Bee There

Just got this photo in my email today after it was forwarded around various inboxes. The subject line was "Millerton Ghost." I looked at the fuzzy picture at a couple standing next to a tent and camp fire. My first thought was, "yeah, so?" But then after closer inspection I saw the little girl to the left of the man. I enlarged it in photo shop and lightened the girl's image a bit. There's no obvious signs of Photoshop work, but then nowadays who can tell? What do you think?

UPDATE:I got a call from the person who obtained the image through a co-worker of his wife and then forwarded it to me. He was really excited about the prospects of having an image of a ghost. The caller was convinced that you can't do a double-exposure with a cell phone picture so there must be something to it. But as commenter Brandon points out below, there's an app for that. I explained that to the caller and he wisely suggested that if it's a hoax, maybe we ought to just drop it right now.

Hester McCutchen, a "Rosie the Riveter" shipyard welder during World War II, was buried Wednesday morning at the Clovis District Cemetery with honors.
Col. Richard Miller, Central California commander of the Joint Service Honors Command, said, "Even though we do not normally do military funeral honors for non-military people, I decided this was one we would make an exception on."
McCutchen, 83, of Fresno, died July 26. Mike McCutchen of Ypsilanti, Mich., said his mother was very proud of her service during the war -- she carried with her not only her shipyard worker identification card to the day she died, but scars from hot metal that dropped on her body while welding on the "Liberty" and "Victory" merchant fleet ships. McCutchen said that his mother was 16 when she lied about her age to enter the service (the minimum age was 18).
"She did the same thing that hundreds, thousands of other women in this nation did," McCutchen said. "She did nothing more or nothing less."

He said that because of her small stature, his mother was put into more difficult, tight welding positions, such as on her back under the keel of a ship being built, or into one of her favorite spots, working on the "crow's nest" atop the main mast.
Mrs. McCutchen had married John Jay McCutchen six months before Pearl Harbor, her son said. Mr. McCutchen, who died in Fresno in 1988, was already a veteran of four years in the Army when the war began and continued to serve as a combat engineer in China, Burma and India.

"She kept notebooks and she kept track of every number of every ship that she ever worked on," he said. "She tried to track them as much as she possibly could. Her hope was that those ships were carrying supplies to her husband."

McCutchen said his father became a contractor after the war, first in Southern California and then in the Fresno area. The family lived on a ranch east of Clovis.

"Dad was a country soldier, just like my mom," McCutchen said. "Neither one of them was special people."

Mike McCutchen served in Vietnam.

Parker, the Fresno Grizzlies' mascot, who is a kick to watch himself at the games, with his antics, had company Monday evening, with this trio of "cubs." He paraded them around the bases, teaching them some of his signiture dance moves, and of course, teasing the second base umpire along the way.

A surfer rides out a wave at Pismo Beach, amidst cool coastal temperatures in the '60's and '70's, where thousands, many from the Central Valley, flocked to in find relief from the summer heat.

Sometimes I have the play in focus, the peak moment comes into the frame, and suddenly somebody jumps in my way! On this play, Fresno Grizzlies center fielder Tyler Graham makes a dive but does not come up with the catch on a ball hit by Las Vegas batter Aaron Mathews.

Afternoon shadows start to fall on downtown Fresno and this brick building at the corner of P and Inyo Streets on Monday July 12, 2010.

FRESNO, CALIF. ---- 7/9/10 ----- Arianna Afsar, 18, is overcome with emotion as she is crowned Miss California by the former Miss California Kristy Cavinder, at left. Afsar was the winner of the Miss San Diego County pageant and is a student at UCLA.

The last day to rehearse for Miss California contestants before the big night tomorrow where one of the hopefuls will walk off the stage with the crown.

I don't see baseball players wear their socks like this much anymore. It was interesting to watch the motion as Fresno Grizzlies pitcher Daryl Maday's legs moved about while throwing a pitch to the Colorado Springs Sky Sox.

This was a one-vehicle accident involving a telephone pole in the eastbound lane of McKinley between Fruit and West, which was closed off because of down and energized power lines. The driver of the vehicle was a 7-month pregnant female who was not injured, she was transported to the hospital for observation however. There were power outages in the neighborhood as a result of the accident. At right PG&E workers survey the scene.

I was riding to get coffee this morning at 6:30 am when I spotted a pile of used fireworks in the gutter on Broadway just south of Olive. It was a cool quiet morning in contrast to the night before which featured many homegrown fireworks shows in front yards. Judging from the numerous booms and crackles that continued late into the night, Fresno just wasn't getting in line behind the authorities' admonition to use only "safe and sane" fireworks.

I was at Skaggs Bridge County Park photographing the celebrants enjoying a day on the river on the 4th of July, when I spotted this unique way of keeping the sun off one's head. Well at least most of one's head.

Family cools off on a hot day at Millerton Lake. Tara Uribe supports David Wells, 3, on her stomach while they float and cool off at the lake. Left to right in back are, Rickey Uribe, Jennifer Wells, and Alexia Uribe.

I started to wonder about box office money figures as I photographed the line of people waiting for the midnight showing of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. My guess is that in order to get bigger numbers, movies are released early in the weekend but are still counted as opening weekend numbers. I'm not saying I disapprove of Hollywood's method, I say let's all have a 5-day weekend!

These are some hot ringtail lemurs at the Chaffee Zoo. They hang on the fence to catch some breeze in the effort to cool off.