Blog

Black panther spotted on Rattlesnake Creek
Randy Branham
10h ·
Shared with Public
Panther on
Rattlesnake Creek - As I was growing up on the farm over in Highland County, like most young people I had several friends but, I think I was blessed to have two older and one younger sisters and two older and two younger brothers. I was right in the middle which means of course I never got anything new it was all hand-me-downs if it wasn't already worn out. Having two older sisters helped a lot because guys would come around and of course, want to hang around the " little kid brother" just to get to see and know my sisters. One of these friends was Herb Bartley from up the road at Centerville. Well, Herb and I got along quite well as he was old enough to own a beautiful blue Harley Motorcycle which I thought was pretty cool.
I guess I didn't realize or didn't care he was coming over so often to see my blond sister two years older than me but, we became friends and started doing a lot of fishing at night using trotline fishing. This was a way to string a heavy line across the creek with short drop-down lines every so often with bait on hooks and you could leave it out at night to catch fish.
One night we had to go way up Rattlesnake Creek to get to a big hole of water to string our lines and to get there we had to stop at the top of a big hill and open and close the gate no more roads from here on to the water hole. Back then farmers didn't care if you used their farm fields to gain access to a good fishing hole if you respected their property and always closed the gates, which we always did. About midnight we traversed the fields for almost a mile to get to the open water area to put in our lines. We parked the cycle up in the field and climbed down a steep bank to gain access to the big hole of water to put in our lines. As I was standing on a sandbank holding the big flashlight for Herb to string our line across the creek we heard the most awful scream that sounded like it was right on top of us, the next thing I remember was Herb yelling at me to come on as he was already up the bank on his motorcycle and waiting on me. Believe me when I say it did not take long for this ole basketball-running kid to traverse that bank and jump on the bike. Herb said I'll run out in the middle of the field and keep moving and maybe he won't come after us. Herb said I don't have enough gas for us to stay here till daylight running around this field we just gotta get out of here. I said OK what will we do, he said I'll run us up to the bottom of the hill and you jump off and run up the hill and open the gate and I'll ride and push the bike up after you. Remember you have to shut the gate and lock it. If you have never heard a panther scream while standing on a creek bank that sounds like it is right on top of you, you just ain't lived it will wake up every sense you have and then some, need less to say we never went back to that fishing hole and just left our lines there. Kids back in the fifty's had more fun, a true story about the life of a kid on the farm.
Uncle Ran

When I entered the USAF and was sent to March AFB in Southern California, where I was just another rock in the creek, I lost all confidence among the many that talked with arrogance like Rush Limbaugh or Bobby Knight does today, with all the confidence in the world, not knowing they were just as scared as me.
Things went along like this for quite some time until one day I met Marty Bloomingdale and in talking with him I heard him tell Jim Garret the amount of money he was making in his off hours. As I was only making $123.00 per month with a wife and kid I was interested in making a little more money. Let me just say that Marty was not an impressive individual he was not good looking and he was not someone most would want to emulate. So I figured if he could do it so could I. So I went with him to meet this Chuck Courtwright who was the leader of this group called "Presto Pride".
Well Chuck changed my life forever he instilled in me the confidence and enthusiasm that was always there just waiting to come out and be displayed. He asked me a few questions and said, come back next week and in between now and then I want you to read this book and handed me a book called [Think and Grow Rich]. He knew if I was really interested in improving my life I would read the book and return wanting to know more and if I was just another blow hard I probably wouldn't even come back.
Well I read the book and was as thrilled and excited as one can be, I had never heard of such successes as was in this book and all starting from nothing. I was ready to get to work, but he wasn't ready for me just yet, he handed me another book called [How to Win Friends and Influence People] by Dale Carnegie. I had to wait another week before he would hire me, he said I don't want you to get started and then fail, I want you to know you can do this and continue to be successful from here on out.
I didn't doubt him at all I could see success all around him at every meeting he was giving away prizes that I couldn't afford at all, dozens of them fancy lamps and what knots for the home, fancy clocks made of glass, stuff you would only dream about as a young 21 year old Airman.
Just let me say I went to work with him and in nine months earned enough money to completely pay off a brand new 1966 Mustang. We almost completely furnished our home with his prizes, you see he knew he had to not only have me, but he needed to have my wife's confidence as well hence all the prizes to motivate her to spur me on and help build my confidence. I parlayed all that success into enough confidence to come back to Ohio and had all three company's that I had given my resume too wanting to hire me, and yet with no formal education [college degrees were a requirement] I was hired as a salesman for PITNEY BOWES, the world's leader in mail equipment.
I went on to own Century 21 Champions Real Estate Company with 155 sales people and seven offices plus a commercial division in Cincinnati. A large building company an Insurance company and a development company selling my land to Fifth Third Bank , Arby's and United Dairy Farmers and others . I even wrote a National book on " Mergers in the Real Estate Business". So if this ole country boy can do it so can you. Hope you don't take this as bragging, but why should you believe me if I had never accomplished anything, I'm just trying to set my posture as they say lol.
Confidence is like pouring water into a glass; if you try to do to tepidly you will most likely spill some of it just trying ; if you're so arrogant you just grab it and dump it in you'll lose most of it also; but if you pour with assurance, trust, and confidence you will fill the glass and never spill a drop. Learn all you can about what you want to do, find something you desire, go after it with a passion. Keep your priorities straight, I always put GOD first family second and my vocation third and anything else after that for fun.
Remember your ABC'S when it comes to success I had a complete "wagon wheel of success" I used to teach my sales associates it works and several of my associates drove new Cadillac's free to prove it.
ATTITUDE
BELIEF
CONFIDENCE
DESIRE
EFFORT
FAILURE
GOALS
HELP
Look at these attributes as spokes in a wagon wheel. As you know in order for a wheel to turn it has to have many spokes the more and stronger the spokes the faster it may turn. If any of these eight spokes are broken or are no good the wheel is no good either, this is true of me and you if we don't have good attributes we can't perform and work successfully either. The more good spokes we have and the stronger the better. The reason for the analogy of the wagon wheel it helps to keep us focused and a good way of remembering how it all fits together, everyone remembers their ABC's.
Now let's build a strong wagon wheel that will carry us through and help make us become successful and enjoy life the way we desire.
First the hub of the wheel the spokes are imbedded into is your persistence, this holds the axle that will extend your goals and desires to others" other wheels", for when you are able to make others successful then you will be also. Back to the spokes and the wheel there's more to the wheel than just spokes , it needs a band of iron all around the wheel to hold it all together. This is your dreams, your aspiration's of life all the things you want out of life to make it all worth all your time and effort. Never give up on your dream your dreams are what will keep you going when you can't see any way to go. Keep your wheel rolling by remembering your ABC's and keep yourself on track to accoumplish whatever you desire.
Uncle Ran

My son and I were having a late dinner at Frischs last night and started talking about how much money the Branham's have spent over the years at Frischs. I told Tony I remember back in the early Fifty's Mom would take one of us older children there were eight of us and would travel from Leesburg down Rt. 50 to take brother Tim the youngest to the hospital he had to have a bone replacement surgery in his hip, so we were going a lot, he was a small child and we would often stop at Frischs MAINLINER for lunch, dinner, or breakfast on the way either coming or going. I could not count the times we have eaten at Frischs since then.
I remember at one family reunion we had 107 people, I know because I took the picture and were just one family.This is America where there are over 31.7 million small business' to serve you and I for everything you can think of, this is what makes America great. It's not just the big company but the little guy, the above average person who will sacrafice and work diligently for long hard hours to make things work for all. I know we all want to work for the biggest company around,of course you'll probably make bigger tips at a bigger restaurant. I remember our Daughter Nikki was waiting tables back in the seventy's at a restaurant called The White house and she received a $100.00 tip. We all have to start somewhere and usually it's a small business first. So I expect you and your family have spent a lot of money at Frischs or somewhere like them over the years also. Well Frischs, or Dunkin Donuts or any other business you can name including TESLA or APPLE started as you know as a small business they developed what we wanted in a product, service or method and made it work. At least here in America all your work ins't going to the government to be divided up and handed out as they see fit like in a Socialist country, but it's earned for you in America where we are still free and can start a business of your own and make it pay in proportion to your abilities . Uncle Ran

