Category Archives: Naima

Hasbro

One of the problems with being so far behind in photo editing is that I come across a collection of pictures and I vaguely remember why I took them. I believe that I took most of this pictures when I was dinking around with the “toy camera” setting on the old 77II. I think I was doing that for a picture for the TOY theme of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE, but I couldn’t testify to that in a court of law. Rashomon!!!


Hasbro

Hasbro

Hasbro

Hasbro

Hasbro

Hasbro

Hasbro

Hasbro

I’m so ready for flowers to be back. I mean real flowers. Sorry daffodils, you just don’t do it for me!

WPC – WEEK 239 – ART

I need to start today by wishing the happiest of birthdays to Faust!


Iowa State vs. Texas

Iowa State vs. South Dakota State

Mankato Road Trip

Mankato Road Trip - 2009

Iowa State vs. UNI

It has been a couple of years since I saw Faust in person. When this virus passes, he will be on the shortlist of people I need to go visit. And not just because he lives in close proximity to a sweet Godzilla statue.

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We did it again! 28 straight weeks of double digit submissions! Woohoo! Apparently a lot of you have ART in their lives. Which is why Obama once said, “The arts are what makes life worth living. You’ve got food, you’ve got shelter, yeah. But the things that make you laugh, make you cry, make you connect – make you love are communicated through the arts. They aren’t extras.”

But you didn’t come here to listen to me talk all tommyrot about participation rates! You came to see the submissions:


Katelyn and Aubrey Augustin
Katelyn and Aubrey Augustin

WEEK 239 - ART - ANDY SHARP
Andy Sharp

WEEK 239 - ART - ANDY SHARP
Andy Sharp

WEEK 239 - ART - DAWN KRAUSE
Dawn Krause

WEEK 239 - ART - DAWN KRAUSE
Dawn Krause

WEEK 239 - ART - KIM BARKER
Kim Barker

WEEK 239 - ART - KIM BARKER
Kim Barker

WEEK 239 - ART - SHANNON BARDOLE-FOLEY
Shannon Bardole-Foley

WEEK 239 - ART - MICHELLE HAUPT
Michelle Haupt

WEEK 239 - ART - TAMARA PETERSON
Tamara Peterson

WEEK 239 - ART - CHRISTOPHER D. BENNETT
Christopher D. Bennett

WEEK 239 - ART - CARLA STENLAND
Carla Stensland

WEEK 239 - ART - CARLA STENLAND
Carla Stensland

WEEK 239 - ART - TERESA KAHLER
Teresa Kahler

WEEK 239 - ART - JOE DUFF
Joe Duff

WEEK 239 - ART - BILL WENTWORTH
Bill Wentworth

WEEK 239 - ART - ELIZABETH NORDEEN
Elizabeth Nordeen

WEEK 239 - ART - CATHIE RALEY
Cathie Raley

WEEK 239 - ART - MICKY AUGUSTIN
Micky Augustin

WEEK 239 - ART - MIKE VEST
Mike Vest

WEEK 239 - ART - JODIE CUE
Jodie Cue

WEEK 239 - ART - JODIE CUE
Jodie Cue

WEEK 239 - ART - JODIE CUE
Jodie Cue

WEEK 239 - ART - JODIE CUE
Jodie Cue

WEEK 239 - ART - JODIE CUE
Jodie Cue

WEEK 239 - ART - JODIE CUE
Jodie Cue

WEEK 239 - ART - JODIE CUE
Jodie Cue

WEEK 239 - ART - MONICA HENNING
Monica Henning

But enough dwelling on the past. Time to look to the future. We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future! This week’s theme:


WEEK 240 - EARS
EARS

EARS! What a great theme! But what is an EARS picture? An EARS picture is any picture of EARS or something that is affiliated with EARS. Like headphones or hearing aids. Remember, there is more than one kind of EARS and I’m not just talking about how frogs hear with their lungs.

I look forward to seeing your interpretations!

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HOUSEKEEPING


A MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 RULES DIVISION

The picture has to be taken the week of the theme. This isn’t a curate your pictures challenge. This is a get your butt off the couch (my personal experience) and put your camera in your hands challenge. Don’t send me a picture of you next to the Eiffel Tower, when I know you were in Iowa all week. I will point out that I have let that slide some in the past. I will not in the future. Since it is literally about the only rule.

