Category Archives: State Fair

Animals, Art, Candid Portrait, Logan, Nader, Politics, Self-Portrait, State Fair, Street Photography, WPC - Reminder

ISFRXOII

March 6, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

Even though it is barely March, it is about time that I start turning my thoughts to the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon. I hope to be more current with my images by the time I actually have to make a decision, but I am pretty sure I know of at least one picture I’m going to enter. Even though, I currently can’t remember that picture. I just remember taking a picture and thinking, I’m going to enter that in the Iowa State Fair. Could be a false memory planted by my therapist. Since, after all, having a therapist is a false memory placed by parts unknown.

Today’s collection is of pictures I took on the last day of the Iowa State Fair with the Sony RXOII. Nader went with me and Logan met me down there.

This is just the beginning of the pictures from last year’s Iowa State Fair.

+++++++

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

JUNK

Remember, that there is a difference between JUNK and garbage. Also remember, there are many definitions of the word JUNK.

Happy photo harvesting!

Flowers, Macro, State Fair

Smiles are to Humanity

January 30, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

On the day that Baby Got Rack competed at the Iowa State Fair, I took some time to go over to my favorite part of the Iowa State Fair to take some flower pictures.

Unfortunately, the lighting was atrocious, but I took a couple flower pictures I don’t hate.

I went to the State Fair a second time last year and I believe the lighting for my flower pictures was much more favorable. I guess you’ll have to wait and see.

Animals, Black & White, Candid Portrait, Cousin Amy, Ernie, Flowers, Formal Portrait, Geri, Jay, Jesse, Mom, Photoshop, Sara, Self-Portrait, State Fair, Teresa

2009-08-24

January 25, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

There are a ton of photos in the folder 2009-08-24. Most of them are from my trips to the Iowa State Fair in 2009. However, there is also a good chunk of them that are pictures of Teresa and Ernie.

This is already going to be a long post, so I don’t want to overwhelm you with a ton of words up front. I want to overwhelm you with pictures on the backside:

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

The State Fair

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve some Stephanie and some of my mad gardening skills.

Animals, Boone County Fair, Calendar, Commercial, Contests, Drone, Kio, Macro, Michelle, Nature, State Fair

Dogs with Papers

December 31, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

Today is the last day of 2019. Therefore, I will reveal the November and December images for the 2020 Photography 139 Calendar.

November Image:

November

The November image is a collection of dew drops that were trapped in a spiderweb. The spiderweb was located on a evergreen bush in my front yard. This picture was selected to be entered in the Boone County Fair Photography Contest by Michelle Haupt. It received a Blue Ribbon. This picture was taken July 14, 2018.

Details

Camera: Sony ILCA-77M2
Focal Length: 60mm
Aperture: f/2.2
Exposure: 1/100
ISO: 100

December Image:

December

The December image is of Old Highway 30 crossing through the Des Moines River Valley between Boone and Ogden. The image looks west towards Ogden as the sun begins to set. On the left is the Jay Carlson Wildlife Area. In the distance Seven Oaks can be seen. This picture was entered in the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon, but was not selected for display. This picture was taken March 8, 2019.

Details

Camera: Hasselblad L1D-20C
Focal Length: 10.3mm
Aperture: f/5.6
Exposure: 1/400
ISO: 100
Altitude: 343.7 meters above sea level

That concludes the 2020 Photography 139 Calendar images. I hope you enjoyed them and I hope if you got a calendar, you enjoyed it too.

+++++++

Before I left for the Mission Trip, I agreed to photograph the graduation of the Boone Area Humane Society’s Dog Obedience Class for Kio. Here are some of my favorite images from the experience:

Guess I’ll see you in 2020. Happy New Year’s Eve if you’re the type that celebrates. I believe I have successfully escaped being invited to a New Year’s Eve Party for like at least the 10th straight year!

Animals, Calendar, Equipment, Flowers, Macro, Naima, Photoshop, Railroad, State Fair, WPC - Reminder

Week 225 Theme Reveal

December 30, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

Today I reveal the 2020 Photography 139 Calendar images for September and October.

September

The September image is of the Union Pacific Big Boy. It was taken a few miles east of Boone, near Jordan. It was taken on August 2, 2019. The Big Boy was on a tour to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad.

Details

Camera: Sony ILCA-77M2
Focal Length: 28mm
Aperture: f/8
Exposure: 1/400
ISO: 100

October

The October image was taken in the Discovery Garden at the Iowa State Fair. The subject is a monarch butterfly on top of a zinnia. The picture was taken on August 19, 2018.

Details

Camera: Sony ILCA-77M2
Focal Length: 200mm
Aperture: f/5.6
Exposure: 1/320
ISO: 400

+++++++

If things go right, by the time you read these words I will be somewhere in Illinois or Missouri or maybe even Kentucky on my way back from Orlando, still high from a Cyclone victory of Notre Dame.

