Back in July we had a brief bit of rain. The resulting wetness in my yard gave me a chance to take some macro raindrop images.
I enjoy them, hopefully you will too.
As we sit and shiver through the 45th snow “storm” of the year today, I hope these flowers warm some people up. It is only about 4 weeks from spring and with it flowers and green grass and cherries and rhubarb and raspberries and fire pit Friday Night Supper Clubs and maybe, I’ll actually get to take the drone out for a spin!
There is quite the collection of images in the folder called 10-13-08. I can’t possibly include all of them in this here entry, so I’ll just have to pick out a few that I like the most.
The pictures range from Gyro Day at the Computer Mine to the Ames Party Bus in action to a road trip to Kalona with Mom, Teresa, and Jay.
Have a looksie:
While I’m not 100% sure, I believe that is the last of my Ames Party Bus pictures. Which means I should explain why you haven’t seen Becky driving around the Ames Party Bus in 10 years.
I might not be getting the details 100% correct, but the spirit of what I’m writing is dead on.
Shortly after Becky finished restored the Ames Party Bus and began putting out an APB on fun, Big Party Bus felt threatened. In fact they were scared. Petrified.
Big Party Bus checked their address book to look up which state representatives they had in their back pockets. Then they went to these bought politicians and pulled their chains.
The bought politicians reacted by passing a law that made party buses carry an exorbitant amount of insurance. Like an incredible amount of insurance. Insurance that was price-prohibitive.
This effectively shutdown the small-time party bus. Becky was out of business, shortly after the party had begun. Rich people win again.
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 week’s walk down memory lane will involve an Iowa State football match with the Bugeaters of Nebraska.
Flowers. A staple of “An Artist’s Notebook”.
I took these pictures back in July. I found them in my Mom’s yard
Have a look:
I figured that since it is going to warm up above negative temperatures soon, flowers would be a good subject for today.
I slept like a baby. Like an angel. Like a baby angel. I woke up in the morning ready to take on the world.
After I got out of the shower I decided to walk the Motel 6 grounds to check out the lay of the land. I carried the trusty Alpha 77ii with me as I was deleting images because I didn’t want to run out of images on the memory card because we were going 2 places I planned to photograph.
While I was deleting pictures a paranoid Motel 6 employee approached me and wanted to know what I was photographing. I explained nothing, I was just deleting images. He seemed to be satisfied with this answer. But he also seemed to shadow me for several minutes. Not very trusting these Waco types.
I don’t watch a ton of home improvement shows, but my two favorites are REHAB ADDICT and FIXER UPPER. While Chip and Joanna Gaines aren’t making the show now, they have created a tourist trap where people can fork over their hard earned coin for overpriced mugs, shirts, and bags.
Jesse and I left the hotel and headed to this oasis in Waco known as Magnolia.
Here are a few images:
The fact that the Alabama Sweet Tea food trailer wasn’t open was a minor tragedy. True, I still had a couple bottles of Gold Peak Extra Sweet Tea in the cooler in the car, but I strongly wanted to evaluate this Alabama Sweet Tea to see how it stacked up against my own brew, Thick Soul Sweet Tea.
The lack of Alabama Sweet Tea wasn’t going to ruin the trip, but it certainly left a hole in the trip that didn’t seem could be filled.
My recommendation if you go to Magnolia is to skip the bakery. There is a trailer that sells the same food as the bakery, with a considerably shorter line.
Magnolia was cool and all, but it is still mostly just a store. As a minimalist, there is only so much unabashed commerce I can stand.
That being said, if you are in Waco I would recommend stopping.
As for the bakery, I had the Silo Cookie and the Chocolate Chip Cookie. They were both tasty, but the Chocolate Chip Cookie has it all over the Silo Cookie. They also sold cupcakes, but I didn’t purchase any, as I am not a big fan of cupcakes.
We loaded up the car and I punched the address of the Branch Davidians Compound into the GPS. I had absolutely no clue what we would find what we would find when we got to the place where 76 people died in the Waco Siege.
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This is your reminder that this week’s WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is SURPRISE!
A SURPRISE photo is a photo of anything that deals with a SURPRISE. From reactions to results to planning.
Happy photo harvesting!
There are two types of pictures in the folder called 10-01-08. The first types are pictures taken during the restoration process of the Ames Party Bus. The second type is everybody’s favorite: flowers!
Have a looksie!
