Andree, Baier, Basketball, Commercial, Football, Iowa State, Jay, Jesse, Nader, Russell, Willy, Work

04-19-08

April 21, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett

The following images are from the folder 04-19-08:

By adding these pictures to the Photography 139 Photo Gallery, I was able to restore the following classic An Artist’s Notebook entries to their original glory:

LITTLE WHITE LYE BONUS

SPRING GAME

If you want to check out more pictures from Iowa State’s 2008 Spring Game, click on the link below:

2008 IOWA STATE CYCLONES FOOTBALL PHOTO GALLERY

Some of these pictures were taken as part of an ad campaign for Shannon’s soap company Little White Lye Soap. The rest are taken from the 2008 Iowa State Spring Game, obviously.

BONUS MEMORY

Racist Starbucks (as opposed to good Starbucks in Nevada, Iowa) has jogged a memory of mine that I’ve been think about lately.

(If you don’t know about Racist Starbucks, a Starbucks recently called the police and had 2 black men arrested who were waiting for a friend to meet them. The fact that Starbucks is racist comes as no surprise to me. I’ve long hated this company. I’ve never once been inside a Starbucks. I’ve unfortunately been drug through a Starbucks drive-thru a few times in my life. Thanks Bethany. You too Kim.)

In another life, when I was running a “restaurant” for the Evil Clown Empire I only called the police to have somebody thrown out of the “restaurant” once. However, I wasn’t even the person that did it. I wasn’t there when they removed him. I think I was running to another store to get product. I only heard about it later.

I believe it was an Iowa State football Saturday, so the store was busier than normal. A drunk homeless person had taken up one of our booths and then passed out. He was there for a couple of hours before the police were called to remove him from the store.

The man was still passed out when the police arrived. The officer grabbed the guy from the back of the head and slammed his face into the table. This woke the guy up and then they escorted him out of the store.

I wonder about what would have happened if I would have been in the store. I know I wouldn’t have taken kindly to the police slamming his head against the table.

I wonder what would have happened if the technology of today existed then. I have no doubt somebody would have videoed the event and it would have ended up on The Facebook, assuming that The Facebook was still for college students and hadn’t been ruined by old people and wasn’t funneling your personal information to the Russians.

I’m sure the conversation with the Son-in-Law (the incompetent boob that was my boss) on the following Monday would have been a hoot.

Next time we take a stroll down memory lane we will probably take even more of a look at some Little White Lye Soap commercial photography.

Black & White, Christianity, Photo Journal, Photoshop, Shannon, Street Photography

A Photo Journal – Henry Carroll – Page 105

April 20, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

On Good Friday I descended upon downtown Des Moines to take a picture for Page 105 of THE PHOTO JOURNAL PROJECT:

Take a photograph that could only be taken today, not yesterday or tomorrow.

I took off from the Computer Mine early on Good Friday and went to Des Moines to witness an event put on by The Bridge, a coalition of downtown Des Moines churches, called the Way of the Cross.

It is an interesting event where people carry or drag a cross through downtown Des Moines, stopping every few blocks or so to read a passage from The Bible and hear a small sermon or devotion or speech about that verse.

While I took several pictures along the way, only one can be physically adhered to the physical THE PHOTO JOURNAL. Here are some of the other pictures I took on this journey and I will follow it with my Yelp review of the event:

This lady set up shop on the National Rifle Association.

I even like her hat.

This woman tore what I’m going to call Republican Jesus to pieces. They were both from a church called The Downtown Disciples.

Note the lack of shoes – it was cold that day.

Here is my quick review of “The way of the Cross”:

My biggest disappointment is that there wasn’t somebody there dressed like Jesus dragging the cross. Now I realize that this isn’t realistic and is actually the antithesis of the exercise. The exercise exists so that you can personally drag the cross and get the slightest modicum of what Jesus might have felt physically on that day. That being said, a dude dressed like Jesus would’ve made an even better photo opportunity. Especially if a couple of other dudes dressed like Romans followed along whipping him. Then part of the way through the event, another guy dressed like Simon of Cyrene joined the group and helped carry the cross the rest of the way.

