Category Archives: Family

9 Emotions Project, Black & White, Elainie, Formal Portrait

The 9 Emotions Project – Elainie

October 11, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett

Elainie came home from San Antonio for a visit a few weeks back. It was an excellent opportunity for her to finally pose for THE 9 EMOTION PROJECT and complete the set of my sisters’ children.

Elainie

For those of you that have forgotten, these are the 9 emotions:

Joy

Sadness

Anger

Amusement

Fear

Jealousy

Surprise

Sympathy

Boredom

I don’t have any other 9 EMOTIONS PROJECT shoots in the can. Recruiting people could be a good project for the winter when playing in the indoor studio seems so much more appealing!

I already have my eyes on a few people!

Andy, Angie, Animals, Carla, Cathie, Kim, Naima, Tamara, Vest, WPC - Submissions

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 160 – MOUTH

October 8, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett

Looks like a few people were inspired by the MOUTH theme.

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

Andy Sharp

Tamara Peterson

Christopher D. Bennett

Angie DeWaard

Andy Sharp

Kim Barker

Cathie Raley

Carla Stensland

Mike Vest

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:

ENTERTAINMENT!

ENTERTAINMENT! What a great theme! But what is an ENTERTAINMENT photo? An ENTERTAINMENT photo would be a photo of anybody being ENTERTAINMENTed. Or things that you use for ENTERTAINMENT. Like movies or music or arson. I’m not here to judge. Okay, I do judge bad taste in music and movies. Just being honest.

I look forward to seeing your interpretations!

HOUSEKEEPING

A MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 RULES DIVISION

1. 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.

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

Black & White, Boone FUMC, Jeff Daniel, Jim, Mission Trip, Ruins, Travel, Vacation, Yin

07-20-07

October 6, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

The images from the folder 07-20-07 run the gamut from pictures from the first mission trip I ever went on to pictures from the Miller Farm to pictures from a RAGBRAI stop in Ames.

The mission trip photos are from Cedar Rapids. I went with an adult group from my church.

The Miller Farm pictures were taken before June and Dean moved off the farm and into town.

The mission trip to Cedar Rapids was after a flood. After working the second day, you drove home. One the second day we worked in a house where they had to pull a Youth Group out of because they found pornography.

I still can’t describe how bad that house smelled. The family had left their cat behind. It survived the initial flood. Then it came back to the house. Then it crapped all over the house. Well, mostly behind the couch. The food was still in the fridge. You could stand on the other side of the street and still smell the house.

By adding these pictures to the Photography 139 Photography Gallery, I was able to restore the following historic “An Artist’s Notebook” entries to their original glory:

Jeff and Yin

Miller Farm

Cedar Rapids Trip Day 1

Cedar Rapids Trip Day 2

There are a ton more pictures from the Cedar Rapids Mission Trip than I posted here. You can peruse those by clicking on the link below:

Cedar Rapids Mission Trip – 2008

There are also a ton more pictures from the Miller Farm. You can peruse those by clicking the link below:

Miller Farm – 2008

Next week’s walk down memory lane will involve a vacation I made to Kentucky.

Animals, Flowers, Macro, Naima, Photo Journal, Railroad, WPC - Reminder

A Photo Journal – Henry Carroll – Page 48

October 5, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett

A few weeks back when I was taking the pictures for Page 49 for THE PHOTO JOURNAL PROJECT, I also took pictures for Page 48:

Page 48 – Take a photo that whispers.

To take this picture I cranked down the saturation, contrast, and sharpness levels on my camera.

Only 1 picture can be physically adhered into the physical A PHOTO JOURNAL, but I did take several more. Have a gander:

The next time we check in with THE PHOTO JOURNAL PROJECT we will check in with Page 111.

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

MOUTH

A MOUTH photo is any photo that involves a MOUTH or something that goes in a MOUTH or is used by a MOUTH. Remember, there is more than one definition of MOUTH.

Happy photo harvesting!

Animals, Art, Carla, Iowa State, Mom, Music, State Fair, Street Photography

Some Iowa State Fair

October 4, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

After Baby Got Rack dominated the Iowa State Fair barbecue competition I chose to hang back at the Iowa State Fair and meet up with my Mom and Carla.

Here are a few pictures from the Iowa State Fair and that afternoon:

I have plenty more pictures from my Iowa State Fair adventures.

Black & White, Carla, Fisheye, Jaxon, Kim, Micky, Railroad, Shannon, Tamara, WPC - Submissions

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 159 – ARCHITECTURE

October 1, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett

Before we get into the WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE, here is my plea to help the Boone First United Methodist Church’s Youth Group fund their annual mission trip:

Download and print that flyer. Cut it into 4 coupons. Then, come to the Boone Pizza Ranch this Wednesday night and have supper. Between 5-9.

Where: Boone Pizza Ranch
Date: Wednesday, October 3, 2018
Time: 5-9
What: Mission Trip Fundraiser

The Boone First United Methodist Church will be going to Rapid City, South Dakota for a mission trip the last week of June. Help us get the kids there!

