Story County Philanthropy Day Winners

Once again, I was contracted to do the photography for Story County Philanthropy Day. This process always begins with taking photos of the recipients for the program.

These are those pictures:



Frankee Oleson – Awards Presenter


Dr. Jay Brown – Outstanding Individual Volunteer Fundraiser Award


Jennifer and Brian Dieter – Outstanding Family Philanthropist Award


Kreg Tool Company – Outstanding Business Philanthropist Award


Ames Public Library Friends Foundation – Sales Committee – Outstanding Group Volunteer Fundraiser Award


Nevada High School KEY Club – Outstanding Youth Philanthropist Award

Next week’s Wednesday randomness will involve pictures for the actual Story County Philanthropy Day Event.

365 Day Photo Project: 106-119

A couple of new favorites in this collection:


Day 106 - Drink
Day 106 – Drink

Day 107 - Where You Slept
Day 107 – Where You Slept

Day 108 - Something Handmade
Day 108 – Something Handmade

Day 109 - Strategy
Day 109 – Strategy


Day 110 – The View from Your Window

Day 111 - Open Spaces
Day 111 – Open Spaces

Day 112 - Happened this Weekend
Day 112 – Happened this Weekend

Day 113 - Pets
Day 113 – Pets

Day 114 - Good Food
Day 114 – Good Food

Day 115 - The Unexpected
Day 115 – The Unexpected

Day 116 - Grateful
Day 116 – Grateful

Day 117 - Black
Day 117 – Black

Day 118 - Sunsets
Day 118 – Sunsets

Day 119 - Sky
Day 119 – Sky

This week’s themes:

Day 120 – Water
Day 121 – Old
Day 122 – Vehicle
Day 123 – Big
Day 124 – On the Wall
Day 125 – Ho Ho Ho
Day 126 – Peace

Bowl Eligible

I was going to publish pictures that were related to Story County Philanthropy Day, but I think a more time relevant set of pictures would be a few images from Jesse and I’s trip to Lawrence, Kansas to watch the Cyclones shellac the Jayhawks. It should be noted that all of these pictures were taken with my phone, which has an excellent camera for a phone, but it is still a phone.

This was my first trip to Lawrence and I loved their campustown area. It reminded me that while Iowa State has the most beautiful campus, the fiercest mascot, gorgeous team colors, amazing facilities, the best set of head coaches, the prettiest co-eds, and the least date-rapey frat guys; our campustown area leaves a lot to be desired.



We dined at a place called Bob’s Smokehouse. Since Lawrence is a stone’s throw from Kansas City, we hypothesized that it would have dynamite barbecue. We were mistaken. Although Bob’s wasn’t terrible, it certainly isn’t in the same league with a Oklahoma Joe’s or a Jack Stack or Jethro’s or Jimmy’s for that matter. This is their chicken wing appetizer. We opted for the full pound version based on what 1 pound of chicken wings looks like at Pizza Pit. We were told they would be served on a bed of fries. That was a lie. We got a pound of fries and then had to play a game of find the chicken wings.


These are Alligator Bites. We were once again told that our alligator would be served on a bed of fries. Once again, the appetizer was 85% fries and 15% tasty, tasty alligator. Don’t worry, I got even. I left a scathing tip on Foursquare about their dirty appetizer scam.


Our waitress, told us that since we were getting fries with out appetizers, we would want to substitute the fries that came with our barbecue dinner for a second side. As you can tell, Bob isn’t overly generous with the portion size. The beans were the best part of the meal. The slaw was the worst. They have 2 sauces that are indistinguishable from one another. Our waitress warned us that this would be the case.


Not a terrible experience, but I will not return. Next trip to Kansas we will go across the street to Mexquito.


This “balcony cow” was not above the barbecue joint, but at a coffee house or something lame like that.


I badly want this shirt! It was for sale in a used bookstore called The Dusty Shelf. No offense to Firehouse Books (if you are still in business), but I badly wish this store was in Ames.


Jamaal Tinsley is right, The Phog is “just another gym”.


Some guy. I’m sure he is important to Kansans. Took this picture mostly because of how awesome the Jayhawk logo used to be.


