Category Archives: Jill

My (Sad) Photo Contest History – 2

When we left off, I had just won 1st Place in Black and White and 3rd Place in Color at the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest, but had been completely rejected by the Iowa State Fair for the 4th year in a row.

Whatever I was selling, the judges were not buying. I was despondent, but not discouraged because I knew I had entered some great photos, but they were not what the judges were looking for that year.

2011 comes around. I decided to retire from the Boone County Fair Photo Contest and to start a new way of picking pictures for the Pufferbilly Days. I also had what was probably the peak of my photo contest career at the Iowa State Fair. I got all 4 pictures exhibited. This is extremely hard to do. Thousands of people enter the contest every year. Only 5 of us got all 4 pictures exhibited. You can do the math. It is a big deal.

These are the pictures that were exhibited:


2011 Iowa State Fair Photography Salon - I Recommend Pleasant

2011 Iowa State Fair Photography Salon
2nd Place Class 25

2011 Iowa State Fair Photography Salon - Must Be Truth

2011 Iowa State Fair Photography Salon - Drenched in Loneliness
Honorable Mention Class 13

For the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest it was the second year of letting other people select my entrants. Dawn, Derrick, Jen, Scott, Russell, and Rebecca chose my entries. Dawn’s choice got 2nd Place in Black and White:


2011 Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest - Radiant Beams
2nd Place – Black and White

I was pretty excited for 2012. I thought I had cracked the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon Code, but there is no code. Some years the judge like you. Some years they don’t. In 2012, they like one of my pictures:


2012 Iowa State Fair Photography Salon - Truth Perception

That year, I decided to retire from the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest.

Then shortly after that, I decided to retire from Photo Contests altogether.

But in 2017, the itch came back. I decided to put on a Washington Wizards Jersey and come out of retirement. Hard. I decided to enter all 3 contests again. I got all Blue Ribbons at the Boone County Fair:


2017 Boone County Fair

2017 Boone County Fair

2017 Boone County Fair

2017 Boone County Fair

2017 Boone County Fair

I got one picture selected for display at the Iowa State Fair:


2017 Iowa State Fair Photography Salon - Little Apple

I had the following people select my entries for the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest: Jim Robbins (yeah that is a long story), Micky, Michelle, Amber, Laura, and Dawn. However, none of the pictures earned a ribbon.

In 2018, my Boone County Fair entries were determined by popular vote:


2018 Boone County Fair
Red

2018 Boone County Fair
Purple

2018 Boone County Fair
Blue

2018 Boone County Fair
Blue

2018 Boone County Fair
Blue

I had two pictures selected for display at the Iowa State Fair:


2018 Iowa State Fair Photography Salon - Peep

2018 Iowa State Fair Photography Salon - Christmas Eve Morn

My Pufferbilly Days entries were also selected by popular vote that year:


2018 Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest - INRI
1st Place Photoshop

2018 Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest - Freedom Flight
1st Place Photojournalism

2018 Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest - Abandoned (Mill Creek)
3rd Place Hidden Treasures of Boone County

2019 would also be a successful year. I moved to having individuals select my Boone County Fair entrants. Shannon, Michelle, and Logan selected my entries.


2019 Boone County Fair
Purple

2019 Boone County Fair
Blue

2019 Boone County Fair
Red

2019 Boone County Fair
Blue

2019 Boone County Fair
Purple

I had one picture selected for exhibition at the Iowa State Fair and it earned a ribbon:


2019 Iowa State Fair Photography Salon Entry - Green Little Vaulter
Honorable Mention Class 18

My Pufferbilly Day entries were once again selected by popular vote:


2019 Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest - Hocks
1st Place Nature

2019 Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest - Drops
1st Place Photoshop

In 2020 the pandemic hit and all photo contests were cancelled. Which was sad and I think it was avoidable because in a digital age, I think they could have found a way. For example the Iowa State Fair still held its Fine Arts competition.

Which brings us to 2021. I’m currently working on my next embarrassing failure at the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon. However, I am not going to enter the Boone County Fair this year. There is a reason for this decision. A very good reason. However, I’m not going to share the reason until it becomes official or it falls through. Things seem to fall through quite often these days. No decision has been made on Pufferbilly Days yet, but Pufferbilly Days has been moved to early August this year. I’m not crazy about the decision, but I’ll give it a chance.

If you want to peruse all 153 Photo Contest entrants in this long weird journey, click on the link below:

Photo Contests

You can see them all from the out of focus to the award winners. The good, the bad, and the moldy jam equivalent.

