Category Archives: Iowa State

Andy, Animals, Art, Black & White, Derrick, Elainie, Flowers, Iowa State, Macro, Mission Trip, Naima, Photoshop, Politics, Sabas, Saydie, Shannon, Youth Group

#63

May 28, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

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.

+++++++

Thought I would reveal the latest collection of images that have been added to the CANVAS WALL PROJECT.

12X16

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.

Art, Iowa State, Road Trip, Town Sign Project, WPC - Reminder

Pandemic Birthday

May 22, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 5 Comments

Let me start by saying thanks to everybody that wished me a happy birthday on Monday via text or phone call or Instagram messenger or card in the mail or via haircut or Teams. I’m sure some people even wished me a happy birthday on Facebook. I guess I’ll find out if I ever go on Facebook again.

Even thanks to the people who wished me Happy birthday on the wrong day.

It was a unique birthday. I know that numerous people have celebrated a pandemic birthday this year and many of you will celebrate one in the future. Mine wasn’t necessarily all that bad.

To start with, I took my birthday off. I know I couldn’t do all that much, but I just didn’t want to sit in my office all day. Staring at the walls. The same 4 walls.

I got lucky that on Sunday the new SSD arrived for my work from home computer. I was able to upgrade my work from home computer with the SSD, plus more RAM, and a better processor. I was able to get that work done on Sunday, so I didn’t even step foot in my office all day on Monday.

I slept all the way until 7:30. I got up and ate a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios and watched THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA on Amazon Prime. It wasn’t exactly the movie that I was expecting. It had a weird ending.

Then I took Naima for a car ride. We stopped at the Jay Carlson Wildlife Area and the Harrier Marsh. She got a good run in at both locations.

Then I went home and had a quick lunch. I had decided to go for a short road trip. I knew I couldn’t travel very far, but I wouldn’t to do something I would enjoy. I decided to make a trip to Rolfe, Iowa to see the greatest piece of art ever constructed my the hands of man.

I took several pictures, have a look:

Since I was on kind of a time crunch, I didn’t harvest many signs for THE TOWN SIGN PROJECT, but I did get three bagged:

Bradgate

Callender

Gowrie

When I got back home, I loaded Naima up in the car again and we went over to my Mom’s for my birthday dinner. We had homemade pizza made with the “family sauce recipe”. It doesn’t really belong to the family, but came from a family friend.

On the pizza was sausage, mushrooms, onions, green peppers, and sauerkraut. Delicious!

My Mom also made me a birthday cake. My favorite kind of cake, Mayonnaise Cake! Delicious!

After dinner, we watched the remake of OVERBOARD. I’m not really quite sure how that happened, but maybe I was feeling some 80s nostalgia. Actually, I know I’ve been feeling some 80s nostalgia lately. I recently watched the entire series TEEN WOLF. Entirely based on my fondness for the original TEEN WOLF and my fascination with the absurdity of TEEN WOLF TOO.

After the movie I went back home and finished my day off responding to some text messages before calling it a night.

Pandemic birthday could have been worse, and parts of it were pretty great!

+++++++

This is your reminder that this week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is SELF-PORTRAIT:

SELF-PORTRAIT

A SELF-PORTRAIT image is simply a picture of yourself. Or a picture of somebody taking a picture of themselves.

Don’t forget that Monday is Memorial Day. While the banks take holidays, Photography 139 never takes a day off. The grind is real! Plan on getting your submissions in accordingly.

Happy photo harvesting!

9 Emotions Project, Alexis, Andy, Baby Got Rack, Bethany, Bill, Black & White, Blogging, Boone County Fair, Boone FUMC, Candid Portrait, Dory, Elainie, Formal Portrait, Iowa State, Jesse, Johnathan, Jorge, Kalista, Kelly, Mission Trip, Naima, Railroad, Road Trip, Saydie, Scottie D., Self-Portrait, Self-Portrait Project, State Fair, Taylan, Willy, Youth Group

An Artist’s Notebook Post #3751

May 19, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

We have hit another milestone in the history of “An Artist’s Notebook”. Post #3751. I would normally make these statistical look back at the past type posts on even numbers, but I felt you guys were probably chomping at the bit to see the entries for RULE OF THIRDS.

This blog/online journal burst onto the world on August 9, 2006. Nearly 14 years later, it is somehow still around. That is success of some kind. At least it is perseverance.

As you know, I like meaningless statistics. That is what these posts are usually about. That and to take stock as to how I’m doing with my original mission to:

#1. Write in it.
#2. To be truthful as possible towards my true thoughts and feelings.
#3. Produce something that makes me worthy of having a pretentious sounding journal title like: “An Artist’s Notebook”.