Memorial Stadium holds 50,071 people. Announced attendance was 41,608. But it couldn’t have been much more than 30,000 in reality. I bet well more than 5,000 of that were Cyclone fans. Maybe as high 10,000. A couple Jayhawks sitting behind us were pretty proud that they had half filled a stadium for a 1-10 team.


A fellow Cyclone sitting in front of us took this picture for us. He was sitting with his dad, a Jayhawk, that was a pretty cool guy. However, he didn’t like it when I asked him if the reason why they have a pizza box folding contest in the middle of the 1st quarter is because that is what Kansas students do after they graduate. On my right side there were 3 more Cyclones from Mason City. The highlight of the trip for me (besides the W & the potential to go someplace warm this winter) was when a Jayhawk kid tried to taunt Jesse and I after the Cyclones went up by 17 or so points. He tried mock-imitating our cheering. We died laughing. Apparently not the reaction he was wanting, he tended to his own business rest of the game.


Shontrelle celebrating bowl eligibility.


By the end of the game, there were only Cyclones left in the stands. We moved down to be close to the team. Some Jayhawk fans yelled at us, “Its not like we’re Alabama!”


51-23!


Since Jayhawks are like the other evil twin to Husker fans (Huskers ONLY care about football, Jayhawks ONLY care about basketball) this must be similar to what it would be like to go to a basketball game in Lincoln. That being said, I was a little surprised at the bitterness of the Jayhawks in our section. They really hate Charlie Weis. The only person they seem to hate more than him is their quarterback.

I hope to be able to have a better organized trip to Manhattan next football season, but despite its brevity, this was still a pretty awesome trip.

Personal Photo Project of the Week #144

This week’s Personal Photo Project is a blatant attempt at commerce. Good old fashioned in-your-face-capitalism.

I’ve been talking to Barb Henning of Everlastings about selling high quality Photography 139 products in her store for several years now, but I have always been unable to pull the trigger. However, I’ve turned over a new leaf and have decided to invest some money in “product” and we’ll see where that gets me.

Starting tomorrow (at least I’m 98% sure) a person can go to Everlastings Flowers & Gifts in beautiful downtown Ogden, Iowa and purchase a couple different products from Photography 139.

The first line of products:



Postcards!

This is not a completely original idea. This idea is both stolen from and an homage to my Dad’s line of Slice of Life postcards. Which incidentally will be incorporated into this line of postcards as well. The picture of the #1385 is my Dad’s picture.

The current pricing structure is thus:

1 Postcard = $.75
3 Postcards = $2.00
5 Postcards = $3.00

Series #1 of the Photography 139 line of postcards consists of 5 different images. My hope is that every 3-4 months, I will release a new series and 5 different postcards. The subject matter will mostly consist of flowers or local interest. Look for Series #2 to be released around February or March.

Thanks to all my Postcard Beta Testers:

Jen, Derrick, and Evie Gorshe
Sara and Shawn
Russell Kennerly
Andree Jauhari
Aunt Linda
Becky Perkovich
Dawn Krause
The Fausts
The Kewers
Robert Henning

The second line of products:



Calendars!

The second product line is a calendar consisting of high quality Photography 139 flower images. The first run of these is extremely limited, so the price structure is a little higher than I would like, but there is a chance that a second run of calendars will be printed and the price might go down slightly. No promises though.

Calendar Price Structure:

1 Calendar = $15.00

But what about the future? I’m also looking into releasing a line of holiday cards. Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and Mother’s Day. It is somewhat dependent on how the first two lines of high quality products fare in the marketplace. I would consider it highly doubtful that there will be Christmas cards available for this Christmas, but stranger things have happened.

To repeat, these high quality products will be available at Everlasting Flowers & Gifts starting tomorrow.

Everlastings Info:

223 W. Walnut St.
Ogden, IA 50212
Store Hours: M-F 9:30 am to 5 pm; Sat. 9:30 am to noon
Website: http://www.everlastingsbybarb.com/
All major credit cards accepted

These products may come to other venues in the future, but Barb definitely gets to be the launching point for this commercial endeavor.

Yes, you can buy products straight from me, but I don’t accept credit cards at this time. If you need something shipped to you, there would be a shipping and handling fee.

You can find out that info by writing me directly at: bennett@photography139.com

Next week’s Personal Photo Project will either involve trains or mums. We’ll see.