Your submission needs to be emailed to bennett@photography139.com by 11 AM on the Monday of the challenge due date.

OR

I now allow people to text me their submissions. In the past, I had made exceptions for a couple people that aren’t real computer savvy, even though it was an inconvenience for me and required at least 3 extra steps for me. I am now lifting that embargo because I have a streamline way of uploading photos. I’m not giving out my phone number, but if you have it, you can text me.

It should be pointed out that this blog auto-publishes at 12:01 on Mondays. So it wouldn’t hurt to get your picture in earlier.

That is it, them’s the rules.

A MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION DIVISION

Nobody showed class, taste, and sophistication this week by signing up for a Photography 139 email subscription. I’ll try and do better next week.

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That’s all I got for today, so if the good Lord’s willin’ and the creek don’t rise, we will commune right here again next Monday. Hopefully it will be a very eerie Monday!

The Numbing Sensation of Everything

I took several pictures of my sad, pathetic, battered, old trombone. These are the ones that didn’t make the big cut for the big show on Monday.


The Numbing Sensation of Everything

The Numbing Sensation of Everything

The Numbing Sensation of Everything

The Numbing Sensation of Everything

The Numbing Sensation of Everything

The Numbing Sensation of Everything

The Numbing Sensation of Everything

The Numbing Sensation of Everything

The Numbing Sensation of Everything

The Numbing Sensation of Everything

That poor trombone should probably go in the trash, but I worry that the trash man wouldn’t even accept it.

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This is your reminder that this week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is GOVERNMENT:


WEEK 238 - GOVERNMENT
GOVERNMENT

A GOVERNMENT photo is any photo that has anything to do with the GOVERNMENT. Any level of GOVERNMENT. From a county hospital to a city park to federal highway.

Happy photo harvesting!

Piebald

Another post hitting up the 2019 backlog. This post is a collection of a few different photo outings, but perhaps none of them had enough pictures to have their own post.

Some pictures are flowers from my Grandma’s house. Then there are some pictures from the Youth Group Pool Party. Plus, there are also pictures from the dog pool party, where Naima gave her worst performance yet.


Piebald

Piebald

Piebald

Piebald

Piebald

Piebald

Piebald

Piebald

Pool Party

Pool Party

Pool Party

Pool Party

Naima hates the dog pool party held at McHose Park every year. I thought that as she has grown to love going into the pond at Dickcissel Park, she would begin to enjoy the dog pool party more. The opposite has occurred. She hates it more and more every year. Last year, she literally last maybe 5 minutes. Then she turned and walked out of the pool and back to the car.

It happened to be the same time that my Mom was showing up to watch the dogs. She took Naima home in my car and I stayed to talk to Logan while he took pictures for the newspaper.

The Youth Group Pool Party is the kickoff of the Youth Group year. If you look closely, you can see that Taylan is one of the lifeguards.

I Always Credit My Enemy

Day 3 of working from home. I thought I was going to talk about how a positive of working from home was how soft my feet are becoming. But I’ll cover that at a later date.

Today’s positive about working from home is that Naima has actually started to hang out in the office. Not a little bit, but more than she ever used to in the past. She has never been a big fan of the office and I’m sure that is because the office is probably the most cluttered, messed up room in my house. However, as I sit in the office way more than normal AND I also start cleaning and sorting and throwing things out in my office, she has broken down and started to hang out there.

On to Day 4…

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These pictures are from my backyard that I took back in August.


I Always Credit My Enemy

I Always Credit My Enemy

I Always Credit My Enemy

I Always Credit My Enemy

I Always Credit My Enemy

I Always Credit My Enemy

I Always Credit My Enemy

I Always Credit My Enemy

I Always Credit My Enemy

I Always Credit My Enemy

I Always Credit My Enemy

I Always Credit My Enemy

I Always Credit My Enemy

I Always Credit My Enemy

Wasps are the best!

I Don’t Know Why You’re Mean to Me

I took Thursday and Friday off this week to watch basketball. Obviously there is no basketball right now. There is no basketball for at least a month and there is no NCAA Tournament this year at all. I wasn’t sure if I was going to still take these two days off. I waffled for a few days and then I ultimately decided that I needed a few days off.

I understand that can sound tone deaf. To need a few days off, when there are many people that aren’t able to work right now. People who suddenly are finding themselves unemployed. I am blessed that for at least now, the Computer Mine is still open for business. I am also blessed that starting a couple days ago, the Computer Mine opened up the option to work from home for some employees. They started by opening it up to workers that are in high risk groups and workers that are around people that are in high risk groups. I fit into that second category.

