Flooded Ledges dominates the folder called 08-25-07.
The next folder consists of lunar eclipse photos.
A couple Saturdays back I loaded up into an automobile with Mom, Teresa, and Logan and we headed to the What Cheer Flea Market. This photo has nothing to do with What Cheer, Iowa. On the way back we went through Pella to check out their world famous tulips. Here is a photo from that part of the road trip:
This portion of the road trip was slightly damaged by an overzealous, drunk-with-power, Johnny Law. However, my mood recovered enough from that interaction to enjoy the rest of the trip.
PARTICULARS
CAMERA: Sony ILCA-77M2
ISO: 100
FOCAL LENGTH: 60mm
APERTURE: f/2.8
EXPOSURE: 1/100
DATE: 05/16/2017 – 16:11
PHOTO ASSISTANTS: Mom, Teresa, and Logan
PHOTO EDITING SOUNDTRACK: “All I Have” by NF from MANSION
FAVORITE LYRIC: You sniff lines, I write lines, you’ve now entered my mind.
One of the smartest and most talented and most interesting people I know!
For those of you who don’t have the good fortune to know Stephanie, she is in the bunny glasses.
Unrelated, for some reason Michelle from day job made this video. Enjoy:
As always, if you are an email subscriber to this here blog, you will have to go to the website to watch the video. It is 16 seconds long and it is glorious!
1 more picture of my cuddly and adorable toad friend that hung out in my backyard for a bit:
Unfortunately, it looks like he has moved on. Possibly to a deluxe apartment in the sky.
PARTICULARS
CAMERA: Sony ILCA-77M2
ISO: 3200
FOCAL LENGTH: 60mm
APERTURE: f/3.5
EXPOSURE: 1/160
DATE: 05-08-2017 – 19:38
NO GPS DATA RECORDED
PHOTO ASSISTANT: A pile of wood and Naima.
PHOTO EDITING SOUNDTRACK: “Cannonball” by Indigo Girls from “Cover Stories”
Here is a photo I took at my family’s Mother’s Day Barbecue of Logan.
I need to play with some of these old timey filters more often!
PARTICULARS
CAMERA: SONY ILCA-77M2
ISO: 1000
FOCAL LENGTH: 135mm
APERTURE: f/5.6
EXPOSURE: 1/250
DATE: 05/14/2017 – 15:44
NO GPS DATA RECORDED
PHOTO ASSISTANT: Logan
PHOTO EDITING SOUNDTRACK: “Everything is Spiritual” by Rob Bell
It was a pretty solid week of submission for GLITTERY. Can’t complain. Wouldn’t even if I knew how.
But you didn’t come here to listen to me talk all tommyrot about participation rates. You came to see the submissions for GLITTERY:
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:
AMERICANA! What a great theme! But what is AMERICANA. Basically, AMERICANA is/be/are things associated with the culture and history of America, especially the United States. Many things can fall under AMERICANA. Paintings, prints and drawings, license plates or entire vehicles, household objects, tools and weapsons, flags, plaques and statues.. Nostalgia often plays into AMERICANA.
Basically anything that screams AMERICA to you. From small town festivals to the local VFW. Have at it. Remember, you can define the theme anyway that you see fit. Just get out there and take some photos!
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
Nothing new to report. I’ll try to do better next week.
Want your own Photography 139 email subscription? Call, email, or text me and I’ll get you the hook up.
A MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 GALLERY DIVISION
Sometimes people send me descriptions of their photos. I’ve never done anything with that information in the past. However, if you send me a description in the future, I will add it to your image in the Weekly Photo Challenge Gallery that houses all the submissions.
**************************************
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 American Monday!
Announcing and inviting you to a new Club. The Union Street Theater Movie Club!
What is the Union Street Theater Movie Club?
Great question! Take a look at this picture:
That doesn’t answer the question?
1 Sunday a month a few of us have been gathering in the Union Street Theater (AKA my basement) one Sunday night a month to watch and discuss movies. We have been pairing a B Movie with a classic, great, or historically significant movie.
These are the pairings thus far:
January: BRIDE OF THE GHOULS – FEAR AND DESIRE
February: BEAST OF YUCCA FLATS – FULL METAL JACKET
March: THE WILD WORLD OF BATWOMAN – ALIEN
APRIL: THE ROOM – DR. STRANGELOVE
I know that it has been heavy on Kubrick, but if you are raising that question, you don’t really know me, do you?
