I saw this tree growing in rock - out on an out cropping - about 3,000+ feet above the valley floor in Colorado, at the tree line. I climbed out on a ledge, waited for the afternoon sun to hit the tree... and snapped a few photos of it. This photo was one of my personal favorites, and what moved me to start getting into dSLR cameras. The others with me thought it funny that I climbed out on a rock over hang to get this photo... until they saw it. It prints really well... and a few people have posters of this shot. I hope you like it... note the roots, the bend of the trunk, oh... and you'd never know it, but the oxygen is pretty dang thin at 12,000+ feet elevation... yet this little guy (or girl) is surviving! And oh what a view! I'm pretty sure it's totally covered in snow during the winter months. This area usually gets FEET - 10 to 20!

The three holes once held the Raleigh "heron" headbadge which I recently removed by shearing off the rivets from inside the head tube. Of course, only the chrome plating on these Nervex lugs was visible after the frame was originally enameled. The entire head tube and several inches of the connecting tubes were also plated during the process. The coarse finish of this tube is what can be expected when chrome is applied over any un-polished surface. Fully chromed framesets are not just coated with heavier layers of plating, they must be carefully prepared to receive the thin layers plated onto the steel - typically copper, then nickel and finally a bright chromium. A rougher surface is desirable when enamel is intended to cover chrome... otherwise, the plating tends to shed off even tenacious paint primers. DSCF0143a