I guess, maybe I should set the standard and show up next year dressed for the part myself.

My biggest legitimate complaint is that the sound system for the sermons was awful. They used a megaphone that wasn’t loud enough. It wasn’t loud enough by half. It might have been loud enough in a quiet room. It wasn’t near loud enough to battle or let alone compete with downtown Des Moines construction and traffic. The only sermons I could really hear were the two Downtown Disciples. The only reason I could hear them was because I got all up in their grill when I heard the lady in the sweet hat start busting on the NRA. I knew I had to hear that.

I was also disappointed in the size of the crowd. Now I know that not everybody gets excited for Good Friday. Many denominations don’t even do a service on Good Friday. Even the churches that do, I would describe those services as “sparsely attended”.

Which I get. I mean you can get the full Easter experience and give thanks to the one that gives you everything, but on the other hand, it is a Friday, and that beer isn’t going to drink itself. Is it?

Furthermore, even people that celebrate Good Friday, how many of them are going to take time off for work to wander around Des Moines on a cold Friday afternoon. I get it.

However, taking all of that into account, I thought there would be more people.

On the positive, I think it is an excellent outreach program. It is an excellent way to take the “Good News” out of the church and into what is falsely called the “secular world”. I witnessed many gawkers during the path. From people staring out their car, to other pedestrians, to office workers who rushed to their windows to watch the symbol of salvation pass by.

For the people that took their turn carrying the cross, it was a powerful experience. I’m sure if I would have taken my turn, it would have been powerful for me as well.

That is the curse of the photographer. The camera separates you from the experience.

Would I go again? I would, but I would take somebody with me. Hmmm… I hear Shannon’s new gig gives her Good Friday off.

Photoshop, WPC - Reminder

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE REMINDER – GOVERNMENT

April 20, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett

A friendly reminder that this week’s WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is GOVERNMENT:

GOVERNMENT

A GOVERNMENT photo is any photo that relates to either an agent of the GOVERNMENT, a building of the GOVERNMENT, or a product of the GOVERNMENT.

Get off the couch and get your camera in your hands. Remember, Big Brother is watching!

Happy photo harvesting!

Alexis, Brandon, Carla, Elainie, Formal Portrait, Iowa State, Jason, Johnathan, Logan, Mom, Teresa

One of Nature’s Masterpieces

April 19, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

Time to hit the backlog again. Here are some family pictures we took when Elainie was in town… back in March… 2017.

Unfortunately, the weather was terrible that day, so we were trapped inside. Hopefully, next time we do a family portrait, the weather will be more cooperative.

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A Minor Announcement

Just wanted to let everybody know, as we are now less than one month from my birthday, that I will not be having the birthday party this year. Time just escaped from me and I don’t have the time to plan such a shindig. Better luck next year.

Michelle, Road Trip, Town Sign Project

The Town Sign Project: Vol. 4

April 18, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett 8 Comments

On Saturday I took a small road trip west of Boone to collect some more signs for the TOWN SIGN PROJECT. Here is what I got:

Ogden, Iowa

Beaver, Iowa

Grand Junction, Iowa

Churdan, Iowa

Jefferson, Iowa

Paton, Iowa

Dana, Iowa

Alleman, Iowa

Full disclosure, the Alleman sign picture wasn’t taken on Saturday. It was taken a long time ago and I never posted it.

Fun Facts

Ogden has no affiliation with Thornton Wilder. (I’m hoping at least one person is sitting at their computer and giving that joke a slow clap. I’m hoping at least two people are Googling Thornton Wilder right now.)