Here is what happens at Union Street Theater Movie Club.
6 PM – B movie starts
Following movie, we make popcorn. I will stock and share Pepsi. All other beverages are on you to bring. The theater doesn’t have a fancy popcorn maker yet, but maybe someday we will. No thanks to Dae Hee. I don’t know. Maybe we’ll hold a fundraiser.
After popcorn has been made – Feature Presentation
Stimulating conversation follows the Feature Presentation
I know what you are think, “I’m sold! When is the next Union Street Theater Movie Club? I don’t even care what the movies are!”
Details of the next Union Street Theater Movie Club
DATE: Sunday, May 28, 2017
TIME: 6 PM
PLACE: Union Street Theater AKA my basement right next to the Photography 139 Basement Studio
B MOVIE: SHACK OUT ON 101 (1955)
FEATURE PRESENTATION: ALIENS (1986)
I couldn’t find a trailer for SHACK OUT ON 101, but check out this sweet poster!
Here is the trailer for ALIENS:
“This time it’s war.”
Of course, if you are an email subscriber, you will have to go to the website to see the video.
Let me know if you’re going to show up. Or don’t. I’ll have enough ice cold Pepsi either way.
On Wednesday night we had former Iowa State basketball player and current Christian Missionary Jake Sullivan come speak to our youth group. We had a potluck dinner and then Sarah G. ran Devotions before he spoke.
I wish more of you would’ve made it, because he gave a great and inspiring speech about fishing for people. He started his speech talking about his basketball career with a story about how he was heavily recruited, but he didn’t have any scholarship offers until he put up 42 on Dwayne Wade.
He told the story about how he wasn’t raised in a house of believers, but what lead him to God was following a girl he wanted to date to the SALT Company.
He also talked about how after his basketball career was over, he was worried he would never get the feeling he got when he hit a big shot in Hilton. It was praying on this worry that lead to his mission work in Africa and Iowa and Minnesota.
However, the story that he told that I will remember most was when he was running a basketball clinic in a bad part of Chad. All of Chad is a place you don’t want to be, so you can imagine how bad the bad part of Chad must be.
On the last night of the clinic, 4 black government SUVs pulled up to the clinic. A bunch of government officials in military uniforms got out. Jake thought for sure that he was going to jail for his faith and he was prepared to do it. Even though he had a wife and children waiting at home for him.
Instead, what happened was that the government was there to give him more land to do his mission work. This is the kind of thing that doesn’t happen in a Muslim country that is torn apart by civil war and has 4 different terrorist organizations on all 4 sides.
But why were they doing this?
They told him that he wasn’t the first white person that had come through there. He wasn’t the first American to come through there. He definitely wasn’t the first Christian to come through there. However, of all the people that had come through there, trying to spread the word of Jesus, Jake was the first one to sit in the dirt with them (literally) and eat with them.
Jake pointed out this wasn’t part of some plan he had hatched. He sat down in the dirt and ate with them, because that is how they ate. They sat in a circle on the ground and ate. He sat with them because that is what he thought he was supposed to do.
A real God Moment. Plus a great lesson. If you are going fishing for men or if you are showing people the love of Jesus, you have to get into the dirt with them. God meets people wherever they are and you have to do the same.
It is also a good reminder for people that have thought about returning to church or going to church for the first time too. Lots of people think that they can’t go to church because they have to get their life together first. They have to get straight. Then when they are good enough, they can go to church.
But that is backwards thinking. You take your problems. You take your baggage. You take all your dirt to God. That is when the transformation happens. Don’t try to transform before you go to God. Go to God and the transformation will happen.
As the saying goes, “Church isn’t a museum for good people. It is a hospital for broke people.”
Guess what? We’re all broken. And after we heal, we are strong at the broken places.
After the speech was over, Teresa came up and said she needed to get my picture with Jake Sullivan for Mom.
So I went up and told him, “My sister needs a picture of us together because my Mom wants it.” Then I paused and I added, “I want it too!”:
After the speech one of the kids in the youth group stopped me and said, “You should book more speakers like him.”
I told him, “There just aren’t a lot of Jake Sullivans in the world!”