Slow, Restrained Melody

Today’s post is a collection of Naima pictures taken in January and 1 taken in February. One of the pictures is an in camera special effect, which has become somewhat of a lost art in photography. Not this particular effect, but in-camera special effects in general. If your name is Stephanie, you may want to look away. I know how this effect creeps you out.


Slow, Restrained Melody

Slow, Restrained Melody

Slow, Restrained Melody

Slow, Restrained Melody

Slow, Restrained Melody

Slow, Restrained Melody

Slow, Restrained Melody

Slow, Restrained Melody

Slow, Restrained Melody

Slow, Restrained Melody

Slow, Restrained Melody

Slow, Restrained Melody

Slow, Restrained Melody

Slow, Restrained Melody

I like to think of some of the pictures in the middle of this collection as emo Naima.

Rodan138

This is a collection of pictures I took in February with my original drone. I’m not it wouldn’t be only a few weeks later when that drone would meet its demise, but that is okay. Learning experience.

Those pictures were taken at the Jay Carlson Wildlife Area, which was the first place I took to flying the drone. It is still one of my favorites.


Drone Photography

Drone Photography

Drone Photography

Drone Photography

Drone Photography

Drone Photography

It is too bad that it is starting to get to the time of the year where it it is too windy and cold for Rodan139. Hopefully there are a few good days for flying this year.

Selfie Project – November

Now that the 2018 backlog is mercifully behind us, it seems like a good time to check back in with THE SELFIE PROJECT. The 2019 version of THE SELFIE PROJECT has almost ran its course. I won’t repeat it in 2020, but maybe I’ll bring it back in 2021. We’ll see.

Here are my favorite images from November:


November 1, 2019
November 1

November 2, 2019
November 2

November 3, 2019
November 3

November 4, 2019
November 4

November 7, 2019
November 7

November 9, 2019
November 9

November 11, 2019
November 11

November 12, 2019
November 12

November 13, 2019
November 13

November 14, 2019
November 14

November 15, 2019
November 15

November 16, 2019
November 16

November 17, 2019
November 17

November 20, 2019
November 20

November 21, 2019
November 21

November 23, 2019
November 23

November 24, 2019
November 24

November 25, 2019
November 25

November 26, 2019
November 26

November 27, 2019
November 27

November 28, 2019
November 28

November 29, 2019
November 29

November 30, 2019

I think November was one of my best months. At least for interesting pictures.

WPC – WEEK 221 – HIGH PERSPECTIVE

HIGH PERSPECTIVE proved to be a highly unpopular theme. That is the bad news. The good news is that by skin of its teeth, HIGH PERSPECTIVE had double digit submissions, to run the streak of double digit submission to eleven! Woot! Woot!

My best prognostication is that the streak will make it to fourteen, but that the 15th theme will be a soul crusher. It will be one of those weeks where we get like 3 submissions.

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


WEEK 221 - HIGH PERSPECTIVE - CHRISTOPHER D. BENNETT
Christopher D. Bennett

WEEK 221 - HIGH PERSPECTIVE - ANDY SHARP
Andy Sharp

WEEK 221 - HIGH PERSPECTIVE - ANDY SHARP
Andy Sharp

WEEK 221 - HIGH PERSPECTIVE - CARLA STENSLAND
Carla Stensland

WEEK 221 - HIGH PERSPECTIVE - ANGIE DEWAARD
Angie DeWaard

WEEK 221 - HIGH PERSPECTIVE - TAMARA PETERSON
Tamara Peterson

WEEK 221 - HIGH PERSPECTIVE - SHANNON BARDOLE-FOLEY
Shannon Bardole-Foley

WEEK 221 - HIGH PERSPECTIVE - KIM BARKER
Kim Barker

WEEK 221 - HIGH PERSPECTIVE - DAWN KRAUSE
Dawn Krause

WEEK 221 - HIGH PERSPECTIVE - MICKY AUGUSTIN
Micky Augustin

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:


WEEK 222 - SPORTS/GAMES
SPORTS/GAMES

SPORTS/GAMES! What a great theme! But what is a SPORTS/GAMES image? A SPORTS/GAMES image is any image of a SPORT or a GAME. It doesn’t even have to involve a GAME or SPORT in progress. A picture of a basketball would work. A picture of a fantasy football trophy would work.

Of course SPORTS/GAMES have multiple meaning, so feel free to not be too literal if you don’t want to be.

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.

OR

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.

+++++++

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 sporty Monday!

The 2018 Backlog Endeth

Before I get too much into the end of the 2018 Backlog, I do want to talk about Advent. On Wednesday we finished our Advent candle services for the Youth Group. The proudest moment of that was when Emily actually remember what Advent means! I was pretty pumped, let me tell you.