I’m going to say that I continue to manage all 3. You probably wouldn’t know if I was being honest with you on my thoughts and feelings anyways. You’ll just have to take my work for it.

The last time we looked at these stats in Post #3500 on October 4, 2019 these were the 10 most popular categories on “An Artist’s Notebook”:

10. Photography – 311 Posts
9. Teresa – 312 Posts
8. Carla – 314 Posts
7. Shannon -351 Posts
6. Black & White – 390 Posts
5. Weekly Photo Challenge – 394 Posts
4. Jesse – 404 Posts
3. Animals – 477 Posts
2. Portrait – 516 Posts
1. Flowers – 537 Posts

Here are the current “standings”:

#10 Miller Triplet 1st Birthday Party – 13751 Views

#9 Family Happenings – 14222 Views

#8 Iowa State Cyclones Football – 2019 – 15711 Views

#7Naima– 16108 Views

#6 Taylan Howard -2020– 21320 Views

#5 Autumn Sharp – 2020– 21852 Views

#4 Weekly Photo Challenge – Year 6– 29218 Views

#3 Selfie Project – 2019 – 40726 Views

#2 9 Emotions Project – 43867 Views

#1 Weekly Photo Challenge – Year 7 – 48433 Views

These are the 10 Most Popular Images (by Views):

10. 973 Views

9. 1056 Views

8. 1063 Views

7.1082 Views

6. 1116 Views

5. 1141 Views

4. 1635 Views

3. 1261 Views

1283 Views

1. 2283 Views

I’m surprised that THE 9 EMOTIONS PROJECT is still so popular, since I haven’t touched it in over a year. But I do hope to get back to it. In fact, I have purchased a few things to make it possible to get back to THE 9 EMOTIONS PROJECT while safely physically distancing. So if you are interesting in being a victim… err… a subject. You know where to find me.

Derrick, Football, Iowa State, Jen

2009-11-14

May 16, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

The pictures in the folder 2009-11-14 are from the last home Iowa State football game from 2009. It was a victory over Colorado that made the Cyclones bowl eligible.

It was shocking that Iowa State had a successful season that year because it was Paul Rhoads’ first season and the two years under Gene Chizik were an unmitigated disaster. At least that was the perception at the time.

I don’t want to say that I think Chizik was a good coach, but in retrospect, he was upgrading the talent pool at Iowa State. He didn’t stick around to benefit from the upgraded talent. Rhoads did benefit, but he wasn’t a very good recruiter and his tenure eventually ended somewhat chaotically.

It was a good first season. They would go on to beat a mid-major team, the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the Insight Bowl.

Colorado shortly left the Big 12 shortly thereafter in what would turn out to be a big mistake for them. I don’t miss Colorado in the Big 12 that much, but I would welcome them back.

I miss Nebraska the most. Missouri would be second. Colorado third. Texas A&M not all. Good riddance to what is more of a cult than a school. The SEC is more than welcome to that freakshow.

I do want to make it clear. I do not support expansion of the Big 12. 10 is the perfect number for a conference. You play everybody in football and everybody in basketball twice. However, if Nebraska or Colorado wanted to come crawling back I would take them back. Then promptly kick out Baylor. Then either TCU or West Virginia.

West Virginia would be better served being in a conference based in the east. But I also hate being in a conference with private schools. Mostly because they are not subject to the same open records laws that public schools are. That is how Baylor got away with massive cover-ups of their football team’s scores of sexual assaults.

That is also why whenever somebody brings up BYU joining the Big 12, it is a very hard “NO!” from this guy.

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:

Last 2 Home Games

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve a family photo shoot and joke glasse.

Animals, Becky, Football, Iowa State

2009-11-09

May 9, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

The pictures in the folder called 2009-11-09 are from the Iowa State-Oklahoma State football game and pictures of Becky with her rabbit and pooch.

I can’t remember who won the Iowa State-Oklahoma State game, but everybody wins when you get a bunny together with a great dane.

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve more Iowa State football!

Andy, Black & White, Flowers, Iowa State, Macro, Music, Nature, Work, WPC - Alternate

You Know, I Hurt Myself As Well

May 8, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

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!

+++++++

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!

+++++++

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.

Aaron, Andy, Becky, Carla, Cathie, Elizabeth, Evie, Iowa State, Jen, Layla, Linda, Michelle, Micky, Monica, Nature, Shannon, Tamara, Teresa, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 242 – TREE

May 4, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

31 straight weeks of double digit submissions!! The third straight week that I didn’t send any reminder text messages this morning and still made double digits like it ain’t no thing, but a chicken wing on a string.