The Pheasant Flush
It was early in the morning, in the fall of 1957, Dad walked into our bedroom and said boys lets go get us a pheasant. We were always ready to grab our guns and head out to go hunting. We quickly got dressed and went on into the kitchen where Mom was fixing the usual Saturday morning breakfast, a pan of 24 biscuits with gravy, bacon and eggs. We would have biscuits for lunch and most times supper too, that way she would have to bake only once per day.
Dad said you boys hook up the tractor and wagon and we'll will go up on the hill to that patch of corn and shuck us a load of corn before we come back for lunch.
I was a lean 13 years old and brother Dane was going on seventeen and already gallivanting around doing things most couldn't even think about. He could whip a bull dog with buzz saws for paws and wouldn't hesitate to do it. It seems he got connected up with a group of guys up at the Clinton air Base in Wilmington who had their own Levi jackets printed up with their names on them and they thought they were tough. Dad didn't take to it very well, but that's another story.
It took a while to get up to the top of this big hill as we had to follow the creek for a ways to another branch off to the left and then start climbing up the hill in order to travers the country with a tractor and wagon. I always hated to have to go after the cows at milking time because that's where they would always be. I remember at one time we had this beautiful collie dog and when I would get home from school he would have the cows in the barn lot waiting for me. I guess that's why I loved the movie about OLE YELLER; he was the best daggum dog in the world.
As we pulled up to the corn patch I could just feel the pheasants get ready to jump out and fly away, but nothing moved. We climbed down off the tractor and walked over to the patch and grabbed a couple of stalks of corn to twist them together so we could lean our shotguns up against them like a tripod. That would keep the guns up off the ground and away from our flying ears of corn hitting the wagon, which was why we couldn't load them in the wagon. About that time a big ole cock rooster flew up out from under our guns, knocking our guns down and scaring us over into the next farmers field.
After we got ourselves composed again we started shucking corn and proceeded to fill the wagon. If you have never had a pheasant fly up out from under your feet cackling and flapping those wings , well you just can't seem to ever get ready for it. They most always want to run or just plain hide like this one, only he waited until we walked away and then he flew the coop.
I thought at that time there wasn't anything as good as roast pheasant and we had it often, but times and things changed and the pheasant population of the fifty's was gone for many years,
it's just now starting to come back . But the big problem now is there are no longer any small farms with small patches of corn with weeds growing up around the corn stalks for the birds to hide in. We have become too adept at farming and spreading insecticides and such cleaning out even the fence rows. I guess that's why when I see a pretty little old farm stead like this one I stop and starting shooting with my camera. I took so many pictures of this little farm that the farmer came out to see what I was doing, we had a good talk and I left. I love the country and old barns.
Uncle Ran

My First Outwest Hunting Trip - I went on an Elk hunt in Idaho with a few other fellows from around West Chester where we all worked at building houses, developing land, and selling Real Estate that ended up in a story that was published in the Magazine called [Outdoor Life]. We had two big Motor Homes each pulling jeeps and had camped on the Madison River [one of the last free flowing rivers] near Ennis Idaho Very much like this scene of the Sacaramento River in California ,unfortunatly I didn't get apic of the madison River.
I shot an Elk that very first morning which took three of us until almost midnight of very hard work to haul it out of the mountains. Well the Game Warden came down in the middle of the night and confiscated it saying we were not with a guide which the law read you have to have a licensed guide present [all the time], we had a guide that cost plenty, but at night he went back across the river and said he would return the next morning. We didn't know any difference. The Warden immediately informed us we were all under arrest and could either pay a fine of $50.00 each [10 of us] or go to court that night, a Sunday night.
Well to say the least that did not go well, but we didn't know what else to do but go along and pay the fine so we did. After paying the Warden plus the Guide several hundred dollars we decided to go into the little town of Ennis, we were all to upset to sleep and see if there were more goings on. The little town of Ennis consisted of a raised board walk like you would see in the cowboy movies with a grocery store - post office - and a bar that was it, remember this was back in the 70's not much normally going on there, but on this night that place was hopping it was overrun with hunters from all around. It seems this game warden that was from, Springfield Ohio was in cahoots with the Guide had taken many elk and deer from hunters on trumped up charges and they were all there and fighting mad. One group from Colorado had just arrived with 6 deer they had legally bagged and tagged in Colorado, and they were ready to fight. Someone called in the Highway Patrol and the local Sheriff, and settled everybody down, but it was kind of scary there for a while. We're talking about some tough characters with loaded weapons and mad. I couldn't believe it but one of our members let the air out of the Sheriff's tires and if I hadn't seen it, I wouldn't believe it, just goes to show how upset some folks can get when wronged. Later one of our members decided to sue the State, and it ended up in the papers and the biggest outdoor Magazine of the time "Outdoor Life" and he got the law changed. But it ended a weeklong hunt, down to just one day with no meat or antlers. We didn't want to go back in the woods with that crazy Guide and Warden, because if something did happen it would be very nervous time consuming and expensive, so we elected to turn around and head back to Ohio. but we went on other hunts in later years and had great times and wonderful memories. Happy trails
Uncle Ran

As a little kid on the farm, back in the late forty's and early fifty's we didn't have many toys to play with, so we had to make do with what was to be had on hand.
Spam cans come to mind and tomato soup cans and such. When they plowed the fields the rows of upturned dirt made great places to take a spam can as a shovel and gouge out a road for the span can car to run and slide up and down the dirt to make a little road that would run up and down the furrowed hills and valleys.We wore the knees ot of our britches and thats how we looked most of the time,well now kids you know they all want to be different and not look like everyone else so they buy their jeans already wore out, go figure.
After my brother and I got tired of digging highways and pushing the can around we would take a tomato soup can and split it up the middle, after cutting out the bottom and open it up good and wide to hold the hoop. Then find an old barrel hoop and tobacco stick and nail the can onto the end of the tobacco stick to make a holder for the hoop and stick to roll the hoop all around the barn lot.
This of course was before I got my first Daisy Red Ryder BB gun which occupied all my interest for quite some time, well actually until I got my first horse, when that came about me and local friend , Allen Pagen rode all over the county spending the night out on the trail just like they did in the movies.
Life on the farm was great, I wouldn't trade it for anything. What with the ole swimming hole, horses, hay mow's, tractors to pull sleds, lots of fields and woods to hunt and fish and build tree houses, we once had a two-story tree house. The farm we lived on before Bridges was down by Dodsonville Ohio a couple miles off Rt. 50, Dad built us a new barn and a new home there on 80 acres, it was a nice place but the farm at Leesburg was much better we built a new house there also. The Dodsonville place had a big oak tree on one fence row that was so big we built a two-story tree house, we could walk out on several limbs many feet it was awesome, after growing up and working in and around trees. I estimate it to be over 500 years old, I went back a few years ago to photograph it but it was gone. The limbs were pretty close to the ground and as big around as a big man it was awsome. We also had a big tree on the farm at Bridges it was a Sycamore and was completely hollow when Dad was afraid it would fall across the road and hurt someone so we cut it down. I remember being able to stand up inside the tree when it lying on the ground.
Being raised on spam, tomato soup, grilled cheese sandwiches and the like I still enjoy them today along with the Chili and peanut butter sandwiches we had at school, so Spam and britches worn out at the knees are a part of history I'll never forget. Uncle Ran

LIFE ON THE FARM

The Happenings By Uncle Ran
The General Store










December 22nd, 2013
Edited February 26, 2022
.
We moved up to Bridges in the summer of 1952, I was riding on top of a load of our furniture on Grandpa's big red International flatbed truck, which would get you arrested today. At about 8 years old everything was new to me and very exciting; I just don't know how much use I was in lending a helping hand.
That's where I got my first Nesbitt's Grape Soda, that along with the bologna sandwiches which tasted better than anything I had had yet.
Elmer Leaverton the owner of the local Grocery Store there in Bridges was a kind and gentle old man and always happy to see you. He had a gas pump and sold kerosene and all types of groceries. As I grew up into my teen years and driving a car, gas was about 23 cents per gallon. I know because my first car was an old 51 Chrysler and it took one gallon of gas and one quart of oil to go into Leesburg and back, which was only 4 miles and until my graduation year I had to walk it every night coming home from basketball practice with games usually on Friday and Saturday nights.
All the farmers would gather at the store in the late fall and winter months after most of the work on the farms were finished. Elmer had an old pot belly stove and Dane my brother and I would sneak down to the store and sit around the stove and spit, trying to act big enough to get into the conversation. I always especially liked it at Christmas time; Elmer would buy candy in big amounts about 2' square boxes and sell it to everyone including Mom for Christmas in little brown Pokes, man that was the best candy you ever ate. She always bought 8 or 10 bags at a time, so we really had a good variety. Elmers's store was several miles out into the country, but back then there were little stores like this all over the country.
I guess that's why I like taking photos of them they all bring back fond memories of good times long gone, but as they say never forgotten. Sadly, this is the only picture of Elmer's store, sure wish I had more.
Elmer had one of those high porches you had to climb to get into the store that were built a lot back in those days what with so many creeks close by flooding was a problem. Bridges was so named because you couldn't get to it without crossing a bridge, of which there were four at the time.
I'm sadly told the Columbus Dispatch came down to Elmers back in the 70's and did an interview on one of the last old-fashioned stores still operating in Ohio, and a few weeks later some thugs came in and murdered Elmer and burned the store. The Leaverton family has a cemetery named after them just across the road, they were a large family and well respected in the community. As a kid I had the job of mowing that cemetary it took a very long time, I had to use a push mower,but I got paid good money.
I also remember my grandpa's old store down in Kentucky, Grandpa had a store and Post Office over the mountain, In a different valley, whenever we would go down to visit him and my pipe smoking jolly Grandma, he would always bring me some stick bubble gum which was sweet as can be and you could bite off pieces to chew all day long. I would occasionally get to ride on Grandpa's Old mule called Big Dick and go to the store with him leaving before daylight and Mom and Dad would come by later in the car. It was always scary going thru the mountains in pitch dark, we had to leave before daylight to get there in time to open the store. I never could figure out how that old mule and Grandpa could see well enough in the dark to go thru all those big woods and never get lost.
My Grandpa had a 32/20 Smith Wesson pistol that he always wore to the store and back when he passed away he gave it to my Dad, of course Dad had three other brothers ,but Dad got the pistol. I have seen my Dad shoot walnuts out of a tree many times with this pistol and when dad passed he gave it to me. My son and Grandson will get this pistol, it's the best shooting pistol I've ever seen as they say every once in a while everything goes together perfectly to make an exception weapon and this is one.
Of course, when you're a kid everything revolves around you, I never realized my other brothers and sisters probably got to do the same.
There's a few old stores left here and there another old store called Watson's we would pass on route 11 between Maysville and Morehead that still to this day is still open after more than 50 years. Folks didn't make much money from these old stores, but I guess it was a comfortable living. I know of several store owners in our family, including Mom and Dad who had a thriving store in Martinsville Ohio that Dad bought after selling the farm at Leesburg that's when I had to sell my beloved horse Dixie,but thats the way it was living on a farm back then
Uncle Ran.

