Squirrelly

November 17, 2016 Christopher D. Bennett

As I was leaving the Junck farm a few months back I spied this guy hanging around by their driveway.

I’m not going to identify the species of this guy because I know there is somebody out there waiting to say, “Well actually it is a 13 lined ground squirrel.” While sipping their morning cup of joe.

PARTICULARS

CAMERA: SONY SLT-A65V
ISO: 125
FOCAL LENGTH: 300mm
APERTURE: f/5.6
EXPOSURE: 1/500
NO GPS DATA RECORDED
DATE: 07/31/2016 – 14:07
PHOTO ASSISTANT: The Juncks
PHOTO EDITING SOUNDTRACK: “What the Rain Will Bring” by Pokey LaFarge

Art, Boone FUMC, Logan, Mom, Teresa

Chance with Necessity, Randomness with Determinism

November 16, 2016 Christopher D. Bennett 3 Comments

On Sunday, after church, I grabbed my camera to walk around the church to grab some STILL LIFE moments for the THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE. It seemed like a beautiful day, so I thought I would walk around downtown Boone a little bit before meeting the family at the Chinese buffet for lunch. When I came around the corner of 7th Street onto Greene Street, I came across a gentleman doing sidewalk chalk art on the sidewalk in front of the Ericson Public Library.

Fascinated by his work I struck up a conversation with him. During the course of our conversation I learned many of his religious views and some of his art background. He was a Boone expatriate that had recently decided to come back home. He indicated that he wanted to do an Easter art project and he had contacted the local Baptist church and they told him, “No.” Then he contacted the church he was raised in and they also told him, “No.”

I offered him use of our church’s sidewalk because we’d love to have this kind of artwork at our church in Easter. We struck up a deal and hopefully everything falls into place and the Boone First United Methodist Church will have some sweet sidewalk art come Easter Sunday.

Here are some pictures of his Christmas artwork he was doing at the library:

After I joined my family for lunch and I relayed the story, Teresa actually knew the artist. His name is Don Hughes and apparently back in the day, they used to run in the same circles. He had even been to our house in my youth. So after our lunch Mom, Logan, and Teresa went up to talk to Don. Which resulted in a selfie that was sent to one of Teresa’s oldest and dearest friends.

Art, Black & White, Boone FUMC, History, Music, Still Life, WPC - Alternate

You Can’t Write if You Can’t Relate

November 15, 2016 Christopher D. Bennett 5 Comments

Here are a few STILL LIFE photos that didn’t make the cut for this week’s WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE:

Thanks for taking the time to mock this collection of pathetic losers!

Alisa, Angie, Art, Bill, Kim, Steph, Still Life, Vest, WPC - Submissions

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 61 – STILL LIFE

November 14, 2016 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

There weren’t a whole lot of takers for STILL LIFE. Must have been a depression of some kind out there.

But you don’t want to listen to me talk all tommyrot about participation rates, you want to see the submissions. Here they are:

Kim Barker

Bill Wentworth

Angie DeWaard

Stephanie Kim

Cathie Raley 1

Cathie Raley 2

Christopher D. Bennett

Mike Vest

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:

NIGHT!

NIGHT is a pretty self-explanatory theme. A NIGHT picture is any picture taken at night. Yes, I’d encourage you to get outside and take a picture with a long exposure or lit by the super full moon that will be out tonight. However, any picture taken at night or suggesting the night will do!

HOUSEKEEPING

A MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 RULES DIVISION

1. 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.

2. Your submission needs to be emailed to bennett@photography139.com by 11 AM on the Monday of the challenge. 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

Great news! Alisa Baker is the latest person to show taste, class, and sophistication by signing up for a Photogrpahy 139 email subscription. Alisa is one of my favoritest people in the world. She was formerly the Youth Pastor at my church until she left us for a similar full-time position in some river town in THAT part of the state. Which reminds me that I need to go visit her soon since she still owes me dinner and I think you all know how I feel about free food. In addition to serving God as a “profession”, Alisa also is known to spend her free time serving God while doing mission work in Haiti. Alisa also introduced me to one of my current favorite musicians Lecrae. Go check out “Church Clothes” or “Take Me As I Am” or “Gangland” or “Nuthin'”. I’ll wait…… Alisa’s cat also has its own Twitter account. No. Naima isn’t getting her own Twitter account. Instagram account? Maybe. Twitter account… no. So if you see Alisa out walking the mean streets of River City feel free to give her a knowing glance and to teach her the Super-Secret Photography 139 handshake.

