Hi Soopa,

Hope this is of interest. RoadsideAmerica.com received a request from a textbook publisher, who'd like permission to use a print-resolution image of yours (your winter view of the Middlegate shoe tree).



Let me know if I should pass on your email contact to them so they can connect with you. They were fine with a fee of $XXX. for 1/4 pg b/w image use in the textbook (hope that's okay -- I negotiated before they let me know it wasn't our photo they were interested in!).

We usually email a book publisher the high rez image and then send an email invoice.

Thanks,

Doug



Doug Kirby
Publisher, roadsideamerica.com
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/

Office:
PO Box 429
Middletown, NJ 07748-0429

---

The real kicker is that those photos were like, the second or third set of photos I ever took with my fancy-shmancy digital camera and, novice that I was, I didn't keep high resolution versions of everything like I do now.

*head desk*

Location: Salt Lake City, UT

When I posted the essay about the Nevada Shoe Tree in found_objects last January, I wasn't prepared for the interest the accompanying photos would generate. In fact, the bandwidth necessary to keep that entry intact was the sole justification for acquiring more spacious web hosting services. Over the course of the year, that entry has continued to generate several hundred hits per month as the link traversed the web's nook and crannies. I've never minded it being hotlinked in blogs or appearing in some questionable places, for at least it traced back to me and weren't used for any overt commericial purposes. Additionally, I gave Roadside America permission to publish them on their website and they kindly gave me credit as well as a link to my LiveJournal in their article.

A few days ago, I noticed a huge jump in the bandwidth on my photo subdomain, to the tune of 33,000 hits and 3+ GB. Upon checking out the referrer report, I quickly deduced that the found_objects entry was the culprit and upon further inspection (and some sleuth work from welfy) that it had most likely been linked on at least two Brazilian message boards (fodum.com and lkmtheblog.com). Without access to the forums, I can't be positive, but since the found_objects entry generated a smidge over 32,000 of those hits, I'm guessing that the Brazilians simply linked to the original article with an accompanying photograph hotlinked.

Again, this sort of thing doesn't bother me. They are beautiful and unique photographs and I have no problem sharing them if people find them interesting or pleasureable to view.


Photo Gallery album

I hadn't Googled "Nevada Shoe Tree" in a while, so I thought I'd give it a quick look-over and see if they were being linked anywhere new and interesting other than these Brazilian forums. Imagine my dismay when I discovered this on the first page of links. Of the 8 photos being used for this "Funny Picture", SIX OF THEM ARE MINE. According to the voting page it's on, it was posted to the site on December 8, 2005. In 5 days, it has generated this atrocious, ad-plastered website 38,000 page views. As final insult to injury, the photos are being hosted by the website rather than hotlinked. In short, there is no way that these photos are linked to me, personally, in any way.

While chatting with justamy she went the next step and figured out that blogs were now linking to this website.

I screen-capped the website for good measure then began checking the place out. Site content is submitted by the website's users. Realistically, the website just gathers whatever is submitted to it and makes a broad assumption that the submitter either has rights to the content or that it is within the realm of public domain. I can't really fault the website, however, I do have a right to credit/compensation or to have the photos removed. My next step was to find contact information. Naturally, the Contact link on the website doesn't work. This is typical of websites with somewhat shady practices, so I proceeded to do a Whois lookup and acquired all sorts of phone numbers, email and snail mail addresses.

welfy (1:28:26 AM): ooh!
welfy (1:28:31 AM): *kills Mary Dunne*

welfy (1:29:03 AM): KILL KILL
welfy (1:29:17 AM): IT'S HER
welfy (1:30:11 AM): don't let her sweet apple pie face fool you, Lin!

So I'm going to call some of those phone numbers tomorrow and raise a bit of a stink. My plan is to propose that they purchase rights to the photographs or cease and desist the use of them by the end of the week. If not, they'll hear from a lawyer by the first of next week.

About a month ago, the weekend before she rode in the truck with me, I got to visit with welfy in Dorksville, PA.  I had visited with her there a few times prior to that visit, but never for an extended period of time with daylight and time to actually DO things other than hang-out.  She had told me on the first night we met that there was a shoetree in nearby Beaver Falls on the campus of her alma mater, Geneva College.  Naturally, this was a high priority on my list of things to do in the greater Dorksville area.  On a gorgeous Monday afternoon, we set-out for Beaver Falls.