If you had ever been to Beaver, you would know why they lack the civic pride to put up a real sign. Which is kind of sad because you could do a million fun signs with a name like Beaver. I have it on good authority that trains have to slow down when passing through Beaver, otherwise the 2 buildings in town that haven’t fall over… will fall over. After my post last week comparing Garden City’s creepy horror movie vibe to Beaver’s I was approached by Michelle and Elizabeth. Michelle badly wants to visit Beaver. Even after I shared with her some of the horrifying images from my old photo project “The Beaver Machete Massacre”, she still wants to visit it. Elizabeth has actually been to Beaver, but the trip scared her children badly. They continue to have nightmares and their future therapy bills will be monstrous. While I was in Beaver, I did have a truck follow me around the town. Maybe the Beaver sign should read:

“Beaver, You’re Not Welcome – The Opposite of Small Town Hospitality”

Out of this collection I like Grand Junctions sign the most. Jefferson’s the least. Jefferson is obviously missing a golden opportunity by not having a picture of their fuzz blasting cats. I suppose now that they aren’t going all Rambo on their feral cat population, it is a lost opportunity.

But imagine a picture of Clint Eastwood holding a .44 Magnum on a criminal cat. Then the words over it:

“Welcome to Jefferson – Go Ahead. Make Our Day”

I was actually impressed by Churdan. They had quite a bit of photogenic things in that little town.

Paton has a nice and boring “Welcome to Paton” next to their “business district”. It has a scrolling message board and everything. Boring.

Dana is what Beaver should strive to be, if Beaver had any kind of pride at all. I mean any pride at all!

Art, Black & White, Christianity, Photoshop, Road Trip, Ruins, Street Photography, WPC - Alternate

I’m a Doctor with No Job. Me, I Don’t Have No Patients. I Keep Pacing Back and Forth, I Keep Racing.

April 17, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett

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

Beaver, Iowa – The jewel of Boone County.

Grand Junction, Iowa – The jewel of Greene County

Jefferson, Iowa – They have an A&W, that is the only positive thing I’ll say about Jefferson.

Churdan, Iowa – Home of moderate high school athletic success in the 1980s

Paton, Iowa – Home of the Globe Conspiracy

Dana, Iowa – Making Paton look good since 1907

Boone, Iowa – God’s Country

I took all my signs on a little road trip on Saturday. As is known to happen to me, I got obsessed into my own little world and lost track of time. I missed the Methodist Men Potato Peeling Party. They managed without me.

That is all I have to say about these pictures. You’re welcome world.

Andy, Becky, Carla, Dawn, Jaxon, Kim, Linda, Michelle, Photoshop, Road Trip, Ruins, Shannon, Tamara, Teresa, WPC - Submissions

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 135 – SIGNS

April 16, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett

Another big week for the WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE. People didn’t let the weather stop them from harvesting all sorts of SIGNS pictures. This week the Photography 139 empire stretched as far north as downtown Boone, Iowa. As far south and east as Kentucky. As far west as Folsom, California. There are 2 special notes need to be made about the submissions this week:

SPECIAL NOTE #1

Jaxon made his first submission this week. I’m very excited and I expect big things in the future.

SPECIAL NOTE #2

Pay special attention to Linda Bennett’s submission. It is a very special submission. Many of you will be able to figure out why.

But you didn’t come here to listen to all that tommyrot, you came to see the submissions:

Becky Parmelee

Dawn Krause

Jaxon Schoff

Christopher D. Bennett

Kim Barker

Linda Bennett -I found this in a trunk filled with cards and letters from the last 70 years. Made me smile.

Kim Barker

Teresa Kahler

Shannon Bardole-Foley
“All license plates in California are made in Folsom Prison. So it seemed fitting for the closed sign for the museum to be a license plate. However, we were there when the museum was open, so it was partially hidden.”

Tamara Peterson

Andy Sharp

Michelle Haupt

Carla Stensland – Form of sign..?