I had worked hard all summer long going into my senior year, because I knew if I was going to get a car to drive to school or anywhere else, I would have to buy it myself. Well, my dad said when you get your money together let me know and I'll take you downtown Cincinnati where we can find a better car cheaper.
Of course, I didn't take into consideration that my dad had a different idea for a car that I did. He wanted me to buy a six cylinder that got good gas mileage and I wanted a Hot Rod, guess who won that argument of course you got to remember gas was 23cents per gallon and he had to drive to Cincinnati every day to work, so we settled on a 1953 six-cylinder Studebaker. It was blue and looked like an airplane ready to take off.
Well, everything was fine, and I paid for the car, and we headed out of town of course I didn't get to drive my new car. Mom wanted to drive until we got out of town and off of that big highway called Columbia Parkway "Rt 50". Well, we stopped to filler up with gas and checked the oil and washed the windshield again and headed out with Dad following us. As Mom picked up speed " she always was a fast driver " all of a sudden, the hood flipped up and back on top of the car so hard it beat the roof down on top of our heads. Mom had to stick her head out the window to see and asked me to watch the other side and make sure we didn't hit anything. Well, we finally made it home, but the hood was ruined. We made it into one of the best sleds you ever rode on in the winter snow. We could get several kids in it all at the same time.
I looked around at the junk yard for another hood and found one, where the body was ruined in a wreck, but the hood was great and it had a big V8. I bought it right on the spot and towed it down to Johnny Skaggs, my cousins farm in Lynchburg, because his dad Uncle Benny had a big barn with a barn beam where we could pull the motor and put it in my other car so I took two cars and made one good one. My other cousin Butch helped me do all the mechanics and we soon had it running good. After that I took it to Dayton and had all white leather seats installed, plush blue carpeting and had 7 coats of metallic blue paint put on her, she was a beauty still to this day I think that was the best paint job I have ever seen on a car it literally looked one foot deep. You see what made that car so special to me was the summer of my senior year I went to work for one of dad's big construction company's who he worked for in Cincinnati. This guy was a millionaire and owned 1000 acres out by Clarksville and told my dad he was looking for help on his farm and I could work all the hours I wanted to work. Well let me tell you I was not afraid of work and the motivation to work for $1.00 per hour from 7am every morning until 11 or 12 pm every night sounded right up my alley. You see I was usually working for all the farmers around for 4 or 5 maybe 6 hours a day bailing hay which was hit and miss and never any thing steady. We worked so many hours that first week the foreman almost got in a fight with Mr. Brielmeyer, because the foreman's son Dave and I worked so many hours he wouldn't believe it. Well he paid us and said keep on working and we did, we worked the entire summer seven days a week only taking one day off. I took my girl to the drive In and promptly fell asleep at midnight and she work me up at 1PM and said you better take me home now. That's how I bought my 1953 Studebaker and all the money I put into it, but it was worth it, I had already graduated and didn't get to drive it to school.

One night when I wasn't going anywhere { probably broke} dad came in and asked if he could borrow my car. Mom had gone somewhere in our new 1957 Packard, man what a car it even had a turbo charger , and when you hit the gas pedal at sixty it would set you back in your seat with no uncertainty, this in my opinion was the prettiest car Dad ever bought it was maroon and white and looked as long as a train.
Well when Dad asked to borrow my car I didn't think to ask what he was going to do, after all how could I turn him down, I had borrowed his car many nights. When I got in my car the next morning of course he had all ready left for work really early, he had to drive from our Leesburg farm to down town Cincinnati that was a very time consuming ride back then.
Dad had borrowed my car to go pick up his buddy's and their coon hounds and hauled them all in my car which I kept immaculate, it should be known that blue carpet and mud don't mix, man was I upset, I was never able to get that yellow clay out of the carpet, guess they didn't have good cleaners back then.
I got to enjoy my car that summer and fall and joined the USAF that January and left for Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. I hear another story coming up while in the Air Force where I was shooting pool and the siren went off and grown men started jumping under pool tables and yelling, next chapter of Happenings of UNCLE RAN.

Randy Branham
Admin

· February 12 at 8:41 AM ·
Back in the seventy's I was an avid fisherman, and just loved to get outdoors. Well about 10 of us local's, builders etc. decided to go fishing way up north in Canada. We heard about Lowell Thomas Outdoors who had guided fishing party's, so we chose a lake where we were the first to fly into this particular area. We new that had to be prime fishing, we pretty well felt we had fished out all the lakes here lol.
So away we went two big campers with 5 men in each camper. We drove as far as you can drive up thru Canada and then flew another 50 miles to get to the cabin that had just been built, we were the first there. We caught Walleye's and pike until you wouldn't believe it. So, we started a contest with two guys in each boat just to see who the best was. You could only count a fish that was 24" long and it had to be landed and or thrown back unless it was a Walleye which we ate. Well Gail Wilson beat me he had 89 fish that day. I only had 83. That place would spoil you for fishing anywhere else. Have you ever seen 10 men crying and praying and scared near to death well hang on and be sure to catch the next series of our trip. Coming soon on THE GROUP called HAPPENINGS BY Uncle Ran.
Featured
Feature the best of your group
Highlight the best of your group in one convenient place where you can pin posts, hashtags and rules. Learn more
Only admins can see this.
Events
When events are created or shared, they appear in this card.

Only admins can see this.
Add more
Randy Branham
Admin

· 46m ·
Chapter II - The Fishing Trip
We had two days before heading back on the plane to where we left our Campers at The Lowel Thomas Outdoors fish camp at Red Lake Ontario, which was about 1200 miles from home. I had brought a topo map of the area which I was accustomed to doing when I was going to be in a foreign area hunting / fishing. We were looking at the map and had to decided to check out a nearby lake about one mile away just to do some exploring and fish where maybe no on… See more
2 Comments


Randy Branham
Admin

· February 12 at 8:41 AM ·
Back in the seventy's I was an avid fisherman, and just loved to get outdoors. Well about 10 of us local's, builders etc. decided to go fishing way up north in Canada. We heard about Lowell Thomas Outdoors who had guided fishing party's, so we chose a lake where we were the first to fly into this particular area. We new that had to be prime fishing, we pretty well felt we had fished out all the lakes here lol.
So away we went two big campers with 5 men in each camper. We drove as far as you can drive up thru Canada and then flew another 50 miles to get to the cabin that had just been built, we were the first there. We caught Walleye's and pike until you wouldn't believe it. So, we started a contest with two guys in each boat just to see who the best was. You could only count a fish that was 24" long and it had to be landed and or thrown back unless it was a Walleye which we ate. Well Gail Wilson beat me he had 89 fish that day. I only had 83. That place would spoil you for fishing anywhere else. Have you ever seen 10 men crying and praying and scared near to death well hang on and be sure to catch the next series of our trip. Coming soon on THE GROUP called HAPPENINGS BY Uncle Ran.

This is for all the young folks out there that haven't learned to develop enough "confidence" to accomplish the goals in life they want. I was recently asked along with my other classmates to write what I was most proud of accomplishing after I graduated. This got me thinking about an article I wrote sometime back, about confidence. I've got some classmates that have put me to shame, like the Retired Chief Of Police of a city, or another guy that was able to build a home of such substance it was used as a Model for " Better Homes and Gardens" or a gal that not only owns a great home here in Ohio, but another one in Sedona Arizona I could go on and on. How do they do it? I keep seeing post after post here on Facebook from our young friends that obviously lack confidence and I though, I was like that at one time how did I overcome the most shy and backward kid in school. Read the story and see and maybe it will change your life like it did mine, it enabled me to earn enough money in 9 months to pay for a brand new 1966 Mustang.

