A Big Shock

I remember the 1989 annual Pony Penning at Chincoteague Island as a special time. I had a new camera with a really spiffy zoom lens (as a matter of fact, I still have them), and Walt Clark, one of the members of the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Department's Pony Committee (and a school friend of my Mother's), had arranged for me to have access inside the holding pen on Assateague before the swim, so I could take photos and play with my camera. That was the summer that Cezanne, a colt, sold for one of the highest prices ever recorded - and Kevin McBride, a local wildlife artist was the purchaser. I took over 600 photos during the three weeks I spent at Mom's house, roaming around Chincoteague and Assateague before and after the big event. After much consideration, I chose 20 of my best photos, cropped them and printed them; matted and framed them; stamped the back of the photos and the mats with name and address, and gave them to my Mother to be sold at the Chincoteague Island Senior Center (to be sold with all proceeds going to the Center, for their trip funding). I kept a copy of each one of my "best" works, and gave several of them to family members. My sister has a shot of Cezanne grazing by, and reflected in, the ditch by the main road on Assateague. The photo I was most proud of was a shot of two stallions, both on their hind legs, sparring over mares in the holding pen on Assateague. I was delighted with the details of the musculature on the horses; I was disappointed that I had cut off the bay stallions hind feet, but I couldn't quibble with the rest of the photo, once I had cropped and enlarged it. I gave my last copy of that photo to my mother-in-law; and was hurt that my husband's brother had thrown the matted and framed print away after her death. I had lost the negatives of the entire shoot many years ago in one of my wild and crazy moves.
Last night, I had another nightmare about the death of Banichi. I couldn't go back to sleep, so I decided to look at posters available on the internet. I looked at horses, cats, dogs, Sweden, Denmark, Colorado, and then looked up Chincoteague. Imagine my surprise to find the photo I took, and cropped, for sale on the internet - going for prices ranging from $39.99 to $499.99. I was shocked. I was sickened. I have no way, any longer, to prove that I took that photo. And I wonder who is profiting from it's sale... Who sold the rights to that photo that I took? *sigh* I'm just a stupid little country bumpkin, I guess.
And, as an aside, Tim Tebow just received the best "seal of approval" that is available here in Colorado. John Elway, the Broncos' Super Bowl-winning quarterback, just gave Tebow a super report, a very good opinion of his fitting into the Broncos, and said that Tim could do things that neither of the Broncos' two veteran quarterbacks could do. A "thumbs up" from Elway means a lot in Denver.
Oh, we had a wind gust yesterday, in the Chinook, recorded at 87 mph here in Boulder....