I’ve finally distributed almost every last 2011 Photography 139 Calendar. Allow me to explain what images were used and I will include the briefest of notes on the pictures.

This year, the calendar was a little bit more of an adventure than usual. The printer from the last two years baled on me. I couldn’t find the kind of paper that I have used the last couple of years. The paper I used was too thick to duplex. In the end though, it all came together and a perfectly acceptable calendar has been produced.

Here are the pictures:

Front Cover

This picture was taken at the Iowa State Fair. I like to photograph one of the flower gardens at the Iowa State Fair every year. I have to confess to being a little disappointed with the garden this year, but I have no doubt it will be back to its full glory in 2011.

January

This picture was taken in my backyard. It is actually connected to the August picture. I purchased a bouquet of flowers for the August photo. Then I waited for the flowers to die and photographed them for the January picture.

February

I found this frog in my favorite frog finding spot – Lost Lake in Ledges. He was surprisingly brave for coming from a race of creatures that are notorious cowards.

March

Sara was with me when I took this picture down in the Papajohn Sculpture Garden. This is the only picture in the calendar that was taken with the aid of a photo assistant.

April

This lonely farm scene can be found between Boone and Ames on US30. There is a secret to how this picture was produced, but Photoshop isn’t that secret.

May

Even though I drove to Pella in a rainstorm to photograph their tulips, I found my best tulip picture in my Grandma’s front yard.

June

On a road trip with Mom and Teresa to State Center, I must have taken at least 300 pictures of roses, but it was this picture of a rose leaf that stood out as the most memorable image of the day.

July

I visited a couple different wild daisy patches, but the daisy image that made the calendar was found in my Mom’s yard. It was my belief that after “The Solace of Ordinary Humanity”, I couldn’t possibly take a better daisy picture, but I took camera in hand to photograph daisies to figure out a birthday present for Jill.

August

This is the only image from the Random Weekly Photo Experiment to make the calendar. This picture was taken in the middle of the Winter with a daisy bouquet. This image is hanging in Kelly’s salon – Salon 908.

September

This picture is meant to be parody. Nobody else in the world will understand that, but believe me, it is meant to be parody. This is also the only picture in the calendar that is manipulated by Photoshop in a meaningful way. This hibiscus grows in my Mom’s yard.

October

In retrospect, I’m not sure this picture belongs in October, but it is too late now. This picture was taken near the sewage treatment center in Boone. I hope that doesn’t take some of the romance away from it.

November

I photographed this lily in my Grandma’s flower garden. She planted so many lilies that she wasn’t sure what colors were even going to come up.

December

This is a picture of my Grandma Bennett’s Bible.

I have only 1 stated goal for the 2012 calendar. There will be a picture of an iris in it. Jen’s favorite flower is the iris and it is the one flower that I can’t figure out how to photograph. I will meet my adversary head on this year and 1 of us will fall.

Theories Pass

Derrick likes to tell a story (and I like to listen) about the album cover for Pink Floyd’s album Atom Heart Mother. This album features a picture of a cow.

The story goes that the reason that this picture was selected for the album cover is that no other picture says “cow” like this picture says “cow”.

It must be a great picture, because this album cover appears in A Clockwork Orange during the music shop scene.

“Enjoying that are you my darlin’? Bit cold and pointless isn’t it my lovely? What’s happened to yours my little sister?”

That bit aside, my goal was take a picture that says “frog”. At least now I have next February’s calendar picture out of the way.

Here are a few other pictures that hopefully say “frog” to you:

There is nothing as rewarding as coming home with a quality frog photo after a days mucking about in the mud. This is why the first test for applicants for Photography 139 Photo Assistants is frog spotting.

Feel free to go out to your local bog and give it a shot.

Pardon and Sanctify Me

This cross stands on top of my church. It no longer looks like this because the it was painted during the tuckpointing process last year. The name comes from a classic hymn:

1. On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,
the emblem of suffering and shame;
and I love that old cross where the dearest and best
for a world of lost sinners was slain.
Refrain:
So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross,
till my trophies at last I lay down;
I will cling to the old rugged cross,
and exchange it some day for a crown.

2. O that old rugged cross, so despised by the world,
has a wondrous attraction for me;
for the dear Lamb of God left his glory above
to bear it to dark Calvary.
(Refrain)

3. In that old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine,
a wondrous beauty I see,
for ’twas on that old cross Jesus suffered and died,
to pardon and sanctify me.
(Refrain)

4. To that old rugged cross I will ever be true,
its shame and reproach gladly bear;
then he’ll call me some day to my home far away,
where his glory forever I’ll share.
(Refrain)

The “story” of this picture and its original color incarnation can be seen by clicking on the link below:

The Eternal Seductiveness of Life

Because the calendar is a landscape medium, this picture actually appears in the calendar in landscape form with not much of the alium showing but the flower. I thought I would represent it here in the pictures original portrait format.

This picture of Sara is still untitled. For the story behind this image, click on the link below:

This picture was taken on the exact same day as the daisy picture. It currently is untitled.

A Proud Assertion

“Flowers… are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the world.”

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Solace of Ordinary Humanity

Although this picture is named for the following quote from the enigmatic John Ruskin:

“Flowers seem intended for the solace of ordinary humanity.”

But the story of this flower is actually more akin to the Tennessee Williams quote:

“The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks.”

This daisy grew in a most unlikely place in my yard. It grew in a little patch of dirt between my driveway and my back porch. It sprouted through the fence and away from the evergreen bush that dominates that little patch of ground. Its existence was unlikely, but nature finds a way.

This picture was also Jen’s birthday present.

Funny Face Homage Inverse

This is actually the first picture to ever be debuted in the calendar. Every other picture that has ever been in the calendar has been published in some way shape or form before being in the calendar. Jill was the only person to ever see this picture before it was seen in the calendar.

There will be more details about this picture in a future entry when I start publishing my weekly photo projects. The most important thing to note about this picture is that it represents a traditional darkroom technique.

This is the only monthly picture in the calendar that is manipulated in Photoshop in a meaningful way. I could see how somebody could think that June is a Photoshop manipulation, but in the spirit of the way that I see things, it isn’t. But we will open up that can of worms on the morrow.