Great cannabis photos can be achieved with a good macro lens like the Canon 100 mm f/2.8 is ii and a DSLR camera like the Canon 7D.  A good a camera and a good macro lens are only half of the equation of good cannabis photos and macro photography work in general.  With so much marijuana in Colorado it’s about time to start documenting all of this beautiful work through decent photography.  TuTone has found that getting the flash off of the camera is key to creating great shadows and highlights in the macro kind bud photography.  A great flash to use is the Canon Speed Lite 580 EX ii for a macro flash.  The Canon 7D mounted to a Gitzo tripod, and set to wireless flash control allows the 580 EX to work wireless, off camera hand held, close to the bud being photographed.  The off camera configuration for the flash allows for wonderful cannabis photos like the Mr. Nice pictured below.

Marijuana photos are a pleasing and healing way to enjoy the cannabis plant.  If you haven’t yet, be sure to stop by our marijuana .co domain www.marijuanaphotos.co where you can register and upload your own photos, learn about marijuana photography, and download high resolution cannabis photos for your blog or Facebook page.  Cannabis should be free for all to share, and of course the photos on marijuanaphotos.co are available for your full enjoyment and download.

According to GreensMan’s Page:  “You may not be able to tell what type plant you’re smoking, but you can tell what you like. Choosing marijuana seeds from high-quality marijuana will grow into high-quality marijuana plants. If you like the grass you’re smoking, you’ll like the grass you grow.”  Though the Centennial Seeds are born in Colorado, GreensMan goes on to describe the origins of cannabis and reminds us that here in Colorado we should remember that the lineage of our cannabis goes way back according to GreensMan: “The origin of your grass even if you knew it for certain, has little to do with whether it will be dynamite or worthless smoke. In both India and Brazil, hemp is grown which is worthless for marijuana. Likewise, extremely potent marijuana plants grow which are useless for hemp fiber. These plants are sometimes found growing in adjacent fields. Most of the fine-quality marijuana varieties develop in those countries nearer to the equator. How much this had to do with environmental conditions or cultural practices is unknown. In either case, marijuana traffic has been so heavy that fine varieties now grow all over the world. For example, in the United States thousands of people now grow varieties from Mexico. These fine varieties originated in Asia and Africa, and many were brought to Mexican farmers by American dealers during the 1960s. As more farmers grew these new varieties, the quality of Mexican grass seeds imported to the United States improved.” Here we are in 2011 andl people are speaking of varieties such as Roughneck, Further, and Django as if they were created in Colorado, but let’s not forget that these little ganja warriors began on the other side of the world and only now present themselves for your marijuana smoking pleasures and pain relief.

Centennial Seeds Colorado Further

Pictured below is some bud that was grown outdoors in California, a personal favorite, the Aff Goo.  Aff Goo originated in the the eastern highlands of Northern California in Grass Valley, CA.  Humboldt County, Trinity County, and Mendocino Counties compose the emerald triangle of California and supply the bulk of medical marijuana around the country, but Grass Valley is also on the weed map for the Aff Goo specifically.  What is Aff Goo?  The gooiest Afghan strain that has ever been crafted for your smoking pleasure.  Aff Goo is a unique strain of cannabis that has an amazing intoxicating smell from the moment you crack the lid on your stash jar.  Aff Goo unlike other bud has the bulk of it’s THC content on leaves which are dripping with gooey THC and are often not trimmed away like other buds leaves.  Enjoy Aff Goo for a unique marijuana experience.  This is the kind of bud that grows great outdoors, in the fresh air or California, Colorado, and other medical states free of to grow into a bountiful expression of the cannabis plant.

Growing outdoors in Colorado is possible almost anywhere, even in the High Country.  GreensMan’s Page has some excellent specifics on growing outdoors and indoors.  For Colorado cannabis consumers who have been stuck with confined indoor grown buds, free your toking experience, and blaze up some outdoor bud.  Take a break from being high and get irae.  The carbon footprint left by indoor growing can not be passed to future generations, and now is the time to bring the plants out of the closets and basements, and into the great sunny outdoors of Colorado.  Colorado has followed Cali’s lead with marijuana production, and now it’s time to bring the sunlight to Colorado.  High Country Caregiver, keeping the High in pot smoking for all the real tokers out there; get irae with some outdoor Cali Bud.

Afghan Goo outdoor grown

When marijuana is being banned, advocates often show up in hordes though out Colorado to protest.  Dispensary owners, their legal defense, and patients often give testimony at town council meeting, but unusually in Fairplay before the dispensary ban vote, when public comment was allowed, no one appeared.  Park County has among the highest percentage of patients per population in Colorado, yet no patients, caregivers, or potential dispensary owners came to speak out against the ban of retail cannabis.

Town Attorney Lee Philips reinforced the patients – caregiver model and stressed that the new law in no way effects protections given to marijuana patients under Amendment 20.  Mayor Greg Johnson said that the reason for the ban on commercial marijuana production and distribution within the town centered on the idea that it disrupts schools, teachers, and parents.  Fairplay Mayor also noted that dispensaries are having a negative effect on neighboring towns such as Alma where already one dispensary, the South Park Cannabis Club has shut down.  Existing marijuana centers in Alma such as High Country Healing 2 (HCH2), and Alma Cannabis Theraputics are likely to see an upswing in business as they are the only 2 remaining dispensaries in Northern Park County.