Therefore, when I get home from Orlando I will publish all the submissions for last week’s theme CANDID PORTRAIT.

However, just because I’m out cruising through the country, doesn’t mean you should be delayed on starting this week’s theme:

HDR!

HDR! What a great theme! Wait a second. What the Hades is an HDR image?

Okay, so this is the one that I was pretty sure would end the double digit submission streak. If the holidays didn’t end it already, but CANDID PORTRAIT is a pretty easy theme especially when, is there a better CANDID PORTRAIT opportunity then little kids opening presents on Christmas morning?

But none of that answers the question what is an HDR image? HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. Here is a great explanation from Digital Trends:

HDR stands for “high dynamic range.” For those who aren’t so acquainted with this high-tech shutterbug lingo, dynamic range is basically just the difference between the lightest light and darkest dark you can capture in a photo. Once your subject exceeds the camera’s dynamic range, the highlights tend to wash out to white, or the darks simply become big black blobs. It’s notoriously difficult to snap a photo that captures both ends of this spectrum, but with modern shooting techniques and advanced post-processing software, photographers have devised ways to make it happen. This is basically what HDR is: a specific style of photo with an unusually high dynamic range that couldn’t otherwise be achieved in a single photograph.

The best way to think of it is several pictures taken at different exposure levels, combined to create one image.

How the hades am I going to do that? Well, it isn’t as hard as you think. Pretty much every camera (including your phone camera) has a setting that will do this for you automatically. For example on my Pixel 2:

I can turn off and on HDR. Or even enhanced HDR. Look under you camera settings, you can find it there too.

You can also try to get fancy and take individual pictures yourself and try combining them yourself. You can even use an HDR toning program to create an HDR image from just one image.

As you can see, this isn’t an intimidating theme at all. You can literally take a picture of anything, as long as you change a setting on your camera before you take the picture.

It is almost too easy!

Event, Politics, State Fair, WPC - Reminder

President Quest 2020 – Pete Buttigieg – Volume 1

October 25, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

On my first stop to the Iowa State Fair, the trip where Baby Got Rack dominated the competition with our Meatloaf Cupcakes, I stuck around longer in the day to see 2020 presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg.

He was speaking at the Des Moines Register’s Soapbox. I badly underestimated how soon the crowd would line up to see him. I also badly underestimated how many people would show up to see him.

I cracked out one of my longest telephoto lenses and grabbed what pictures I could. It was hard to hear him, so I decided that I would have to go see Mayor Pete a second time, in a more intimate locale.

Here is a little information on Pete Buttigieg from the Wiki, the first openly gay candidate to run for the presidential nomination of a major political party.

Peter Paul Montgomery Buttigieg[1] ( /ˈbuːtɪdʒɪdʒ/ BOOT-ih-jij;[2][3] born January 19, 1982) is an American politician and former U.S. Naval Reserve officer who has served as mayor of South Bend, Indiana, since 2012. He is one of two combat veterans running for the Democratic Party nomination in the 2020 United States presidential election.[4]

After graduating from Harvard University and then from Pembroke College, Oxford, on a Rhodes Scholarship, Buttigieg worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Company.[5] From 2009 to 2017 he served as an intelligence officer in the United States Navy Reserve, attaining the rank of lieutenant and deploying to Afghanistan in 2014.[6][7]

Buttigieg was elected Mayor of South Bend in 2011 and reelected in 2015. Before his reelection, he publicly came out as gay. On April 14, 2019, Buttigieg announced his candidacy in the 2020 United States presidential election,[8] after having formed an exploratory committee in January 2019.[9][10] His platform includes support for reducing income inequality, pro-environmental policies, cooperation between the Democratic Party and organized labor, universal background checks for firearms purchases, the Equality Act, a public option for health insurance, and preserving the DACA program for children of illegal immigrants. Buttigieg also supports reforms that would end gerrymandering, overturn the Citizens United v. FEC decision, and abolish the Electoral College.[11]

Here are some pictures of Mayor Pete:

I would see Mayor Pete again, a couple of months later.

+++++++

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

LINES

LINES photography, is the drawing the viewer’s eye along vertical, diagonal, parallel and horizontal lines.

Many subjects make LINES. Roads, paths, bridges, buildings. Just to name a few.

Happy photo harvesting!

Animals, Baby Got Rack, Becca, Bethany, Brandon, Carla, Cathie, Flat Earth Joe, Flowers, Iowa State, Jay, Jesse, Jonah, Kanoa, Logan, Michelle, Micky, Mom, Naima, Nature, Politics, Self-Portrait, Self-Portrait Project, State Fair, Teresa, Willy

Selfie Project – August

September 10, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

Now seems like a good time to check-in with my favorite pictures from my August SELFIE PROJECT pictures.