Along the way, we stopped at Buttermilk Falls.  A couple of weeks prior, her shutterbug LiveJournal friend outmused had visited her and she had taken him there as well.  When she showed me the photos from that day, the following photo was an immediate favorite.



As we wound down the path to the view point near the top of the falls, she pointed out the tree used in the photo at the edge of the ravine.  With some help from Welfy, I decided to make an homage to my favorite photo.



You can see a bit of the waterfall in the background.  Actually, it's more of a trickle, really.  There were some historical photos on markers along the trails which surrounded the falls and it was much healthier in its heyday.  It's still a very tranquil and picturesque spot... and ripe with photographic opportunities.

( A very photo-intense (39!) entry, like the soopa photojournals of yore. )

Having visited shoetrees in such far flung places as Nevada, Oregon, and Minnesota, (not to mention a certain degree of complicity in one being created in Massachusetts) I figured it was high-time I visited one which was virtually in my own backyard: thirty miles west of Louisville, just outside the small town of Milltown, Indiana. I had become aware of the tree through internet research about the phenomena of shoetrees and had gained knowledge of its precise location via the fine folks at Roadside America who published my wintry photos of the Nevada Shoe Tree back in January. I had one day of driving and three days in which to do it. I also happened to be bobtailing to my next pickup, so I decided it was time for a little side-trip.

It had been cloudy all day, threatening rain. Once or twice an hour the sun would peek out from behind the clouds and dazzle the countryside with its brilliance only to retreat again. I kept wishing for the rain to hold-off. I was granted my wish as I approached the turn-off from Route 64 that would take me into town. The sun came out in full-force and refusing to be covered-up any longer. I discovered rather quickly that the directions were inaccurate as I drove from one end of town to the other looking for the particular street. I pulled into a canoe rental place which provided tours on the Blue River and inquired about the location of the tree. The middle aged man behind the counter with the gold teeth gave me some rather simple directions. Turn left at the cafe, go to the top of the hill and turn left again. Follow the road until you come to the crossroads.

I followed his directions and soon found myself on a narrow road winding through the countryside just south of town. The low branches hanging over the road were making high-pitched clanging noises against the tops of the smokestacks as I passed beneath. Along side the road were run-down shacks and dilapidated trailer homes, their yards brimming with rusted farm machinery and parted-out automobiles. The tune to "Dueling Banjos" began playing in my head and I imagined someone asking me to squeal like a pig. Then I thought of Hoosiers, where the kid lived with Dennis Hopper. Yeah, exactly like that.

What seemed like forever was only 3-4 miles riddled with anticipation but finally the crossroads appeared in the distance. I began immediately looking for the shoetree. What I saw was a shoe intersection. I wish there was some way I could've captured what it was like, but a photo from such a distance to take it all in would've been impossible and still have enough detail to appreciate it. It was an intersection of two roads and on each corner were shoetrees.

I went down to the crossroads, fell down on my knees

Ok, so this isn't 100% accurate. There was one primary shoetree, three auxillary shoetrees, and a handfull of other woody vegetation containing shoes as well. Shoes were everywhere. I feel though as if my words aren't doing justice to what I'm trying to convey here, so we shall commence with the photos. The first important thing I want to make clear is the remoteness of the area. Sure the trees in Oregon and Nevada were in the desert, but they were both on major U.S. Highways. Here in Indiana, it's a little closer to civilization but it's not even on a state highway. This is well-off the beaten path which means, aside from the few devotees like me who sojourn here specifically for this reason, this shoe-square has been basically maintained solely (heh) by locals. How remote? Here are four photos, looking down each direction of the crossroads.



I parked on the side of the road and began to take in my surroundings. I was completely surrounded by shoes! Apparently, someone wanted to make sure I didn't miss it, though, just in case.


Standing in front of those words on the asphalt, when you look up in the direction of the arrow, you're treated to the sight of the primary shoe tree.


