Category Archives: Animals

Andy, Animals, Becky, Carla, Cathie, Elizabeth, Flowers, Kim, Macro, Michelle, Micky, Tamara, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 252 – FACELESS PORTRAIT

July 13, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

41 straight weeks of double digit submissions! WooHoo! Once again, I didn’t even have to send out reminder message this morning!

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

Micky Augustin

Michelle Haupt

Tamara Peterson

Becky Parmelee

Carla Stensland

Christopher D. Bennett

Andy Sharp

Elizabeth Nordeen

Kim Barker

Jason Foley

Cathie Raley

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:

NIGHT

NIGHT! What a great theme! But what is a NIGHT photo? It is literally any photo taken at NIGHT. I know this one might be challenging for some people, but it doesn’t have to be taken outside. Doesn’t have to be a picture of a NIGHT sky. It just has to be taken at NIGHT. Easy!

Although, I do have to confess that this is one of the themes that I worry will snap the double digit streak. I hope you guys blow my doubts out of the water.

I look forward to seeing your interpretations.

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HOUSEKEEPING

A MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 RULES DIVISION

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.

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

I now allow people to text me their submissions. In the past, I had made exceptions for a couple people that aren’t real computer savvy, even though it was an inconvenience for me and required at least 3 extra steps for me. I am now lifting that embargo because I have a streamline way of uploading photos. I’m not giving out my phone number, but if you have it, you can text me.

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 dark Monday!

Animals, Art, Black & White, Flowers, Logan, Macro, Nature, Still Life, WPC - Alternate, WPC - Reminder

When I Stand in Your Love

July 10, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

I have plenty more BLACK AND WHITE alternates for last week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE:

I can’t wait until BLACK AND WHITE is the theme again!

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This is your reminder that this week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is FACELESS PORTRAIT:

FACELESS PORTRAIT

Remember that a FACELESS PORTRAIT is simply a portrait of somebody that doesn’t show their face.

Happy photo harvesting!

Animals, Flowers, Iowa State, Macro

Iowa State Walk – Beta

June 30, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

Yesterday I pointed out that Pufferbilly Days was cancelled. Yesterday the Farm Progress Show in Boone was also cancelled. This is an event that brings over 100,000 people to Boone over 3 days. Cancelling it was the right move. Here is part of their press release:

For more than 65 years, farmers have turned to the Farm Progress Show and Husker Harvest Days for the latest information about new products and tools they can use to boost productivity and profit for their operations. However, for the first time in its history, the show won’t go on. In the best interest of our visitors, exhibitors, partners and staff, Farm Progress has made the difficult decision to cancel both shows in 2020 due to rapidly changing conditions related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Show management had confirmed earlier that the two shows would be operated differently with physical distancing a requirement, along with other health and safety changes to the events.

While state and local officials had expressed support for both shows, Don Tourte, Senior Vice President, Farm Progress said that in a very short time it became apparent that the situation across the US had rapidly changed.

“We have been working with officials in Iowa and Nebraska for our shows, and we appreciate the support they expressed for us to hold the events,” Tourte says. “They are critical partners to us, and we are all disappointed to not host the events this year, but feel confident that this is the right decision for our community.”

Rising concerns

One of the key features of both shows is their attraction to visitors from across the country, and across the globe.

“Within days of our commitment to hold both farm shows, more than half the United States saw a significant spike in new cases of COVID-19. We have a multi-generational audience that travels from all across the country and around the world to attend the shows and based on that we felt it better to reconsider the traditional show for 2020 to prioritize the safety of all. Our community’s safety is our priority, always,” said Matt Jungmann, Events Manager, Farm Progress.

“Within the next two weeks tents and other work would be underway on site. We had to make a decision based on the current landscape so that our exhibitors and suppliers wouldn’t potentially waste valuable time and resources,” said Jungmann. “While we are hopeful that case numbers throughout the country will decrease soon, we felt compelled to make a proactive decision on our community’s behalf, given the information we have today.”

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This collection of pictures is the balance of images from a walk I took around Iowa State’s campus back in early May with Teresa.

It truly is the most beautiful campus in the world!

