Category Archives: Fisheye

Animals, Black & White, Faust, Fisheye, Flowers, Football, Iowa State, Lensbaby, Music, Naima, Nature, Self-Portrait, Street Photography, WPC - Alternate

But You Broke Much More Than That

September 30, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

I took a ton of pictures on Saturday that are alternates for the BLACK & WHITE theme for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE. So buckle up, this is going to be a long post. Even though most of these images can be broken into two different events.

1. Trip to Jester Park.
2. Iowa State football game.

No reason to keep dinking around. Here are the images from last Saturday:

I believe this is the 1st time I’ve seen Faust since before the pandemic. That is a damn shame!

Jester Park

I didn’t tailgate for the game on Saturday. Derrick and I got to stadium in time to catch the end of the warmups. I took in a cheap point & shoot I bought at a computer mine auction several years ago. I haven’t fired pixels through it in over 4 years. I didn’t take many game pictures for a variety of reasons, but I took plenty of pictures of the things that surround the game.

I love that they still use the Twitter logo. F Elon Musk.

I think it was a pretty good to great day!

Only one more pretty big sized collection of black & white images before we return to our normal broadcast schedule.

Black & White, Christianity, Fisheye, Flowers, Naima, Nature, Railroad, Self-Portrait, Still Life, Street Photography, WPC - Alternate

But God, You Couldn’t Have Cared Less

September 26, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

I told you that BLACK & WHITE was my favorite theme and I wasn’t joking. I took a ton of BLACK & WHITE pictures for last week’s theme and every day (well almost every day) this week I’m going to share another collection of alternates. This first collection consists of the pictures that I took on Monday and Tuesday.

There is a rule in digital photography that you should never take pictures in black & white. You should take them in color and convert the images to black & white with editing software. The reason for this is because you can always take color away from a digital image, but you can’t add color back to it, if it was never there. (I mean, that is close enough to the truth. If you really wanted to you could make an attempt to add color to a black & white image, but it would probably come out looking like an outtake from THE INFENRAL CAULDRON.

Any Georges Méliès fans in the house? No? I’ll move on.

But I decided to ignore the rules and took all my pictures in “High Contrast Monochrome”. Cause you know how I feel about rules.

Rules are for fools.
Rules are for tools.
Rules are for ghouls.
Rules are for pools.

But rules for photography? Well, mostly they are guidelines that can and should be broken. From time to time.

I had big plans to get out there everyday and take plenty of beautiful, dare I say, tasty High Contrast Monochrome images. But right out of the bat, my Monday went south on me. There was a virtual mine collapse at the Computer Mine and I ended up working from 7 AM to nearly 11 PM. I only got a few pictures taken here and there while I was able to take a few breaks.

So most of the Monday images are just testing camera settings, playing with my old friend the fisheye and testing a point and shoot that I would need to use later in the week.

Here are the Monday images:

I swear that when I saw this image on the small screen I thought there was a reflection of Naima staring back at me from the lid of my grill. I mean it is an uncanny likeness.

This is actually “Rich Monochrome”. Basically a HDR black & white image. A setting, that has its uses, but I don’t love it.

My desk. Been thinking about building my own desk lately.

Test shot with the point & shoot

Tuesday I also wasn’t as active as I originally thought I might be. I actually got out of work on time, but I think Monday sucked my will to live out of me. I had a pretty lazy Tuesday. But I did get out of the house for a little bit to take Naima on a car ride and to take my neighbor’s cans to the can redemption center. I took a bit of street photography while I was out and about.

Here are Tuesday’s images:

Still so very, very, very, many black & white pictures to share with you guys!

Art, Boone FUMC, Carla, Christianity, Dad, Fisheye, Self-Portrait, Teresa, WPC - Alternate

‘Cause I Thought You’d Like Me More

December 18, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

I’m putting off Formal Portrait Sunday for at least another week. The people that were supposed to be featured today recently broke up, so I’m not sure if I should still post the pictures. I’ve decided just to think on it and we will see what happens next week. Or the week after that.

Instead, I’m going to publish a bunch of pictures from January I never published. Some are from an experiment with a fisheye lens. I’m still not particularly comfortable with my current fisheye lens. I need to really work with it more. Which means, for you, you might start seeing way more fisheye lens pictures. Get pumped.