It would seem that I had a successful month of August. I met Vice-President Joe Biden. I competed in a barbecue contest at the Iowa State Fair. I also competed in a photography contest at the Iowa State Fair. I dine at a Brazilian Steakhouse totally not for Jay’s birthday. I went to an air show. I met my great nephew. I went to the Minnesota State Fair. I dined at Zeno’s. I went to an Iowa State football game.

Here are my favorites:

August 1

August 2

August 3

August 4

August 5

August 9

August 10

August 11

August 13

August 15

August 17

August 18

August 23

August 24

August 25

August 26

August 29

August 30

August 31

I’m not sure I’ve had as busy of a September, but I guess we’ll find out in October when I get a chance to look back at it.

Candid Portrait, Photo Journal, State Fair, Street Photography

A Photo Journal – Page 64

September 5, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

On the last day of the Iowa State Fair I went to the Fair with Nader and Logan met us down there. Logan has recently purchased a new camera and is thinking of coming back to the family and being a Sony man.

Logan was using his new camera to take some street photography pictures. I used this as an opportunity to knock off Page 64 of THE PHOTO JOURNAL PROJECT:

Page 64 – Head out with a fellow photographer and play a game of photography dare.

The point of this page was to be pushed to take a picture that pushes you outside of your comfort zone. I have a pretty big comfort zone when it comes to photography and street photography is something I enjoy for the most part. So I decided to use this as an opportunity to get closer to an unknown subject than I normally do. Thus, this photo of a vendor at the Iowa State Fair.

I actually did take several other pictures on this day, but I don’t like any of them, so you don’t get to see them.

This leaves only the following images left to capture before finally closing the book on THE PHOTO JOURNAL PROJECT:

Page 18 – Shoot the other half of this picture by Jason Evans. – This is a profoundly stupid page, but I guess I’ll have to bite the bullet and do it at some point.
Page 28 – Recreate a famous photograph without looking it up.
PAGE 66-67 – Make a sequence of four pictures inspired by the rise and fall of Britney Spears (or another celebrity).
Page 106-107 – Email one of your pictures to your photography hero and ask them what they hate about it.
PAGE 121 – Show us that photography is a form of magic.
Page 123 – Don’t take any more photographs -none- until you see something that emotionally moves you. Only then pick up your camera.

Baby Got Rack, Candid Portrait, Contests, Formal Portrait, Scottie D., State Fair

Baby Take State Fair

August 28, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett 6 Comments

A couple Tuesdays back, Baby Got Rack took its award winning Meat Loaf Cupcakes to the Iowa State Fair to compete against the best the Cyclone State has to offer.

I believe there were 8 other combatants in the category of Combo/Specialty and 44 combatants altogether.

Here is a collection of photos from the day that started at 4:45 AM:

The unofficial roster for Baby Got Rack on this day was Scottie D., Hammer, Little Porter, and Humble Narrator. Of course Melissa contributed more than her fair share, but she doesn’t like to take any credit.

We once again won our category, but failed to win the Overall. I believe the beef winner won overall for the second year in a row. Tells me we might need to start hitting beef a little bit harder for next year.

Animals, Contests, Drone, Nature, State Fair

Iowa State Fair Photography Salon Results

August 18, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

The Iowa State Fair is almost over. While this publishes I should be at the Iowa State Fair having recently picked up the photos I entered in this year’s Iowa State Fair Photography Salon. They’ll be nice and packed up. Ready for the trip home. Ready to be placed in the Photo Contest Trunk. Although at this point, there are actually two Photo Contest Trunks.

Since you can no longer wander around the Photography Salon looking for my picture it is time to reveal the pictures I entered and which one got in…

Iowa State Fair Photography Salon Entry - 2019

Not accepted for display.

Honorable Mention

Not selected for display.

So every year is different and you never really know what the judges will like from year to year (this year, they were really into clowns and setting steel wool on fire), which is why it makes it one of the most difficult and most prestigious contests in the country. People from all over the United States enter it. Which is rare. For example, the photo contest at the Minnesota State Fair doesn’t even allow people from outside of Minnesota to enter it.

It is an accomplishment to get one picture in.

3169 pictures were entered.
757 pictures were exhibited.
207 received ribbons.
1714 Adult color pictures were entered.
313 were exhibited.
476 Adult black and white pictures were entered.
154 were exhibited.

This is the first time in years where I didn’t enter a flower or black & white picture. I’ll need to correct that next year.

The hardest category to get a pictured exhibited was Color Plants, Flowers & Trees. Only 13% of entered pictures were exhibited.

Finally there were 15 photographers that entered from Boone County.

I suppose I should start making plans for next year’s contest. Getting caught up on the backlog would probably be a good start.