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

Monica Henning

Teresa Kahler

Elizabeth Nordeen

Andy Sharp

Elizabeth Nordeen

Becky Parmelee

Aaron Barnett

Carla Stensland

Christopher D. Bennett

Michelle Haupt

Tamara Peterson

Aaron Barnett

Shannon Bardole-Foley

Layla Gorshe

Jen Ensley-Gorshe

Evie Gorshe

Cathie Raley

Linda Bennett

Micky Augustin

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:

EMOTIONS

EMOTIONS! What a great theme! But what is an EMOTIONS photo? An EMOTIONS photo is any photo that shows somebody or something expressing an EMOTION(S). Or it could even be anything that triggers an EMOTION(S) in you. I only know of 9 emotions, and they are as follows:

1. Joy
2. Sadness
3. Anger
4. Amusement
5. Fear
6. Jealousy
7. Surprise
8. Sympathy
9. Boredom

But, I’m sure you can make up some other imaginary EMOTIONS if you want.

As always, I look forward to seeing your interpretations!

+++++++

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.

+++++++

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 emotional Monday!

Animals, Baby Got Rack, Black & White, Drone, Formal Portrait, Iowa State, Jesse, Kalista, Kelly, Nature, Nora, Photo Journal, Pufferbilly Days, Saydie, Scottie D., Self-Portrait, State Fair, Taylan

The 2019 Howards – Subset Dos

April 30, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

One of the products of all this home times is that I have started up on THE CANVAS WALL PROJECT again. What started as the accent wall in my living room and then turned into the Friend Wall and then became the 9 Emotions Project wall, was turned into the Canvas Wall about 2 years ago. The ultimate goal is to cover at least 95% of the wall with canvas photos.

I recently added 7 more canvases to the wall. These are all smaller canvases that are meant to fill around the doorway that leads to my hallway.

Here are the 7 canvases that have recently been added:

The pictures that have been selected for THE CANVAS WALL PROJECT are meant to be a combination of every day life pictures and my more artistic pictures.

I’m getting pretty close to the bottom of the wall now. The next collection of pictured added to the wall are definitely obstructed, but that is okay. It matter less that they can be seen, and more that they are there.

+++++++

Time to reveal a second collection pictures from the 2019 Howard Family Photo Shoot:

Still plenty more Howards to go!

Andree, Candid Portrait, Football, Iowa State, Jesse, Jorge, Road Trip, Self-Portrait, Street Photography, Travel

Camping World Bowl Road Trip Day 3 – The Game

April 29, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

Day 3 was the only day we spent entirely in Orlando. It was one full day too many. Orlando is flat out one of the worst cities I’ve ever visited. It is dirty. It is poorly laid out. There is no culture. There is no music. There is no historical significance. There are no beaches. There aren’t any parks. There isn’t much to do.

I would rank Orlando just above Omaha for worst cities I’ve ever visited. Frankly, if I never go back to Orlando again, that is just fine.

The Camping World Bowl Stadium is in the worst part of Orlando. Most of the businesses that surround it are liquor stores or bail bonds. There is also a high school.

There is hardly any parking around it. What is there is poorly organized.

The stadium itself is okay. It isn’t a festering dump that ought to be burned down like where Kansas plays. However it isn’t all that nice of a stadium either.

There was a great fear that we were going to be rained on all game. That didn’t happen. It rained for a little bit. But we thought we had won the jackpot because we were sitting under the ledge of the upper deck, so we were protected from the rain.

However, we actually lost that hand. We sat under a pipe that leaked on us the entire game. So instead of being protected from a rain that barely showed up. We were the only wet people in the stadium. It is a shame we weren’t on the Notre Dame side of the stadium. It was pretty much empty. We could have sat anywhere we wanted. Instead, we sat there getting dripped on.

Here are some pictures from the morning:

#wafflelife

I ate walnuts in tribute to my Grandpa Paris, the man that introduced me to Iowa State football.

Lagoon behind our hotel.

Yeah, they have these dicks in Florida too.

I think this statue is a tribute to pedophiles that also play football.

We met up with Dre and his bro before the game.

View from backside of the stadium.

The game didn’t go the way we wanted. Iowa State finished the season decimated by injuries and it showed when they played one of the best teams in the country.

We left the stadium wet and down, but ready to see if this awful city called Orlando had anything to offer.

Animals, Black & White, Iowa State

Elaine, the Lily Maid of Astolat,

April 23, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

Here is the rest of the pictures I took hanging out on the most beautiful campus in the world with with a couple swans as my only company.

I haven’t been to Ames since I started working from home. One of the things I look forward to is visiting the beautiful Iowa State campus in the future.