The rest of the images are pictures that didn’t make the cut for various THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE themes. Like LOVE and TRIANGLE, for example.

I can’t believe that it is almost Christmas. I’ve done pretty much no decorating. Carla and I did the reading and lit the 4th Advent Candle in church today and it still doesn’t feel like Christmas to me. Maybe I’ll get there.

Andy, Angie, Animals, Bill, Brandon, Carla, Cathie, Dawn, Elizabeth, Fisheye, Jen, Jesse, Joe Duff, Kim, Kio, Linda, Logan, Mary, Michelle, Micky, Monica, Naima, Sabas, Sara, Sarah Toot, Shannon, Shawn Lockner, Street Photography, Suzie, Tamara, Teresa, Vest, Willy, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 377 – ANIMAL

December 5, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett

Did ANIMAL inspire a lot of people to get out there and photograph their favorite furry or feathered creatures? You will have to keep scrolling to find out.

As of 12:01 PM on Monday, November 28, this was the current list of ACTIVE streaks (ignore the numbers in parentheses):

1-Jen Ensley-Gorshe – 1 week
2-Sabas Hernandez – 1 week
3-Sarah Karber – 2 weeks
4-Jesse Howard – 2 weeks
5-Willy McAlpine – 2 weeks
6-Tamara Peterson – 4 weeks
7-Becky Parmelee – 6 weeks
8-Sara Lockner – 10 weeks
9-Suzie Brannen – 14 weeks
10-Brandon Kahler – 15 weeks
11-Linda Bennett – 18 weeks
12-Sarah Toot – 19 weeks
13-Monica Jennings – 20 weeks
14-Angie DeWaard – 23 weeks
15-Dawn Krause – 27 weeks
16-Kim Barker – 33 weeks
17-Joe Duff – 35 weeks
18-Logan Kahler – 36 weeks
19-Teresa Kahler – 45 weeks (2)
20-Carla Stensland – 45 weeks (3)
21-Michelle Haupt – 46 weeks
22-Micky Augustin – 47 weeks
23-Andy Sharp – 48 weeks
24-Bill Wentworth – 49 weeks
25-Cathie Morton – 53 weeks
26-Elizabeth Nordeen – 54 weeks
27-Shannon Bardole-Foley – 56 weeks
28-Kio Dettman – 58 weeks (3)

But you didn’t come here to listen to me talk all tommyrot about participation rates or streaks. You came to see the submissions and what streaks continued and what streaks flamed out:

Mary Green – 1 week

Mike Vest – 1 week

Jen Ensley-Gorshe – 2 weeks

Sabas Hernandez – 2 weeks

Jesse Howard – 3 weeks

Willy McAlpine – 3 weeks

Tamara Peterson – 5 weeks

Sara Lockner – 11 weeks (Assisted by Shawn Lockner)

Suzie Brannen – 15 weeks

Brandon Kahler – 16 weeks

Linda Bennett – 19 weeks

Sarah Toot – 20 weeks

Monica Jennings – 21 weeks

Angie DeWaard – 24 weeks

Dawn Krause – 28 weeks

Dawn Krause

Kim Barker – 34 weeks

Kim Barker

Joe Duff – 36 weeks

Joe Duff

Logan Kahler – 37 weeks

Logan Kahler

Teresa Kahler – 46 weeks

Teresa Kahler

Carla Stensland – 46 weeks

Michelle Haupt – 47 weeks

Micky Augustin – 48 weeks

Andy Sharp – 49 weeks

Bill Wentworth – 50 weeks

Cathie Morton – 54 weeks

Elizabeth Nordeen – 55 weeks

Shannon Bardole-Foley – 57 weeks

Kio Dettman – 59 weeks

Kio Dettman

Christopher D. Bennett – 480 weeks

29 participants! That is a great week!

Had submissions from (assumptions on my part mostly) Pennsylvania, Florida, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Texas, and St. Thomas of the Virgin Islands.

My picture was taken about 15 steps from my back door, but with this week’s theme I will have to travel farther than that.

There were no big milestones and only two streaks came to an end. Sarah Karber’s 2 week streak came to a halt. Surprising when she is a big dog lover. Becky Parmelee (another big dog lover) had her streak halt at 6 weeks. There could have been more dogs!

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:

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY! What a great theme for Year 9 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!

