As I continue to try and catchup with my 2018 backlog, this collection is of pictures of flowers I took at the Iowa State Fair in 2018.
At is long established that one of my favorite parts of the Iowa State Fair is the Discovery Garden. That is where most of these pictures were taken.
I have another collection of Iowa State Fair flower pictures on the way!
You can still technically vote in the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest Poll right now, but it will shut down at some point today. So if you haven’t voted yet, then you need to get on it.
By the time this post publishes, Baby Got Rack will have been judged and should be finding out where we placed in this year’s State Fair Barbecue Contest sponsored by some insurance company that I can never remember because it isn’t my insurance company. I insure with American Family Insurance. I don’t necessarily endorse them because I’ve literally never had an interaction with them. I pay them. They take my money. I’ve never made a claim. Car or house. It is a good relationship. So far.
Unlike Bank of the West. It is a matter of time before I dump that awful bank. I just haven’t figured out where to go. I prefer to bank in Boone and I’ve been considering credit unions lately, but there isn’t a credit union in Boone. So I just sit and stew about Bank of the West and their terrible customer service. This is why I should have never went to direct deposit for day job’s paycheck. Even though I’m sure they would have just forced me to do it at some point by now. I wonder if they would direct deposit my paycheck in a rusty coffee can buried in my backyard. Don’t laugh. That rusty coffee can gives me the same customer service as Bank of the West. Probably more.
Any way, go vote in the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest poll if you haven’t. I’m not providing you a link. You should have figured it out by now.
Here are some pictures of animals from last year’s Iowa State Fair:
There are about 3 collections of Iowa State Fair pictures left to share. By my calculations at least.
There are just a couple of day s left to vote in my polls that will determine what pictures I enter in the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest.
If voting in 6 polls at once in too much for you, you can vote in one of the Hidden Treasures of Bone County polls below:
If you are ready to vote in all the polls, you can do that by clicking on the link below:
Thanks for voting!
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As I try to clear out my 2018 Iowa State Fair backlog before the end of the 2019 Iowa State Fair concludes, here is a collection of animal pictures from the petting zoo and the baby animals exhibits!
Still at least a couple posts worth of State Fair pictures in the hopper.
There are now 5 days left to vote for what pictures I will enter in the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest.
If it is too much for you to take on all 6 polls at once, you can vote in the Photojournalism poll below. At this point, there is a clear cut Photojournalism front-runner.
If you want to vote in all 6 polls, click on the link below:
Thanks for your assistance!
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Since today is the opening day of the Iowa State Fair, you should remember that I do have one picture on display at the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon. You should go check it out!
I also figured that today would be a good day to publish pictures from last year’s trip to the Iowa State Fair with Jesse and Nader. This is collection is from the DNR Building. The DNR Building is probably my 2nd or 3rd favorite building to visit at the Iowa State Fair.
Plenty more from last year’s Iowa State Fair in the backlog!
It is well established that my favorite theme for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE is BLACK & WHITE. Therefore I took several BLACK & WHITE pictures in the last week and not just the picture of Taylan that I used as my submission for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE.
Here are a few more of those BLACK & WHITE pictures:
I thought for sure that this week would not be a double digit week, but it was! The 4th straight week! That makes me happy that so many of you found your ANGER, which I consider to be one of the hardest them of this set of 52.
A note, if you have an idea for a theme for the next set of 52, leave it in the Comments section of this here blog.
But you didn’t come here to listen to me talk all tommyrot about participation rates, you came to see the participation!
Andy Sharp
Andy Sharp
Monica Henning
Kim Barker
Kim Barker
Christopher D. Bennett
Micky Augustin
Michelle Haupt
Shannon Bardole-Foley
Stephanie Kim
Tamara Peterson
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:
BLACK & WHITE! What a great theme! This is the closest you get to a wild card theme. You can literally take a picture of anything, and as long as that picture is in BLACK & WHITE, it qualifies for this theme.
You may have to do some editing after you take the picture, but a lot of digital cameras have a BLACK & WHITE setting.
This is my favorite theme, so I definitely look forward to your interpretations!
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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.
OR
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 monochrome Monday!
Now that the Boone County Fair is winding down and my collection of Boone County Fair Photography Contest entries are bagged up and safely stowed in one of the now TWO trunks that archive my past photo contest entries, I can release the results to the general public that didn’t make it to the Boone County Fair this year. A fair that I can safely say if Family-Friendly Fun & Entertainment, Right here in Central Iowa! I would dare say that this year’s fair was “Picture Perfect”.
Here are my submissions, along with who selected them for entry and the result:
Blue Ribbon – Michelle Haupt
Red Ribbon – Monica Henning
Blue Ribbon – Jesse Howard
Purple Ribbon – Shannon Bardole-Foley
A reminder that I do have one picture that will be displayed at the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon. I don’t know what it is, but I will find out at the Photographer Reception here in a couple weeks. I’ll release that photo at the conclusion of the Iowa State Fair on August 18.