I wasn’t sure I was going to work from home or continue to work from the office, but after listening to a few co-workers regurgitated Fox propaganda talking points, I knew that I no longer trusted my co-workers to make smart decisions for their health, for the health of the people the come into contact with, and the health of the people that they come into contact with.

Starting on Monday, I’m going to start working from home. Because of this, I spent Thursday building a computer to use as my work from home computer from some computer parts I have laying around. I didn’t want to complicate my main home computer. So that is what passes for ENTERTAINMENT for me yesterday.

I also added a web camera to my work-from-home-computer so I could have video calls with my co-workers:



It isn’t the best web camera in the world. In fact, it is the web camera I bought a few years back so I could set up a modest photo booth at my birthday party:


2016 Birthday Party Photo Booth

But it will get the job done as far as video chatting goes. Because the one thing that I’m definitely going to miss as I work from home for at least a couple of weeks is some of my fellow miners. Most of them have opted to work from home, but I think Joe, Micky, Elizabeth, and Ron and a few others still seem to be committed to showing up to the mine. I’m going to miss you guys

Working from home does mean that I’ll have more time on my hands. I won’t have the 20 minute or so one way commute every day. My one hour lunch break will also be spent at home. Plus with not going pretty much anywhere at night, I will definitely have added time to work on my photography backlog. You guys might have to endure some days of TWO “An Artist’s Notebook” entries! Oh the humanity!

Hopefully the webcam will help with the social isolation. Hopefully my dog adjusts to having me around all the time!

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Since I mentioned birthday parties, I might as well mention that while I have been planning to have a birthday party this year, it is definitely off. Which is sad because Scottie D. and I had a tremendous menu planned. Baby Got Rack was going to cater the heck out of that party! You’ll just have to imagine what it would have been like.

What you don’t have to imagine what it is like, was what the invitations were going to look like. My nephew Logan took some of the photos that were going to be used for the invitations, that were going to look like they came from a political candidate. Here are a couple of the pictures that won’t get used:


2020 Birthday Party Invites

2020 Birthday Party Invites

2020 Birthday Party Invites

2020 Birthday Party Invites

2020 Birthday Party Invites

2020 Birthday Party Invites

That last picture wasn’t getting used for sure, I just like it. Maybe 2021 will be a better year to bring the party back!

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Last week I took more than one picture for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE, so here is a good chance to share the once that didn’t have what it takes to make the big show on Monday:


I Don't Know Why You're Mean to Me

I Don't Know Why You're Mean to Me

I Don't Know Why You're Mean to Me

I Don't Know Why You're Mean to Me

I Don't Know Why You're Mean to Me

I Don't Know Why You're Mean to Me

I Don't Know Why You're Mean to Me

I Don't Know Why You're Mean to Me

I Don't Know Why You're Mean to Me

I Don't Know Why You're Mean to Me

I Don't Know Why You're Mean to Me

I Don't Know Why You're Mean to Me

I Don't Know Why You're Mean to Me

The pictures of Naima were taken with a new Lensbaby lens I bought for my new camera. I will probably going into some boring detail about it at some point in the future.

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This is your reminder that this week’s WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is ENTERTAINMENT:


WEEK 236 - ENTERTAINMENT
ENTERTAINMENT

I have no clue what participation will look like this week. However, I can assure you that even if you are taking social distancing to self-quarantine, this theme and every theme in the WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE is a theme that can be accomplished within the confines of your house or your yard.

Happy photo harvesting!

The Poetry That’s Hidden

Other than a couple sets of Senior pictures, this small collection of pictures represents the balance of the July 2019 backlog.

These pictures were taken in my backyard, except the picture of Naima. It is hard to recollect, but I believe that I was playing around with extension tubes. Playing around with extension tubes is as good of a hobby as a person can have, I reckon.


The Poetry That's Hidden

The Poetry that's Hidden

The Poetry That's Hidden

The Poetry That's Hidden

The Poetry That's Hidden

The Poetry That's Hidden

I’ve already been tackling some of the August backlog with pictures from Fly Iowa and the Iowa State Fair, but I still haven’t even touched pictures from the Minnesota State Fair or of Kanoa, but we’re getting there, by golly!

