Black & White, Boone FUMC, Candid Portrait, Jodie Cue, Macro, Photo Journal, WPC - Reminder

A Photo Journal – Page 21

May 31, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

This week I knocked out Page 21 of THE PHOTO JOURNAL PROJECT. I took one of the rubber dinosaurs I seem to have in every room of the house.

Page 21 – Make something small look big.

While only one picture can be adhered into the physical THE PHOTO JOURNAL, however I took a couple other rubber dinosaur pictures that I like:

There are 20 pages left in the Photo Journal Project left to photograph. Gonna keep hammering away!

+++++++

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

GROUP PORTRAIT

Happy photo harvesting!

Black & White, Drone, Nature, Panorama, Railroad

Rodan139 – Fraser

May 30, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

On Sunday before May Movie Night/Grill-out, I went out by the Fraser Spring to fly Rodan139. My original intention was to take a picture for the aerial photography class of the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon. However, I didn’t really love any images I got enough to enter them in the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon. I still definitely am entering the aerial photography category, but I’m going to use a different image.

The lighting was harsh on Sunday, the Boone Scenic Valley Railroad wasn’t running the steam engine and there was never quite the image that I wanted. I will be back for the image I want though. Oh yes, I will be back.

However, even though I didn’t get the picture I drew up in my head, I still got quite a few images that I like. Here they are:

That concludes all of the drone picture I currently have. Not sure when Rodan139 will be flying again, but there is a good chance it will be this weekend.

Christianity, Drone, Panorama, Road Trip

Rodan 139 – Small Church

May 29, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

When Jesse and I went on my pre-birthday road trip to Decorah I packed Rodan139 with me at the thought that I’d be able to crack it out someplace along the road trip.

While Decorah and two waterfalls were the ultimate purpose of the road trip, I also thought that if we were super efficient, we might even be able to hit Pike’s Peak before coming home.

No shocker, we weren’t super efficient. We spent a long time at a Civil War reenactment that we stumbled upon. To further complicate things, it rained almost the entire day and Rodan139 doesn’t leave the nest in rain.

On the way home, we stopped at The Small Church near Festina and Rodan139 got to spread its wings for a few minutes.

Here are a few of the pictures I took:

Drone, Nature, Panorama, Small World

Rodan 139 – Don Williams

May 28, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

A month or so ago I took Rodan139 out to Don Williams to do a little drone photography. There was no crash or anything that was anything that even remotely resembled a crash, but there was a weird issue where my phone kept disconnecting from the drone.

It wasn’t an issue because the controller never came disconnected, but it was a cause for some concern. However, after going through everything having taken Rodan139 from several flights since then, I have figured out it was a phone issue and I have since corrected it.

Here are some pictures I took on my weird trip to Don Williams:

More pictures from more flights still in the hopper!

Andy, Angie, Boone FUMC, Candid Portrait, Carla, Drone, Holidays, Jodie Cue, Shannon, Steph, Still Life, Tamara, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 193 – BLUE

May 27, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

First things first. Even though Photography 139 doesn’t take days off, it does acknowledge holidays. I hope you have had a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend, but also take the time to remember why it is you got a 3 day weekend. To honor the people who have died while serving in the United States Armed Forces.

Happy Memorial Day!

As is usual when a holiday falls on Monday, participation rates for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE dip. While this happened again today, the people who did submit for BLUE were very passionate about BLUE.

There were pictures submitted that were taken in Rome, Philadelphia, Saylorville, and even Fraser!

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

Andy Sharp

Carla Stensland

Kim Barker

Christopher D. Bennett

Kim Barker

Tamara Peterson

Angie DeWaard

Andy Sharp

Shannon Bardole-Foley

Stephanie Kim

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:

GROUP PORTRAIT

GROUP PORTRAIT! What a great theme! But what is a GROUP PORTRAIT? A GROUP PORTRAIT is simply any portrait that features more than one person. It doesn’t have to be a formal posed portrait. A candid portrait works just as well.

I look forward to seeing your interpretations!

+++++++

HOUSEKEEPING

A MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 RULES DIVISION

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.

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.

+++++++

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 grouped Monday.

Black & White, Candid Portrait, Formal Portrait, Jesse, Lowell, Nature, Politics, Self-Portrait, Vacation

2009-02-18 – Arizona Day 3B

May 25, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

The pictures in the folder called 2009-02-18/Arizona_Day_3B are from the work/vacation to Arizona. The pictures are all from after Jesse and I met up with Lowell and Strabala and went back to the mini-mountain thing in Phoenix.

As it would just so happen, while we were there, Air Force One flew overhead. Looking at those pictures really made me nostalgic for when our country wasn’t the laughingstock of the entire world. Good times. Good times.

By adding these pictures to the Photography 139 Gallery I was able to restore the following historic “An Artist’s Notebook” entry to its original glory:

Arizona Day 3 – Part B

Next week’s walk down memory lane will once again involve this Arizona work/vacation.

Candid Portrait, Photo Journal, WPC - Reminder

A Photo Journal – Page 97

May 24, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

A couple Saturdays back I went to the Des Moines Farmer’s Market with my Mom. I was mostly on a mission to take a picture for the theme STREET PHOTOGRAPHY for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE. However, I also spied an opportunity to knock Page 97 off of my list for THE PHOTO JOURNAL PROJECT.