There is still good seats available to join me at the Iowa State Fair on August 18. But they are filling up fast!
As for the last photo contest I enter this year, the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest. I will again be selecting my entries by poll. I will be putting that poll together in the next couple of weeks. So stay tuned to this station. Information will be forthcoming!
If you are in possession of a Photography 139 Calendar, you know that today is Naima’s birthday! She will probably be lazing around the house most of the night. But I’ll probably take her on a birthday trip to the park. So if you are going to drop by with birthday gifts and birthday wishes, you might want to call ahead to find out her locations.
She prefers dog treats. She isn’t picky. Could probably use some of the breath freshening dog treats. She isn’t big into chew sticks.
Since it is her birthday, seems like a good time to look at some of my favorite Naima pictures from over the years:
She was a very good girl this year! I’m sure she will be again this year!
We are approaching the Boone County Fair, which means that I need to select pictures for the Boone County Fair Photo Contest. I am picking those pictures in the same way that I did last year. I’m letting other people pick them for me.
The next FOUR people that text me that they are interested in picking one of my entries will get to pick my five entries for the Boone County Fair. Once you have been selected as a selector, I will send you instructions on how to make your selection.
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I don’t know if it was the holiday or if ROAD TRIP was just a particularly popular theme, but there were several submissions for the ROAD TRIP theme. The submissions were taken as far east as Chicago and as far north as near Canada.
But you didn’t come here to hear me talk all tommyrot about participation rates. You came to see the submissions:
Andy Sharp
Carla Stensland
Carla Stensland
Carla Stensland
Kim Barker
Michelle Haupt
Kim Barker
Shannon Bardole-Foley
Tamara Peterson
Becky Parmelee
Carla Stensland
Christopher D. Bennett
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:
SIGNS! What a great theme! But what is a SIGNS photo? A SIGNS photo is literally any picture of a SIGN(s). Remember, there is more than one definition of SIGNS.
I look forward to seeing your interpretations!
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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.
OR
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.
+++++++
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 signed Monday!
Mission Trip Day 1 started with a 6 AM walk around Rapid City. This is a Mission Trip tradition started by Andy. He takes people out for a 6 AM walk every day of the mission trip. I don’t join every day, but I usually join a couple times during the mission trip.
The church we were staying at was in downtown Rapid City and walking around that area, I loved the Rapid City downtown area. They have statues of all the president on their street corners. There are plenty of local businesses, but perhaps my favorite part of the the downtown area is the “Art Alley” where people are allowed to put graffiti, during designated areas, if you have a permit. I admit that all these things are the antithesis of graffiti. Kind of like a Republican claiming to be punk rock, but that being putting aside, it was a pretty cool alley.
At about 9 AM I headed to my worksite with my group. I don’t even remember the name of my group, which is rare, but as the official “trip leader” this year, I decided to dial down the amount of trash I talked to other groups. My group consisted of Andy, Megan, Anna, Jentry, Wyatt, and Noah.
We were assigned to work at Black Hills Works. This is an organization that works with people with physical and mental disabilities. We worked it what was essentially their day care program. They have a ton of other programs, but this is the one where we worked.
This was not physically demanding work, but boy was it hard. I split my time among 3 rooms. 2 learning centers and a fitness center. Our job was to interact and assist the clients.
That could mean anything from playing games with them or talking to them or taking them on a walk or helping them with an iPad or taking them for a bike ride or doing crafts with them or just doing a puzzle next to them.
The first day was hard. The first day was a lot of figuring out how to best communicate with each client. I don’t think I would be exaggerating to say that most of us or even all of us left the worksite on the first day and thinking, “I don’t know if I can do this for 3 more days.”
Even though, I feel like I made connections with at least a couple of clients.
The evening Monday cultural event was going to Bear Butte. It is a state park near Sturgis. It is a mountain that is considered sacred by the Lakota. We got a lesson on the mountain and then we climbed it.
They split people into 3 groups. 1 group that was going to try to summit the mountain. 1 group that was going to go halfway up the mountain. 1 group that was going to stay at base camp.
I was on the fence on whether I wanted to try to climb the mountain or go halfway. We had 5 adults. 3 of them decided to go for the summit. 1 adult decided to stay at base camp. I decided that we needed 1 adult to be with our group that was going halfway up.
I’m not sure how far I made it up the mountain. One of our kids had trouble breathing, so I went back down the mountain with her.
Even the limited distance I got up the mountain was beautiful. Some day I would like to go back up the mountain. We’ll see if it ever comes back in my sphere of influence.
We are not allowed to take pictures at our worksite, but here are some pictures from the day:
Buffalo!
After leaving the mountain we returned to the church. We had our worship time and our church time. I had Anna run our Church Time because I wanted to have the seniors have a leadership role on the mission trip.
On Sunday night I got about 45 minutes of sleep. I went to bed on Monday night hoping for a solid 6 hours…