Animals, Art, Black & White, Flowers, Iowa State, Macro, Nature

Iowa State Walk – Alpha

June 25, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

Back in early May, I took an early afternoon walk around the Iowa State campus with Teresa. It was a good replacement for going to Pella, since going to Pella in early May, in the middle of a pandemic seemed like a terrible idea. Plus, how snooty are the people of Pella?

This isn’t completely a collection of tulips, but there are many tulips in this collection.

I reserve comment on this “art”.

There is one more collection of pictures from this walk still in the hopper.

Animals, Black & White, Naima, Nature, Night, Self-Portrait

Keep Me in the Moment

June 23, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

Since they announced that the Boone County Fair was a go, I have been on the fence about entering photography contest. Fortunately, that decision has been made. The contest has been cancelled. So has the Open Horticulture contest and the Open Home Division. Don’t have to worry about that and since Elizabeth pre-volunteered to be one of the Boone County Fair entrant selectors, she will have that spot reserved for 2021. That spot is based on a ton of assumptions on the state of the world by then.

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Here is a collection of images from April that were mostly just test shots for testing new equipment. Some were testing taking pictures at night and couple others were playing with controlling a camera with a computer.

That poor guy working from home. He thought he would be going back to the office to work in just a couple more weeks. Middle of May. June by the latest.

Animals, FNSC, Jay, Jesse, Photoshop, Self-Portrait, Willy

2010-01-02

June 20, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

Most of the pictures in the folder 2010-01-02 are of a Personal Photo Project I worked on where I put a microphone next to a fish bowl and took a picture of it. This (like almost all of my photo projects) ended up being more difficult than I anticipated. Mostly because the fish didn’t cooperate. It had little to no interest in facing the microphone.

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. 3

Next Saturdays walk down memory lane will, at the very least, involve Christmas cards.

Animals, Boone County Fair, Macro, Naima, Nature, Still Life, Work

Art is Art – 2020

June 17, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

EDITOR’S NOTE: After I wrote this post, the Boone County Fair announced that the Fair was going on as normal. Here is their press release:

The Boone County Fair Board is excited to announce that the fair will occur as planned July 16-19, with only a few minor changes due to COVID-19 restrictions. With support from Boone County Public Health, Emergency Management and Boone County Extension, the fair board has developed a plan that allows the regular livestock shows, food vendors, carnival rides, grandstand shows and free concerts to take place.

For months the Boone County Fair Board has been meeting regularly to discuss options on what this year’s fair might look like. They have also been consulting with health officials, insurance providers, as well as polling the public on their comfort levels of attending fair events during these unprecedented times. After a special meeting to specifically discuss the fate of the fair, and with the restrictions being lifted in the state as of Friday, June 12, the board voted in favor of having fair. Although the fair plans are moving forward as normal, the fair board is taking extra precautions to ensure the health and safety of all fairgoers. Plans are in place to increase sanitation, including extra handwashing stations and hand sanitizer throughout the grounds. Additionally, the fair board plans to disinfect main seating areas including the show ring, grandstand and bleachers daily and provide signage to remind people to keep social distancing and to use good hygiene practices. Following the State of Iowa’s lead, personal responsibility is requested for people to determine if they feel comfortable attending the fair during this time. High risk or vulnerable individuals are asked to consider staying home.

The Boone County Fair has a great lineup of events and entertainment this year. Grandstand shows include Figure 8 Races, Demolition Derby and Mud Races. Stage concerts include Jake Doty & Hawk McIntyre, Casey Muessigmann and Tyler Richton & the Highbank Boys. The locally owned and operated carnival Scott Amusements, will return this year with even more rides for all ages to enjoy. New this year is the “Have Fun, Give Back” carnival program. Thanks to a sponsorship from Farm Bureau, the first 100 kids to donate a non-perishable food item each day of the fair will receive a free carnival wristband for that day. Through this program, we hope everyone can have fun at the fair and give back to our local food pantries. Unfortunately, we have cancelled some of our events such as Mutton Busting and Extravaganza in order to maintain social distancing guidelines. For a complete list of Boone County Fair events and activities or to purchase tickets, visit the fairs website at www.boonecountyfairia.com.

