I made it to the State Fair twice this year. I went once on a Friday to see Maroon 5 with Jill. Then on the last day of the Fair I went with my Mom. I met up with Derrick, Jen, and Evie. We ran into Sara, Shawn, and Cousin Amy. Here are some pictures from those trips:

Jill in front of the picture of her at the Photography Salon.


Jill with her turkey leg.


The damage she did to that turkey leg.


Even though Jill is a Legacy Member of the Maroon 5 Fan Club, she felt our seats could have been better…


I thought that they were pretty good.
















For some reason, Maroon 5 played before Train. Don’t know why, but at least we didn’t have to endure Train.












Evie loves baby animals!




Evie is a toe wiggler!




Evie supports winners!


We heard the following at this stand a lot: “1 fried butter on a stick and a bottle of water, please!”




You can’t imagine how hard it was for me NOT to photoshop that terrible Hawk logo out of this picture, but trust me, despite what his wardrobe is telling the world, Shawn is a good guy. He just doesn’t know how to dress.


With the 2nd Place Picture


With the Honorable Mention Picture


Some people view this as impressive.

Looking forward to next year’s fair already!

Sara graduated a few weeks back and to celebrate, she had a massive shindig.

As my present to Sara, I set up a photobooth in her garage. here are a few pictures from that photobooth.

Sara already was the most educated person that I know, but now the gap is almost immeasurable.

Next week’s random Wednesday will be pictures from the Straw Poll.

For the first time in several years, I was back to where I am supposed to be on the Fourth of July: eating Derrick’s cooking.

Here are some pictures from that day.

Next week’s random pictures feature a few pictures from the Iowa Band Festival, but in reality, they are mostly Evie pictures, again. I doubt there are any complaints about that!

I’ll just confess that my picture this week was not the intended picture. But I did what I could after I had some kind of memory card failure where I lost my original picture.

Here are the submissions for NIGHT:

Christopher D. Bennett


Dawn Krause


Mike Vest A


Mike Vest B

Next week’s theme will be:

A look back at last year’s submissions.

I am going on vacation next week, so next Monday at noon the theme for next week will publish, but none of the pictures will be published until I return from my sabbatical. Unless you get your picture in by Friday.

Soul Mending

This Personal Photo Project was to photograph around an Amish farm on my trip to Kalona with Sara, Cousin Amy and the Funk.

Here are a few more pictures from the farm.

Next week’s Personal Photo Project involves lilies.

A few weeks back I went on a road trip with Sara, Cousin Amy, and the Funk to have lunch at an Amish woman’s house in Kalona. The trip was set up by the Funk who has ties to the Amish community in Kalona as she is formerly Amish.

I’ve really only known the Funk for a few months now, but she is truly one of the most fascinating human beings I’ve ever met. Not just because she is formerly Amish, but I can’t lie, that part fascinates me.

I really find the Amish community to be fascinating and to have somebody to ask question after question after question after question to is really cool for me.

The pictures of the Amish woman’s (Ruby Miller) house are being held back for Personal Photo Project #77, but here are a sampling of the other pictures we took on this incredible day.

Disclaimer: I go to Kalona about once or twice a year with my Mom. I never photograph the Amish while I’m there because I know that it is not something that they would enjoy (clearly not the right word). But on this trip I did take a couple of pictures of some Amish at the urging of the Funk. One of the pictures I took was of an Amish volleyball tournament. I really wish I would have been able to stop the car and enter the tournament. I have a history of dominating religious tournaments. A Pentecostal volleyball tournament here and a Mormon basketball tournament there. However, Amish volleyball tournament was not to be added to my list of life experiences.

Cheese from the Kalona Dairy


Kalona Dairy


Kalona Dairy


Picture for The Story Project


Flower for Sale at the Bakery




The Funk in the Community Store


The Funk in the Community Store






Clematis


Good Grass Fed Beef








Sara in Stringtown

Another bonus of this trip was taking Sara to Sister’s Garden. I’ve always kind of viewed it as Sara’s mothership even though she had never been there before. Now that has been remedied.

