From: stamps@optonline.net   
      
   Flag Stamp Photographer To Be Guest At NAPEX 2009 First Day Ceremony   
      
   Rick Barrentine, whose photograph is the basis for the design of the   
   new 44-cent flag stamp, will be a guest at the first-day ceremony for   
   the stamp on Friday, June 5, 2009, at NAPEX 2009 in McLean, Va.   
      
   The stamp shows a detail from Barrentine's photograph that depicts the   
   starry blue field and red-and-white stripes of a softly-folded flag.   
   It will be the "workhorse" definitive stamp for the new postal rates   
   that begin May 11.   
      
   Barrentine didn't know his photograph, whose distribution was handled   
   by the Corbis agency, had been selected for a stamp until he was   
   telephoned by May Day Taylor, who is coordinating the ceremony for   
   NAPEX.   
      
   "I didn't know what she was talking about," Barrentine said. "And she   
   said, 'Your stamp that has one of your images on it.' And I said, 'I   
   still don't know what you mean,' and she told me that a folded flag   
   image that I had shot was going to be on the new United States postage   
   stamp."   
      
   Barrentine, creative director of the Quadras Integrated advertising   
   agency in Atlanta, will be one of the speakers at the ceremony. He   
   feels honored his 2003 photograph was chosen.   
      
   "It almost kind of brought tears to my eyes because it's so exciting.   
   It's a really cool thing," he said.   
      
   Also scheduled to attend the ceremony at the Hilton McLean Tysons   
   Corner near Washington, D.C., are David E. Failor, executive director   
   of Stamp Services of the U.S. Postal Service, National Postal Museum   
   director Allen Kane, John Hotchner, member of the Citizens Stamp   
   Advisory Committee and Chris Lazaroff, president of the American First   
   Day Cover Society.   
      
   The event will begin at 11 a.m. in Martinique's, adjacent to the lobby   
   of the hotel. It is free and open to the public.   
      
   NAPEX will display cacheted first day covers created for this issue at   
   the entrance to the show. Cachetmakers are invited to submit their   
   unstamped envelopes or cards with a self-addressed stamped envelope   
   and their name and contact information, says Taylor. NAPEX will stamp   
   and cancel the cachets. At the end of the show the covers will be   
   given to Barrentine, who will provide his own autographed FDC, a first   
   cachet, to those who provided cachets to the exhibit.   
      
   Cachets should be sent to Taylor at 4600 N Park Avenue #220, Chevy   
   Chase, MD 20815.   
      
   There will also be an opportunity after the ceremony for cachetmakers   
   to sell their cachets for this issue, as well as a cachetmakers bourse   
   the following day.   
      
   Also scheduled for NAPEX 2009 is a first-day ceremony for new United   
   Nations personalized postage stamps, commercial dealers and   
   cachetmakers bourses, world-class philatelic and literature exhibits,   
   judging seminars, national stamp society meetings, and the "Important   
   New Collectors" beginners area.   
      
   For more information on NAPEX, visit www.napex.org or write to NAPEX   
   2009, P. O. Box 1312, Falls Church, VA 22041-1312,.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)