Saturday Santa's helpers

All ready for Christmas

Photo by Edwin

It is begining to look like Christmas

Eight days more to go ...

A touch of homemade paper chains

Adding colors to the room

Eleven Days to go... and counting

True Story of Rudolph

A man named Bob May,

depressed and brokenhearted,

stared out his drafty apartment window

into the chilling December night

 His 4-year-old daughter Barbara

sat on his lap quietly sobbing

 Bobs wife, Evelyn, was dying of cancer

 Little Barbara couldn't understand

why her mommy could never come home

 Barbara looked up into her dad's eyes and asked,

"Why isn't Mommy just like everybody else's Mommy?"

Bob's jaw tightened and his eyes welled with tears

 Her question brought waves of grief,

but also of anger

It had been the story of Bob's life

 Life always had to be different for Bob

Small when he was a kid,

Bob was often bullied by other boys

 He was too little at the time to compete in sports

 He was often called names he'd rather not remember

 From childhood,

Bob was different and never seemed to fit in

 Bob did complete college,

married his loving wife

and was grateful to get his job

as a copywriter at Montgomery Ward

during the Great Depression

 Then he was blessed with his little girl

 But it was all short-lived

 Evelyn's bout with cancer stripped them

of all their savings and now

Bob and his daughter were forced to live

in a two-room apartment in the Chicago slums

Evelyn died just days before Christmas in 1938

 Bob struggled to give hope to his child,

for whom he couldn't even afford to buy a Christmas gift

 But if he couldn't buy a gift,

he was determined a make one - a storybook!

Bob had created an animal character in his own mind

and told the animal's story to little Barbara

to give her comfort and hope

 Again and again Bob told the story,

embellishing it more with each telling

 Who was the character?

What was the story all about?

The story Bob May created was

his own autobiography in fable form

The character he created was a misfit outcast like he was...

 The name of the character?

A little reindeer named Rudolph,

with a big shiny nose

 Bob finished the book just in time to give it to

his little girl on Christmas Day

 But the story doesn't end there.

The general manager of Montgomery Ward

caught wind of the little storybook and offered Bob May

a nominal fee to purchase the rights to print the book

Wards went on to print, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

and distribute it to children visiting Santa Claus in their stores

 By 1946 Wards had printed and distributed

more than six million copies of Rudolph

 That same year, a major publisher wanted

to purchase the rights from Wards

to print an updated version of the book

In an unprecedented gesture of kindness,

the CEO of Wards returned all rights back to Bob May

 The book became a best seller

 Many toy and marketing deals followed

and Bob May, now remarried with a growing family,

became wealthy from the story he created

to comfort his grieving daughter

But the story doesn't end there either

Bob's brother-in-law, Johnny Marks,

made a song adaptation to Rudolph

 Though the song was turned down by

such popular vocalists as Bing Crosby and Dinah Shore , it was recorded by the singing cowboy, Gene Autry

 "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" was released in 1949

and became a phenomenal success,

selling more records than any other Christmas song,

with the exception of "White Christmas"

The gift of love that Bob May created for his daughter

so long ago kept on returning back

to bless him again and again

 And Bob May learned the lesson,

just like his dear friend Rudolph,

that being different isn't so bad

In fact, being different can be a blessing.

* MERRY CHRISTMAS *

THE INCREDIBLE BAPTISM PHOTO

An amazing picture became a message of faith in Spain

This was taken at the baptism of Valentino Mora,

son of Erica, a single mom of 21

who asked the photographer

to take a picture of her son for free

The photo of the baptism of Valentino Mora

is sweeping the Internet,

because at the time the priest

pours the Holy water over his head,

the water flows in the shape of a rosary

(see photo above)

This story began at the

Parish of the Assumption of Our Lady in Cordova, Spain,

where the baptism of a one month baby took place

 At the time that Valentino came to the baptismal font

for the sacrament of baptism,

Erica asked the photographer Maria Silvana Salles,

who was hired by other parents baptizing their babies,

to take a photo of her son as a favor,

since the young mother had no way of paying for it

The photographer, moved by Erica's request,

agreed to take a photo of Valentino

 

Maria Silvana works with a traditional camera

and had to send the film to be developed to a shop in Cordova When she received the photos,

she noticed with surprise that the water poured

from the head of Valentino was a perfect rosary

The photo of the baptism of Valentino

has awakened faith in the people of Cordova

who come to the humble home

of Erica and Valentino Mora to touch him

The truth is that this sign of faith

has mobilized this town in Cordova,

whose neighbors go to Maria Silvana's store

to buy the picture as if it were a prayer card

One In A Billion Photo

The photo was taken at the entrance to Katlian Bay

at the end of the road in Sitka , Alaska ...

