Andy, Animals, Carla, Elizabeth, Flowers, Jodie Cue, Kim, Macro, Michelle, Micky, Monica, Naima, Photoshop, Shannon, Tamara

WPC – WEEK 205 – FLOWER

August 19, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

Much to the chagrin of floraphobes like Russell Kennerly, FLOWER proved to be an exceedingly popular theme. Possible the most submissions ever for one theme in the 6 year history of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE.

There is even a first time submission from Elizabeth. At the Computer Mine there is a Photo Bar across from the kitchen. Every year there is something of a “photo contest” to get employee photography up. I think there is 12 or 14 pictures that go up. Elizabeth got 2 pictures selected for display this year. Which shocked me because I didn’t even know that Elizabeth took pictures. A self-described Ansel Adams was right under my nose and I didn’t even know it. This week was her first submission, but I hope that it won’t be the last.

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

Christopher D. Bennett

Jodie Cue

Kim Barker

Michelle Haupt

Jodie Cue

Tamara Peterson

Jodie Cue

Shannon Bardole-Foley

Monica Henning

Andy Sharp

Micky Augustin

Carla Stensland

Monica Henning

Elizabeth Nordeen

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:

RED

RED! What a great theme! But what is RED photo? A RED photo is any photo where the subject is RED or where RED is significant to the photo.

There were no ideas submitted for themes for Year 7 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE, so next year you guys will be totally at my mercy. I’ve already selected the 52 themes and randomized them. Hooray me!

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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.

I now allow people to text me their submissions. In the past, I had made exceptions for a couple people that aren’t real computer savvy, even though it was an inconvenience for me and required at least 3 extra steps for me. I am now lifting that embargo because I have a streamline way of uploading photos. I’m not giving out my phone number, but if you have it, you can text me.

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 red Monday!

Animals, Contests, Drone, Nature, State Fair

Iowa State Fair Photography Salon Results

August 18, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

The Iowa State Fair is almost over. While this publishes I should be at the Iowa State Fair having recently picked up the photos I entered in this year’s Iowa State Fair Photography Salon. They’ll be nice and packed up. Ready for the trip home. Ready to be placed in the Photo Contest Trunk. Although at this point, there are actually two Photo Contest Trunks.

Since you can no longer wander around the Photography Salon looking for my picture it is time to reveal the pictures I entered and which one got in…

Iowa State Fair Photography Salon Entry - 2019

Not accepted for display.

Honorable Mention

Not selected for display.

So every year is different and you never really know what the judges will like from year to year (this year, they were really into clowns and setting steel wool on fire), which is why it makes it one of the most difficult and most prestigious contests in the country. People from all over the United States enter it. Which is rare. For example, the photo contest at the Minnesota State Fair doesn’t even allow people from outside of Minnesota to enter it.

It is an accomplishment to get one picture in.

3169 pictures were entered.
757 pictures were exhibited.
207 received ribbons.
1714 Adult color pictures were entered.
313 were exhibited.
476 Adult black and white pictures were entered.
154 were exhibited.

This is the first time in years where I didn’t enter a flower or black & white picture. I’ll need to correct that next year.

The hardest category to get a pictured exhibited was Color Plants, Flowers & Trees. Only 13% of entered pictures were exhibited.

Finally there were 15 photographers that entered from Boone County.

I suppose I should start making plans for next year’s contest. Getting caught up on the backlog would probably be a good start.

Art, Contests, Formal Portrait, Jesse, Nader, State Fair, Street Photography, Willy

Iowa State Fair 2018 – Misc.

August 18, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

This is final collection of Iowa State Fair pictures from 2018. Published just in time for the close of the 2019 Iowa State Fair.

I’ll be spending the day at the Iowa State Fair solo today as all 4 of the people that were going to go with me all gave me the shaft. C’est la vie!

These pictures are from the day I went to the last day of the Fair to pick up my pictures from the Photography Salon. Nader and Jesse went with me on that day.

I’m already looking forward to the 2020 Fair.

Basketball, Black & White, Formal Portrait, Shannon

2009-05-06

August 17, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

The pictures in the folder 2009-05-06 are of Shannon paying off a wager that she lost… to me.