A very 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:

GOVERNMENT

GOVERNMENT! What a great theme! But what is a GOVERNMENT photo? A GOVERNMENT photo is any photo that shows the GOVERNMENT at work. There is the obvious, a picture of a court house. GOVERNMENT. City Hall. GOVERNMENT. Police Station. GOVERNMENT. Fire Station. GOVERNMENT. But there also many GOVERNMENT activities you might not think about. That road you drove to work on today. GOVERNMENT. That public school where you dropped your kid off (I’m talking to those of us in the lower and middle class here) at this morning. GOVERNMENT. City Park. GOVERNMENT. County Park. GOVERNMENT. State Park. GOVERNMENT. National Park. GOVERNMENT. Iowa State University. GOVERNMENT. Other public universities. GOVERNMENT. The military. GOVERNMENT. A county hospital. GOVERNMENT. The Post Office. GOVERNMENT. The clean water (assuming nobody from Flint, Michigan or a state that allows fracking is reading this) coming out of your tap. GOVERNMENT.

Even organizations that aren’t the GOVERNMENT, are GOVERNMENT. That youth sport organization that you allegedly resigned from the Board, but sit my basement have 30 minute conversations about who should mow the lawn and chalk the fields. (That got strangely specific.) That board is a GOVERNMENT.

As you can see, there are a plethora of options and there are a ton more.

As always, I look forward to seeing 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 due date. 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

The latest person to show taste, class, and sophistication and sign on for a Photography 139 Email Subscription is Linda Clark. I honestly don’t know much about her, other than she is a relative of Andy Sharp and he says she has an interest in photography. Welcome aboard Linda! If you see her, feel free to give her a knowing glance and teach her the super-secret Photography 139 Handshake.

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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 governed Monday!

Art, Black & White, Boone FUMC, Kio, Photoshop, Scottie D., Suzie

An Afternoon with O’Keeffe, Hopper, Basquiat, and Suzie

April 15, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett

A couple Sundays back I met Suzie at the Des Moines Art Center to take in one of Des Moines’ most underappreciated attractions. The Des Moines Art Center is actually one of my favorite art museums that I have ever visited. It’s collection is surprisingly impressive and to top that off, it is FREE!

This was the 3rd or 4th time that we had tried to get together to visit the Des Moines Art Center, but something always seemed to get in the way. Made me think that the trip was never going to happen, much like Scottie D. and I’s next great tenderloining adventure to Winterset may never happen.

This trip to the art center ended up being kind of strange. Part of the way through the museum I started to sweat profusely and I was overcome with an overwhelming sense of hunger. We sat down for awhile and Suzie gave me a stick of gum. I felt better after a few minutes.

It was very bizarre. Not sure Suzie will want to visit the Art Center with me again at any time in the near future.

Here are a few pictures I took before my hot flash:

This is called Klingon Mustaches

After I felt better, I bid Suzie a fond adieu and then headed to the March for Our Lives via quick pit stop at Ted’s Coney Island.

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So I had an amazing day today. On a couple of strange fronts I had some new knowledge dropped on me and I’m still reeling from the info.

KNOWLEDGE BOMB #1

Today was the Methodist Men’s Annual Chicken Noodle Brunch. While we were taking a break from our arduous labor, I asked Kio if he had seen why Jefferson, Iowa was in the news this week.

Kio is a top dog at the Boone Area Humane Society, so I was referring to the story that was on the news about Jefferson coppers catching feral cats and then busting a cap in them.

Kio has unfortunately bought into the massive misinformation campaign to paint me as a cat hater. When in reality, I don’t hate cats. Cats suck and I report the facts. I don’t get any joy in this truth.

Because of his perception on my perception of cats, he thought I was going to push for Boone to follow suit with this efficient way to deal with an excess feline population.

However, all I really wanted to know is what the Boone Area Humane Society thought about this policy.