My (Sad) Photo Contest History – 1

Recently I’ve been working on an organizational project as I prepare to get rid of a bunch of things in Boone’s annual Citywide Cleanup in a couple of weeks. Part of this has been organizing every (almost) picture that I have entered in a photo contest, both physically in a trunk and digitally in my website photo gallery.


Photo Contest Entries
150 or so Photo Entries

Almost every photo I’ve ever entered in in that trunk. Except for a few that I gave away. I thought I would share some of the highs and lows of my photo contest career. To start with, I have only entered 4 photo contests ever:

+ Iowa State Fair Photography Salon
+ Boone County Fair
+ Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest
+ Ogden Fun Days Photo Contest (this contest only existed one year – 2005)

I’ve entered 153 pictures in these 4 photo contests.

I’ve entered pictures of the following people in these photo contests:

+ Olivia
+ Jay
+ Willy
+ Humble Narrator
+ Derrick
+ Rebecca
+ Shannon
+ Alexis
+ Wedding Couple I don’t remember
+ Jill
+ Saydie
+ Kayelee
+ Jesse
+ Shorty
+ Mike Toot
+ Freedom Flight Participants

Plus I have entered pictures of both Karma and Naima.

My very first photo contest was the 2002 Iowa State Fair Photography Salon. It was before they had standardized that pictures had to be matted on 11×14 foamboard. It was long enough ago that one of the pictures I entered was printed from a slide. I entered it because it was somewhat of a legacy contest. My Dad won a category in 1984.

At the time I didn’t realize what a tough contest it was and how hard it was to get even a single picture in. It was dumb luck (which in many ways all photo contests are luck because who knows what the judge likes) that I got one picture accepted for exhibition:


2002 Iowa State Fair Photography Salon - Odanata the Snake Doctor
Odanata the Snake Doctor

In some ways, this is maybe the most important photo contest entry I ever made. It is possible that 2002 me would have been so distraught that I might not have even entered another photo contest, ever.

This is the picture I entered that was printed from a slide:


2002 Iowa State Fair Photography Salon - Quietus
Quietus

I still kinda dig this picture. My other 2 entries weren’t even really in focus.

Then I didn’t enter another contest until the 2004 Boone County Fair, where this picture of Karma got a blue ribbon:


2004 Boone County Fair - Karma
Happy Karma

I did enter the Iowa State Fair, but didn’t get any pictures exhibited. But in the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest, I got two Honorable Mentions in the Black and White Division:


2004 Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest - Light Train by J.C. Janson
Light Train by J.C. Janson

2004 Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest - Shapes
Shapes

Then 2005 came and I “cleaned up” at the Ogden Fun Days Photo Contest:


2005 Ogden Fun Days Photo Contest - Earth's Laughter
Honorable Mention Color (This picture is now the favicon for this website)

2005 Ogden Fun Days Photo Contest - Giotto's Bull
3rd Place Black and White

2005 Ogden Fun Days Photo Contest - Chestnut Street
2nd Place Color

2005 Ogden Fun Days Photo Contest - Happy Karma
Best in Show and 1st Place Black and White

But my triumph was very short lived. Immediately afterwards, I had my biggest failures ever. I entered two pictures in the Boone County Fair Photography Contest and got no ribbons. This is hard to do. EVERYTHING at the Boone County Fair gets a ribbon. Well everything except me and a jar of moldy jam. My photography was the culinary equivalent of moldy jam.


2005 Boone County Fair Photography Contest - Black, White, and Marigold
The equivalent of moldy jam.

2005 Boone County Fair Photography Contest - Eye of the Beast
The equivalent of moldy jam.

I did rebound to get one picture in at the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon and that picture did get an Honorable Mention:


2005 Iowa State Fair Photography Salon - Colgate Smile
Honorable Mention

But that was bittersweet. It was my first ribbon at the Iowa State Fair, but it was a picture that I had already won a photo contest with, so that was the seeds of my rule of never entering a picture in more than one photo contest.

Also, this picture is still one of my all-time favorites and it has never gotten any love from a photo contest:


2005 Iowa State Fair Photography Salon - My Giverny
My Giverny

I get why, but I don’t like it.

Then in 2006, I tried my luck at the Boone County Fair and this time, I got 2 Blue Ribbons, take that moldy jam!