Hurting My Head from Things that I Said

Happy Friday the 13th everybody! Considered to be a very unlucky day, but considering how bad of a shape our country is in right now, I don’t want to invite any more bad luck. So I am going to celebrate by watching a Friday the 13th movie tonight. Not sure which one yet, but maybe the 3-D one or maybe the one with Corey Feldman or maybe my favorite one, which involves a soundtrack littered with one “great” Alice Cooper song after another.

I’ve always believed that Friday the 13th was an unlucky day because those camp counselors decided to sneak off and “get it on” instead of watching that little special needs boy. I hope it was good for them, because he drowned and now we all have to suffer on this day… forever.

Turns out, that isn’t why Friday the 13th is considered unlucky. Turns out, maybe we don’t even know why it is considered unlucky. There are just theories on it, but nobody really knows.

One theory is that there were 13 guests at the Last Supper. Jesus and his 12 apostles. Judas betrayed him and on the next day, a Friday, Jesus was crucified.

This created a longstanding superstition that I’ve never heard of that having 13 guests at a table is a bad omen. This is why the Methodist Men always seat tables for 8 people. Not really, but it would be cool if we did.

But do bad things happen on Friday the 13th, besides the bad things that happen to camp counselors?

In 1964, the infamous Kitty Geovese murder.
In 1970, 300,000 people were killed in Bagladesh by a cyclone.
In 1996, Tupac was murdered.

Seems like a pretty terrible track record to me. So let me just celebrate this Friday the 13th with some of my favorite Tupac lyrics:

With all this extra stressing
The question I wonder is after death, after my last breath
When will I finally get to rest through this suppression?
They punish the people that’s asking questions
And those that possess, steal from the ones without possessions
The message I stress: to make it stop study your lessons
Don’t settle for less – even the genius asks his questions
Be grateful for blessings
Don’t ever change, keep your essence
The power is in the people and politics we address
Always do your best, don’t let the pressure make you panic
And when you get stranded, and things don’t go the way you planned it
Dreaming of riches, in a position of making a difference
Politicians and hypocrites, they don’t wanna listen
If I’m insane, it’s the fame made a brother change
It wasn’t nothing like the game
It’s just me against the world

Happy Friday the 13th. I hope you enjoy your favorite Friday the 13th movie tonight!

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Last Saturday morning I spent some time at McHose Park photographing the junk pile that is on the backside of the park for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme JUNK. Why there is a small junkyard on the backside of probably the most beautiful city park in the Cyclone State is a bit of a mystery. This is what I believe happened:

A long, long time ago, I can still remember how, the city dump used to be on South Division Street. Eventually Boone decided that maybe the dump shouldn’t be in town and built a landfill outside of town a few miles. They needed to do something with the junk that was in the city dump and rather than move it or recycle it, they just shoved it all down the ravine on the backside of McHose Park. Problem solved. Given a choice between doing something smart and something lazy, people will usually take the lazy option. Over the years, rain and snow and wind and mud has slowly moved all that junk deeper and deeper into McHose Park. The beautiful part of it is that there is a lot of water run off that goes through those rusted out fridges, washing machines, barrels, tires, and cars through an abandoned old train bridge and right into the water of Honey Creek.

Here are some pictures of some beautiful old JUNK that didn’t make the cut for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE on Monday:


Hurting My Head from Things that I Said

Hurting My Head from Things that I Said

Hurting My Head from Things that I Said

Hurting My Head from Things that I Said

Hurting My Head from Things that I Said

Hurting My Head from Things that I Said

Hurting My Head from Things that I Said

Hurting My Head from Things that I Said

Hurting My Head from Things that I Said

Hurting My Head from Things that I Said

Hurting My Head from Things that I Said

Hurting My Head from Things that I Said

Hurting My Head from Things that I Said

Hurting My Head from Things that I Said

Hurting My Head from Things that I Said

Hurting My Head from Things that I Said

Hurting My Head from Things that I Said

Hurting My Head from Things that I Said

What looks like was an old milk crate is something that I could see my sister Carla using in decorating somehow. I thought about grabbing it for her, but I’m not sure what the legality is of just taking junk from a city park is. But I did put it in a place where I can find it if I decide to push the limits.

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This is your reminder that this week’s WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is WATER:


WEEK 235 - WATER
WATER

A WATER image is any image where WATER is an important part of the composition of the picture.

Happy photo harvesting!