Want your own Photography 139 email subscription? Call, email, or text me and I’ll get you the hook up.

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 dark Monday.

Flowers, History, Nature

06-03-07

November 12, 2016 Christopher D. Bennett

Some flower and McHose Park action in this collection:

Looks like some softball pictures, next time we get together for this look down memory lane.

Christianity, Event, Formal Portrait, Shannon

Harvest Vineyard Photo Booth

November 11, 2016 Christopher D. Bennett

Last Sunday Shannon asked me to run a Photo Booth for her church’s party. It wasn’t exactly what I imagined, so I way over prepared, but that is cool, because it ended up being easier than anticipated.

Here are a few pictures from the day:

It was a very impressive event and I went home with quite a bit of the church’s creative ministry’s art.

Andy, Art, Youth Group

Old Salvation Army Building Wall Phase #2 Gamma

November 10, 2016 Christopher D. Bennett 3 Comments

It gets dark at like 4:30 now and I was incredibly tired last night. So I only have pictures of hanging up the first mural and not many:

I wish I had pictures of the other murals to post, but you’ll have to trust me. They are really coming along. I think the hands one will be the next one finished, but the tree one is also coming along very nicely.

Art, Black & White, Iowa State, Nature, Travel, WPC - Alternate

Slap the Turkey Neck and It’s Hangin’ from a Pigeon Wing

November 9, 2016 Christopher D. Bennett

Here are the images that didn’t make the cut for LANDSCAPE on the THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE:

Thanks for joining me to mock this pathetic collection of losers.

Holidays, Jay, Mom

Happy Jayoween

November 8, 2016 Christopher D. Bennett

The Saturday before Halloween Jay and I got together for our annual tradition of watching horror movies and carving pumpkins. This year Willy joined us.

This year Jay carved a clown for my Mom:

My pumpkin will remain unpictured.

PARTICULARS

CAMERA: SONY SLT-A65V
ISO: 1600
FOCAL LENGTH: 60mm
APERTURE: f/2
EXPOSURE: 1/80
DATE: 10/29/16 – 21:59
LATITUDE: 42.05533°
LONGITUDE: -93.87070
PHOTO ASSISTANT: Jay and Willy
PHOTO EDITING SOUNDTRACK: “Start Over” – Flame featuring NF

Becky, Bill, Carla, Cathie, Dawn, Kim, Micky, Nature, Teresa, Vest, WPC - Submissions

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 60 – LANDSCAPE

November 7, 2016 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

Some of the stalwarts didn’t make it for LANDSCAPE. That’s okay. When one person falls, another person can pick up the torch and carry on.

But you don’t want to listen to me talk all tommyrot about torches. You want to see the submissions for LANDSCAPE:

Bill Wentworth

Cathie Raley 1

Cathie Raley 2

Cathie Raley 3

Cathie Raley 4

Micky Augustin

Mike Vest

Kim Barker

Teresa Kahler 1

Teresa Kahler 2

Teresa Kahler 3

Teresa Kahler 4

Dawn Krause 1

Dawn Krause 2

Dawn Krause 3

Becky Perkovich

Carla Stensland 1

Carla Stensland 2

Carla Stensland 3

.
Christopher D. Bennett

A healthy and diverse collection of submissions!

STILL LIFE!

Yes! STILL LIFE! He heard a cry across the landscape. But what is STILL LIFE? Try this definition for size!

Still life photography is a genre of photography used for the depiction of inanimate subject matter, typically a small group of objects. It is the application of photography to the still life artistic style. An example is food photography.

So find a group of inanimate objects. Group them together. Take their photo. Bam! STILL LIFE!

As always… feel free to interpret the theme however you see fit.

HOUSEKEEPING

A MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 RULES DIVISION

That is it, them’s the rules.

A MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION DIVISION

Great news! Dan Pottratz is the latest person to show taste, class, AND sophistication by signing up for a Photography 139 email subscription. Dan is also a Toreador (Class of ’93 WOOT! WOOT!) and a huge Cyclone fan. That is all you need to know… to know that Dan is good people. If you see him out and about and walking the mean streets, feel free to give him a knowing glance and show him the Super-Secret Photogrpahy 139 Handshake.

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 inanimate Monday.