New laws under CO HB 10 – 1284 enabled communities like Fairplay to vote to ban cannabis.  Compared to other communities Fairplay handled the ban well as they are not shuttering any existing marijuana businesses, and they are encouraging the re-emerging patient – caregiver model of marijuana  production originally intended by Amendment 20 and the voters.  Jah Bless caregivers in the High Country.

Did you pay your tax?

A cartel is a formal (explicit) agreement among competing firms. It is a formal organization of producers and manufacturers that agree to fix prices, marketing, and production.^[1] Cartels usually occur in an oligopolistic industry, where there is a small number of sellers and usually involve homogeneous products. Cartel members may agree on such matters as price fixing, total industry output, market shares, allocation of customers, allocation of territories, bid rigging, establishment of common sales agencies, and the division of profits or combination of these. The aim of such collusion (also called the cartel agreement) is to increase individual members’ profits by reducing competition.

The current marijuana structure being a homogeneous product, in an oligopolistic industry meets the conditions to be controlled by a cartel.  Prices for a pound of marijuana in Colorado were often around $5000 2 years ago, and now they are falling to below $3000.  Dispensaries with ever increasing restrictions are starting to feel the pressure from the caregiver cartel that really sets the price of cannabis.  Dispensaries get the 7-11 type novelty customers that by a ganja soda or a few grams of the latest flavor, but marijuana is a bulk industry, and caregivers selling ounces for less than the marijuana dispensaries in Colorado will always take the bulk of the product.  Aside from cost, caregiver weed is better.  Caregivers helped to build the marijuana industry, and even though many caregivers now call themselves dispensaries, they are no longer allowed to pick up inventory from the caregivers coming out with the latest strains.

The Colorado Legislature has many meetings scheduled, and dispensary owners are currently bringing up the issue of the caregiver cartels interfering with their business and making it difficult to compete.  CO HB 10 – 1284 does nothing to regulate caregivers, only dispensaries, and the caregivers in Colorado are still the ocean of the market that the dispensary owners are forced to swim in and compete with.  The dispensary owners will continue to look out for their financial interests, even by degrading the caregivers that helped build their flourishing for profit marijuana enterprise, but the patients will make their choice.  When the choice is go to a dispensary and pay more for chemmy weed while you’re video taped vs. going to a caregiver, the choice is simple, caregivers represent the patients, Amendment 20, and most of all the cannabis plant and will always control the price of cannabis and the medical marijuana industry as a whole.  Jah Bless the caregiver and long last the cartel. Marijuana Purchase Survey

SNL has a history of marijuana and drug use in general, marijuana goes well with humor of course, makes things funnier and certainly takes the edge off the stand up comedians on SNL.  Stage fright can be reduced with a few good bong hits before you speak or perform in front of an audience.  In this skit, Matt Foley “In a Van Down by the River” talks to kids about marijuana, something that all marijuana patients and caregivers should do.  Whether you have a marijuana card or plan to renew your marijuana card soon, take the time to have some fun with weed.  Pack a fat bong and enjoy this SNL weed skit.

Medical marijuana is a drug that should be considered first for pregnant women.  Studies have shown, that cannabis does not harm the mother or the unborn child: see this popular mothering.com article.  The mothering.com article points to 9 separate studies, one involving 12,000 subjects that show no negative effects what so ever from smoking marijuana and being pregnant.  As a father of 2 and friend to many female medical marijuana patients High Country Caregiver knows from experience that marijuana is very beneficial to a mother’s comfort during pregnancy.

As with any medical marijuana healing plan, do what works best for you and makes you feel better.  It’s perfectly safe to smoke marijuana while pregnant, and we speak from experience.  If you are concerned, you may consider a vaporizer or eating your medical marijuana.  High Country wishes all the pregnant mothers a happy, safe, comfortable Holidaze.  You can’t have the rum balls but you can have the ganja balls.

If a photo could tell a million words about how great of a place Colorado is for marijuana this is it.  This is a photo from the Capital of Colorado in Denver where hundreds of thousands of people of all age groups, gender, and background join together for communal tokes and social cannabis use on the 4.20 celebration.  420 started in Boulder, Colorado about 12 years ago as a massive celebration, but with a higher population, Denver’s 420 Fest has gotten even larger, possibly the largest 420 smoke out in the world.

Marijuana is a social drug, meaning that the drug’s effects are more enjoyable and amplified when shared with others.  A friend once told me that ‘weed brings us all together’, as a simple statement.  I’ve been meditating on how weed brings us together ever since.  The sacred herb crushes social norms, and boundaries, and challenges those social inhibitions that we all have to be broken.  The following photos is beautiful because it shows that cannabis has the ability to break racial ties between white, and black.  You can be sure that in ancient times cannabis was used to break the tension between the meeting of two cultures.  Marijuana is a tool that benefits society and marijuana smoking is a tool of peace.

Weed Detroys Racial Tension

Thank you for following High Country Caregiver for 2010, we are happy that you made it this far with us in changing the world with marijuana.  We will continue to explore the social benefits of medical marijuana on our great state of Colorado cannabis in 2011.