Thank you!!!

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It was a good rebound week. More people were moved by the ARCHITECTURE theme than the previous week.

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

Carla Stensland

Christopher D. Bennett

Jaxon Schoff

Shannon Bardole-Foley

Kim Barker

Tamara Peterson

Carla Stensland

Micky Augustin

Mouth

MOUTH! What a great theme! But what is a MOUTH photo? A MOUTH photo would be any photo that involves a MOUTH. Or things that go in a MOUTH or is used by a MOUTH. Of course, there is more than one definition of MOUTH.

I look forward to seeing your interpretations!

HOUSEKEEPING

A MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 RULES DIVISION

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.

+++++++

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 mouthy Monday.

Alexis, Art, Baseball/Softball, Carla, Dawn, Elainie, Flowers, Jason, Macro, Road Trip

07-20-08/State Tournament

September 29, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

The pictures in the folder 07-20-08/State Tournament are from when Elainie played in the Little League State Tournament in Albia.

Looking through the pictures, I had forgotten that Dawn’s daughter Debra also played on that team. It might be where we rekindled our friendship. Or maybe our friendship began. I’m not sure we were exactly friends in high school. That was a long time ago.

Boone won their first game against Grand View. Which was an event to rejoice. Grand View Little League is hard to describe. I think the best way I can put it is this way:

You know those movies about summer camp, where there is a rival camp across the lake filled with the worst people you can think of in the context of summer camp. Grand View Little League is that rival camp across the lake. Filled with the worst kind of Little League parents you can imagine.

Boone then lost in the championship. To somebody that wasn’t Grand View.

Here are some, but definitely not all of the pictures:

It is weird what can get ingrained into you from the past that you hold onto for no real reason. Grand View Little League’s Major Boys team made it to the Little League World Series just this past summer. Even though I haven’t had an interaction with that league in over 10 years and probably nobody that is affiliated with that league is still affiliated with the team that was in the World Series, I still found myself rooting against them. I usually root for almost anything that represents the great Cyclone State, but I found myself rooting against our representative in the Little League World Series.

Next time I shave maybe I’ll try to purge myself of this prejudice.

There are many more pictures from my trip to Albia. You can check them out by clicking on the link below:

Boone Little League – 2008

By adding these pictures to the Photography 139 Photo Gallery, I was able to restore the following historic “An Artist’s Notebook” post to its original glory:

Albia, Iowa

Depending on ambition and free time levels, next week’s walk down memory lane will involve my first mission trip, a farewell of sorts to the Miller farm, and spandex.

Animals, Flowers, Macro, Mom, Naima, Photo Journal, Railroad, WPC - Reminder

A Photo Journal – Henry Carroll – Page 49

September 28, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett

A few weeks back I was messing with some camera settings and decided it was a perfect time to crank out Page 49 of THE PHOTO JOURNAL PROJECT:

Page 49 – Take a photograph that shouts.

By a photograph that shouts, it is a picture that is bold in its colors, contrast, and sharpness. I jacked these settings up all the way on my camera and photographed some flowers in the Photography 139 flowerbeds and at my Mom’s house.

While only one picture can be physically adhered into the physical A PHOTO JOURNAL, I did take several others. Here are some of those I like, but won’t be in the physical A PHOTO JOURNAL:

Next time we check-in with THE PHOTO JOURNAL PROJECT, we will check out Page 48.

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This is your weekly reminder that this week’s WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is ARCHITECTURE.

ARCHITECTURE

An ARCHITECTURE photo is any photo that has to do with a building or a man-made structure. Inside or out. Doesn’t matter.

Happy photo harvesting!

Animals, Carla

High-fed; Long-lived; and Sociable and Free

September 27, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett

Recently Carla texted me to let me know that there was a collection of egrets hanging out in a field she passes on her way to work.

Shortly thereafter, I went out there looking for them. I really only got a couple decent egret pictures, but I did get a few decent pelican pictures that were hanging out nearby.

The pelicans were photographed at the Jay Carlson Wildlife Area. A place that I’ll definitely visit when I finally pull the trigger on the drone. However, that is months away.

Brandon, Football, Iowa State, K.J., Music, Street Photography

Iowa State 26 Akron 13

September 23, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett

Yesterday, Iowa State had an emotional football game.

Before the game, there was a moment of silence for Celia Barquin Arozamena. They placed her picture in the endzone where she would have stood to be honored as the Female Athlete of the Year. Both the Iowa State and Akron football teams wore CBA decals on their helmets. They played a video tribute to her on the video board. The team came out with a Spanish flag. At least 70% of the fans wore yellow/gold to honor her memory. The Iowa State University Cyclone Varsity Marching Band spelled out her initials on the field.

The game was almost an afterthought and it played kind of like one. Iowa Sate beat Akron 26-13 in a somewhat lackluster game.

Here are some pictures from the day.

Next Saturday Iowa State is on the road against TCU. Kickoff is at 6 PM. As always, you are welcome to come watch the game with me in the Union Street Theater.