We in the Sh!t Now, Somebody Gotta Shovel It!

November 30, 2017 Christopher D. Bennett

As I continue to hammer away at my backlog, the photos I took during the Women’s March in January seem apropos for this time in our history.

The #MeToo movement has really made some progress in this country lately. They have managed to out and take down several members of the media, Hollywood, and politicians. However, at the same time, there is still so much work to do.

Alabama is about to elect a serial pedophile to Congress.

A man that has sexually assaulted at least 19 women and was sued twice for raping a 13 year-old sits in the Oval Office.

I mean this is a legitimate argument and a legitimate screen shot of an ad for Michigan’s Attorney General race:

On top of that…

The most corrupt and treasonous regime in U.S. History currently sits in Washington trying to create a permanent aristocracy by killing net neutrality, ending estate taxes (while also raising taxes on the middle class), and getting rid of anti-trust rules to unify sources of information.

The work is far from done. We must continue to rise up!

Here is a set of pictures from the Women’s March back in January:

I’ll publish the balance of these pictures on the morrow.

9 Emotions Project, Animals, Art, Becca, Black & White, Christianity, Jen, Jesse, Macro, Naima, Nature, Railroad, Shannon, Travel

Dog Face

November 29, 2017 Christopher D. Bennett

I have a considerable backlog of images that I need to edit. Part of the problem is that I edit photos in 2 separate distinct locations and it is often difficult for me to figure out what I have edited in one location, but not the other. I have begun the process of mirroring these images in both locations so that I can actually make real head way on my back log. Plus, it should free up some valuable hard drive real estate in both locations.

Not to bore you with too many details, but the first step in this process involves tons or robocopy scripts AND an external hard drive.

And with that, here are some backlog images of Naima from February.

In addition to trying to get a better organizational grasp on my images that are physically in my possession, I’m also trying to get a better organization to my images that are in the SmugMug Gallery.

While it doesn’t help that effort, it is part of a slight re-design of the website. If you’ve been on the website lately you may have noticed some slight changes.

*The base color remains purple. It will always be purple. However, I got rid of some gold and green accent colors and replaced those with a silver and a light blue.
*I completely replaced the old headers with new headers.
*On the homepage, gone is the slide show of recent pictures added to the SmugMug Gallery. It has been replaced with a slide show of images submitted for The Weekly Photo Challenge.

There are some more changes coming, eventually. I’m looking to re-design every page from the About page to the Products page. I might even add a services page where I quote my prices. Like $75,000 to do a wedding on a Saturday that is an Iowa State home game. I hope you don’t think that prices me out of the market.

Here are a look at the current rotating headers on the website:

In the end, I hope to add about 15 more rotating headers to the slight website redesign.

Black & White, Candid Portrait, Dae Hee, Nature, Travel

Any Photog that Say that they Runnin’ the Game I’mma Come in they Session and Cut Off They Legs, Woo!

November 28, 2017 Christopher D. Bennett

The world wasn’t ready for these pictures on Monday, but I can’t hold them back any longer. Here are the alternates for WEATHER:

2 of the pictures were taken on Manhattan Hill in Manhattan, Kansas. 1 was taken on Old 30 east of Boone. The rest were taken down by the Des Moines River.

Candid Portrait, Carla, Cathie, Dae Hee, Kim, Micky, Nature, Tamara, Vest, WPC - Submissions

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 115 – WEATHER

November 27, 2017 Christopher D. Bennett

I wasn’t sure how participation rates would go for WEATHER. Here in central Iowa, the weather couldn’t have been more boring. Which is amazing for this late in November. Plus I’m sure that the holiday didn’t help much either. That being said, it wasn’t a terrible week for participation.

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

Cathie Raley

Carla Stensland

Christopher D. Bennett

Kim Barker

Mike Vest

Tamara Peterson

Micky Augustin

Tamara Peterson

Micky Augustin

A solid week of submissions!