But what is STREET PHOTOGRAPHY? Besides consistently the least popular theme… every single year. This is the most important thing to note: it is NOT a picture of a street. STREET PHOTOGRAPHY is photography that is done in a public place. The most popular version would be candid portraits, but it doesn’t have to be a portrait. It can be anything found in public. Like a piece of public art. Anything you find in public that interests you.

And if you think you need some extra inspiration, look into the works of Vivian Maier, Henri Cartier-Besson, Saul Leiter, Robert Frank, and Garry Winogrand. Some of the greatest street photographers of all-time.

Vivian Maier’s history is particularly interesting, and worth a Google search.

While thinking about possible subject, meditate on the following quote:

Street photography is like fishing. Catching the fish is more exciting than eating it.
-Thomas Leuthard

I look forward to seeing your interpretation.

RULES

The picture has to be taken between 12:01 PM today and 11 AM next Monday. This isn’t a curate your photos project. This is a get your butt off the couch (unless you are taking your picture from the couch) and take pictures challenge.

You can send your images to either bennett@photography139.com OR you may text them to my Pixel 5.

That is all I got, so if the good Lord’s willin’ and the creek don’t rise, we will all be sharing your idea of STREET PHOTOGRAPHY in this place that learned many a lesson on the streets next Monday.

Carla, Contests, Fisheye, Greyson, Kio, Logan, Monica, Pufferbilly Days, Teresa, WPC - Reminder

Pufferbilly Day 2022 – Photo Contest

October 21, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett

This is the final collection of images from Pufferbilly Days. This collection is the behind the scenes pictures from the Photo Contest. Which for the most part went well, but there are already ideas being explored to streamline some of the process. By streamline the process, I mean find ways for me to do less work.

There is going to be a new person running Pufferbilly Days in 2023. Laura moved on to a job at the best university in all the land, so it is hard to blame her. I don’t know how that will effect that Photo Contest, but I don’t think it will much. Those might be famous last words.

I imagine many of the same people will help me again next year. But I bet there will be some new people as well. I have my eye on some of you.

I’ve kind of gotten used to using Fridays to mostly share pictures from fairs or festivals. I think next Friday I will share some pictures from a Renaissance Festival I attended back in May.

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

LINES

LINES! What a great theme for Year 9 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE?

But what is LINES photo? Lines are a very powerful compositional element. The eye will naturally follow lines through the image. This is why they use of leading LINES is a very popular tool. That would be placing your subject at the end of a line in the picture. But you don’t have to just use leading LINES. Just any picture of a LINE(S) would work. Whether they lead somewhere or nowhere. Of course there are all sorts of different types of LINES. There are LINES to the bathroom (or so I’m told, I’m a man, I’ve never experienced such a thing) or LINES at a cash register. Traffic LINES. Some of us that are a little more aged even have LINES on our face. In some ways, it is practically impossible to take an in-focus picture that doesn’t include LINES.

Happy photo harvesting!

Andy, Angie, Animals, Bill, Brandon, Carla, Cathie, Contests, Dawn, Elizabeth, Fisheye, Flowers, Formal Portrait, Greyson, Joe Duff, Kim, Kio, Logan, Macro, Mary, Michelle, Micky, Pastor Sarah, Pufferbilly Days, Sabas, Sara, Sarah Toot, Shannon, Suzie, Tamara, Teresa, Willy, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 358 – WILD

July 25, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

A reminder that this Friday is the deadline for the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest. Entries are to be submitted to the Chamber office by 5 PM.

I hope there are plenty of submissions this year! Or at the least, more than there were last year.

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Was WILD a WILDly popular theme? I guess you will have to scroll down to find out.

