Category Archives: Black & White

Animals, Art, Black & White, Calendar, Christianity, Flowers, Kim, Lensbaby, Macro, Nature, Night, Ruins, Street Photography, Travel

2024 Photography 139 Calendar Rejects: The Beginning

January 7, 2024 Christopher D. Bennett

Time to share the final image for the 2024 Photography 139 Calendar. The December image. It is an image of an abandoned (methinks) church I found in northeast Iowa on a THE TOWN SIGN PROJECT road trip:

DECEMBER

I chose this image for December because I usually like to either use a cold picture or some religious imagery for the December image. This picture might not scream “Christ is born!” but it is of a church. Not a lines are straight.

TECHNICAL DETAILS
CAMERA: Sony ILCE-7M4
DATE: August 20, 2022 – 12:34 PM
LENS: 28-75 f/2.8
FOCAL LENGTH: 28mm
EXPOSURE TIME: 1/5000
ISO: 100

It was converted to black & white in Photoshop.

That is it, that is the final image for the 2024 Photography 139 Calendar. But while those 13 images were selected for the calendar, they weren’t the only ones considered. Not by a long shot. There were 73 other images considered and not included. But I would like to give them some love.

Here is the first collection of reject images:

There still another 36 images that didn’t make the cut. That doesn’t mean that won’t make the cut next year. The cover image for the 2024 Calendar was rejected for the 2023 calendar. Share the rest on Tuesday. Maybe Wednesday.

Andy, Animals, Art, Black & White, Calendar, Flowers, Formal Portrait, Naima, Nature, Ruins, Town Sign Project, WPC - Alternate

And They’ll Think that I am So Exciting

January 6, 2024 Christopher D. Bennett

It is time to share the November image from the 2024 Photography 139 Calendar image. It is a picture of the redbud trees in Red Haw State Park.

NOVEMBER

I chose this picture for November because it had purple in it.

TECHINICAL DETAILS
CAMERA: Sony ILCE-7M4
DATE: April 29, 2023 – 12:23 PM
LENS: 17-28mm f/2.8
FOCAL LENGTH: 17mm
APERTURE: f/6.3
EXPOSURE: 1/160
ISO: 100

Tomorrow I will show the last image from the 2024 calendar.

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Now is the time to clean up the May backlog. These images were taken in May, but never really fit into a previous “An Artist’s Notebook” post. Some of are Naima. Some were alternate images for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE. Hopefully all are of interest.

It definitely feels good to get some of the backlog cleared out!

Art, Automobiles, Black & White, Calendar, Movies, Pufferbilly Days, Street Photography

Pufferbilly Days Car Show – 2023

January 5, 2024 Christopher D. Bennett

Time to share the October image from the 2024 Photography 139 Calendar. It is a picture of a mural of Jack from THE SHINING near Graffiti Alley in Des Moines.

OCTOBER

I chose this image for October since it is an artistic depiction from THE SHINING, one of the 5 best horror movies every made.

TECHNICAL DETAILS
CAMERA: Sony ILCE-7M4
DATE: September 30, 2023 – 1:23 PM
LENS: 17-28mm f/2.8
APERTURE: f/5
EXPOSURE: 1/100
ISO: 100

Tomorrow I will share the November image from the calendar!

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Seems like a good time to start sharing pictures from Pufferbilly Days that aren’t related to the Photo Contest. I’m not a car person, per se, but I do like attending the occasional car show. Partially cause old cars are cool looking and partially because I have a few friends that display cars at car shows.

Here are some pictures:

Next Friday I will share some pictures from the Pufferbilly Days Parade.

Black & White, Blogging, Calendar, Flowers, Iowa State, Music

Goodbye 2023

December 31, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

Time to share the June image of the 2024 Photography 139 Calendar. It is a picture of mums I took at Iowa State University.

JUNE

I chose this picture for June because I like to use a black and white image for June.

TECHNICAL DETAILS

CAMERA: Sony ILCE-7M2
DATE: September 22, 2023 0 4:51 PM
LENS: 105 MM F/2.8 MACRO ART
FOCAL LENGTH: 105mm
APERTURE: f/2.8
EXPOSURE: 1/125
ISO: 400

Tomorrow I will share the July image!

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I hope everybody has a wonderful New Year’s Eve. I’m sure I will be deep in sleep for hours before the bell tolls midnight on 2023. But I’m sure most of you will have much more interesting ways to usher in the new year. But before I do that, I would like to take a brief look back at 2023.

