Ain’t Distributed Right

The Ain’t Distributed Right photos were taken between Boone and Ames.

I don’t know another subject that cooperates with me less than lightning. Turtles might be close, but lightning always seems to disappear when I get ready to photograph it.

Never the Same River

Andree also considered these other two pictures:

Andree followed his “I pick so and so” paragraph with a lengthy dissertation on MegaShark vs. Giant Octopus. Can you guess why we are friends?

I think most of you know that I have strange ways of picking pictures for photo contests. I think the most interesting way is how I “pick” the pictures for the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest. In fact, I don’t pick the pictures at all. I have 6 individuals each pick 1 picture from a list of pictures I nominate.

Last year I had all Dolls pick the pictures. This year I had all Guys.

I considered this to be a small social experiment on my part. At least it did allow me to collect data that I find intriguing, even though I know it is mostly meaningless.

Last year I was excited when Jill picked a frog picture. I wrote at that time that I was impressed that a Doll would pick a picture of a frog. I also wrote that I hoped that next year a Guy would pick a flower picture this year.

No guy picked a flower picture.

This is the data that I collected. You can draw your own conclusion about the differences between Guys and Dolls.

1. Dolls sent me long explanations of the reasons they selected the picture that they selected.  They also sent a list of the other pictures that they considered. Guys sent me back the number of the picture that they had selected. They didn’t elaborate. They didn’t send out a list of the other pictures that they considered.  Only Andree sent an email that consisted of more than just a number.  I only know what other pictures Nader and Willy considered besides their selection because they aren’t very computer savvy and I had to be there to hold their hand through the process.  It is important to note that I gave the Guys and the Dolls identical instructions.
2. The breakdown of the subject matter of pictures selected by Dolls was as follows: 3 flower pictures, 1 frog picture, 1 people picture and 1 religious picture.  The breakdown of the subject matter of pictures selected by Guys is as follows 0 flower pictures, 0 frog pictures, 0 religious pictures, 1 people picture, 1 animal picture, 1 sculpture picture and 3 landscape pictures.  I’m not surprised that flower pictures got bageled by the Guys, but I thought a frog picture would get some love.
3. Dolls picked 4 black and white pictures and 2 color pictures. Guys picked 5 color pictures and 1 black and white picture.  I did end up converting 1 color entry to black and white. I know that runs contrary to the spirit of this endeavor, but I did want at least a semblance of balance and I couldn’t stand to only have 1 black and white entry.  Black and white is my first love, after all.
4. Most Dolls took a fair portion of the 24 hours.  Only Jesse took nearly the full 24 hours to decide.

Without further adieu, here is the selection of Jesse Howard:

Mingled Souls

I don’t think that there is going to be a “gimmick” again next year. I think I’m going to ask 6 people who have never selected before. I already have 4 people in mind, but if you have never selected before, you should leave a comment on why you would make an excellent selector. I will take it under advisement.

There were many more contributors this week. Looks like RWPE is back on track. Here are this week’s submissions for LIGHT PLACEMENT:

Dawn Krause B of Impassioned Versifier


Julie Johnson of The Joy is in the Journey


Mike Vest of Waxen Media


Christopher D. Bennett


Becky Perkovich


Dawn Krause A of The Randomness in My Mind

We’ve been down to the basement that holds the Random Generator. After a few jerks on its ripcord it sputtered and then fired up and then settled down to a nice hum. After thinking for a small bit of time, it spit out the following theme for this week:

HOPE

That is a good broad theme and one that all Cyclone fans will need this week. Oh no! I’ve given up too much information on my idea. I would think that anybody with a camera or camera phone would be able to contribute something to a theme this broad and open to interpretation. Anybody that doesn’t contribute… I’m just going to have to assume that their life is devoid of hope.

Never the Same River

These pictures were taken on a floody night back in June after Sara and I ate at a Lebanese restaurant nearby. I need to thank her for her assistance on this night even though I definitely burned out all of her patience… and then some.

I will need to revisit this bridge in the near future, now that the water has gone down on the Des Moines River.

Fewer pictures this week and next week it will be back to slides.

Labor Day became a federal holiday in 1894 after a number of Americans were murdered by the military during the Pullman Strike. After the massacre, President Grover Cleveland made reconciliation with unions a top political priority. Making Labor Day a national holiday was his form of reconciliation.

I celebrated Grover Cleveland’s political savvy and everything unions have done for this country and the memory of the 13 strikers murdered during the Pullman Strike by having the family over for a barbecue. Here are a few pictures:

Hope your Labor Day was as joyous as mine.

On Sunday I got together with Shannon to take pictures of her new haircut.

Lots of these pictures don’t show off the new do, but they were taken at the same time.

Shannon also did some turtle wrangling for me on a Personal Photo Project that will be published sometime in October. In this task she performed admirably. I also helped her buy a new camera. So I have no doubt that she will be able to contribute a picture to RWPE sometime in the near future.

Perhaps the Random Weekly Photo Experiment has begun to run its course. There were zero submissions this week. I guess it will just have to soldier on for the last 17 weeks. Here is the lone picture for VIEWPOINT.

Christopher D. Bennett

The Random Generator has generated the theme for this week. I put it before you:

There is light in every picture, but for this theme, you want to be very conscious of where the light is coming from to light your subject. Whether it is to the side of your subject. Below your subject. Above your subject. The placement of the light should effect what the picture looks like. Good luck. Hopefully there will be some submissions next week.

A late submission from Mike Vest: