I wasn’t able to make it up to Pella to deal with the very “delightful” Pellians this year because of the virus, but I did get a few chances to take tulip pictures here and there. But mostly the here and there was my Mom’s flowerbeds.
Here are some tulip pictures:
There are more tulip photos out there. Been taking lots and lots of flower pictures lately as I have been stuck by myself, not going anywhere mostly these days.
Today is Jorge’s birthday! Happy birthday Jorge!
I hope your birthday is as wonderful as you hoped it would be!
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Here is a quick update on Naima. Her surgery went well. The mass they removed from under her shoulder was even bigger than expected, but Dr. Stephanie said that everything went well. They don’t think it is cancerous, but they sent it away to get tested anyways.
She was pretty sore.
Naima napped mostly when she got home. But then around 8 PM, the doorbell rang. My neighbor Stan had stopped by to check on Naima. Stan is the guy in the picture with Naima from my submission for FRIENDS for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE. She ran (as much as she could) out the front door to greet him and readily chomped down the snacks he had brought for her.
Then Naima refused to back inside the house. She begged for a car ride. She stood by her car door (the back driver’s side door) and refused to budge. This is the only door she will get in. So I opened the door and I helped her into the car.
We made a quick trip down to my Mom’s house. She is used to going down there several times a week. She went in and saw my Mom, Teresa, and Mocha. She drank all of Mocha’s water. Stood around for a bit. Then she was ready to go.
Naima will only go out the front door at my Mom’s house. So we went out the front door. I helped her down the steps. On her way to the car she sniffed out a ground squirrel and chased it up a rain spout.
For a minute or so she danced around the rain spout. Forgetting that she was sore and drugged up. Finally I had to pull her away, otherwise she surely would have knocked the rain spout off the house.
I brought her back home and she followed me around the yard as I watered the flowers. Then she came in and begged to go on a walk. I had to break her heart on this one. Maybe Thursday night she will be ready for a short walk. Maybe Friday night. We’ll see.
After that, she laid down and took it easy the rest of the night.
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Back in April I took a few pictures of my Mom’s daffodils. My daffodils didn’t bloom this year, but that is okay. Daffodils are not my favorite, but they are okay.
A long time ago, I decided to name pictures of certain flowers all the same name. Daffodils were going to be “Before the Swallow Dares”. I think I’m going to get back to that.
A couple weeks back, I spent several hours, off an on in my Grandma’s garage going through things that the family was getting rid of. One of the fortunate things about Grandma’s house is that it is staying in the family. Therefore, this isn’t quite the rush to get rid of all of Grandma’s stuff, and unlike the minimalist that is me, Grandma was a hoarder. Not ready to be on the television show level hoarder, but a child of the depression level hoarder.
My Aunt Sheri and her husband Terry had been going through some of the things she accumulated in over 90 years of living and put some of it in her garage for other people to rummage through before it was donated to the DAV.
I didn’t claim a ton of things, but I did get a few items. A couple of squirrel statues for the yard. A dog sculpture. A few glass jugs. But perhaps the most important thing that ended up in my possession was Grandpa’s WWII foot locker.
I don’t have any birthright claim on it, but both my Uncle Butch and Uncle Gary didn’t want it. So it is currently in my possession. Holding up a cherub lamp in the living room that I also gave a new home to.
I don’t plan on being the permanent home for the footlocker. I do have a plan for it, but it will call my living room home for a bit of time any ways.
I don’t have any pictures of these new possessions, but I did meander around Grandma’s yard for a bit while Teresa and Mom were looking around the garage. While I was doing that I took some pictures of some of Grandma’s beautiful flowers. Peonies, daisies, asters, petunias, lupines, and even wretched irises.
I’m sure I’ll be over there again to photograph some more of her flowers soon.
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
12X16
12X16
12X16
12X16
12X8
12X8
12X8
12X8
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.
Yesterday there was a glitch with the program that sends out post notifications. Therefore, the emails got sent out like 8 hours after the post was actually posted. Hopefully I have fixed that problem, but won’t find out until this publishes!
I apologize for today’s subject. It is one of the most despicable organisms on the planet. It makes me sick every time I see one in my yard. But they are fine in your yard. As long as your yard isn’t next to my yard.
I’ve taken lots of pictures of these vile things in the last few weeks, so expect more to wind their way through the interwebs!
There were only a couple of pictures in the folder 2009-11-19, so I decided to also post some pictures from the folder 2009-11-21.
The picture from the first album is of Becca and her beau at the time. There is one picture of a Window Project I made for Salon 908. I always meant to make a companion piece to go with it, but never did. amazingly, that window still hangs in Salon 908. I am amazed that is hasn’t fallen apart yet. I really didn’t know what I was doing when I made it.
The majority of the pictures in the second folder are from a photo shoot I did with Cousin Amy and her son Sam. That was fun photo shoot!
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:
Next Saturday’s trip down memory lane will involve Kansas City.
33 straight weeks of double digit submissions! There won’t be an easier theme than RULE OF THIRDS, so I’m not surprised!
But you didn’t come here to listen to me talk all tommyrot about participation rates. You came to see the submissions!
Teresa Kahler
Kim Barker
Elizabeth Nordeen
Elizabeth Nordeen
Tamara Peterson
Becky Parmelee
Micky Augustin
Monica Henning
Jen Ensley-Gorshe
Jen Ensley-Gorshe
Carla Stensland
Carla Stensland
Carla Stensland
Carla Stensland
Michelle Haupt
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:
SELF-PORTRAIT! What a great theme! A SELF-PORTRAIT is simply when the photographer is taking a picture of themselves!
I can’t wait to see 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
Elainie Hernandez is the latest person to show taste, class, and sophistication by signing for a Photography 139 email subscription. She has extended the geographic reach of the Photography 139 empire all the way to San Diego! I was hoping to visit her and Sabas this summer, but I guess we’ll have to wait to see how this pandemic plays out. I’m guessing it just won’t happen. But welcome aboard Elainie!
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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 self involved Monday!
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:
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.
I need to start this post buy wishing all mothers out there a very happy Mother’s Day. Take this picture of a Mother’s Day Peony as my way of saying thanks for all that you mothers do!
My Mom’s Mother Day wasn’t typical. Teresa bought some Pizza Ranch chicken and we hung out and watched Netflix. She went out to Carla’s for a short grill-out in the evening. But I’m sure she still considered a successful Mother’s Day.
Hope all you mothers had a successful Mother’s Day too!
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Today is Becca’s birthday. Happy birthday Becca!
I hope it was a truly magical birthday!
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Also, happy birthday to Michelle!
I hope your birthday was as amazing as you wanted it to be!
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Finally, it is yet another Senior Sunday and it is once again Taylan’s turn in the rotation. Here are more pictures of Taylan:
Still a ton more Taylan photos still to come!
35 days working from home in the book. I did discover a new positive about working from home this week. I had to go into the physical computer mine twice this week because Apple products suck. They really do. I have nothing positive to say about them.
But that isn’t the positive. The positive I figured out two positives for working from home on my trip to the mine.
One, I can control the lights in my office. I usually just daylight that streams in from my south facing office windows is enough. But on cloudy days I will sometimes run a lamp. If I need more light for some reason I can turn on the overhead lamp.
The mine has the soul crushing fluorescent lighting that is always on. I miss many things about the mine, but the lighting isn’t one of them.
The other positive, my own toilet paper. Seems like a minor thing, but the toilet paper at the mine leaves a lot to be desired. A lot!
My home listening habits were the same. Life 107.1 from 7-9. Then The Master Playlist until 2 PM roughly. This week I made it all the way to track number 1456, “Don’t Speak” by No Doubt.
A decent pandemic song:
“You and me, we used to be together
Every day together, always
I really feel that I’m losin’ my best friend
I can’t believe this could be the end”
I did delete a couple songs from the Master Playlist for sound quality reasons:
#1337 – “You” by Candlebox
#1299 – “Slow Ride” by Foghat
Pretty sure I will finish off the Master Playlist next week. At that time, it will be time, to start adding to it. That should be fun!
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Here is a reminder that the Sharp family is collecting empty laundry detergent jugs to fill with homemade laundry detergent to donate to local pantries. They have setup a collection can at the end of their driveway for you to leave your empty jugs.
They live at the very end of Division Street. Keep going south on Division until you can’t go any farther. It is easy and contact free. I dropped off a couple of jugs last night:
If you can’t find it, drop your jugs off to me and I’ll get them there.
Here are a few pictures of their soap operation that Andy has sent me:
It is a great ministry and I hope some of you can help them out!
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Last Saturday I went over to Iowa State to walk the campus with Teresa. While I was there I took a few TREE pictures that didn’t quite make the cut for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE on Monday. Here are a few of them:
Iowa State University, still world’s reigning champ for most beautiful campus!
The cherry blossom pictures are from my backyard though.