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:

PORTRAIT!

PORTRAIT! What a great theme! A PORTRAIT is an image of a person, especialy one depicting only the face or head and shoulders. But that is a formal definition. I would say that a PORTRAIT is an image of a being with a soul. So most humans would qualify. All dogs. No cats. A fair amount of horses. Technically this is supposed to be considered more like a formal PORTRAIT. Remember that the following kind of PORTRAITs are still in the hopper:

FACELESS PORTRAIT
SELF-PORTRAIT
CANDID PORTRAIT

That doesn’t mean that any of those don’t qualify for PORTRAIT, but if you have a great idea for one of those, maybe you want to keep it in your back pocket.

As always, I look forward to your interpretations!

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

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.

**************************************

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 portraited Monday!

Alexis, Becca, Bethany, Boone FUMC, Dae Hee, Event, Football, Holidays, Kio, Laura, Mom, Nate, Road Trip, Shorty, Tamara, Teresa, Tim, Youth Group

Relationship Goals

November 26, 2017 Christopher D. Bennett 3 Comments

I hope all of you had a marvelous Thanksgiving weekend! I had a particularly great Thanksgiving weekend myself.

On Thursday morning I got up and went down to the church (Boone First United Methodist represent!) to take photos of our annual Thanksgiving. This is the second year in a row I’ve photographed the event. From the initial looks, I’d say that we served more than double what we served the previous year.

After hanging with the church family, I went to my Mom’s house for my family Thanksgiving. As usual, it was great. As usual Mom’s cooking was on point. Teresa’s French Silk Pie was delicious as usual. We watched SING and Alexis put up the Christmas tree.

Friday I got up and did some G33 classified business, but it was lots of fun. Even though the cheating was even more rampant than usual.

At noon I went to the Wal-Mart and rang the bell for the Salvation Army. One of my favorite things to do every year. For the people watching aspect alone.

Friday night I went to Boxholm and had a supper prepared by Becca and Bethany. It was kind of a surreal experience because we had the meal in Shorty and Doris’ home. All their stuff is still there, but now their stuff is accented with Tim’s style. Which isn’t bad, but it is weird. However, Bethany and Becca rocked the meal. Turkey and duck?!? Insane!

Saturday morning Dae Hee and I hit the road for Manhattan to see Nate and Laura, plus watch the Iowa State Cyclones battle the Kansas State Wildcats in football. On the way down there we stopped at a Waffle House in St. Joe’s because we were hungry and I love me some Waffle House. However, the Waffle House experience was marred with tragedy. I was mistaken for an Iowa Hawkeye fan by a group of Nebraska fans. It took me awhile to figure out that they had mistaken me for such a low beast as a Hawkeye fan because I was blatantly dressed like a Cyclone fan. It just put a pall on the entire experience. I couldn’t even properly enjoy the road waffle that Waffle House generously gifted us.

The rest of the trip to Manhattan went without incident. Mostly Dae Hee sleeping and me explaining every song of HAMILTON to a sleeping Dae Hee.

We lunched at a place called Bourbon & Baker. It is a small plate restaurant and I would recommend it. I’d highly recommend their chicken and waffles and that isn’t just my love for waffles speaking. #wafflelife

After lunch Nate and Laura dropped us off at Vampire Stadium. Nate scored us great free seats from some old retired professor dude. We sat on the 40 yard line in actual seats. Other than them being in literally the smallest rows in the history of rows and being surrounded by Purple Kansans, it was a great experience. Until the 4th quarter. When all of a sudden it was as if the Vampire had called up Bill Self and asked to borrow his personal refs.

I’m not blaming the loss on the refs. Iowa State certainly aided Purple Kansas with horrible play calling, but I can say with 100% certainty, I’ve NEVER seen a time where the referees threw 3 flags on one team and picked them all up. Not in an entire season. Not in an entire game. Not in an entire half. Not in an entire quarter. Definitely not in a 5 minute period.