Now Kio can’t speak for the Boone Area Humane Society (okay, that is literally one of his jobs), but he can tell me what they do in Boone with what he termed “community cats”. Boone picks up these cats and makes sure they have all their shots and then microchips them, so they can track them. Then they return them to the neighborhood where they were trapped.

I was literally shocked to find out that this was happening. Boone has community cats.

Kio gave me the rough estimate that there are in the ballpark of 25 of these community cats in Boone. They are all registered, but he did not know whether or not the public had access to this registry.

I’ve had a few cats show up in my neighborhood and I had them dealt with before they could have an adverse effect on my property value.

However, I had no clue that some parts of Boone have sanctioned cats just strolling around.

I have decided that if I ever move, I will be finding out about how to check out this registry to make sure there isn’t one of these community cats in the neighborhood of a potential new home. Much in the same way that I made sure there were very few rental properties in my neighborhood when I bought my current homestead.

KNOWLEDGE BOMB #2

I now know the purpose and the story behind “The Shrine” between Boone and Ames. If you don’t know about “The Shrine”, it is a mysterious building on a country road between Boone and Ames, built by a guy that is known to run gawkers away from it. It is a source of frequent internet speculation and sometimes “investigative journalism” by local media outlets. It has its own thread on Reddit.

I have my information from a high placed source. While I would tell you what it is, I don’t want to ruin the mystery for you.

Here is a YouTube documentary on “The Shrine”:

I’ll just leave it that the documentary gets a few things right and quite a few things wrong.

Animals, Commercial, Event, Iowa State, Jeff Daniel, Shannon, Yin

04-13-08

April 14, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett 8 Comments

The following pictures were located int he folder 04-13-08:

By adding these images to the Photography 139 Gallery, I was able to restore the following classic An Artist’s Notebook journal entries to their original glory:

SHAVE AND A HARICUT
VEISHEA
LWL PHOTO SHOOT

The majority of these pictures were taken at VEISHEA, back before Iowa State (and it’s incredibly corrupt president at the time) mistakenly canceled VEISHEA. I spent a good part of that day hanging out with Jeff and Yin. This was before Jeff and Yin got married. Their wedding was one of the best weddings I’ve ever attended. You know how most weddings are incredibly lame and a complete waste of a Saturday? Well there wedding was actually fun and not a waste of a Saturday. Which is doubly amazing because their wedding was in Nebraska, the worst state in the union. The secret to the greatness of their wedding? Ice cream truck.

Jeff and Yin now have a little baby running around and I have yet to meet him, because at times, I am a horrible friend.

The photos of Shannon were taken during a photo shoot for Little White Lye Soap from back when I had that account.

Next Saturday’s stroll down memory lane will involve an Iowa State Spring Game and more Little White Lye Soap.

Road Trip, Ruins, Town Sign Project

The Town Sign Project: Vol. 3

April 13, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett

On my recent sojourn to Marshalltown, I was able to collect a few more signs for the TOWN SIGN PROJECT.

Mackey, Iowa

Story City, Iowa

Randall, Iowa

Jewell, Iowa

Radcliffe, Iowa

Garden City, Iowa

Gilbert, Iowa (Side 1)

Gilbert, Iowa (Side 2)

Most towns have multiple town signs. I only pick one for the project. For example, Story City has a couple nice, brand new looking signs. BORING! I almost fell asleep looking at them and I was driving at the time. I’m sure I’m not able to find all of the town signs in the towns I’m tooling through. My preference is old decrepit signs like the Garden City sign.

I should point out that Mackey isn’t really even a town any longer, but somebody put up a sign to mark where it used to be. I’m not above photographing town signs for towns that don’t exist any longer. I’m looking forward to my dance with the Zook Spur sign at some point in the near future.

You can review other signs that I’ve harvested for this project by clicking on the link below:

TOWN SIGN PROJECT

I hope to more than double the current number in the next month or so.

NOTE: The Gilbert sign was taken on a different road trip.