Happy Friday the 13th!
You know what is funny about today? Nothing.
Except for your reminder of this week’s WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE. HUMOR!
HUMOR! What is a HUMOR photo? It is a photo of something that is funny or of somebody reacting to something that is funny.
Happy photo harvesting!
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The world wasn’t ready for these HANDS photos on Monday. While there aren’t many of them, I can’t hold them back any longer!
You’re welcome world!
A quick announcement before we get to the meat of this entry.
I will be working a concession stand at the Boone Municipal Band Festival today for the church. I will be there. I think some of my family. Some of the kid’s from the youth group. I think the money will go to the youth group, but I’m not entirely sure.
Unfortunately, we have no freedom with the menu. We are being forced to serve beef burgers. I know. Gross. The loose meat sandwich is an abomination that will burn in hell next to the only thing more evil than it. The open faced sandwich.
Oh, you don’t think I’d forgotten about the open face sandwich had you! Oh no, my hatred for you still burns. IT BURNS!
That being said, you could do worse than come out and buying some water or chips or tea from us. You can even buy a stupid loose meat sandwich and then just throw it in the trash where it belongs.
You will be doing 2 good deeds that way. Supporting a good cause and making sure there is one less loose meat sandwich in the world.
Also, the Municipal Band Festival usually has pretty good music.
We will be working the concession stand from 2-7.
While I know I’m not selling you on the food, I had forgot to mention there would also be pie for sale. Delicious homemade pie!
Come and get it!
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Back in May of 2017 I went on a little road trip to Decorah to see their waterfall. I would call it by name, but I’ve seen it spelled about 4 different ways. So we’ll just call it the Decorah Waterfall.
Here are some pictures:
The last 2 pictures are from the Ice Cave. I didn’t go very far into the cave because I was travelling alone and I didn’t want to get stuck in a crevice without somebody being able to point and laugh at me or pull me out. That is the price the Lone Wolf* has to pay to be a Lone Wolf!
*Scientifically documented.
I hope that while so many people are out smelling the flowers, someone is taking the time to plant some.
― Herbert Rappaport
Digging deep into the backlog here. The following are pictures from an August 2016 trip to the Iowa State Fair. Yes, I have pictures from 2016 I still haven’t even edited.
As many of you know, I the Discovery Garden is my favorite place on the Iowa State Fair fairgrounds. Every trip to the State Fair I make a stop there. This is often when I tell the people that go with me, go do something else. I’ll meet up with you later.
This particular trip to the State Fair was when Baby Got Rack was competing in the Farm Bureau Barbecue Contest. While the meat was smoking, I snuck over and grabbed these photos.
All things by immortal power. Near of faR, to each other linked are, that thou canst not stir a flower without troubling a star.
-Francis Thompson
This post signifies the final batch of photos from Donna’s flower garden. However, before we get into that, I need to make an announcement.
I got two pictures into the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon this year!
A few things I want to clarify:
#1. The Iowa State Fair Photo Contest and the Boone County Fair Photo Contest are not connected. They are completely independent and couldn’t be more unrelated. The Iowa State Fair Photography Salon is one of the hardest photo contests in the country. People from all over enter it. They only display 20% of the pictures that are displayed. Full-time professional photographers often don’t get photos in. Past judges don’t get photos in. The judges change every year, so it is impossible to guess what the judges are looking for every year. I pick the photos I enter into that contest. It is the contest I take seriously, even though I know it can be very arbitrary.
#2. Therefore, the photos I entered were not the same photos that I had people voting on last week. Those photos are for the Boone County Fair. The Boone County Fair doesn’t start for another week. I will enter the photos that people voted on July 21.
#3. I have a rule that I don’t enter a picture in more than one photo contest. Therefore, none of the pictures I entered in the Iowa State Fair were in the list of 50 pictures that people could vote on for the Boone County Fair.
#4. I don’t know what pictures were selected. You are allowed to enter up to 4 pictures. I entered 4, but I Don’t know what 2 were accepted for display. 2 of the 4 entered I haven’t released yet for public consumption. No real reason for that, other than I haven’t gotten around to it yet.
#5. I’ll get to find out what two got accepted for display when I go to the Photographer Reception. I think that is the Sunday before the Iowa State Fair, but I haven’t really looked into that yet.
#6. Finally, if you go to the Iowa State Fair and want to see the pictures in person, the Photography Salon is on the top floor of the Cultural Building. You can ask the attendants where pictures by certain photographers are and they will show you, if you don’t want the challenge of trying to find them on your own.
#7. In about a month I’ll unveil the process of picking the photos for the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest. It will be similar-ish to the way we did the Boone County Fair Photo Contest, but with some slight tweaks.
I’m pretty stoked. Glad I came out of Photography Contest Retirement!