The whale is coming up to scoop up a mouthful of herring......... (the small fish seen at the surface around the kayak)

 

 The kayaker is a local Sitka Dentist

 

 He apparently didnt sustain any injuries

from the terrifying experience

 

The whale was just around the corner

from the ferry terminal,

and all the kayaker could think at that moment in time was:

" Paddle Man - really fast! "

 

 

The whale's mouth is fully open

with the bottom half under the boat

If the whale had closed his mouth

before he furiously paddled away -

He might have been LUNCH!!! 

Look at the picture again -

He is in the whale’s MOUTH



50 Reasons NOT to Date a Photographer

They rather hold their bulky camera,

than hold hands with you

On a romantic date,

you’ll watch the sun go down and think “Wow this is gorgeous” and they’ll go “mirror lock, tripod, and stop down f/8 at 1/125.”

You’ll never be able to enjoy tv, movies, or magazines
because they’ll point out all the visual flaws

They like to sit in obscure coffee shop
and voyeuristically watch people for great lengths of time

If you’re taking a walk outside
and you come across some “interesting light”
they will make you sit/stand/pose in public
so that they can take a photo

You’ll never get to enjoy freshly cooked meals
because they’ll spend 15 minutes taking 20 variations
of the same dish with their iPhone

They get angry when your friends go up to them
and say “I am interested in photography,
can you recommend a good camera for me?
Nothing professional I just want to take pretty pictures”

You’ll wait longer for them to finish analyzing art in a museum than you’ll wait at the dmv



Same goes with old used bookstores


When you think they’re giving you their undivided attention, they’re really wondering how they could fix you
with a little Clone Tool and Patch Tool


Or they are actually using you to not look so creepy
as they people watch everything going on around you


They rather drop $1,000+ on new glass than a purse for you


You can’t take a photo with them
without taking at least five more


If you ask them if you look fat,
they’ll say “don’t worry I can photoshop you later”


They’ll never photoshop something simple for you
if the content is not up to their “standards”


That photo they randomly took of you yesterday?
Good luck getting them to send it to you


They spend all their time on the computer (and not for porn)


They can’t have a normal conversation withot
throwing acronyms and random numbers


They still use film cameras


They spend a lot of time with people cooler than you
i.e. models, actors, musicians, successful rich people


They’ll be fussy over the position of a common household object, like a coffee cup


They won’t return your calls or text messages,
but you can bet they’re still posting pics on Instagram


They like watching old films that you’ve never heard
or will ever understand


They like looking at weird things in general


Instead of having penis-envy, they have camera-gear-envy


If there’s a natural disaster in a far away land,
they’re already on a plane going over there


Everything is watermarked


They think everyone else’s photos suck


They want to color correct a lot of scenes
from Twilight and Jersey Shore


They hate rainbows, especially ones spinning in a circle


and the conversation goes deep,
they’re taking notes in some form of Moleskin


They use over priced Moleskin notebooks


They like trespassing into old abandoned buildings
filled with health hazards


but don’t really care if you like it or not


They hate your n00bie friend’s new artsy profile picture


Bright, sunny days make them sad,
but cloudy, overcast days are apparently great!


They’ll take you into places that have “culture” as well a high chance of getting mugged


Your birthday present will be a portrait that
they’ve taken of you


You can’t go anywhere new without them stopping to take a photo of everything and anything


They will always bug you to be a test subject


Nothing can ever be naturally pretty,
everything must be fixed in Photoshop


Bringing their camera means,
bringing 50lbs of equipment


If you break any of their things on accident,
you’ll owe them thousands of dollars


You can’t get them a birthday/Christmas present
without spending at least $500


They are natural hoarders,
collecting and keeping piles of old newspapers,
packaging, magazines, and other things that “inspire” them


They are weird and geeky


They have hard drives of photos,
but probably have printed 10 images


They are always secretly judging your creativity


If you’re ever in auto mode, they laugh at you





Reasons by Rob Skeoch


They always want to show a new photo they took, Whenever you’re in a group talking

Photo by George Wong