CONFIDENCE
WHAT IS IT: The dictionary says its belief in one's own abilities? Trust; reliance; assurance:
WHY DO YOU WANT IT: Let me answer that by telling a short story about myself? When I was a young man in high school going through my senior year, I was very shy, almost backwards and had no confidence in my abilities in social graces.
I knew who I wanted to ask to the senior prom and probably everyone else in school who knew me knew also who I would ask. But I didn't have the confidence to ask her, even though I sat right beside her in study hall every day. I was just simply to shy and scared to try.
I didn't want to call her on the phone from home for fear my brothers and sisters might laugh and tease me, if by chance I got turned down. So what could I do, well I decided to walk about a mile down the road to Elmer's Grocery Store and call her from there, because I could have some privacy as I would pick a time when no one was about. I had no confidence at all in myself and I almost blew it, because she told me she wasn't going to wait any longer for fear of having to turn down any other callers and have no one ask her and if I hadn't called by now I probably wasn't going too. Well everything turned out well and I took "Miss Fireman of Ohio" to the senior prom and we all had a great time.
HOW DO YOU GET IT: Confidence comes mostly from doing something and doing it well enough to know you're good at it? Back to when I was in school I had good confidence in my ability to play basketball. You see as a teenager I could do something most could not do.
I milked 6 cows every morning and again at night which gave me very strong hands and fingers. I could walk out on the gym floor holding a basketball upside down in each hand and this gave me the confidence I needed to try hard enough to make the team.
I wasn't arrogant; I was just self-assured and knew I could play well, after all my dad played well in Kentucky and could still out shoot me in the barn lot. Plus I have some cousins who played at Lynchburg that I learned from, Johnny who was really good ended up playing for the United States Air Force team and played all over the world and at Madison Square Garden's many times. He had articles written about him in the New York Times calling him "sure shot Branham with springs in his feet"; Johnny could jump like a Deer. I was 5' 10" tall and he would run straight at me and jump completely over my head. His older brother Jimmy played along with our coach John Burton there in Lynchburg and Coach Burton held the school record for highest score until it was won by Danny Branham little brother to Jimmy and Johnny. Danny obviously learned from his older brothers.
Confidence is so important and if you'll watch closely when you see a great athlete that has a son or daughter that comes along they develop that trust and confidence from their father that helps them excel beyond the normal very quickly. It's the trust and assurance they are able to gain that gives them the boost they need.
When I entered the USAF and was sent to March AFB in Southern California, where I was just another rock in the creek, I lost all confidence among the many that talked with arrogance like Rush Limbaugh or Bobby Knight does today, with all the confidence in the world, not knowing they were just as scared as me.
Things went along like this for quite some time until one day I met Marty Bloomingdale and in talking with him I heard him tell Jim Garret the amount of money he was making in his off hours. As I was only making $123.00 per month with a wife and kid I was interested in making a little more money. Let me just say that Marty was not an impressive individual he was not good looking and he was not someone most would want to emulate. So I figured if he could do it so could I. So I went with him to meet this Chuck Courtwright who was the leader of this group called "Presto Pride".
Well Chuck changed my life forever he instilled in me the confidence and enthusiasm that was always there just waiting to come out and be displayed. He asked me a few questions and said, come back next week and in between now and then I want you to read this book and handed me a book called [Think and Grow Rich]. He knew if I was really interested in improving my life I would read the book and return wanting to know more and if I was just another blow hard I probably wouldn't even come back.
Well I read the book and was as thrilled and excited as one can be, I had never heard of such successes as was in this book and all starting from nothing. I was ready to get to work, but he wasn't ready for me just yet, he handed me another book called [How to Win Friends and Influence People] by Dale Carnegie. I had to wait another week before he would hire me, he said I don't want you to get started and then fail, I want you to know you can do this and continue to be successful from here on out.
I didn't doubt him at all I could see success all around him at every meeting he was giving away prizes that I couldn't afford at all, dozens of them fancy lamps and what knots for the home, fancy clocks made of glass, stuff you would only dream about as a young 21 year old Airman.
Just let me say I went to work with him and in nine months earned enough money to completely pay off a brand new 1966 Mustang. We almost completely furnished our home with his prizes, you see he knew he had to not only have me, but he needed to have my wife's confidence as well hence all the prizes to motivate her to spur me on and help build my confidence. I parlayed all that success into enough confidence to come back to Ohio and had all three company's that I had given my resume too wanting to hire me, and yet with no formal education [college degrees were a requirement] I was hired as a salesman for PITNEY BOWES, the world's leader in mail equipment.
I went on to own Century 21 Champions Real Estate Company with 155 sales people and seven offices plus a commercial division in Cincinnati. A large building company an Insurance company and a development company selling my land to Fifth Third Bank , Arby's and United Dairy Farmers and others . I even wrote a National book on " Mergers in the Real Estate Business". So if this ole country boy can do it so can you. Hope you don't take this as bragging, but why should you believe me if I had never accomplished anything, I'm just trying to set my posture as they say lol.
Confidence is like pouring water into a glass; if you try to do to tepidly you will most likely spill some of it just trying ; if you're so arrogant you just grab it and dump it in you'll lose most of it also; but if you pour with assurance, trust, and confidence you will fill the glass and never spill a drop. Learn all you can about what you want to do, find something you desire, go after it with a passion. Keep your priorities straight, I always put GOD first family second and my vocation third and anything else after that for fun.
Remember your ABC'S when it comes to success I had a complete "wagon wheel of success" I used to teach my sales associates it works and some drove new Cadillac's free to prove it.
ATTITUDE
BELIEF
CONFIDENCE
DESIRE
EFFORT
FAILURE
GOALS
HELP
Look at these attributes as spokes in a wagon wheel. As you know in order for a wheel to turn it has to have many spokes the more and stronger the spokes the faster it may turn. If any of these eight spokes are broken or are no good the wheel is no good either, this is true of me and you if we don't have good attributes we can't perform and work successfully either. The more good spokes we have and the stronger the better. The reason for the analogy of the wagon wheel it helps to keep us focused and a good way of remembering how it all fits together, everyone remembers their ABC's.
Now let's build a strong wagon wheel that will carry us through and help make us successful and enjoy life they way we desire.
First the hub of the wheel the spokes are imbedded into is your persistence, this holds the axle that will extend your goals and desires to others" other wheels", for when you are able to make others successful then you will be also. Back to the spokes and the wheel there's more to the wheel than just spokes , it need a band of iron all around the wheel to hold it all together. This is your dreams, your aspiration's of life all the things you want out of life to make it all worth all your time and effort.







 

When I was 8 thru 16 years old we lived on a small farm of 105 acres over in Highland County. I can remember having to hoe tobacco, corn and beans along with all the other vegetables of which we grew a lot of and ate it all. I thought at the time man this is hard work, but I didn't realize what was really hard work, was when Adam got kicked out of the Garden of Eden and had to till the ground to stay alive, he had no big Kubota or Ford tractor as a matter of fact I don't think he even had a metal hoe. Think about it he had nothing, he truly started from scratching the dirt with bones probably.
Our next generation has had it so good, because us baby boomers were taught so hard because of the depression ere hammered into us from our parents who had it tough but, it made us do well and we wanted to give our kids and especially our grand kids everything, without having to work hard or sacrifice anything at all.
As I have said before I remember working for a very large farmer over in Clarksville, "he had over 1000 acres", I worked for him one entire summer for $1.00 per hour and worked every day from 7am in the morning to 11pm at night riding tractors, mowing , rolling, raking, and bailing hay along with all the other chores and only had one day off all summer, not every Sunday just one day. I dare say you wouldn't find many today that would even attempt to do this, but things change as we go along. Now they want even work if you give them $3.00 and hour over minimum wage lol
Now everyone knows every thing, just ask them, if they don't know it, there phone does. If you want to know who was the highest paid entertainer last year all you got to do is ask your phone. Information is spreading so rapidly now we can't begin to keep up with it, but artificial Intelligence is about to enter the picture in life and it's going to change every thing, from driving your car for you to turning on your heat and air before you get home. The next generation is no doubt going to be smarter and have to do less physical work but, just remember hoeing corn and beans it doesn't matter if it's Adam or whoever it's got to be done even if the robot's do it.

I suppose folks perceive big city's different depending on where you come from and how you're introduced to them and of course your age and lots of other things to numerous to mention.
As a kid out on the farm way out in Highland County Ohio, Cincinnati seamed a big city far off where only a few of the rich folks and older people would sometimes go to for special reasons or to work.
It's funny now how we look at things from a different perspective based on our own circumstances, let me give you an example.
One of my best friends and neighbors growing up was Butch Peelle, we would ride our bikes around the county, play basketball in his barn loft until our fingers were about to freeze and eat all the tomatoes out of everyone's garden and always had a big time . They had more comic books behind their couch than I had ever seen in my whole life and that helped me to want to read, I always like going up there just to read the comics..
One day Mr. Peelle took Butch and I down to see the Reds play at Crosley Field. I thought I was in heaven, he bought us hot dogs, popcorn and drinks and we had a grand ole time, but I learned a valuable lesson.
I was lucky enough to catch a fly ball and was thrilled to pieces and was just standing there admiring the ball and this little street wise kid came running up and said man what a catch can I see the ball, of course this ole country boy not knowing what to expect , I just handed him the ball and he was gone before I could take a step to leave where I was standing. Guess I didn't realize you have to think fast and you just don't catch fly balls on every trip to the Red's game.
Hubert was a kind and generous man and he told us not to worry that on the way home we would stop in Hillsboro at Pasquale's for a Pizza Pie. Well here we go, being raised on the farm and not going to big towns much like Hillsboro let alone Cincinnati, except when it was my turn out of 8 kids to follow along with Mom to go grocery shopping, we always did our grocery shopping on Saturdays.
I wasn't considered a food connoisseur that's for sure and when Mr. Peelle said we would get a Pizza Pie I thought he was saying a piece of pie. So I wasn't expecting an Italian dish served like a pie with all kinds meat and stuff on top and cooked on a pie crust. I want to say I can only remember getting that sick one other time and that was when my big brother Dane talked me into swallowing tobacco juice from my chew to prove I was old enough to be able to chew, whewuuu. Mr. Peelle didn't laugh to much, but he sure had an infectious big smile and I've always remembered what a great day he gave us in the big city.
My next encounter with the big town didn't turn out much better. You see I had worked hard all summer long going into my senior year, because I knew if I was going to get a car to drive to school or any where else I would have to buy it myself. Well my Dad said when you get your money to together let me know and I'll take you down town Cincinnati where we can find a better car cheaper.
Of course I didn't take into consideration that my Dad had a different idea for a car that I did. He wanted me to buy a six cylinder that got good gas mileage and I wanted a hot Rod, guess who won that argument of course you got to remember gas was 23cents per gallon and he had to drive to Cincinnati everyday to work, so we settled on a 1953 six cylinder Studebaker. It was blue and looked like an air plane ready to take off.
Well everything was fine and I paid for the car and we headed out of town of course I didn't get to drive my new car. Mom wanted to drive until we got out of town and off of that big highway called Columbia Parkway "Rt 50". Well we stopped to filler up with gas and checked the oil and washed the windshield again and headed out with Dad following us. As Mom picked up speed " she always was a fast driver " all of a sudden the hood flipped up and back on top of the car so hard it beat the roof down on top of our heads. Mom had to stick her head out the window to see and asked me to watch the other side and make sure we didn't hit anything. Well we finally made it home but the hood was ruined. We made it into one of the best sleds you ever rode on in the winter snow. We could get several kids in it all at the same time.
I looked around at the junk yard for another hood and found one, where the body was ruined in a wreck, but the hood was great and it had a big V8. I bought it right on the spot and towed it down to Johnny Skaggs, my cousins farm in Lynchburg, because his dad Uncle Benny had a big barn with a beam where we could pull the motor and put it in my other car so I took two cars and made one good one. My other cousin Butch helped me do all the mechanics and we soon had it running good. After that I took it to Dayton and had all white leather seats installed, plush blue carpeting and had 7 coats of metallic blue paint put on her she was a beauty still to this day I think that was the best paint job I have ever seen on a car. You see what made that car so special to me was the summer of my senior year I went to work for one of dad's big construction companys who he worked for in Cincinnati. This guy was a millionaire and owned 1000 acres out by Clarksville and told my dad he was looking for help on his farm and I could work all the hours I wanted to work. Well let me tell you I was not afraid of work and the motivation to work for $1.00 per hour from 7am every morning until 11 or 12 pm every night sounded right up my alley. You see I was usually working for all the farmers around for 4 or 5 maybe 6 hours a day bailing hay which was hit and miss and never any thing steady. Well let me tell you we worked so many hours that first week the foreman almost got in a fight with Mr Brielmeyer, because the foreman's son Dave and I worked so many hours he wouldn't believe it. Well he paid us and said keep on working and we did ,we worked the entire summer seven days a week only taking one day off. I took my girl to the movies and promptly fell asleep at midnight and she work me up at 1PM and said you better take me home now. That's how I bought my 1953 Studebaker and all the money I put into it, but it was worth it, I saw one on my old neighbors and school buddies at our school Alumni and he even mentioned my car,but I had already graduated and didn't get to drive it to school.