2006 Boone County Fair - Internal Struggle
Blue Ribbon

2006 Boone County Fair - Scene from a Ditch
Blue Ribbon

I would also get 2 pictures exhibited at the Iowa State Fair:


2006 Iowa State Fair Photography Salon - Kentucky Appetizer
Kentucky Appetizer

2006 Iowa State Fair Photography Salon - Portrait of Self Portrait
Portrait of Self-Portrait

I would also have a good run at Pufferbilly Days:


2006 Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest - Building 429
3rd Place Black and White

2006 Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest - Grizzly McAlpine
1st Place Black and White

2006 Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest - Outburst of the Soul
Honorable Mention Color

2007 wasn’t a great year for me and Photo Contests. I got shutout at the Iowa State Fair. I didn’t enter the Boone County Fair. I did enter Pufferbilly Days and believe a picture of a train wheel got a ribbon, but I’m struggling to find the documentation for that


2007 Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest - Wheel

2008 also wasn’t a great year. I did get a couple blue ribbons at the Boone County Fair:


2008 Boone County Fair Photo Contest

2008 Boone County Fair Photo Contest

But once again I got shut out at the Iowa State Fair. But I did rebound to get a ribbon at Pufferbilly Days:


2008 Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest - The Last Refuge
3rd Place Black and White

2009 was also not a stellar year. I did get 2 ribbons at the Boone County Fair:


2009 Boone County Fair Photo Contest
Blue Ribbon

2009 Boone County Fair Photo Contest
Purple Ribbon

But got no other love at any other photo contest.

2010, I once again got two Blue Ribbons at the Boone County Fair:


2010 Boone County Fair -The Best Place to Seek God
Blue Ribbon

2010 Boone County Fair - The Girl in the Blue Skirt Alternate
Blue Ribbon

But once again, I was shut out at the Iowa State Fair. If you are counting, that is four straight years. The Iowa State Fair really hated me.

However, Pufferbilly Days started to show some love:


2010 Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest - Open Mic Night
3rd Place Color

2010 Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest - Black and White
1st Place Black and White

Then 2011 happened. But we’ll get into that story in the conclusion of My (Sad) Photo Contest History.

2010-03-26 & 2010-03-27

I need to start the day by wishing Vest a happy birthday. Happy birthday Vest!


PORTRAIT - ALTERNATE

01-01-08

Computer Mine Holiday Card - 2017

2019  Computer Mine Holiday Card

I hope your birthday was as amazing as you hoped it would be.

+++++++

Most of the pictures in the folders 2010-03-26 and 2010-03-27 are pictures of Jill and Shannon that I took for a couple of PERSONAL PHOTO PROJECTs.


WEEK 12 - SIGNS - CHRISTOPHER D. BENNETT

Amplification

Amplification

Amplification

Superstar

Superstar

Superstar

Superstar

Superstar

Jill's Hand and Foot

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

PERSONAL PHOTO PROJECT OF THE WEEK NO. 14

PERSONAL PHOTO PROJECT OF THE WEEK NO. 15

RWPE #12 – SIGNS

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve the time I scientifically proved that I am the the true Lone Wolf!

2010-03-01 & 2010-03-04

The pictures in the folders 2010-03-01 and 2010-03-04 are mostly from some pictures I took for the Computer Mine newsletter and for Personal Photo Project #10.

That PERSONAL PHOTO PROJECT was to take a picture of Jill’s foot and place it behind a window. Sadly, the resulting piece of work fell into disrepair. I threw it in the basement to store. During the recent basement workings I found it again. Not sure what to do with it. Probably time for the trash pile, but maybe great pieces of art should be burned like a flag. Or it will probably will just continue to take up space in my basement.


WEEK 8 - SELF-PORTRAIT - CHRISTOPHER D. BENNETT

COMPUTERMINETOGRAPHY

COMPUTERMINETOGRAPHY

COMPUTERMINETOGRAPHY

Personal Photo Project of the Week No. 10

Personal Photo Project of the Week No. 10

Personal Photo Project of the Week No. 10

Personal Photo Project of the Week No. 10

Personal Photo Project of the Week No. 10

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

RWPE #8 – SELF-PORTRAIT

COMPUTERMINETOGRAPHY

PERSONAL PHOTO PROJECT OF THE WEEK NO. 10

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve a dirty stache.

Happy Birthday!

Thought that this would be a good day to share the balance of pictures I took while I was tooling around Boone County looking for my BLACK AND WHITE and Happy Independence Day photos.


I Know Who did This...

