Just a rant! I don't understand some why people want to steal the joy of other people when they talk about the new or old piece of camera gear they purchased. If it was a older camera boded or an older lens maybe it was all the person could afford to get into photography. I think as a group of people interested in photography we should help people instead of making them feel bad about their equipment. Help them get the most out of what they have, to point out the best aspect of the lens or camera. How to set it up to get the best performance from what they have.get new equipment and especially when they post how they like features and post photos taken with the new equipment. I buy used even though GAS is pushing for the new latest greatest, a well cared for used/refurbished older version does the job I need it to do. I like to watch the excitement of getting a package by others Christmas is hard for many I spent many holidays away from my family first in the service then as a truck driver it taught me to realize the true meaning of Christmas and other holidays is not the gifts we get but the love and affection from those we love. My kids also learned from this as we give only special gifts such as handmade photo collages of our life homemade goodies etc., we do give young grandkids a small present and that suffices and also never heard any complaints from them as they are happy with what they get as it is secondary to spending time with one another. I do hope each and everyone on the hog has a wonderful Christmas wherever they may be.

Lets be kind to people you never now how your word affect someone.

On our way back from visiting our son and his wife in San Francisco a few months ago, we took a detour and spent a day in Bodie, CA. Thought I would share a few pics from that visit. Bodie is an old gold mining town near Mono Lake, CA. It's mining peaked in the mid 1870's with a population of about 10,000 residents. By the turn of the century, mining had declined significantly and only a few residents remained. It was fully abandoned in 1944 when the fed govt stopped all non-essential mining unrelated to war materials. There were a couple of large fires that burned down most of the town, but the mine and a few residence and business buildings remain. It is now a State Park and is maintained in a state of arrested decay, i.e. will repair a wall that collapses but only to the state it was in before the collapse.

I don't know what truck is shown in images 2 and 3. The truck in images 4 and 5 is a 1927 Dodge Graham.

Hope you enjoy the images.

Mike

When I see a post that requires specific knowledge, why are we not referring the op to the section most able to answer the question?

I try to do it all the time BUT I do not say where is the section. Why? It encourages folks who just use 'home' to search the board and discover the site features.

Providing a link is great, do not get me wrong, but the wealth of information is still hidden if we just give that, in my opinion. 'Teach someone to fish' kinda of mentality.

So, how can we encourage folks to dig for gold otherwise?

(This post may belong in the general chit-chat. I am just not sure).