But you can't tell two things from this photo. ( Lots and Lots more pictures of the shoetrees of Indiana )

I will admit, I've never been the best of housekeepers and for the last week I have REALLY been lazy about keeping-up with the general clutter and cleanliness inside the truck.  Since I was the only one in the truck, there was no one else to impress, right?  Well, since I have my new guy, Jason, I thought I should do a bang-up job of cleaning on the inside.  So I'm cleaning out my truck before I get ready to meet up with Robin for the Slint show tonight and I find two pairs of boots that Vilas (my previous student) left in the truck.  One was a western-style cowboy boot made of black leather with a pointy toe, the other was a tan, lace-up workboot.  Out of curiosity, I tried-on the workboot;  fit like a glove, er, a boot.  But I really don't need any boots.  I have one pair of workboots that I drag out maybe twice a year, the rest of the time it's sneakers for me.  I debated tossing them out, then I remembered a certain shoe tree in need of some footwear love.  So I packed them away into the storage place under the bed.  I'll be visiting that shoe tree in a few weeks.  I need to dig some of my own shoes out of storage.  While it's nice to give the shoe tree some general volume courtesy of Vilas, I think to really contribute to the concept, it has to be something in which you once tread.

Ok, this is the the best one yet.

Location: Winnemucca, NV

You may recall me getting excited about Roadside America publishing photos of the Minnesota shoe tree in their tips section.  They decided to write a full-blown article called Shoe Tree Seasons which includes some of my photos of the Nevada Shoe Tree, a quote by yours truly, and a link to my original blog entry. Incidentally, that other shoe tree they mention in the article in Indiana, I have already been making plans to go visit it with a friend one weekend when I'm home... although judging from their pictures, it won't be terribly awe-inspiring.

In other news, soopageek.com is working again, for the meantime.

I was propositioned by a lot lizard during the writing of this entry.

...that I am. 

( More shoe tree links. )

My mom just told me the neatest story over the phone.  37 years ago my dad lost her high-school class ring somewhere in Virginia.  This week, it turned up... in Florida. A woman found it in her deceased sister's jewelry box while going through her effects.  The woman, after inspecting the ring knew what high school it came from in Virginia, the year of graduation, and that it had the intials "PLC" engraved inside the band.  She called the high school in Richmond where my parents had attended and spoke with people there.  Long story short, the ring was shipped to the highschool and my mother was eventually contacted and it is being shipped to her.

I can't believe that at some point that ring wasn't sold for its precious metal value.  It's definitely an amazing occurence in my mind.

Location: Concordia, MO

Some of you who have been reading here for a while may recall an entry I did earlier this year about the Oregon Shoe Tree.  As it turns out, Nevada has one, too!  I'll tell you my secret, I've known about it for a little while and have been dying to tell everyone, but the pictures I took of it when I discovered it were all blurry.  And I didn't see any point in sharing it if I couldn't back it up with the pictorial proof.  Last weekend as Roger and I were making our way to California we stopped.  It turned out to be a wonderful day to take pictures.With the recent snow and ice storms, the shoe laces were creating long thin icycles



( More pictures of the Nevada Shoe Tree )

As mentioned previously, I spent an evening with the lovely psycat90 and her hubby democritus.  On the trip out of Oakland up to Santa Rosa, I was playing with the camera while Roger drove.  There was a light rain and the California freeway traffic was... typical.  It made for some interesting photos, though.



( See the rest of 'em )

---

I did end up getting a new trainee.



His name is Mike.  And this isn't a very good picture because of the back light, but maybe I'll get some better ones later.  Mike's a young guy... 21 to be precise.  He's the kinda guy who wears his ball-cap backwards and keeps a scraggly beard and mustache.  When I picked him up in Indianapolis yesterday I got to meet his wife of 3 months.  Awwwww...newlyweds.  He says the plan is for her to ride with him after he gets out of training and they're going to travel the country while they're young and unencumbered by children.  Sounds like fun.

Oh yeah... Mike's wife... is very, very hot.

---

After some IM conversations with atthestarz and hockeyfag I think I'm going to try and plan a trip to Minneapolis the weekend of January 15th.  If I can acquire the tickets, I'm hoping to catch the live broadcast of Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion program in St. Paul on that Satruday.  I must be insane for purposefully planning to go to freakin' Minnesota in January, but it should be fun.

Location: Amarillo, Texas

People amaze and amuse me. It is a wonderment that never ceases. Often times it can be appalling, the brutal and insensitive nature of humanity, but for the most part, I've always found it inspiring. Man is capable of the grandest achievements - philosophically, artistically, and mechincally - and yet, simultaneously, can be reduced to tearful, hysterical laughter by a really good fart joke. It is this duality of the human spirit that moves me; the sacred and the profane, the high-brow and the low-brow, the earnest endeavor and the flight of fancy.

( Read about and see pictures of the Oregon shoe tree. )