Page 97 – Photograph a human as though it were an animal.

While I can only physically adhere one photograph into the physical A PHOTO JOURNAL, there is one more picture I did consider for this page:

The last youth group was a couple Wednesdays back. I’m hoping to use that new free night as an opportunity to knock out several more pages from THE PHOTO JOURNAL PROJECT.

I currently have my eyes on knocking out a few of these pages:

Page 109 – Photograph a word to change its meaning.
Page 121 – Show us that photography is a form of magic.
Page 116 – Shoot an advert where the image says it all without the need for any additional copy.
Page 20 – Make something big look small.
Page 21 – Make something small look big.

+++++++

This is your reminder that the theme for this week’s WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE is BLUE:

BLUE

A BLUE photo is a photo of anything that is BLUE.

Happy photo harvesting!

Christianity, Drone, Formal Portrait, Jesse, Photo Journal, Road Trip, Self-Portrait

A Photo Journal – Page 104

May 23, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

Last Friday I took a birthday road trip with Jesse. It wasn’t my birthday, but it was the day before my birthday and I knew my actual birthday was going to be filled with working on my Mom’s bedroom ceiling and graduation open houses. So I took Friday off from work and Jesse and I hit the open road.

The ultimate goal of the road trip was to visit and photograph two waterfalls in the Decorah area. I had visited one of them a couple years back and I was never really satisfied with the photographs I took. The other waterfall I had never seen and it sounded very intriguing as it was described as a 1 mile hike to even get to it.

I have tons of photos of these two waterfalls coming in upcoming blog posts. Also pictures of a Civil War re-enactment with some of the “friendliest” folks you ever met in your life, plus a few new entries into THE TOWN SIGN PROJECT, pictures of The Little Brown Church, and The Smallest Church.

Plus there is a bunch of video I’m going to edit into a vlog at some point. On this trip I fully intended to take a picture for Page 104 of The Photo Journal. I knew exactly how I wanted to take this picture. I wanted to take it with Rodan139. Unfortunately it rained pretty much all of the day and I wasn’t risking Rodan139 in rain. It isn’t supposed to fly in rain and at this time, I’m not going to push the boundaries.

Luckily, when we were at The Smallest Church, the sky was precipitation free and it fit my definition of the theme for Page 104:

Page 104 – Keep walking until you are lost. Take a photograph the moment you realize you are lost.

Now we weren’t lost, not in the traditional sense. I knew where we were, but I didn’t know the fastest way to get back on the path home without pulling up the GPS. That is as lost as I get. We didn’t walk to The Smallest Church, but seriously, there is zero chance I’m ever going to get lost walking. My sense of direction is just too good.

The Littlest Church is sometimes billed as The World’s Smallest Church, but it isn’t. It isn’t even close. However it is very small. The church seats 8 people and measures 14′ x 20′.

Formal Portrait, Johnathan, Logan, Photo Journal

A Photo Journal – Pages 84-85

May 22, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

A few Saturdays back I went out to Long Park with Johnathan and Logan to test Rodan139 out as there were some quirky things that happened with it on the previous day when I took it to Don Williams. Turned out it was more of a phone update issue than anything and was nothing to worry about. Rodan139 is fine and dandy. At least for right now.

The videos I took of Logan and Johnathan will show up on the YouTube channel at some point, but that point isn’t exactly soon.

While we were out there, it was the perfect time to knock off Pages 84 & 85 of THE PHOTO JOURNAL PROJECT. This idea is stolen, I mean “influenced” by an illustration I once saw.

Page 84 – Photograph a lie.

Page 85 – Photograph a truth.

I don’t want you to think the truth is that Logan and Johnathan don’t get along. They certainly do. In fact, Johnathan, Logan, and Brandon worked like a seamless machine just the other day while hanging ceiling drywall at my Mom’s house.

For those wondering about the knives. Logan is holding my basement knife that is mostly used for opening popcorn bags. It was gifted to me by Vest. Johnathan is holding by upstairs knife. It is mostly used to open up UPS packages. That knife belonged to my Dad.

I did consider using my car knife, which was gifted to me by Kim, but it was left in my car and Johnathan drove.

More Photo Journal Project coming.

Photo Journal, Still Life, Street Photography

A PHOTO JOURNAL – PAGES 74-75

May 21, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

A couple Saturdays back I went to downtown Ames to watch Evie’s piano recital, making her the third Gorshe I have now seen in concert. just 3 more to go and I will have collected the entire set. Although I think it will be awhile before the twins are ready to tackle the music scene.

I arrived at the concert venue about 45 minutes early, so I figured I would knock out Pages 74 & 75 of THE PHOTO JOURNAL PROJECT.

Pages 74 & 75 are to make “A record of interesting backgrounds that I can return to later should I need to shoot someone’s portrait.”

There are spots for 11 of these backgrounds in the physical PHOTO JOURNAL. As you will quickly find out, I’m partial to brick walls. Decrepit brick walls.

This wall is actually in Boone.

Plenty more from THE PHOTO JOURNAL PROJECT coming this week!