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This collection of images represents that last of the pictures from March that I had yet to curate and edit. It feels good to not really have all that much of a backlog any longer. It is like, if there was an Iowa State Fair Photography Salon or a Boone County Fair Photo Contest or a Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest, I would almost be prepared for it this year.

While there definitely won’t be an Iowa State Fair Photography Salon and I would consider it highly doubtful that the other two contests will exist, I guess, it still feels good to not have a ton of pictures just lying in folders collecting dust.

This collection of pictures covers pictures of my delicious rhubarb (that I grow myself, personally), Naima, and a picture of the dust on my work keyboard. I can only imagine how much dust covers that keyboard now. I haven’t been physically all up inside of the computer mine since April.

Although, I might make a quick jaunt over there later this week or next week. I have a scanner I need to drop off, but I digress…

An update on Naima’s health. She had her sutures removed on Monday and Dr. Stephanie said that everything looks good. She had a couple rough days last week where she seemed to be in some pain. I allowed her to overexert herself over the weekend I’m afraid. Now she seems to be back to her old self. Still probably going to try to make her take it easy for another week though.

Hopefully her fur grows back pretty soon. Yeah, she is weird looking right now, but also the lack of fur doesn’t provide her with much protection when she is digging through the raspberries chasing “chippies” or rabbits. But she doesn’t seem to mind.

Anders, Animals, Bill, Jay, Willy, WPC - Reminder

Holy Astringent Plum-like Fruit!

May 29, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

The tree-shrub-bush that is right in front of my front door recently was the home to a robin’s nest. I managed to take a few pictures of the transformation from eggs, to nestling to a fledgling that hangs out in my cherry tree in the backyard.

The picture from egg to fledgling are about three weeks apart. Nature is amazing!

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

FRIENDS

Hopefully you can find some FRIENDS to photograph. Not the easiest theme, but furry friends count too.

Happy photo harvesting!

Andy, Animals, Art, Black & White, Derrick, Elainie, Flowers, Iowa State, Macro, Mission Trip, Naima, Photoshop, Politics, Sabas, Saydie, Shannon, Youth Group

#63

May 28, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

I only have one image to share today. It might not seem like much of an image at first glance. It is just a wet gazania. But this is a focus stacked image. It took 63 pictures just to combine all of them into this one image.

I repeat, it isn’t that I took 63 images and this is the one I like the best, I took 63 images and combined them into one image.

I’m sure I’ll be doing more focus stacking in the future. The photo rail makes it way easier to focus stack. In addition to making it way easier to do super macro.

Now I have yet to do a super-macro photo stacked image, but that is coming. Very soon.

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Thought I would reveal the latest collection of images that have been added to the CANVAS WALL PROJECT.

12X16

12X8

8X10

There is one more order of canvases that are their way to my front stoop. Once those are up, the CANVAS WALL PROJECT will be finished!

At that time, I’ll publish a picture of it.

9 Emotions Project, Alexis, Animals, Birthdays, Black & White, Boone County Fair, Flowers, Grandma, Kanoa, Mark, Mission Trip, Mom, Nature, Railroad, Self-Portrait, Steph, WPC - Reminder

WEEK 245 THEME REVEAL

May 18, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

I need to start this post by pointing out that today is a very important day. Today is Stephanie’s birthday! Happy birthday Stephanie!

I hope your birthday is safe and amazing!

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I’m going to be away from computers for much of today, so I won’t be able to reveal the RULE OF THIRDS submissions until some point tomorrow. However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t start working on this week’s theme right away:

SELF-PORTRAIT

A SELF-PORTRAIT picture is quite simply, a picture of yourself. Almost, but not quite as easy as RULE OF THIRDS.

I look forward to seeing your interpretations!

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I also recently added to THE CANVAS WALL PROJECT. I eight new 16×20 images to the wall. I’m almost done with the project. I have basically the bottom row to finish. Most of those pictures have been ordered too and should arrive sometime this week.

However, these are the eight 16×20 images that were most recently added to the wall:

After I get the pictures that should arrive on Wednesday in place, I believe I will only need 4 more pictures to finish this project off. But it could be more. I could also be less. But my initial calculations indicate 4 more.

But I’ve been wrong before. Don’t want to be wrong any more.