I feel bad calling it a wager, because she didn’t really stand much of a chance of winning. Well she had one chance when I think about it.

We wagered on the outcome of a basketball game between the Iowa State Cyclones and the Northern Iowa Purple Hawks.

I know… I know… why would anybody be foolish enough to put up anything of value at stack, in the vain belief that the Purple Hawks would actually best the Cyclones.

What UNI had going for them was that Iowa State was in the middle of its worst run of basketball in its modern history. This was still a couple years before Fred Hoiberg rode in and saved Iowa State basketball. Iowa State was still being coached by a former Purple Hawk by the name of Greg McDermott. In his defense he had coached okay when he was a Purple Hawk but coming up to the big leagues proved too be too big of a step for him and he failed miserably in Ames.

Fortunately Iowa State got bailed out when some parochial school in Omaha (I think that is in Montana) took him off our hands. A miracle that has repeated itself twice. Once when Auburn took Gene Chizik off our hands and then again when Auburn (seriously thank you Auburn) took James Bond villain and terrible administrator Steven Leath off our hands. Auburn has since fired both of them. I think McDermott still coaches at the parochial school.

But to the results of the wager, the obvious happened. The Cyclones strode into whatever middle school gym the Purple Hawks play in and mercilessly pounded UNI 71-66 in overtime.

I don’t know what would’ve happened if I would’ve lost the bet, but it seems pretty irrelevant. Shannon had to dawn a piece of Cyclone clothing and pose for a photo session.

Here are the results of that session:

It doesn’t appear that I have ever published these pictures. It might have been part of the wager that the pictures were to never become public. I figure either the statue of limitations have run out on that deal or what does it matter? I’m sure they’ll be closing UNI down in the next couple of years and it will be just a footnote in history like Des Moines University or Highland Park College or Sioux Empire College or Iowa Wesleyan… Oh wait, they decided to keep Iowa Wesleyan open.

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve a Mother’s Day barbecue.

Art, Formal Portrait, Jay, Jesse, Photo Journal, Willy, WPC - Reminder

A Photo Journal – Page 31

August 16, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

Last Saturday night Jay, Willy, Jesse, and I piled into the Sir Pixalot-mobile and headed down to Des Moines for a dinner that had absolutely nothing to do with Jay’s dinner. Anybody that says that the very delicious dinner we took down had anything to do with Jay’s birthday is a terrible liar.

Jay had selected (totally unrelated to his birthday) BAH Brazilian Steakhouse for the dinner. When we got there, there was a 45 minute wait. I took this as an opportunity to take Willy across the river and take the two pictures that I needed for Page 31 for THE PHOTO JOURNAL PROJECT.

Page 31

Tell a joke with two pictures.

This leaves only the following images left to capture before finally closing the book on THE PHOTO JOURNAL PROJECT:

Page 18 – Shoot the other half of this picture by Jason Evans. – This is a profoundly stupid page, but I guess I’ll have to bite the bullet and do it at some point.
Page 28 – Recreate a famous photograph without looking it up.
Page 64 – Head out with a fellow photographer and play a game of photography dare.
PAGE 66-67 – Make a sequence of four pictures inspired by the rise and fall of Britney Spears (or another celebrity).
PAGE 101 – Find an object, close your eyes and compose your shot using touch rather than vision.
Page 106-107 – Email one of your pictures to your photography hero and ask them what they hate about it.
Page 117 – Freeze the frame exactly 57 minutes and 32 seconds in to your favorite film. Take a picture inspired by what you see.
PAGE 121 – Show us that photography is a form of magic.
Page 123 – Don’t take any more photographs -none- until you see something that emotionally moves you. Only then pick up your camera.

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

FLOWER

A FLOWER picture is pretty self-evident. Happy photo harvesting!

Animals, Black & White, Flowers, Macro, State Fair

Iowa State Fair 2018 – More Flowers

August 15, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

Here is the balance of my flower pictures from my trips to the Iowa State Fair in 2018:

I have one last collection of 2018 Iowa State Fair backlog pictures coming your way.