One night when I wasn't going anywhere { probably broke} dad came in and asked if he could borrow my car. Mom had gone somewhere in our new 1957 Packard, man what a car it even had a turbo charger , and when you hit the gas pedal at sixty it would set you back in your seat with no uncertainty, this in my opinion was the prettiest car Dad ever bought it was maroon and white and looked as long as a train.
Well when Dad asked to borrow my car I didn't think to ask what he was going to do ,after all how could I turn him down, I had borrowed his car many nights. When I got in my car the next morning of course he had all ready left for work really early, he had to drive from our Leesburg farm to down town Cincinnati that was a very time consuming ride back then.
Of course ,that was before I helped build the freeways and bridges around I- 275, Another story later.

Dad had borrowed my car to go pick up his buddys and their coon hounds and hauled them all in my car which I kept immaculate, it should be known that blue carpet and mud don't mix , man was I upset, I was never able to get that yellow clay out of the carpet, guess they didn't have good cleaners back then.
I was asked the other day by my daughter my grandson how to buy a car, and that reminded me of when I purchased my first car. Not the Studebaker I worked so hard for.
So I had to tell him the story about my first car purchase it involved dad and a trip to downtown Cincinnati to all the used car lots.
.As a kid on the farm you quickly learn all kinds of mechanic things ,how to fix things and mend things, "you know how to hold everything together with bailing wire kind of stuff " and as a kid you think you know it all right. Wrong... My first car was
a 1951 Chrysler Hydramatic ,black as coal and heavy as a train. I lived 4 miles out of Leesburg and it took me one quart of oil and one gallon of gas to get there and back. It was ugly slow and not the kind of look I was wanting ,but not being able to afford a 1957 Chevy it was a set of wheels. But it lasted until I saved and worked enough to get my dream car which I would give anything just to have a picture of now .

Talking about big cities I remember one of the biggest laughs we all had one time down at my Grandpa's in Kentucky, first let me set the stage as they say, Grandpa and Grandma Branham lived up a holler, I mean a long branch holler a couple of miles long and dirt road no gravel. Many was the time if it was raining we would get stuck and have to walk the rest of the way always in the middle of the night, because we always left after dark when dad got home from work and back in the fifty's there wasn't any freeways and of course my grandpa didn't have a telephone he didn't even have electricity and no indoor plumbing it was uuuuuppp the holler.
Well this particular weekend my Aunt Hermel and Joaquin Vega and a bunch of my cousins were in as they used to say. Well Arby, Adrian, Darlene and Dale my cousins were brought up in East Chicago a very big city they new nothing about country life and were seldom able to get all the way down to Kentucky for a visit. Granny had one of those big long tables that would seat 12 folks with ladder back chairs and her cooking kitchen was off the dining room with one of those big old two story stoves that burned wood or coal. They had a small porch off to the left of the cooking room with a well for her to draw water from as needed. The main rooms of the house were heated with a fireplace, but the kids room as it was called didn't have any heat at all so we didn't relish going down in the winter to visit to say the least. Well Granny as usual would cook up the biggest dinners you ever saw I mean on Sunday it was always fried chicken and every kind of vegetable you could grow in a garden and believe me she had a garden. Well we were well along into the meal when Dale { about 7 or 8 at the time } said to Granny can I have some more " beans of my stick" and it suddenly it got very quiet and then everybody started laughing at once, of course he wanted more " corn on the cob" . We had a good laugh and went right back to eating, it just goes to show we are all products of our environment. Everybody has their own perspective and way of looking at things.


Uncle Ran

"The River of Life "

" Floating down a river is like going through life

you choose your own course, but cause your own strife."

The decisions we make in life our own choices and the priorities we place first are not always the best and that's what usually causes most of our problems. We have to learn from someone how to make good decisions and what priorities are the most important. Like not spending money we haven't even earned yet just so we can have what we think we want today and not wait until we have the money to pay for it.

"You can lay on your back and let the world carry you thru

or you can depend on yourself and you'll make it too."

Most truly successful people have a well rounded life, they have learned how to put their priorities in the proper order, GOD comes first , family next, their vocation follows ,but has to be attended to on a regular basis in order to take care of the first two.

"Maybe you're the type who's always on the run

you're to busy working to have any fun."

STEVE JOBS said just before he died There should be something that is more important: However, aside from work, I have little joy. In the end, wealth is only a fact of life that I am accustomed to.
At this moment, lying on the sick bed and recalling my whole life, I realize that all the recognition and wealth that I took so much pride in, have paled and become meaningless in the face of impending death.

In the darkness, I look at the green lights from the life supporting machines and hear the humming mechanical sounds, I can feel the breath of God and of death drawing closer…

Now I know, when we have accumulated sufficient wealth to last our lifetime, we should pursue other matters that are unrelated to wealth…
Should be something that is more important:

"Then there's the guy who paces everything right

when he reaches fast water he has plenty of fight."

"Whatever your goal whatever your course

just remember you set your own pace
so have no remorse."

Randy Branham © 1974

Who's influencing you, are you being subtly lead by others around you ? Do they want to keep you at shoulders length to make them look good, or do they want to inspire you to always do a bit better.
Back in the early seventy's I was down in a literal mud hole pounding nails into forms to hold concrete for footers for a large building we were building. After a bit I raised up and looked around me and standing next to me was what I considered an old man, he was probably no more that 58 or so, but at the ripe old age of maybe 25 he looked old to me. I thought to myself do I want to be doing what he's doing when I'm 58.
I don't think so.
But I was doing the exact same thing my two oldest brothers, my dad , my uncles, and everyone else I knew. We laughed about it and often said there's carpenters in the Branham family all the back to Jesus.
Sometimes we have to stick our heads up out of the box we find ourselves in and look out for ourselves. There's nothing wrong about being a carpenter or following someone Else's foot steps if that's what you want.
One year later after going to night school, I found myself in the Real Estate business. I sold 5 houses on my first day of floor time and was promptly told by my very distinguished broker the next day "you can't do that" that's never been done before, so I unknowingly complied and never did it again. Lesson learned, don't let others set your goals and dictate your life for you, step out of the box and do what YOU can do. Find something you can become passionate about that will allow you to earn the money you and yours need and learn to TITHE from the beginning, your Helper will show you the way, no matter how small your earnings are, remember you cannot out give God.

Bridges Ohio Highland County, was just a little crossroads,but back in the 50/60's it was a real hub for our little community. We moved to bridges during the summer of 1951. We left a very nice 80 + acre farm down by Dodsonville /Pricetown area where Dad had built us a new home and a new barn. When we saw the farm there in Bridges we were astonished at all it had to offer.
There were two big barns one a bank barn,with spring fed running water year around, hog wallow, farm tank, water to both barns and even a 3 foot high 12 foot wide cattle tank, that we later converted into a gold fish tank where we kept gold fish that were 12 inches long, it sure was pretty.
The old house on the farm was 110 years old when we bought it and was listed on the historical landmarks in Washington DC, and when we tore it down some time later people came from there to take pictures and tried to get us to stop. The entire outside of the house was sided with walnut from the farm, with red cedar ceilings inside and lots of other woods with two big fireplaces. But is was cold and windy with breezes flowing in every direction, but very comfortable in the summer. We helped Dad build us a new concrete block 4 bedroom home that's still there today.
We met all our neighbors quickly, because we had the big swimming hole at the end of our farm where two creeks met. The mouth of the creek made a perfect place to go swimming and all the neighbor kids came down when ever they wanted to swim.
Elmer's General Store was just on up the road about 500 yards with all kinds of good things if you had the money.
I used to like to go down to Elmer's and hang around in the winter evenings and listen to the old men of the area talk about all kinds of things that were important at the time. We would sit around and put peanuts in our pop, thats what we called out drink back then it was either a soda pop or just pop.The old men would chew tobacco and spit in what ever was handy or have their own little can available.