What particularly hurt is when Kansas State blatantly interfered with Iowa State’s all-world receiver Allen Lazard. The refs threw the flag, because it was pretty blatant. Then got together. Picked up the flag and then tried to pretend that they were decent human beings, which they obviously are not. If they make the correct call there, the game is over and Iowa State leaves Manhattan with a victory and all is right in the world.

But I think this tweet by Lazard really puts a comedic spin on the deal:

What made the loss almost worse is the fact that Purple Kansans are so incredibly nice. At least 15 of them came up to me or Dae Hee to thank us for coming to their stadium. To tell us that we have a great team. It was a great game. In my state of mind at the time, I almost would’ve preferred an obnoxious Hawkeye or Husker or Jayhawk fan.

I’m pissed. Don’t be nice to me.

After the wave of Purple Kansas Nice finally finished washing over us, Nate and Laura picked us up and Road Rage Laura took us to dinner at the Taphouse. Another Manhattan eatery I would recommend. Their Korean Wings are delicious. Their house brewed root beer was good, but not great. Very strangely they served it on ice. Must be a Purple Kansas thing.

Then the final twist of the knife came when I got a snap from somebody that was eating pizza from The Adobe. I’ve been badly hankering for some pizza from The Adobe for quite some time now. I guess that is my own fault for not just going myself.

After dinner I cashed in my chips and called it a night. I was physically and emotionally drained.

Nate got a text in the morning from Bethany that Nora was sick. We decided to skip breakfast and hit the road.

On the way out of town we stopped at Manhattan Hill. 8 AM. The only people there were Cyclone fans. It was universally agreed upon that we were all still pissed. We hopped in the car and headed home. That little Manhattan Hill therapy session definitely helped my mood a bit.

But I really brought you here to share some photos from church’s Thanksgiving meal:

The church server 521 meals on Thanksgiving! What an incredible blessing!

Basketball, History, Night

01-09-08 & 01-15-08

November 25, 2017 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

The following images came from the folders called 01-09-08 and 01-15-08:

I don’t really know a good way to describe most of these images, so I’ll just let it be.

By adding these images to the Photography 139 Smugmug Gallery, I was able to restore these old timey journal entries to their original glory:

NOTES FROM YESTERDAY
COMMUTER ART
BROKEN

The next walk down memory lane will involve one of the few times I’ve wasted memory card space on pictures of a cat.

Angie, Carla, Cathie, Kim, Logan, Micky, Pastor Sarah, Photoshop, Steph, Vest, WPC - Reminder

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE REMINDER – WEATHER

November 24, 2017 Christopher D. Bennett

This is your reminder that this week’s WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is WEATHER:

WEATHER!

WEATHER! What a great theme! I could explain to you what a WEATHER photo might look like, but instead, why not show you some examples?!?!

Cathie Raley

Angie DeWaard

Carla Stensland

Kim Barker

Stephanie Kim

Sarah Karber

Micky Augustin

Mike Vest

Logan Kahler

Those examples ought to get your heart pumping!

Happy photo harvesting!

9 Emotions Project, Black & White, Dae Hee, Formal Portrait

The 9 Emotions Project – Dae Hee Yoon

November 24, 2017 Christopher D. Bennett

Happy Black Friday! I hope you were able to get out there and adequately celebrate our nation’s self-destructive addiction to consumerism. I hope some of you hit it really hard to make up for the fact that I (most likely – I mean I know myself pretty well, but I’m not full on psychic) probably haven’t left my house. Unless it was to hustle up some breakfast. I mean, it isn’t like I keep food in my house.

If you are out an about in Boone though, you can swing by Boone’s very on Wal-Mart and greet me. I’ll be ringing the bell for the Salvation Army. As loud and proud and annoying as is humanly possible. You can check with my sisters, co-workers, and various friends. I can get pretty annoying.

