These pictures come from the following folder:

Backup/Old My Pictures/Pop Art

I want to make one thing clear, I’ve always hated Pop Art and Andy Warhol. Although fascinatingly, very few of these pictures could be considered pop art, but I want to make sure that nobody misconstrues this collection as any kind of tribute Andy Warhol.

Jill once loaned me a movie called Factory Girl. The movie is about Edie Sedgwick. She was one of Andy Warhol’s first “superstars” and one of the people he used and threw away most completely.

There is a scene in the movie that best sums up the way I feel about Andy Warhol. Edie and Andy are having dinner with her parents. Although Edie’s father is definitely not a hero in the movie and he most likely sexually abused her in real life, his character has a brilliant line about Andy Warhol.

He looks at Warhol and says:

“You’re really more of a printmaker than an artist aren’t you?”

What I originally thought about doing with some of these pictures was hanging them in the kitchen. My current kitchen doesn’t really possess much picture hanging space, so this idea is kind of kaput, but I wouldn’t hang such terrible pictures on my wall any way. Not when I need to hang up the sweet apron that Sara (masquerading as Jupiter) gave me recently.

I firmly believe that the Bennett family pickle relish recipe is the best pickle relish recipe in the world.




I found this phone booth in Mexico.


I’ve been fond of growing Marigolds for nearly a decade now.


My Giverny (Picture named after Monet’s garden)

Next week’s folder will be:

Backup/Old My Pictures/Project Universe

Back in the middle of June I made a trip to Minnesota with Jim. There were several great moments on the trip, but I will just cover two of the events in this entry.

The first is a tale of when I went to see Super 8 with Jill. Since I’m slightly too lazy to re-write this small adventure, I’m just going to copy and paste from an email I sent Jen.

On Saturday, Jill and I went to see Super 8 at the Mall of America Theater. Why the Mall of America Theater? Because it was the closest theater to Eagan that Jill knew about.

As I was buying the tickets for the show, the woman at the box office asked me if I wanted the “Dbox seats”. I wasn’t really sure what that meant, but there was a sign on the box office that said something about VIP seats and that got you access to beer and wine. I assumed that is what “Dbox seats” were and we didn’t need access to beer and wine. So I told her that regular seats were fine.

The tickets were 6 bucks a piece, which I though was cheap considering that the last time we went to a movie, it was $10 a piece. But, I figured that maybe we got matinee prices since it was a Saturday and it was somewhat in the afternoon.

We were nearly late to the theater as the line for the concession stand was slow moving and going to the movie was kind of a late decision based on the fact that it was raining. So when we got to the theater most of the good seats were already taken. However, there were a couple of seats available in the back row. So we sat in the back row.

We hadn’t been situated for more than a few seconds when an usher approached us and asked to see our tickets. I handed them over and she said, “It would cost you an extra 8 bucks to sit there. You can sit in the blue seats.”

It was then that I noticed that we were sitting in a red seat. The last 8 rows of the theater were all red seats.

Most of the blue seats that were in the middle of the theater that weren’t smashed up against the screen were taken, so we took some side seat and watched the movie from a weird angle.

So here is the object lesson from this story. I will not be going to a movie at the Mall of America Theater again. A theater that has 1st and 2nd class seats.

The second event was going to Target Field to watch the Padres play. It was the first time I’ve ever seen the Padres play, so that was exciting. Here are some pictures from the trip.

Target Field


Bethany & Becca negotiating for a beer. Bethany was turned down because one of Minnesota’s Mickey Mouse Laws.


The coolest thing in Target Field


Target Field


More Target Field


Nate and Jim


If you look closely, you can see Nate, Becca, and Bethany in this picture. They are in the 2nd row from the top.


Another view of Target Field


If you look closely… Clue: Nate is wearing a yellow hat.


Venable


Maybin


Denorfia


Maybin Again


Meeting on the Mound


End of the Day for Moseley


Outfield Meeting


Adams


Some Twin

Next Wednesday’s random photo collection will be from my fence building project.

The eldest of today’s birthday celebrants is Jill!

Here is my birthday photo tribute to Jill!

Alexis would be up next for the birthday tribute!

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!

Mad with Joy

There can be no doubt that there are certain subjects that I photograph for certain people. For example, I photograph tulips and roses for my Mom. I photograph daisies and lilies for Jill. (A fact that lead to a rather embarrassing phone call recently that the story of which, may or may not be revealed in the next month or so.) I photograph dark alleys for Sara.

But irises? I definitely photograph irises for Jen. That shows what a deep level of friendship Jen and I have, because I HATE irises.

I know that sounds harsh. How can anybody hate a flower? After all, didn’t Henry Beecher put it best when he wrote:

“Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made, and forgot to put a soul into.”

But irises confound me for two reasons. They bloom and are gone in what feels like 45 seconds.

Second, I have never been able to figure out how to photograph irises. They are all weird angles and they never seem to reveal their best parts for the photographing.

They aren’t like daisies or roses or (my personal favorite) moonflowers (although I also like marigolds, hollyhocks, coneflowers, dahlias…) that seem to be saying, “Come photograph me!”

They seem to be saying, “Try and photograph this!”

I made a solemn vow this year that the iris was not going to get the best of me. But even after two separate trips to photograph an iris patch, I wasn’t convinced that I had captured anything that was worth looking at.

I even put off editing the pictures for close to 5 weeks.

However, after editing the images I feel that I have captured something of quality. It wasn’t an easy dance like it is with the tulip or the hollyhock, but we got to the right place in the end.

Here are more pictures from the Mad with Joy Series.

So one of these iris pictures will end up as Jen’s birthday present. Jen’s birthday was week ago and I have yet to decide which one to give her. There will be more pictures published on Saturday (at the usual time), you can help pick out Jen’s birthday present by voting on which one you think is the best in the comments section of this website. (If you vote on Facebook, I won’t count your vote.) Although be warned, if Jen votes, hers is the only vote that matters.

Stay tuned for more irises tomorrow.

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

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

The submission wire was a little more active this week for PEOPLE. Apparently I know some people that know PEOPLE besides me. Here are the submissions:

Mike Vest of Waxen Media


Christopher D. Bennett


Julie Johnson of The Joy is in the Journey


Shannon Bardole of Little White Lye Soap

I’ve been down to the Random Generator for a new theme for this week. This is what it spit out:

A look back at last year’s SOOTHING submissions:

Hopefully people don’t becoming so soothed thinking on this theme that they don’t take the picture.

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.

A brief word to explain these pictures. These are pictures taken with a pinhole camera with a trio of different filters. Although most of my photography is somewhat experimental, these are extremely experimental.

Often times I look at a picture and think, well that didn’t work. There are other times, I look at the picture and I think that didn’t work like it was supposed to, but it somehow works in a different way. These pictures I think work in a different way.

The Better

I’m not really sure where the ripple effect came from in these pictures. I think it was somewhere in the development process, unless I bent the film while winding it.

Here are a few more pictures from the The Better Series.

I don’t usually reveal where my picture titles come from, but I think everybody knows that they come from quotes that I like. I’m going to break with tradition slightly and reveal that this title comes from the following Ralph Waldo Emerson quote:

“All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.”

Next week’s Personal Photo Project will involve tulips.

Must Be Truth

This is kind of a simple concept for a photo, therefore there aren’t many variations, but here is what there is:

Next week’s Personal Photo Project involves Jill and the pinhole camera. I’m not going to lie, there won’t be many (if any) fans of those pictures because they are very strange, but they exist and I like them. That is what matters.