My most recent sale "Cattle on a Hill" reminds me of our farm when I was a kid. We would have to go bring in the cows for milking and feeding, which were always way up the creek and back on top of the hill where the most green grass would be. I remember pestering my big brother Dane to give me a chew of that [ Big Red Man Tobacco], well kids are not as smart as their big brothers. He knew when I would be running after the cows I would have to keep up and I would be chewing and swallowing the juice [to be a man you had to swallow the juice] .
Well let me say as a young kid it was a lesson on just how not to beg for what you can't handle yet or how sick one can get, when he turns as green as the grass. I made it all the way back down to the creek where I sat down on a big log and thats as far as I got. After they milked the cows and had supper and it was getting dark Dad sent him back up after me. He found me laying over a log surrounded by those big ole black and yellow Bumble Bees [another story]. Mom and Dad laughted about it and never said any more they already knew I had had enough, I've never had another chew in my mouth since.
Those big black and yellow bumble bees that had made a home in the log I was slumped over didn't bother me at all. I don't know but it might have been the smell of tobacco or maybe they just knew I wasn't going to hurt them . After all everyone knows animals can smell fear, and that was the farthest thing from my mind at the time. I It's a good thing thou that they don't have good memories.
Because we had a lot of fun trying to prove who was the bravest by fighting the bumble bees with a good strong horse weed , which we always had plenty of. Horse weeds would grow 7 or 8 feet tall and would be as big around at the base as a mans thumb and taper down to almost a whip when stripped of all their leaves. We would arm ourselves with a good weed and try to smack the bumble bees as they came out of the log. Most of the time we would win because they were very big and slow at flying not fast like a honey bee, they were as big as your thumb. Well all went well until my cousin Butch had one approaching him straight as his eyes, as Butch was trying to whip it with his weed stick literately fanning the air ,but the bee got through and landed a big sting smack between his eyes which almost shut off his eye sight. Well that pretty well done for that kind of fun the bees finally won. Uncle Ran

As we left Oregon and started down the coast toward Sacramento, my wife said instead of going on down the coast to the big red wood trees lets go inland and go to Mt. Shasta, trees are just trees but the mountains are special. I had never heard much about Mt. Shasta although it's almost as tall as Mt. Rainier at 14,000 + feet, it's very photogenic because it stands almost alone rising above the terrain all around. We finally located for the night in a little town called "Weed" . The next morning I got up as usual before daylight ,but Kay she was to tired to go with me, so I headed out alone to explore the area around the mountain. The Town of Mt. Shasta lies at the foot of the mountain and along Lake Siskiyou make for some great photography. This area is soon to be discovered,as it is listed as one of the ten top places to visit in 2015.

After over ten years of planning a trip out west it has finally come to fruition. My wife Kay and I had started to take this vacation/photo trip over ten years ago and every year it had to be postponed . As I usually do, I started planning the trip and where all we we go and what we could photograph.
We started in Cincinnati Ohio and drove 9663 miles over a 34 day trip, taking over 10,000 photos along the way. Thank God we didn't use film,but all digital. I hate to think how much it would have cost to have had to buy all that film and processing.
I used my Nikon D2X and Nikon D7100, Kay used her Nikon D300 and D100, we have a variety of lens ranging from a wide angle of 12mm to a Nikon VR 300mm f/2.8 for long range and wildlife.

One of the first places we wanted to capture was the Grand Tetons at Oxbow Bend on the Eastern side of the Tetons and timed our leaving to arrive there for a couple of days to catch the August Super Moon. The moon was of course setting over the mountains and not rising so we had to get up quite early to be there to catch the moon as the sun was rising. We had to stay at a little town about 60 miles East of the Jackson Hole Wyoming, which was a real cowboy town from the old west era. We captured many shots of the Tetons from several locations up and down the Snake River as it winds in front of the Tetons. The Oxbow Bend was a favorite.
After we left Mt Moran and the Snake River there at the Tetons we headed north to Yellowstone Park and all the grandieur this wonderful park has to offer. The wildlife there is incredible, most notable is the herds of Bison. The Yellowstone Falls are a photographers dream ,so easy to get to and magnificent to view from many vantage points. I just wish we had scheduled more time for this great park.

Today at 8:25 AM
The Flag Raisers
The Six Iwo Jima Flag Raisers


There are six Flag Raisers on the famous Iwo Jima photo. Four in the front line and two in back. The front four are (left to right) Ira Hayes, Franklin Sousley, John Bradley and Harlon Block.
The back two are Michael Strank (behind Sousley) and Rene Gagnon (behind Bradley). Strank, Block and Sousley would die shortly afterwards. Bradley, Hayes and Gagnon became national heroes within weeks.
Mike Strank


Mike Strank was born in 1919 in Jarabenia, Czechoslovakia. He died in 1945 in Iwo Jima, Japan. Their leader and Sergeant, it was Mike who got the order to climb Mt. Suribachi. Mike picked his “boys” and led them safely to the top. Mike explained to the boys that the larger flag had to be raised so that “every Marine on this cruddy island can see it.” It was Mike who gave the orders to find a pole, attach the flag and “put’er up!”
At home as a boy, Mike was studious, had a photographic memory, played the French Horn and once slugged a baseball out of Points Stadium in Johnstown. In 1936, Mike ran down to the river to see for himself the terrible Johnstown flood. He brought this report back to his family: “Don’t worry–it will recede.”
Mike’s right hand is the only hand of a flagraiser not on the pole. His right hand is around the wrist of Franklin Sousley, helping the younger man push the heavy pole. This is typical of Mike, the oldest of the flagraisers, always there to help one of his boys. Two months before the battle Mike’s Captain tried to promote him but Mike turned it down flat: “I trained those boys and I’m going to be with them in battle,” he said.
Mike died on March 1, 1945. He was hit by a mortar as he was diagramming a plan in the sand for his boys. Mike is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Harlon Block


Harlon Block was born in 1924 in Yorktown, Texas. He passed away in 1945 in Iwo Jima, Japan. Harlon was an outgoing daredevil with many friends at Weslaco High School. A natural athlete, Harlon led the Weslaco Panther Football Team to the Conference Championship. He was honored as “All South Texas End.” Harlon and twelve of his teammates enlisted in the Marine Corps together in 1943.
Harlon was Sgt. Mike’s second-in-command. He took over the leadership of his unit when Sgt. Mike was killed. Harlon was killed by a mortar blast hours later on March 1 at the age of 21. When his mother Belle saw the Flag Raising Photo in the Weslaco Newspaper on Feb. 25, she exclaimed, “That’s Harlon” pointing to the figure on the far right. But the US Government mis-identified the figure as Harry Hansen of Boston. Belle never wavered in her belief that it was Harlon insisting, “I know my boy.” No one–not her family, neighbors, the Government or the public–had any reason to believe her. But eighteen months later in a sensational front-page story, a Congressional investigation revealed that it was Harlon in the photo, proving that indeed, Belle did “know her boy.” Harlon is buried beside the Iwo Jima Monument in Harlingen, Texas.
Franklin Sousley


Franklin Sousley was born Sept. 19, 1925 in Hilltop, KY, and he died March 21, 1945 Iwo Jima, Japan. Franklin was a red-haired, freckle-faced “Opie Taylor” raised on a tobacco farm. His favorite hobbies were hunting and dancing. Fatherless at 9, Franklin became the main man in his mother’s life. Franklin enlisted at 17 and sailed for the Pacific on his 18th Birthday. All that’s left of Franklin is a few pictures and two letters Franklin wrote home to his mother:
————July 1944, Letter from Training Camp: “Mother, you said you were sick. I want you to stay in out of that field and look real pretty when I come home. You can grow a crop of tobacco every summer, but I sure as hell can’t grow another mother like you.”
————Feb. 27, 1945 Letter from Iwo Jima:
“My regiment took the hill with our company on the front line. The hill was hard, and I sure never expected war to be like it was those first 4 days. Mother, you can never imagine how a battlefield looks. It sure looks horrible. Look for my picture because I helped put up the flag. Please don’t worry and write.”
Franklin was the last flag-raiser to die on Iwo Jima, on March 21 at the age of 19. When word reached his mother that Franklin was dead, “You could hear her screaming clear across the fields at the neighbor’s farm.” Franklin is buried at Elizaville Cemetery, Kentucky.
Ira Hayes


Ira Hayes was born January 12, 1923 in Sacaton, Arizona, and died January 24, 1955 in Bapchule, Arizona. Ira Hayes was a Pima Indian. When he enlisted in the Marine Corps, he had hardly ever been off the Reservation. His Chief told him to be an “Honorable Warrior” and bring honor upon his family. Ira was a dedicated Marine. Quiet and steady, he was admired by his fellow Marines who fought alongside him in three Pacific battles.
When Ira learned that President Roosevelt wanted him and the other survivors to come back to the US to raise money on the 7th Bond Tour, he was horrified.
To Ira, the heroes of Iwo Jima, those deserving honor, were his “good buddies” who died there. At the White House, President Truman told Ira, “You are an American hero.” But Ira didn’t feel pride. As he later lamented, “How could I feel like a hero when only five men in my platoon of 45 survived, when only 27 men in my company of 250 managed to escape death or injury?”
The Bond Tour was an ordeal for Ira. He couldn’t understand or accept the adulation . . . “It was supposed to be soft duty, but I couldn’t take
it. Everywhere we went people shoved drinks in our hands and said ‘You’re a Hero!’ We knew we hadn’t done that much but you couldn’t tell them that.” (More about Ira below . . .)
Rene Gagnon


Rene Gagnon, was born in Manchester, N.H. on March 7, 1925, and died in Manchester, N.H. on October 12, 1979. Rene Gagnon was the youngest survivor and the man who carried the flag up Mt. Suribachi. He was the first survivor to arrive back in the US. (More about Rene below . . .)