Boone County Historical Marker

Boone County Historical Marker

Boone County Historical Marker

Boone County Historical Marker

Boone County Historical Marker

The sign says:

On July 31, 1943 a U.S. Army Air Force B-24 Bomber Ser. No 41-29052 carrying a crew of 5, crashed at this site during a server thunderstorm killing everyone on board.

This marker is placed in their memory.
Pilot 1st Lt. Melvin S. Meeker
Co-Pilot 2nd Lt. Samuel Levitt
Bombardier 2nd Lt. Matthew J. Radosevich
Engineer T/Sgt James M. Parker
Radio Man T/Sgt Thomas J. Leyshon

The crew was on a navigation training flight from Topeka ARM Air Force Base, Topeka, Kansas, to Duluth, Minnesota at the time of the crash.

Iowa Military Aviation Heritage Museum Ankeny, Iowa

I’ve corrected some of the unfortunate spelling errors on the sign.

+++++++

There are a ton of birthdays up in the Photography 139 Universe! Let me start with my nephew Logan. Happy birthday Logan!


Logan Graduation

Good Friday - 2009

Bennett Family Photo Shoot - 2017

Iowa State vs. Oklahoma State

I hope your birthday was as amazing as you wanted it to be! Get some rest. You’re going to need it!

+++++++

I also need to wish a happy birthday to Derrick. Happy birthday Derrick!


October 28, 2017

Last Ottumwa Day

WEEK 139 - MUSIC - CHRISTOPHER D. BENNETT


I hope your birthday was as incredible as you wanted it to be!

+++++++

If it is Derrick’s birthday, that also means that it is Jill’s birthday. I haven’t talked to Jill in years, but I still wish her a happy birthday!


Iowa State Fair - 2011

9 Emotions Project - Jill Gorshe

Ottumwa

I hope your birthday was as joyous as you hoped it would be.

2009-11-30

The pictures from the folder 2009-11-30 are from when I started a project I called THE PERSONAL PHOTO PROJECT. That was a challenge of mine to get out the camera once a week and tackle photo ideas that had been percolating in my brain. I had found I was becoming more idea guy and less photo guy and needed a recalibration. I’m not sure when I stopped, but maybe I should start again.

The first two Personal Photo Projects involved Jill. The first was a foot photograph to go with a hand photograph that I had taken a few months earlier.

The second project was an homage to the darkroom scene from the Audrey Hepburn movie Funny Face. Here is a quick synopsis of the film I lifted from imdb.com:

Fashion photographer Dick Avery, in search for an intellectual backdrop for an air-headed model, expropriates a Greenwich Village bookstore. When the photo session is over the store is left in a shambles, much to salesgirl Jo Stockton’s dismay. Avery stays behind to help her clean up. Later, he examines the photos taken there and sees Jo in the background of one shot. He is intrigued by her unique appearance, as is Maggie Prescott, the editor of a leading fashion magazine. They offer Jo a modeling contract, which she reluctantly accepts only because it includes a trip to Paris. Eventually, her snobbish attitude toward the job softens, and Jo begins to enjoy the work and the company of her handsome photographer.

In the scene Audrey Hepburn is fleeing from the fashion people and hides in a darkroom where Fred Astaire AKA the “handsome photographer” is developing a picture of her.

Here are some pictures from the folder:


Psyched Up (Not Out)

Psyched Up (Not Out)

Psyched Up (Not Out)

Psyched Up (Not Out)

Funny Face Homage

Funny Face Homage

Funny Face Homage

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

Personal Photo Project of the Week No. 1
Personal Photo Project of the Week No. 2

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve the Baiers.

2009-11-04

The images in the folder 2009-11-04 are a collection of pictures from a little bit all over the place. The majority of the pictures are from Johnathan’s senior pictures photo shoot. But there are also pictures in there from when I completed Window Project #1 and from when I was modeling a shirt I was given from when I was initiated into a group known as “The Girls”.