Today’s blog post isn’t about consumerism though. It is about Dae Hee and THE 9 EMOTIONS PROJECT. Take a gander:

Dae Hee Yoon!

In case you have forgotten the emotions:

Joy

Sadness

Anger

Amusement

Fear

Jealousy

Surprise

Sympathy

Boredom

Nice work Dae Hee! I don’t know who will be the next victim… I mean subject for THE 9 EMOTIONS PROJECT. I have my eye on a few people. Could be you. Could be me… well it won’t be me, but it could definitely be you!

Alexis, Alisa, Anders, Animals, Baier, Becca, Bethany, Bill, Brandon, Carla, Derrick, Elainie, Evie, Flat Earth Joe, Holidays, House, Iowa State, Jason, Jay, Jen, Jesse, Johnathan, Jorge, Logan, Mom, Movies, Nader, Naima, Nate, Pastor Sarah, Sara, Sarah Toot, Scottie D., Shannon, Shorty, Tenderloining, Teresa, Tim, Willy, Youth Group

Won’t Take that Credit; I know Where We Get It; Them Blessings Be Comin’ from God Above

November 23, 2017 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Rather than my standard picture of an inflatable turkey, thought (with apologies to Lecrae, I’d give thanks for some of the many blessings in my life.

Count it up, count it up, count it up.
Line ’em up, line ’em up, line ’em up.

Blessed with a tremendous biological family. Blessed to share DNA and a life with these people.

Blessed to be a part of Olivia’s family. Blessed to learn a new definition of the word “family” from Shorty and Doris.

Blessed to be a part of an incredible church family. From Youth Group to Methodist Men to the people I see in the pews on Sundays.

Blessed to have a job and double blessed to have a great work family. 7 AM comes pretty early, but so many of the people I work with make the struggle worth the effort.

Blessed to share a life with this band of brothers. Not one of us has any fashion sense, but I’d still take a bullet for any of them.

Blessed to fit in with this band of sisters as well.

Blessed to be able to share my love of weird cinema with like minded individuals once a month.

Blessed to be a Cyclone and double blessed to have somebody to share so many trips to Jack Trice (a spiritual place for me) with.

Blessed to have a roof over my head that belongs to me. Blessed that I can extend that roof over friends and family when their life needs it. Blessed that when I say, “Want to help paint by house?” 20+ people show up.

Blessed that friends from past jobs are still important pillars of my current life.

Blessed that people that aren’t related to me consider me an uncle to them.

Blessed to have a car that I can drive out of town and not worry about the tire falling off.

Blessed to have so many people in my life that when I say, “I’m coming to your city”, they say, “You’re staying with us right?”

Blessed to have so many people in my life that fill gaps.

Blessed that even though I’m aged, I still healthy enough to still ball. Although pretty poorly these days.

Blessed that even though I’m aged, I still have people in my life that keep me young.

Blessed to have people in my life that want to change the world for the better, when I get cynical.

Blessed to have art in my life.

Blessed to have a beautiful beard. Even if the old guys at my church hate it.

Blessed to have people who will help with projects like this, no questions asked.

Blessed to share a life and a domicile with this crazy beast. Teaches me about selfless love every single day.

Blessed to have a chance to spread my blessings to others, sometimes, with some of my favorite people.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of my blessings. But I don’t want it to start to sound like I’m bragging.

Black & White, Photoshop, Railroad, WPC - Alternate

They Told Me I’m Never Leaving. Why? I’m as Ill as It Gets!

November 22, 2017 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

The world wasn’t ready for these TRANSPORTATION pictures on Monday. I’m not 100% sure the world can handle them now, but I can’t hold them back any longer:

The night pictures were taken at McHose Park. The railroad bridge pictures are from west of Boone. There a couple photos from the Boone & Scenic Valley Railroad. The final set of photos were taken at the Boone Airport at sunrise.

You’re welcome world.