I don’t know if it was a good year or a bad year. I think it was just a year. Filled with good. Filled with bad. I’m sure 2024 will be more of the same.

I didn’t do a ton of travelling in 2023. I only set foot in 9 states besides Iowa:

I don’t know how much I will travel in 2024, but hopefully I can do better than 10 different states.

I also wasn’t super active on social media this year. I do intend to try to get back to it on Instagram in 2024. Here are my Top 9 Posts on Instagram:

I started using Spotify more and more this year. I mostly use it for podcasts, but this year I started using it for music more. I mostly use it to listen to artists that I don’t own. Apparently I hit the soundtrack from “Daisy Jones and the Six” pretty hard at one point.

Here is my Spotify Wrapped:

On this website, I posted 366 new journal entries in “An Artist’s Notebook”. May and August had the most posts at 32 each. February and November had the least at 28 posts each.

The Categories that grew the most were:

1. Black & White – 237
2. Street Photography – 237
3. Formal Portrait – 222
4. Art – 168
5. Macro – 152
6. Candid Portrait – 139
7. Flowers – 107
8. Teresa – 103
9. Nature – 85
10. Jesse – 82

Happy New Year’s everybody!

Animals, Black & White, Calendar, Football, History, Iowa State, Jesse, Music, Night, Ruins, Street Photography, Travel

Liberty Bowl Trip Cell Phone Pictures

December 30, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

Time to share the May image for the 2024 Photography 139 Calendar. It is a picture taken off of I-80 near the exit that takes you to the Amana Colonies:

MAY

I chose this picture for May because I usually put a picture in May that is a picture that I love that I think most people won’t. Frequently that is an image of ruins. Which of course I love. Particularly black and white picture of ruins.

TECHNICAL DETAIL

CAMERA: Sony ILCE-7M4
DATE: August 8, 2022 – 9:06 AM
LENS: E 28-75MM f/2.8
FOCAL LENTH: 75mm
EXPOSURE: 1/1000
ISO: 100

Tomorrow I will share the June image!

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While the football game didn’t go the way I had hoped. It was a full on embarrassment, but that is how the cookie crumbles. It still was an incredible trip. Thought I would go ahead and share some cruddy cell phone pictures from the trip to start:

I’ll get into details about the trip at a later date.

Art, Black & White, Still Life, Street Photography

Downtown Boone Street Photography

December 9, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

Back in April I wander around downtown Boone and did a little street photography. Here is a collection of those images:

I do love a good street photography walkabout!

Art, Black & White, Candid Portrait, Formal Portrait, Nader, Road Trip, Still Life, Street Photography

Dysart Illusion Road Trip – II

December 6, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

Here is another collection of images from my road trip with Nader to go check out the Dysart illusions:

Traer

Still one more collection of images from this road trip left to share!

Art, Black & White, Nader, Railroad, Road Trip, Town Sign Project

Photo Drop-Off Road Trip III

November 29, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

Time to share the final collection of pictures from the road trip I took with Nader after I dropped off my entries at the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon.

This collection starts where the last collection last off. In a park in Manning.

They changed their sign…

It was a great trip. Filled with great food, cool discoveries, and great memories.

Art, Birthdays, Black & White, Christianity, Formal Portrait, Nader, Railroad, Road Trip, Ruins, Street Photography, Suzie

PHOTO DROP-OFF ROAD TRIP II

November 22, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

Today is Suzie’s birthday. So I need to wish her a happy birthday!

Happy birthday Suzie!

Suzie is the short one in the picture, in case you didn’t know! I hope you have an amazing birthday!

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Time to share more pictures from the road trip I took with Nader after I dropped off my pictures for the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon. This collection starts where the first collection ended, hanging out with Albert the Bull in Audubon.

Gray

Manning

Still one more collection of images to share from this road trip.

Black & White, Candid Portrait, Evie, Gretchen, Holidays, Layla, Nature, Night, Railroad, Still Life, Street Photography, WPC - Alternate

But Don’t Tell Me You’re Sorry, Boy

November 11, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

Today is Veterans Day. A day that celebrates all those who served in the U.S. Military.

Happy Veterans Day to all the veterans I know! And to the ones I don’t know too.

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Time to hit up the backlog again. These pictures are from March and they just didn’t fit into any previous post. Some are sunset pictures. Some are from Gretchen’s birthday party. Some are pictures of gas stations.

Have a look:

Unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures of Gretchen or Maven. I kinda suck.

There are still plenty more images in the March backlog to share.