Next week’s Wednesday random picture collection will be from a baseball game I attended in Minnesota.

Today is also Derrick’s birthday!

Here is my photo tribute to Derrick!

Wow! I photograph Derrick a lot! I hope this makes his birthday that much happier!

I’ve put together this little photo tribute to Jay to celebrate his birthday.

Looks like Derrick, Jill and Logan are up next for birthday photo tributes!

Today is Jen’s birthday, so Happy Birthday to Jen!!!

Looks like Jay is up next for the birthday photo tribute!

Last week I removed and disassembled the Friend Wall. It is no longer in existence. No longer do I have friends on my wall.

I replaced the Friend Wall with the 9 Emotions Project Wall. The centerpiece of this new “exhibit” is a 24×36 print of the picture below. A picture that was the ultimate goal of the whole 9 Emotions Project.

I picked 1 person for each emotion. I like to think that there are reasons why each person was able to best represent each emotion.

Joy and Cousin Amy

Cousin Amy lives the joy of a life where she was told a diagnosis of her child by their doctor and told the doctor, “I don’t think so.” Then she went out and proved the doctor wrong.

Sadness and Willy

After the events of the last couple weeks, there isn’t a reason to cover this one.

Anger and Derrick

As hard as it is to believe, Derrick was the single angriest man I ever worked with when we were employed at the Boone Outpost of the Evil Clown Empire. I have numerous stories of him in my mind throwing searing tools across the room and punching things and telling the Store Manager to do unbecoming things to his anatomy that most people simply wouldn’t believe happened. Although once he was off the clock, he was the Derrick that everybody else knows.

Amusement and Shannon

When I think of Shannon I think of somebody that is amused by the simple things in life. Of course, that is the best way to be.

Fear and Jesse

Back in the days of Saturday morning basketball, I saw this look on Jesse’s face quite frequently. Pretty much any time he stood between me and the basket this look crept upon his face as he knew he was about to get embarrassed.

Jealousy and Jen

This one doesn’t really fit. Jen isn’t a jealous person and has very little to be jealous about. She has a great husband, a great kid, a great family and great friends. Basically she has all the right ingredients for the recipe to a happy life. I’m guessing that perhaps this is Jen showing off some long dormant acting skills. Perhaps she should pursue a role in one of the area community theaters. I know Jen LOVES community theater.

Surprise and Sara

While Sara is one of the most intelligent and best educated people I know, she lives life in a manner where whatever comes down the chute next is a gift and she seems genuinely surprised by it. While that might now seem like it is a compliment, I think that this is one of the best compliments I’ve ever given anybody. To live life with such unabandoned joy is a great life.

Sympathy and Jill

Jill fits sympathy so well as she has one of the best hearts of anybody I’ve ever known. She would tell you (yes we’ve had this conversation) that it isn’t that her heart is better than most people, but it is the fact that artists (Jill is an amazing flutist) are lead through life with their heart. While this is true, it doesn’t alter the fact that the first thing you notice about Jill when you meet her is her heart.

Boredom and Jay

I’ve always felt that people that are “bored” are boring people. Jay is a lot of things, but he is not a boring person. However, that doesn’t mean that I’ve never seen Jay bored. Being the closest of friends with Jesse, Willy, and I he has been subjected to more sporting events than many wives and girlfriends. Usually this is the look that glosses over his face right before he taps out and goes home to do things that interest Jay.

I also asked all of my models to pick out who they thought did the best job with each of the emotions. I gave extra credit to the people who were able to pick 9 different people for the 9 different emotions.

Here is the feedback I got fed back. In the order it came back to me.

Shannon’s Pick


Jill’s Pick


Sara’s Pick


Jen’s Pick


Jay’s Pick


Willy’s Pick


Jesse’s Pick


Derrick’s Pick


Amy’s Picks

Next week’s Personal Photo Project with involve that most magnificent of creatures… the turkey.