John Bradley


John Bradley was born July 10, 1923 in Antigo, WI, and passed away January 11, 1994 in Antigo, WI. “Doc” Bradley was a Navy Corpsman who “just jumped in to lend a hand.” He won the Navy Cross for heroism and was wounded in both legs. Bradley, a quiet, private man, gave just one interview in his life. In it he said . . . “People refer to us as heroes–I personally don’t look at it that way. I just think that I happened to be at a certain place at a certain time and anybody on that island could have been in there–and we certainly weren’t heroes–and I speak for the rest of them as well. That’s the way they thought of themselves also.” (More about John below . . .)
Ira Hayes in Later Years


Ira in later years . . . Ira went back to the reservation attempting to lead an anonymous life. But it didn’t turn out that way . . . “I kept getting hundreds of letters. And people would drive through the reservation, walk up to me and ask, ‘Are you the Indian who raised the flag on Iwo Jima?”
Ira tried to drown his “Conflict of Honor” with alcohol. Arrested as drunk and disorderly, his pain was clear . . . “I was sick. I guess I was about to crack up thinking about all my good buddies. They were better men than me and they’re not coming back. Much less back to the White House, like me.”
In 1954, Ira reluctantly attended the dedication of the Iwo Jima monument in Washington. After a ceremony where he was lauded by President Eisenhower as a hero once again, a reporter rushed up to Ira and asked him, “How do you like the pomp & circumstances?” Ira just hung his head and said, I don’t.”
Ira died three months later after a night of drinking. As Ira drank his last bottle of whiskey he was crying and mumbling about his “good buddies.” Ira was 32.
Rene Gagnon in Later Years


Rene Gagnon in later years . . . Rene Gagnon carried the flag up Mt. Suribachi. Rene was modest about his achievement throughout his life. Rene is honored with a special room in New Hampshire’s prestigious Wright Museum. Rene is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, the Flag Raiser buried closest to the Marine Corps Memorial.



John Bradley in Later Years


John Bradley in later life . . . “Of the surviving Flag Raisers, only Bradley was successful in putting his life back together after the war.” —From the best-selling “Immortal Images” by Tedd Thomey
John Bradley returned to his home town in the Midwest after the war, prospered as the owner of a family business, and gave generously of his time and money to local causes. He was married for 47 years and had eight children. While Bradley had a public image as a war hero, he was a very private person. He avoided discussion of his war record saying only that the real heros were the men who gave their lives for their country.
The Global Media reported the death of a World War II icon on January 11, 1994 at the age of 70. But his hometown newspaper best captured the essence of Bradley’s life after the war: “John Bradley will be forever memorialized for a few moments action at the top of a remote Pacific mountain. We prefer to remember him for his life. If the famous flag-raising at Iwo Jima symbolized American patriotism and valor, Bradley’s quiet, modest nature and philanthropic efforts shine
as an example of the best of small town American values.” —Editorial, “The Antigo Daily Journal”


Randall - FINE ART FOR THE HOME OR OFFICE
http://fineartamerica.com/shop/randallbranhamphotos.html

I have been photographing since 1976 when I purchased my first SLR "Single Lens Reflect" PRO camera. I have noticed many changes happen in the past 36 years. One of those changes is the Digital camera. The Digital camera has changed many things in photography, one of which is how we perceive the developing of images vie the digital room vs the old chemical "wet room".
People will often ask a photographer today did you enhance that photo, or is that straight out of the camera or is this photo improved upon? What they are really asking is this photo the truth, or is it fake, people just want to know if it's real. The answer is they are all altered, manipulated and enhanced to some degree .
If you capture an image from a point and shoot camera where the camera adjusts everything or a professional uses the same camera and knows how to take advantage of the adjustments manually there by capturing a better image does that mean it's fake or enhanced or as some erroneously say "photo shopped"? In order to capture an image you have to have light, it's impossible to see or photograph without light, so without getting boringly technical. Allow me to give my explanation of ART and photography.
Ansel Adams is probably the best know photographer of all time, one of his images has sold for $609,600.00, but thats not the highest paid for a photo. Andreas Gursky sold one $4,338,500.00.
Why is all this important, I believe it's important for folks to know the truth when buying anything from a camera to an image taken by a camera. In order to understand the truth we must learn a few simple facts.
Photography means to paint with light, if I take a pin hole camera the simplest camera made and produce an image, is it any better because it's from a simple camera and not altered. How about an image produced by my $10,000.00 Nikon camera and lens, I think I can produce a better image with it. Well is the image I take with a $150.00 Point And Shoot camera less than my Nikon system, maybe not if the person behind the inexpensive camera is a real professional that knows lighting, composition, exposure etc, and how to manipulate the camera to take advantage of it's highest capability.
Look at it this way the person behind the camera is no different than the person behind the brush or carving chisel. If he/she imparts creative adjustments to the tools he can produce a masterpiece where as the person standing next to him takes the same image, but doesn't know how to set the camera and how to properly use the software programs to capture and produce a great image.

When someone ask me did you enhance this photo, I immediately want to say of course I did, I set my camera to the best of my ability and I use the most expensive software program I can buy to alter the dull photo that otherwise would come out of the camera. Because every image I shoot is a RAW file, therefore has to be improved upon and I want to produce the very best piece of art I can.
Altering an image in your camera is to my way of thinking no different than altering the image anywhere along it's line of development. Ansel Adams used what was called {Dodge "to lighten" and Burn to darken "} every photo he sold, he was a master at altering and enhancing his photos. He developed the ZONE SYSTEM to be able to grade in various degrees of black and white.
After many years of photographing I have begun to advance my photography from just plain sharp photos to developing unique pieces of art by using my talents and tools available including the dodge and burn techniques into certain images to produce a better photograph.
Many years ago someone started using Vaseline on their lens to produce a softening look to their photos, I learned I can do a better job with my filters I now do a better job with my computer.

Art is constantly changing and new techniques being mastered, gone are the days of the film camera- oh there are a few purist out there that say if you alter the image it's not real, but at what point along the line does one consider it being altered.

I once took a student on a photo shoot for butterflies and I noticed he had a new camera by Nikon, after we got back his photos were sharper and had more contrast and were better than mine right out of the camera, yet my camera was 4 times more expensive. After investigating the situation thoroughly, I found out his camera was 2 years newer than mine and had been developed to obtain light and contrast better right out of the camera. I had suggested after researching the cameras available since buying mine that he buy this one particular one.

At one time I was an accomplished wood carver, and I quickly found out I could do my best work with certain "very sharp" specialized chisels and Knives. Just as a friend of mine who is a very well know plein air painter in Indiana learned to use many styles of brushes and painting methods.

Digital has brought forth and made available better photography for not only the professional, but also for the "point and shoot" vacationer and the Mom and Dad capturing photos of their kids. Pros still have an edge though because the average person doesn't take the time to learn how to use the camera and software to develop the best shots available.
Take a beautiful sunset like the shot above the average camera only can expose for a certain amount of light and then it blows out the sky to a full white. In order to capture the color of the sunset if you expose to capture the color of the sky you lose the details in the foreground and would not see the colorful wild flowers.
A pro knows how to do this, is this enhancing the photo well I'll leave this up to you, you decide which you would rather have hanging on your wall. Art is developed not just sprayed out of a can or camera but used properly can produce many wonderful works of art. Digital art or PHOTOART is very quickly coming into it's own.
I think the many point and shoot type cameras that almost requires no technique, have caused many folks to receive accolades that have come all to easy. There's no reason to learn all the techniques required 30 years ago. The pendulum needs to swing back in the other direction and it will eventually.
I think "art" of any kind like most things requires several things
#1 tools - An artist has to have some form of tools , his finger , brush, chisel ,camera, the more they practice the better they get.
#2 technique - Through the practice they impart they develop the technique that is unique to them.
#3 talent - This is where the talent starts to shine and becomes apparent to all.

Cameras have become so easy to operate anyone can take a quality photo capable of being published in most magazines. Hench the reason for so many contests being sponsored to gain photos for publication. No longer is it necessary for one to study for years at schools or elsewhere to learn about F/stops and such, they just pick up a camera and start shooting. It's just another sign of progress. I have noticed in the past two years my photo/art images have out sold my straight photos by 4 to 1. I think this is a sign that the collectors recognize that not everyone can produce the "art" wanted and it's not as flooded on the market as regular photos.
I was just asked by National Geographic to furnish one of my images, just for the credits to be in their magazine.
I turned them down knowing it would be publicized all over the world. Accolades don't buy many groceries. I think this comes about by having to many folks to eager to have someone provide praise for them, their work didn't come about from years of study and time/money invested.
The pendulum needs to swing back in the other direction and it will eventually.
Cameras have become so easy to operate anyone can take a quality photo capable of being published in most magazines. Hench the reason for so many contests being sponsored to gain photos for publication. No longer is it necessary for one to study for years at schools or elsewhere to learn about F/stops and such, they just pick up a camera and start shooting. It's just another sign of progress. I have noticed in the past two years my photo/art images have out sold my straight photos by 4 to 1. I think this is a sign that the collectors recognize that not everyone can produce the "art" wanted and it's not as flooded on the market like regular photos.
So grab a camera and keep shooting.