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Here are the rest of the flower pictures:
Don’t worry Russell, there is plenty more flower pictures in the backlog!
Naima turned 7 today!
Here are some of my favorite pictures of her over the years:
I hope Naima had a happy birthday! We will do some of her favorite things any way. Sleeping. Going to the park. Eating.
HANDS was a popular theme! I’ll mark that down and make sure it isn’t in the next set of 52.
Oh, you don’t like that? Then you better get to suggesting themes for the next 52. The way to do that is in the “Comments” section of this here blog.
But you didn’t come here to listen to me talk all tommyrot about participation rates and the next 52 themes, you came to see the HANDS submissions:
Kim Barker
Michelle Haupt
Mike Vest
Mike Vest
Christopher D. Bennett
Tamara Peterson
Andy Sharp
Andy Sharp
Andy Sharp
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:
HUMOR! What a great theme! But what is a HUMOR photo? A HUMOR photo can be of something that is funny or at least trying to be funny. An example of something that is trying desperately to be funny, but is failing miserably would be a Mike Huckabee tweet. However, it is still an example of humor. Another HUMOR photo would be somebody reacting to something that is funny. I believe the usual reaction is laughter. I don’t know. It is well-documented that I don’t have a sense of humor.
Of course, there is more than one definition of HUMOR. I look forward to your interpretations!
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
Nobody showed class, taste, and sophistication this week by signing up for a Photography 139 email subscription. I’ll try and do better next week.
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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 humoruos Monday.
It is Sunday, so it is time to check in with everybody’s favorite Boone High graduate Saydie!
Time for some more great advice on Saydie’s next adventure, college life!
An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.
-Ben Franklin
After this, are more than halfway done with Saydie’s Senior Photo Shoot!
Will convene back here next Sunday to continue our celebration of Saydie!
Today’s pictures came from the folder 06-01-2008.
Many of these pictures were taken when Nader came back from visiting his family in London. He came back with a horrible mustache. I’m still not quite over it a decade later.
Let this be a warning to you. You want to be my friend, don’t grow a mustache. I will forgive most things, but some things are beyond forgiveness.
Also some flower pictures.
By adding these images to the Photography 139 Photography Gallery I was able to restore the following historic “An Artist’s Notebook” entries to their original glory:
Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve anther night at Ames on the Half Shell.
This is my telling of my experience on the Boone First United Methodist Church Youth Group’s Mission Trip to Houston (Vidor). There were 18 people on the mission trip and all of them experienced the mission trip in a completely different way than I did.
Therefore, you should pull your tired bones out of bed on Sunday, July 8 and drag yourself to the basement of the Boone First United Methodist Church (703 Arden Street) between worship services (approximately 10 AM) and listen to the other 17 people give their testimony about the mission trip. I’ll probably run my yap as well. There will also be a video. Also, there will be refreshments.
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The last day of the Mission Trip was the shortest as it is only a quick 8 hours from Tulsa to Boone. I spent most of the day driving and we stopped for lunch at an IHOB in Liberty, Kansas for lunch. Jordan’s choosing. We stopped at the Junction Creamery in Osceola for ice cream to celebrate Summer’s Gotcha Day. Other than that, the day was just bathroom stops.
I drove almost the entire day, so there aren’t many photos.
But here is my day in photos:
As the kids were packing up the van, I took a few quick shots around downtown Tulsa.
Bathroom break and gas stop.
This is a stupid rule.
Stopping in Osceola for ice cream!
Watch out Anna, that lady behind you is eyeing your Cookie Monster!
This is how Summer smiles!
This is how Summer shows joy.
Emily and officially the last picture of the mission trip.
We got home a little after 6. Sadly, when we got home we found out that Megan’s car had been towed. Nobody had paid attention to where she parked and the city towed her.
After that was sorted out, I somehow got out of returning the vans to Ankeny, so I went home. Saw Naima and tried to re-orient myself back to normal life.
It was an amazing trip on just about every level. I really can’t recommend going on a mission trip enough. Especially with a youth group. It is rewarding beyond your imagination.
A reminder that this week’s theme for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE is HANDS.
A HANDS photo is any photo that involves HANDS. I would say that everybody has HANDS, but everybody doesn’t. However, I can bet that everybody knows somebody that has HANDS. This project is easy peasy.
Happy photo harvesting!
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The world wasn’t ready for these photos on Monday. I’m not sure the world is ready for them now, but I can’t hold them any longer:
Not many, but I’m trying to step back from taking so many WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE photos.
It should be pointed out that there is about 2 months left is this 52 week run of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE. As of right now, there seems to be enough enthusiasm and participation to continue for another 52 week run. If you have any suggestions for the next 52 themes, make them in the Comments section of this here blog.
You’re welcome world!