ON a future blog I will rehash the rise and ultimate demise of the Ames Party Bus, but this isn’t that post.
By adding these pictures to the Photography 139 Gallery, I was able to restore the following historic “An Artist’s Notebook” blogs to their original glory:
Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve Iowa State football.
Hitting the 2018 backlog.
All of the pictures in this post were taken on June 26 in my yard.
Except for the clematis. The clematis actually grows on the back fence of Stan and Noreen’s yard. Noreen is brilliant at growing clematis. A flower that is not easy to grow. So you have to respect that.
I’m sure there plenty more pictures from my backyard in the backlog.
The pictures in the folder 09-28-08 are from the Des Moines Regatta.
Back in the day, Jen used to row and her team competed in the Des Moines Regatta. A rowing event on the Des Moines River that ends in Prospect Park.
On that day Derrick (duh), Sara, Jay, and I loaded into a convertible and went down to watch her.
I took a few pictures of the event.
Here are some of those pictures:
Looking at these pictures I’m reminded that I used to have friends that were foolish enough to smoke. I don’t know that I have any friends that smoke any longer.
I have friends that vape, which is kind of a trade-off. They don’t smell as bad as smokers smell, but they also constantly talk about vaping. Which is almost more annoying.
This day is also the day that will live in infamy as the Sara Film Camera Incident.
I handed Sara a film camera to hold onto while I prowled around the regatta grounds. When I came back, she told me that the camera had made a funny noise and wouldn’t take pictures.
She thought the camera was a digital camera and had shot completely through an entire role of film.
Ahhhh… memories!
By adding these images 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 walk down memory lane will involve senior pictures for Brandon.
Yes Virginia, there was a Photography 139 Calendar this year. However, I didn’t sell them this year. I just made a small run and gave them out to a very few small group of select people.
Here are the pictures from the 2019 Photography 139 Calendar:
The front cover is a picture of William McAlpine peering through the hole in a brick. It was taken in the backyard of the Photography 139 Studio. It was taken for the FRAMED theme of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE.
This photo was entered into the 2018 Iowa State Fair Photography Salon. It was accepted for display.
Willy is the first person to appear in a Photography 139 Calendar since the 2012 Calendar featured a final rendition of THE 9 EMOTIONS PROJECT that included images of AmyJunck-Wallendal, William McAlpine, Derrick Gorshe, Shannon Bardole, Jesse Howard, Jennifer Gorshe, Sara Junck, Jill Gorshe, and Jay Janson.
This image was entered in the 2018 Iowa State Fair Photography Salon. It was selected for display.
Unfortunately, the hibiscus did not survive the winter and did not return to the Photography 139 Flower Garden in 2018.
While this macro photo might appear to be one image, it is actually the product of a technique called focus stacking. This image is actually 7 images with different focus ranges stacked one on top of the other.
This photo was nominated for the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest, but it lost the popular vote and was not entered.
This image was taken for THE PHOTO JOURNAL PROJECT. The theme of the image was to go some place “touristy” and take a “non-touristy” picture.
The picture of Mary holding a crucified Jesus was selected for April to coincide with the celebration of Easter.
This image was entered in the Photoshop category of the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest. It won 1st Place.
I took this photo on a trip there with Bethany, Dae Hee, and Nora.
The image is HDR toned and is used as the base image for a Small World image.
The image was originally taken in color and was transformed into black and white in post production.
This macro image was taken while experimenting with a new set of extension tubes.
This image was nominated for the flower category for the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest, but was not entered.
The image was taken when I was able to sneak away during a break in the action of Baby Got Rack’s competitive barbecue competition.
The image was HDR toned in post-production.
This image was voted to be entered in the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest in the Nature Category.
It was nominated for the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest in the Nature Category, but it was not entered.
The image was color processed through the Color Efex Pro 4 plugin during post production.
The image was nominated for the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest in the Hidden Treasures of Boone County category, but was not entered.
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There are a few calendars to handout, but for the most part delivery has finished. Almost on time this year.
Happy New Year to people who celebrate such things.
I like to look at some meaningless statistics every 250 posts and I also look at fairly meaningless year end statistics.
Just so happens that I get to combine them today!!
Here is both a year in review and a celebration that I have made it to 3252 blog posts. I was on the Alamo Bowl Road Trip visiting submarines, cults, and reality television stars when post #3250 came around, so I hope you can excuse the tardiness.