------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks for buying Branham Art

Randall - FINE ART FOR THE HOME OR OFFICE
www.randallbranhamphotos.artistwebsites.com
www.branhamphoto.com

Just Another Ohio farm Boy
Life on the farm was always interesting with plenty to do.
We had several swimming holes, horses to ride, cows to milk, hogs to feed and chickens to constantly chase. With four brothers and three sisters we were constantly doing something fun or working hard, but never bored.
Our farm was 105 acres with two big creeks and hills big enough to sled down on the hood of an old car. We raised cows, hogs, corn, wheat, and other types of grain and hay. WE had two half acre gardens plus 6 tenths of tobacco, our cash crop. The tobacco was very time consuming from the very first. We would have to lay poles out in a big area like 15 feet wide by 30 feet long and drag brush and pile it up in the area to burn the ground before planting the tobacco seed, which kills all the weed seeds.
After the seeds became 6 inch plants we had to pull them up and plant in the field one foot a part enough to cover 6/10ths of an acre. If we had too big an area planted the county would come out and cut down the overage, sometimes they never got there until the tobacco was as tall as us and it would really make you mad to see all that work just destroyed.. But, on the other hand if you didn’t plant enough it made you short on your income come fall.
We would have to hoe it all several times and then go through in late summer and “sucker” the plants which means pull out the little growths in between the leaves and the stock which would stunt the growth of the leaves.
This is what a tobacco farm looks like when the tobacco is being cut. We would use a long knife and a round cone spear which we would place over the top of a tobacco stick and then cut the tobacco stock and spear it through the stock so we could hang it in the tobacco barn. We would use a big sled about 5 feet wide and 8 feet long to lay the tobacco on and use old Jim our mule to drag it into the barn to hang and cure. It would hang in the barn until about November or sometimes as late as December until it was ready to strip.
 
The young folks will probably look at this old barn and say, just another old barn with a bunch of trash out front.

But, not me this is a great reminder of times gone by, well let’s see now about 53 years or so ago.

You see that trash out front is actually tobacco stock that have been stripped of their leaves for tying into hands of tobacco which we would haul to Ripley Ohio for the tobacco auction.
Long about November when the tobacco comes into case "meaning wet and limp not dry" we were there every night stripping and tying hands of tobacco.
The entire family participated in stripping tobacco. As kids we had to learn the different leaves on the stock, starting at the base with trash, lugs, big red, and finally tips. Some tobacco company's wanted theirs sorted into five hands and not four. We would stand in assembly line up against the counter and the stock of tobacco would be handed down the line and each kid would have to judge when/where to stop pulling trash leaves, lugs or big red and hand the stock to the next for the next grade and so on until it got down to the tips, which was the worst part of the plant. The last person would throw the stocks outside to later be hauled away. When Mom and the girls came out to help us we would all start singing and it always turned into a lot of fun and fellowship.
Our young folks don't have a chance to develop a lot of the camaraderie like we had on the farm it was hard work but it was a lot of fun.
Tobacco was very labor intensive, but it was a good cash crop and it was always exciting for us older boys to travel with dad down to Ripley and listen to the different tobacco auctioneers rattle out their spiel over a basket of” hand tied hands of tobacco” and learn how much we were going to make on our crop for that year.
Its sure different today, but I see the Amish still do it pretty much like we used to back then.
Just another Ohio farm boy
Uncle Ran

Branham Farm circa 1950/60’s
As a kid growing up on farm you develop certain memories as every kid does. The difference is on a farm it seems you have a little more freedom as long as you’re back by suppertime and get your work done no problem.
This is the farm I remember the most and had such wonderful times on. As you can see the two big barns were a great asset to us as farm use went, we used the upper barn called a bank barn “because it was built on a bank” allowing you to drive into the upper level as well as the lower level. In the upper part we kept our hogs and had several stations for littering pigs and in the lower section we kept our cattle so they could walk right out the back to pasture. Up in the front barn we kept our dairy cattle and our horses next to the silo to have better access to the silage.
I love old barns; we had a lot of fun in them, from building tunnels and rooms in the baled hay loft to swinging on the ropes and playing king of the mountain on the piles of hay. They were great for rainy days, it gave us a place to get out and away and go hide in the little rooms we made in the baled hay loft. I grew up working for all our neighbors in their barns pitching hay and shoveling corn and wheat.
My first job was working for Hattie & Jim Weber next door farmers, cleaning out their chicken coop, at the ripe old age of seven years. I don’t know how much work I was able to do, but it must have satisfied them, because they kept calling me back. I can remember spending my money on the Rolling Grocery Store, a big old bus converted into a grocery carrying all the essentials local farmers needed. I suppose the kids in town probably worked at the local grocery carrying groceries, delivering papers, or cleaning out the local filling station or grabbing a job doing whatever they could do.
One of the great things I can remember at the Dodsonville farm was the tremendous two story tree house we built. It was in an old oak tree of such great size we could walk out on several of the limbs that were as big as a man’s body, it was said it was several hundred years old. Sadly it’s no longer there nor is the new home our dad built there as it burned down. Lots of changes happen in 60 years, but one thing Kay and I noticed the other day was Uncle Went and Aunt Marie’s home near there is still standing. A big brick with one foot thick walls, built to last and it has.
 
We moved to Bridges/Leesburg as I started into the third grade, boy what a farm at least according to a kids perspective we had two big creeks, two big hills to sled down and two big barns to play in.
Plus just down the road was Old Elmer Leverton’s store, where all the local farmers came to sit around the old stove and spit tobacco at cans and talk about all sorts of interesting things.
Elmer was a nice old man he gave me my first job there shooting sparrows with my Daisy Red Rider BB gun, he had this maple tree near his bed room window which had developed into a bedding area for the birds and was becoming a disease pot. My brother Dane and I soon dispensed with the bird problem, after all we were the local experts on eliminating pests including snakes in the two big creeks, and we must have killed hundreds.

We really enjoyed having the creeks, because on hot summer days of course we nearly lived in the water. Neighbor kids would all come down to the “ole swimming hole” and at times we would have 20 kids in there having more fun than should be allowed anywhere.
I remember one time an old couple came down the road in their car and went off the bridge and landed on their top and drowned before my oldest brother Darius could get off the bus and get the tractor to pull them out. What a tragedy , but back then bridges were built square to the creek and that made a curve in the road right at the creek.
Where there's creeks there's hills also and there were two big hills on the farm, but one of them was built just right for sledding, with a small hill and then semi flat area and then an even longer hill. We could go all the way to the creek on good days and several times got soaking wet by not turning away fast enough or baling out and not being able to turn at all.
We would build Bonn fires and stay out there until we were ordered back home. Kids from all around came to sled on our hill, but only once did anyone get seriously hurt, that was when my sister Myrna ran into a tree and almost broke her color bone, but she wasn’t supposed to be over in the woods trying to make trails thru the trees anway.
One of my neighbors was Allen Pagen who had a little black pony called “Blackie” I would grab my horse called “Dixie” or Sugarbabe depending on how nice I felt about her at the time and he and I would take off on our horses and spend the night out just riding and camping out wherever we roamed. It was wonderful sleeping on the saddle just like the cowboy stars Tom Mix, Bob Steel or King of the cowboys Roy Rodgers and Trigger. At the time I remember being envious of all the boys my age who lived in town and could go down to the drug store and get a soda whenever they wanted and lived in that exciting life they had, but looking back now and knowing what little I know I wouldn’t trade my life growing up on the farm for any other. We had no concept of rich or poor, we never went without, but Dad & Mom didn’t just give to us on a whim we had to earn our way and work hard for what we got and I know for sure that’s the best way to make one responsible for his/her actions and develop a good work ethic . The farm life was a good teacher of the ABC’s Attitude - Belief – Confidence.
Uncle Ran

As Kay and I were coming back from Indiana near the Ohio border I happed to notice out of the corner of my eye an object that looked like a deer. We stopped and turned back to check it our and here was this magnificent big buck with his leg still tangled in the fence he had been trying to jump.

Once fellow photographers get to know me, invariably they ask how do I make some money from my photography.
Well it really isn't very difficult you just have to do what others can't or don't want to do. Like go to Hobby Lobby or Michael's and purchase a carrying case big enough to handle your matted plastic covered pictures and go see your local business', restaurants, clinics, doctor's office etc.
I like to have a small portfolio that handles about 20 ea. 8x10 images, the kind that has plastic covers for each photo, and a black brief case to carry them in . I usually take this and carry the big carrying case which holds matted pictures up to 24x32" into the office and ask for the owner.
I have literally sold hundreds like this, it's a little scary at first but you'll get over it just don't go to your best prospects first . Get your feet wet on others and sharpen your skills before you go blowing away your most likely customers. Only take your very best shots don't make the mistake of thinking they will like everything that you like , it ain't gonna happen . Edit your work harshly and if possible get as many other opinions as you can as to what others like. I am always amazed at what other people pick over what I think is my best. If you have any questions please shoot me an email and I'll help any way I can. I plan on having a regular BLOG here to help others getting started and share some tips on how to make a little money. If you happen to buy one of my books or prints thats great but it isn't necessary to learn what I know. My email is
randallbranham@yahoo.com my two web sites are www.branhamphoto.com and www.randallbranhamphotos.artistwebsites.com