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This was taken on Christmas day...We are in Sandra and Mike's kitchen just before we sat down to eat...(l to r front row) Michael, Sandra, Cheyenne (back row l to r) Me, my oldest son, Mark, David, Josh and Mike...

Update on Project Compassion

Here is an update on Project Compassion...
as of now, since 2003 just over 1,850 portraits have been painted by their 5 artists, and sent home!

You can go to their new web site...

http://www.heropaintings.com/kzindex.aspx

and read about these marvelous artists and view their work...It was Kaziah Handcock who started this never ending project...My hat is off to her and her fellow artists...

Please help them if you can.

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Marry Christmas Everyone....from Uncle Ron

Christmas dinner...

I just put a 6 lb. precooked ham in my 5 qt. (or is it 7 qt.) crock pot and lined the bottom of it with cabbage wedges...I am going to let it cook on low for 8-10 hours...Too long you say? Well I'll check it periodically to make sure I don't over cook it...Any suggestions are welcome...I'm going to do the turkey tomorrow morning and have it ready by noon...We eat at noon... I might made an apple walnut cake today as well...Sounds Yummy...

I went to a funeral yesterday for my good friend, Jerry's brother Jim...Jim had not been well for some time...They lived together...Funerals make people sad but I'm kind of the opposite...I believe Death is our beginning not our end...They do it right in New Orleans with the parade of mourners marching down the street, trumpets blaring and drums pounding and dancing in the street...I like that...

Portraits of Fallen Soldiers

There's some artists out there who are helping to heal the heartbreak of fallen soldier's family and friends...It was started by a Utah artist named Kaziah Handcock...She and a few other artists are painting portraits of our fallen heros in Iraq and Afghanistan and sending them to their families free of charge...They call it,"Project Compassion"...and you can go to it's web site and see virtually all of the portraits (over 300) they have completed...They have not stopped doing this...They are continuing to paint these portraits even as we speak...They need our help...Please go to their web site...

http://www.kaziahthegoatwoman.com/

and see these beautiful paintings and view the videos of Kaziah and`then give them a hand...

God bless...

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Here is another shot of that farm house I took yesterday while driving to pick out a ham for Christmas dinner...I'm going to slow cook it in a large crock pot with a head of cabbage cut up underneath it...For some reason my daughter Sandra wants cabbage this year along with the typical condiments on the menu...I am also doing a turkey as well...

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No photo today as well...But I think this little sign and motto from the Peace Pilgrim is very apppropriate for this time of year...Anyone wanting to know more about the Peace Pilgrim can google her name...Her message to the world is very beautiful and profound...

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I didn't take a daily photo today so I thought I would add an old photo I took a few years back of a lovely belly dancer who taught at the YWCA in Columbia...She was illustrating her art to the students of University of South Carolina ...I bounced my flash off the ceiling of this room which was very high...I don't know what my shutter speed was but it must have been slow since I picked up the wonderful highlights from her movements...Over the years I have made many mistakes with my camera but this one made this photo a keeper...

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This a farm house around the corner from me which I drive by twice a day...I've always liked the architecture of it...on the back side of it is a pasture with cows in it...very rural...

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This is a painting that my wife bought at a yard sale by an artist named Montoya '80...Does anyone know anything about him or her?

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Here is a self portrait of me done in sepia tone...Taken at Uncle Louie's...

Budweiser Party Sketches

I was fortunate enough to attend the annual Budweiser Employee Party this weekend and do some portrait sketches of the attendee's children...Some of them were still wearing their face paintings which they asked me to include in their pictures...Here are a few who let me photograph them...

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Here's my Christmas tree...I like colored lights...

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My grandson Josh's 21 Birthday breakfast

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ETV Oldtimer's Luncheon

Here are some of the folks who worked at the SCETV over the years (myself included) We have a luncheon every three months at the Brookland Banquet and Conference Center in West Columbia... I wish I could remember everyone's names but alas...I can't...Maybe some one will comment and help me out...I missed a few and I'll try to include everyone next time...

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!st self portrait...

Old Self Portrait

Here is a except from a WhoU interview where I tell How I became involved in photography...
For how long have you done photography? How did you begin?

I started in High School in 1957...I worked for an Art & Photography Studio during my 3 month summer vacation in downtown Chicago...I like to draw and paint and I thought of becoming an illustrator like Norman Rockwell or Hayden Sunbloom (he painted the original CocoCola Santa Claus)...My aim at that time was to become the world's best illustrator...I learned that illustrator's needed photographs to work from so they had a photographer at the studio who shot the photos of their models for them...I knew that if I was going to succeed...I would have to do my own photography...I found an article in a photo magazine on how to build your own enlarger...So I bought an old Kodak pocket camera (the kind that had a fold out bellows lens and made an enlarger out of a light bulb..extension cord with a socket on one end...a wood box, milk glass, 5x7 picture frame with two panes of glass and a coffee can...oh yes...a 3' iron pipe and a piece of 3/4" ply wood...I think I still have it out in the shed...After taking my pictures with the camera, I developed the film and the took the back off the camera and the camera lens became part of the enlarger...I changed all the lights in the basement to red and amber bulbs (I didn't know the difference between them) and my father would holler at me when he was going down to put coal in the furnace to come down and change the bulbs...

Here is a picture of me I found the other day which I printed in my basement...I've been taking pictures of myself ever since..."No conceit in my family...I've got it all...LOL"

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