As of 12:01 PM on Monday, July 18, this was the current list of ACTIVE streaks (ignore the numbers in parentheses):

+ Jesse Howard – 1 week
+ Willy McAlpine – 1 week
+ Suzie Brannen – 2 weeks
+ Sabas Hernandez – 2 weeks
+ Monica Jennings – 2 weeks
+ Mike Vest – 2 weeks
+ Sara Lockner – 3 weeks
+ Jen Ensley-Gorshe – 4 weeks
+ Mary Green – 4 weeks
+ Angie DeWaard – 6 weeks
+ Dawn Krause – 9 weeks
+ Linda Bennett – 11 weeks
+ Kim Barker – 15 weeks
+ Joe Duff – 16 weeks
+ Logan Kahler – 18 weeks (2)
+ Teresa Kahler – 26 weeks (2)
+ Tamara Peterson – 26 weeks
+ Carla Stensland – 26 weeks (2)
+ Michelle Haupt – 27 weeks
+ Micky Augustin – 28 weeks
+ Andy Sharp – 29 weeks
+ Bill Wentworth – 30 weeks
+ Cathie Morton – 34 weeks
+ Elizabeth Nordeen – 35 weeks (2)
+ Shannon Bardole-Foley – 37 weeks
+ Kio Dettman – 40 weeks (3)

You might look at this list and be thinking, “Wait a second. Didn’t Carla’s streak get snapped last week?” You are experiencing the Mandela Effect.

What is the Mandela Effect?

The Mandela Effect refers to a situation in which a large mass of people believes that an event occurred when it did not.

Here is the most famous example:

The famous children’s book series the “Berenstain Bears” is not immune to the Mandela effect. Many people report remembering the name being the Berenstein Bears (spelled with an “e” instead of an “a”).

So that is what is going on here. Just the Mandel Effect.

You also might be coming down with a touch of gaslighting here too…

But you didn’t come here to listen to me talk all tommyrot about participation rates or streaks. You came to see the submissions and what streaks continued and what streaks flamed out:

Mary Green – 5 weeks

Mary Green

Michelle Haupt – 28 weeks

Sabas Hernandez – 3 weeks

Sarah Karber – 1 week

Sarah Toot – 1 week

Sarah Toot

Tamara Peterson – 27 weeks

Tamara Peterson

Angie DeWaard – 7 weeks

Bill Wentworth – 31 weeks

Kio Dettman – 41 weeks

Kio Dettman

Dawn Krause – 10 weeks

Sara Lockner – 4 weeks

Micky Augustin – 29 weeks

Micky Augustin

Christopher D. Bennett

Cathie Morton – 35 weeks

Teresa Kahler – 27 weeks

Teresa Kahler

Joe Duff – 17 weeks

Carla Stensland – 27 weeks

Willy McAlpine – 2 weeks

Brandon Kahler – 1 week

Shannon Bardole-Foley – 38 weeks

Logan Kahler – 19 weeks

Logan Kahler

Kim Barker – 16 weeks

Elizabeth Nordeen – 36 weeks

Monica Jennings – 3 weeks

Monica Jennings

Suzie Brannen – 3 weeks

Andy Sharp – 30 weeks

26 participants! A great week!

Included in that list is the first time ever submissions from Sarah Toot. In fact, it was a big week for Sara(h)s! There were 3 Sara(h) participants. Smashing the previous record held by Michaels. Congratulations to Sara(h)s everywhere!

In another abnormality, it was the second straight week where there was a submission of a Pepsi product. Proving once again that Pepsi is better than Coke (although you shouldn’t drink either cause they are both poison, he said before taking a swig from his 20 oz bottle of Pepsi). The Cola Wars are over. All hail Pepsi!

A big milestone was reached by Dawn. Her streak reached 10 weeks. Another member of the double digit club!

But it wasn’t all good times with the choice of a new generation. 4 streaks were tragically snapped. Jesse couldn’t extend his streak to two weeks. Michael Vest couldn’t join Michael Augustin on the big board. His streak snapped at two. Jen’s streak withered on the vine at 4 weeks. And worst of all, Linda’s streak crumbled at 11 weeks. If there were family streak’s they would be at 12, but there are not family streaks.

I have no doubt all four will get back on the photography horse and have great things for us again in the future.

Here are the current top streaks:

9. Teresa Kahler – 27 weeks
9. Tamara Peterson – 27 weeks
9. Carla Stensland – 27 weeks
8. Michelle Haupt – 28 weeks
7. Micky Augustin – 29 weeks
6. Andy Sharp – 30 weeks
5. Bill Wentworth – 31 weeks
4. Cathie Morton – 35 weeks
3. Elizabeth Nordeen – 36 weeks
2. Shannon Bardole-Foley – 38 weeks
1. Kio Dettman – 41 weeks

ODD CAMERA ANGLE

ODD CAMERA ANGLE! What a great theme for Year 9 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE.