Animals, Flowers, Macro, State Fair

Iowa State Fair – 2018 – Flowers

August 14, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

As I continue to try and catchup with my 2018 backlog, this collection is of pictures of flowers I took at the Iowa State Fair in 2018.

At is long established that one of my favorite parts of the Iowa State Fair is the Discovery Garden. That is where most of these pictures were taken.

I have another collection of Iowa State Fair flower pictures on the way!

Animals, Black & White, Nader, State Fair, Street Photography

Iowa State Fair 2018 – More Animals

August 13, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

You can still technically vote in the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest Poll right now, but it will shut down at some point today. So if you haven’t voted yet, then you need to get on it.

By the time this post publishes, Baby Got Rack will have been judged and should be finding out where we placed in this year’s State Fair Barbecue Contest sponsored by some insurance company that I can never remember because it isn’t my insurance company. I insure with American Family Insurance. I don’t necessarily endorse them because I’ve literally never had an interaction with them. I pay them. They take my money. I’ve never made a claim. Car or house. It is a good relationship. So far.

Unlike Bank of the West. It is a matter of time before I dump that awful bank. I just haven’t figured out where to go. I prefer to bank in Boone and I’ve been considering credit unions lately, but there isn’t a credit union in Boone. So I just sit and stew about Bank of the West and their terrible customer service. This is why I should have never went to direct deposit for day job’s paycheck. Even though I’m sure they would have just forced me to do it at some point by now. I wonder if they would direct deposit my paycheck in a rusty coffee can buried in my backyard. Don’t laugh. That rusty coffee can gives me the same customer service as Bank of the West. Probably more.

Any way, go vote in the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest poll if you haven’t. I’m not providing you a link. You should have figured it out by now.

Here are some pictures of animals from last year’s Iowa State Fair:

There are about 3 collections of Iowa State Fair pictures left to share. By my calculations at least.

Andy, Candid Portrait, Carla, Cathie, Contests, Flowers, Kim, Micky, Monica, Music, Pufferbilly Days, Shannon, Steph, Tamara, Vest, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 204 – MUSIC

August 12, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

There is 1 day left to vote in the polls that will determine what pictures I enter in the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest.

If voting in all 6 polls at once is too much for you, you can at least cast a ballot in the last poll. Hidden Treasures of Boone County.

Hidden Treasures of Boone County – Set 2

TS Poll - Loading poll ...

If you are ready to vote in all 6 polls, click on the link below:

Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest Poll

Thanks for voting!

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It looks like there are lots of people that have MUSIC in their lives as MUSIC was a theme that once again hit double digits in submissions. This is, I believe, the 6th week in a row where a theme reached double digits in submissions.

There are only 4 weeks left in this cycle of themes. If you have any ideas or suggestions for themes for the next 4 weeks, leave them in the Comments section of this here post.

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

Andy Sharp

Monica Henning

Kim Barker

Shannon Bardole-Foley

Tamara Peterson

Stephanie Kim

Tamara Peterson

Cathie Raley

Christopher D. Bennett

Micky Augustin

Mike Vest

Carla Stensland

FLOWER

FLOWER! What a great theme! As luck would have it, this time the FLOWER theme popped up during a time of year where almost all of us can just walk into our backyard and take a picture of a FLOWER. Or we can go to a park and take a picture of a FLOWER. This might be the best time of year for wildFLOWERs.

As always, I look forward to seeing your interpretations!

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HOUSEKEEPING

A MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 RULES DIVISION

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 flowery Monday!

Animals, Black & White, Contests, Nader, Pufferbilly Days, State Fair

Iowa State Fair – 2018 – Animals

August 11, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

There are just a couple of day s left to vote in my polls that will determine what pictures I enter in the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest.

If voting in 6 polls at once in too much for you, you can vote in one of the Hidden Treasures of Bone County polls below:

Boone County Treasures – Set 1

TS Poll - Loading poll ...

If you are ready to vote in all the polls, you can do that by clicking on the link below:

Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest

Thanks for voting!

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As I try to clear out my 2018 Iowa State Fair backlog before the end of the 2019 Iowa State Fair concludes, here is a collection of animal pictures from the petting zoo and the baby animals exhibits!

Still at least a couple posts worth of State Fair pictures in the hopper.