The first thing I want to look at are the most popular CATEGORIES in the history of “An Artist’s Notebook”.
Top 10 Journal Entry Categories
1. Portrait – 527
2. Weekly Photo Challenge – 504
3. Flowers – 497
4. Animals – 405
5. Jesse – 361
6. Photography – 355
7. Shannon – 320
8. Teresa – 296
9. Black & White – 291
10. Carla – 280
Top 10 People Categories
1. Jesse – 361
2. Shannon – 320
3. Teresa – 296
4. Carla – 280
5. Jay – 279
6. Mom – 277
7. Derrick – 256
8. Willy – 227
9. Vest – 221
10. Jen – 209
Top 10 Not-People Categories
1. Portrait – 527
2. Weekly Photo Challenge – 504
3. Flowers – 497
4. Animals – 405
5. Photography – 355
6. Black & White – 291
7. Road Trip – 262
8. Personal Photo Project – 261
9. Life – 234
10. Nature – 215
“Photography” and “Life” are general categories that I have been working on eliminating as I go back and restore historical “An Artist’s Notebook” entries to their original glory. Hopefully they will have both dropped off the Top 10 Lists by journal entry #3500.
If you are wondering how to become a Top 10 person on this list. The easiest way is to submit to the Weekly Photo Challenge. After that, the best way is to volunteer to model and photo assist for photography projects. Then after that, I would suggest going on road trips with me or attending Iowa State athletic events with me or going on road trips to Iowa State athletic events with me.
The people that are right outside of the Top 10 are:: Sara, Kim, Dawn, Becky, and Nader.
If you are looking for a goal for 2019, you could do worse than trying to crack the Photography 139 Top Ten People Category List. You obviously could do way, way, way, way, way, way, way better too.
Now we will turn out eye towards 2018.
Top 10 Most Popular Photography 139 Galleries of 2018 by Views
1. 9 EMOTIONS PROJECT – 48,722
2. WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE YEAR 5 – 37,614
3. WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE YEAR 5 – ALTERNATES – 33,622
4. 2008 – JANUARY – JUNE – 26,032
5. SELFIE PROJECT – 2017 – 23,141
6. HOUSTON MISSION TRIP – 2018 – 22,046
7. SOUTH DAKOTA TRIP – 2017 – 21,868
8. BOONE COUNTY FAIR CONTEST NOMINEES – 2018 – 17,211
9. SAYDIE HOWARD – CLASS OF 2017 – 14,808
10. IOWA STATE CYCLONES FOOTBALL – 2018
The 10 Most Popular Photography 139 Images by Views
2. 2386
3. 2327
4. 1958
5. 1621
6. 1456
7. 1445
8. 1321
9. 1293
10. 1241
On the Instagram, these were my 9 Most Popular Photos based on Likes:
My theme for my 2018 Instagram posts was Black & White. My theme for 2019 will be HDR Toning. Also, I will be bringing back THE SELFIE PROJECT to Instagram in 2019.
You can follow me on Instagram here:
I entered 3 photo contests with the following results:
Purple Ribbon – Boone County Fair
Blue Ribbon – Boone County Fair
Blue Ribbon – Boone County Fair
Blue Ribbon – Boone County Fair
Selected for Display – Iowa State Fair
Not Selected for Display – Iowa State Fair
Selected for Display – Iowa State Fair
Not Selected for Display – Iowa State Fair
1st Place Photoshop – Pufferbilly Days
1st Place Photojournalism – Pufferbilly Days
Pufferbilly Days
3rd Place Hidden Treasures of Boone County – Pufferbilly Days
Pufferbilly Days
Pufferbilly Days
Last note:
My goal for 2019 is the same as it was in 2018:
I’m gonna step my game up and get what is coming to me.
Good luck in 2019 everybody!
The images in the folder 09-21-08 run the gamut.
There are pictures from Steve’s garden, pictures of my Aunt Linda, pictures of Brandon from his Senior Pictures Photo Shoot, and a picture of the table that became my kitchen table, eventually.
The group pictures are from a Majors Family Reunion. Those don’t happen any longer. Although I can’t say that I particularly enjoyed going to them, I can say that I am kind of sad that they are gone. I guess I am part of the problem.
By adding these images to the Photography 139 Gallery, I was able to add the following historic “An Artist’s Notebook” entries to their original glory:
Next weekends walk down memory lane will involve Little White Lye Soap and it will also involve Alexis.