I’m not sure if “The Girls” is still a thing, but I still own the shirt. I’m sure it fits a little tight now. I don’t know if it will survive the great clothing purge that is coming, but I give it a fighting chance.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from folder 2009-11-04:


Johnathan Stensland Senior Pictures

Johnathan Stensland Senior Pictures

Johnathan Stensland Senior Pictures

Johnathan Stensland Senior Pictures

Johnathan Stensland Senior Pictures

Johnathan Stensland Senior Pictures

Johnathan Stensland Senior Pictures

Johnathan Stensland Senior Pictures

Johnathan Stensland Senior Pictures

Johnathan Stensland Senior Pictures

Johnathan Stensland Senior Pictures

Johnathan Senior Picture

Johnathan Stensland Senior Pictures

Johnathan Stensland Senior Pictures

Johnathan Stensland Senior Pictures

Johnathan Stensland Senior Pictures

Johnathan Stensland Senior Pictures

Johnathan Stensland Senior Pictures

Window Project #1

The Girls

The Girls

The Girls

The Girls

The Girls

Johnathan invented the fake looking smile. It didn’t exist before him. I’m pretty sure the remnants of Window Project #1 are still in my basement. It fell apart. It might go in the burn pile. I have lots of stuff I’m going to burn when the burn ban gets lifted in Boone. Lots of stuff in that basement are itching for a burnin’.

I tried and failed to change the name of “The Girls” to “The Badass Action Sqaud”. That is perhaps why “The Girls” lasted staying power of a group with a great name. For example, “The Boone County Sea Dogs”.

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

Johnathan – Day 1 Part !
Johnathan – Day 1 Part B
Johnathan – Day 1 Part C
Johnathan – Day 1 Part D
Johnathan – Day 1 Part E
Window Project #1
Confabulation

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve Iowa State football and a rabbit.

2009-10-18

There aren’t a tremendous amount of photos in the folder 2009-10-18, but the ones that are there, I think are pretty great. They are great because they include disco dancing beavers.

These are pictures that we took when Jen, Sara, Jill, and I all bought matching shirts for the Beaverdale Fall Festival. I don’t know if the Beaverdale Fall Festival still produces great shirts. I know if the Beaverdale Fall Festival even exists. Sara has long since moved from Beaverdale to one of those suburbia type towns and she was my connection to Beaverale. However, when I sleep at night, I dream that the Beaverdale Fall Festival is still going strong and still producing amazing shirts!


Conflate

Conflate

Conflate

Conflate

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

Conflate

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve tenderloining, Sara’s dog Jupiter, and Halloween.

2009-08-27

The pictures in the folder 2009-08-27 are from a photo session I did with Jill. It was the beginning, I think, or near the beginning of a thing I did for a couple years I call THE PERSONAL PHOTO PROJECT. It was something I did where at least once a week I took pictures entirely for me. Meaning, I had this list of ideas for pictures I wanted to take, but I would never take them because I always seemed to be working on somebody else’s project. At least that is how I felt. It might be something I need to get back to doing. We’ll see.

One of these pictures was turned into a piece of artwork where I placed it inside of a window and then hung it on my wall. It was on my wall for several years until it started to fall apart and I moved on to a different piece of art for that piece of wall. I think its remains are still in the basement somewhere. You don’t want to go to my basement, unless it is for Monthly Movie Night. Then you definitely want to go to my basement.


No. 14

No. 14

No. 14

No. 14

No. 14

No. 14

No. 14

No. 14

No. 14

One of those pictures does still hang in my office. The office is filled with pictures that have been retired from the living room.

It has been 3, maybe 4 years, maybe 5 years since the last time I talked to Jill. I think one day she just woke up and thought, “Screw that guy.” Which raises a good question: Why haven’t more people had that thought? I mean besides Eric, who one day, woke up and thought “screw that guy” and then sent me a formal email ending our friendship. A few weeks after he lived with me for a week. If I still had that email, I would print it out, frame it, and put it on my wall. It was maybe the best rejection letter I’ve ever received.

Regardless, I hope she is doing well and I hope Eric is doing the best that he can. We weren’t meant to be in each other’s lives.

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

No. 14

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve Stephanie and my green thumb. Not together though.

2009-08-15 & 2009-08-20 & 2009-08-21

The pictures in the folders 2009-08-15, 2009-08-20, and include pictures from an anniversary dinner for Shorty and Doris and pictures from that time I actually tilled up part of my backyard and planted a garden.


Anniversary

2009-08-20

2009-08-20

2009-08-20

2009-08-20

2009-08-20

2009-08-20

2009-08-20

2009-08-20

2009-08-20

2009-08-20

2009-08-20

2009-08-20

2009-08-20

The Car

The Car

The Car

The picture of Jill that is edited in a couple different ways is her with a car that she described as her mid-life crisis. But that can’t be the case. She was only like 30 when she bought that car.

This is the first time that these pictures have been published. Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will definitely involve the Iowa State Fair and Teresa and Ernie. But not in a way that is connected.