National Geographic Heart-breaker and Feral Equine Vampires

Anyone who has followed this blog for a while knows that when I posted my wild horse pictorial, which can be seen here, I was certain it would lead to a featured spread in National Geographic, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in new camera equipment. I wrote this:

I've watermarked these pictures. Mostly it makes me feel kind of important, but also because I want to make some money if National Geographic tries to use them. In fact, I'm pretty sure National Geographic will be contacting me soon, providing me with hundreds of thousands of dollars in new equipment, and offering me a featured $pread in their magazine. I'm sure you will agree ;-)

So just try to imagine what a crushing blow it was form me to see this in the February 2009 edition of NG.

In case the blurb is too blurry to read, that's Melissa Farlow on assignment with MY photog equipment covering MY wild horse story. I feel so used and betrayed. I've loved NG my entire life! I even almost shed a tear when I had to narrow down my grandparent's enormous collection of National Geographic magazines to only one box, in the interest of saving space, and not having Matt upset with me for bringing home a truck load. I chose only the ones I had loved the most, were historically significant, and whose covers I remembered best. They have been collecting dust in the garage ever since, as would be expected for such beloved treasures.

I realize now that I should have promoted myself more. Why did I think it was enough to just post my photo essay on my blog? I should have been burning up comment boxes around the blogospere with links and joining blog groups. If I had done so, that Hubble Telescope cam would have been mine! ALL MINE! If I had been on assignment, I would have been able to stay all day when that little filly Kylie had a near death experience, but was snatched from the jaws of death by that horse whisperer who whispered her two enemas. On second thought though, maybe it's a good thing I needed to run errands and missed that part. It would probably be visual TMI, even for a NG story. But I could have captured the very moment she stopped seeing the light, and was later reunited with her good for nothing mother. And if NG would send me some infrared night vision equipment, I could capture how wild mustangs sneak out onto Steamboat and Rio Wrangler Drive to party and trash everything up while we're sleeping. I could also include a hard hitting expose about how prisoners in stripes must humiliatingly clean up after said mustang party aftermath. Maybe I should indeed start burning up the blogospere. Maybe they'll let me do 'Part 2, The Secret Nightlife of Reno's Mustangs'. Probably that title would lure in a lot of new readers too ;-)

Mustang Vampire Love

I want to dedicate this pic to Sariah Free. She's got it real bad for that creepy vampire, Edward Cullen, and has probably already burned a hole her Twilight DVD from constant spinning, but I still like her. Which is extremely magnanimous of me, by the way, after she insulted El Pollo Loco straight to my face recently. But she won me over again Friday night when she repeatedly insulted Utah as she hosted Family Feud at our Relief Society dinner - was awesome! So I've forgiven her about the El Pollo Loco comment, because I'm so righteous like that.

Anywho, she's got it so bad for Edward, that she actually made out with him the other day. Okay, not the real Edward, or even the actor who played him, but rather a poster of Edward that a friend had taped to her sliding glass window. I think it was pretty cold out that day, so it was probably just how she always imagined it would be - cold and intoxicatingly marble like. Okay, maybe 'made out' is too strong a phrase, but she was lovin' her some Edward poster.

I bet she didn't know we have vampire mustangs in Reno (which gives me a great idea for yet another NG story).