But what exactly is an ODD CAMERA ANGLE photo? It is pretty simple. 99.9% of the pictures in the world are taken from the eye level of the photographer. This theme asks you to move the camera. It can be from an extremely low camera angle. Or it can be from an extremely high camera angle. Move your body and your camera to a perspective of your subject that isn’t normally seen.

While considering possible subjects and angles for your submission, meditate on the following quote:

Your problem is how you are going to spend this one odd and precious life you have been issued. Whether you’re going to spend it trying to look good and creating the illusion that you have power over people and circumstances, or whether you are going to taste it, enjoy it and find the truth about who you are.
-Ann Lamott

I look forward to seeing the interpretations.

RULES

You can send your images to either bennett@photography139.com OR you may text them to my Pixel 5.

That is all I got, so if the good Lord’s willin’ and the creek don’t rise, we will all be sharing your idea of ODD CAMERA ANGLE in this place that is my crooked look at the world next Monday.

Animals, Fisheye, Naima, WPC - Alternate

Dog Day

March 10, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

It has been too long since I’ve had a Naima post. I think there was a period during early pandemic where I was taking way too many Naima pictures. I was becoming THAT person. But then again, you can never really take too many pictures of Naima.

Here is a collection of pictures that I took that were alternates for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme ANIMAL and other were alternates for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme FOOD:

This collection of Naima photos almost completes the non portrait images from 2020. I still have a couple of flower posts in the future. Plus, I’m still on the fence about sharing my Christmas Star pictures, but those will probably be share soon as well. Then it is all 202!.

Alexis, Black & White, Fisheye, Formal Portrait

Alexis Prego Uno

January 17, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

A couple months back I met Alexis at McFarland Park to take some pictures of her shortly before she gave birth to Anela. While 2020 was a cesspool of terrible, I did add two great-nieces to my family. In Anela and Dahlia. Here is the first collection of Alexis pregnancy pictures:

As always, with my luck with portraits, the lighting was brutal, but yet I feel still like we did some good work. There is more of pregnant Alexis on the way. Kupono and Kanoa will even show up eventually.

Fisheye, Flowers, Mom, Nature, Road Trip, Teresa, Vacation, WPC - Reminder

Dubuque Monument

January 1, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

I’m not the type of person that makes New Year’s Resolutions. So I don’t have any for you. Originally I was going to include a bunch of year in review stuff here. However, we are closing in on Post #4000 pretty soon, so I don’t see a need to do that now and then do it again in a few more weeks. So I’ll just say, Happy New Years! If you are the sort that celebrated.

Back on Labor Day, I took a road trip to Mines of Spain with my Mom and Teresa. I’ve already published all the pictures from Horseshoe Bluff. Now I want to post the pictures from the Julien Dubuque Monument.

Mines of Spain is definitely one of the prettiest parks I’ve ever visited.

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

TRANSPORTATION

A TRANSPORTATION image is any picture where the subject is something that is used in transporting something or somebody somewhere.

Happy photo harvesting!

Andy, Becky, Elizabeth, Fisheye, Joe Duff, Kio, Micky, Night, Ruins, Shannon, Tamara, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 271 – NIGHT

November 23, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

Over the weekend I finalized the list for the next 52 themes. I will release the new list sometime in early December with a small explanation of how I arrived at the new list. Thanks again to Andy for being the only person to suggest theme ideas. A few of them were incorporated into the new set of themes. Until that day, continue to enjoy the Hall of Fame Theme List.

This was a theme I was worried about breaking the double digit streak, but I had double digit submissions before I even woke up on Monday morning! 60 straight weeks!! WooHoo!

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

Andy Sharp

Elizabeth Nordeen

Micky Augustin

Kio Dettman

Shannon Bardole-Foley

Kio Dettman

Tamara Peterson

Joe Duff

Christopher D. Bennett

Becky Parmelee

Cathie Raley

RUINS

RUINS! What a great theme! But what is a RUINS picture? A RUINS picture is simply a picture of something that is falling apart. Something that has been abandoned. Something that has seen better days.

Here is a look back at all the times in the past RUINS has been a WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme:

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 30 – RUINS

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 103 – RUINS

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 121 – RUINS

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 177 – RUINS

WPC – WEEK 211 – RUINS

I look forward to seeing your new 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 ruined Monday!