaps like Johnny Horizon, they just quietly ride off into the sunset knowing they've done a good day's work.
"If you don't mind, I will skip my racket training this day. I have more important things to think about."
She was standing there looking up at the children coming down the water slide and probably contemplating whether she had she courage to go as well.
Please see my color version of this image at 500px.
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Photography: www.zivity.com/photographers/TameBabyParrots
Model: www.zivity.com/models/Cellular
From Filament magazine Issue 6, available from 27 August from www.filamentmagazine.com
Mila in a rare moment of calm. These don't happen much...
Usually she is running round like a nutter or doing something equally bad. Turns out she was so calm in this picture because she was stealing my mini tripod while I was concentrating on the picture.
There's nothing but evil inside her I tells ya, EVIL!
Taken with the mighty helios 44-2. f2.8 & 1/60 shutter