This Sunday, Mom, Logan, and I lit the Advent Candles during the first service at church. Today is the second Sunday of Advent and I forgot that because I missed the first Sunday of Advent when I went to Manhattan, Kansas last Sunday.

I thought (lest you forget that this is a Christian website) we could have our own little advent service here. I could just lift the reading straight from what the readers at my church read. We will have to do two candles this Sunday because I slacked off last week.

THE FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT

One: Advent calls us to prepare our hearts for the coming of Christ.
All around us people prepare for parties, dinners and presents.
These events could distract us from the real reason for our anticipation.
On the other hand, they also could prepare us;
they could be the voice crying in a wilderness of materialism:
“Prepare the way for the coming of what is really important.”

All: Rather than get lost in the wilderness of distractions,
we will let the music and the lights make us sensitive
to the voice that is even now calling our name.
We will listen for the Word in the words and even in the noise.

One: A reading from the Prophet Isaiah, Chapter 40, verses 1-5,9.
Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.
A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!”

Please join me:

All: In this season of hustle and bustle
we are tempted to get frantic and join the panic
to shop our way into the holiday spirit.
In this moment, we resist that temptation
and choose instead to be at peace
with who we are and where we are on this path.
We will let this time prepare us,
and we will hear God’s call
to be those who prepare the world.

One: On this first Sunday of Advent
we choose to be a peaceful presence
in this midst of a frantic season.
So, today, we light the first candle
as an act of preparation and call it Peace.


Hope


THE SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT

One: As our days grow shorter and our nights longer,
we who are people of faith turn to symbols
such as candles, evergreens and wreaths
to proclaim our belief in the unquenchable light.
In hopeful anticipation,
we prepare for the coming of the Reign of God.
Listen for the Word in the words of the prophet
for the second Sunday of this new church year:

All: We open our hearts to the Word in the words.

One: A reading from the Prophet Isaiah, Chapter 64, verses 1, 7- 9.
O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence. There is no one who calls on your name, or attempts to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity. Yet, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord, and do not remember iniquity forever. Now consider, we are all your people.

Please join me:

All: As we begin our journey to the light,
we confess that our lives have not always been lived
in ways pleasing to God.
Our shame has left us feeling distant from
the One who is both Mother and Father to us all,
the One in whose hands we are like clay.
Yet even now,
our longing for the One
who tears open the heavens and comes down
kindles like a fire in our soul.
Even now as we wait, we dare to hope.

One: We who are pregnant with anticipation
feel hope rise up within us.
And so we light this second candle
and name it Hope.


Peace

Yes, I know the candles are lit out of order.

+++++++

A special Sunday post to celebrate the end of the 2018 backlog. From now on “An Artist’s Notebook” will live more in the here and now, however, it should be pointed out that there is quite the 2019 backlog, but I can probably hammer that out in another 9 months or so…


Backlog Endeth

Backlog Endeth

Backlog Endeth

Poinsettia
Focus Stacked Image

Backlog Endeth

Backlog Endeth

Backlog Endeth

Backlog Endeth

Backlog Endeth

Backlog Endeth

Believe it or not, some of the Naima pictures weren’t taken at Dickcissel. They were taken at the Jay Carlson Wildlife Area. I don’t take Naima there very often because it just isn’t setup very well for her.

The 2018 Backlog is dead! Long live the 2019 Backlog!

2009-07-23

There are a metric buttload of pictures in the folder 2009-07-23. Strangely, most of them were actually taken in December of 2008. I’m not entirely sure what was going on there. I can just state that my organizational system back then wasn’t rock solid like it is now. Mostly because I let a program do most of the organizational heavy lifting for me.

There are pictures from a foggy Friday Night Supper Club. Pictures from a Bennett Christmas. Pictures of my old buddy Missionary Mark. Pictures from a Roland VFW Fundraiser.

Many of these pictures have never been published before. Have a peek:


Bennett Christmas - 2008

Bennett Christmas - 2008

Bennett Christmas - 2008

Bennett Christmas - 2008

Bennett Christmas - 2008

Bennett Christmas - 2008

Bennett Christmas - 2008

Bennett Christmas - 2008

Bennett Christmas - 2008

Bennett Christmas - 2008

Bennett Christmas - 2008

Bennett Christmas - 2008

Bennett Christmas - 2008

Bennett Christmas - 2008

Bennett Christmas - 2008

Bennett Christmas - 2008

Bennett Christmas - 2008

Bennett Christmas - 2008

Bennett Christmas - 2008

Bennett Christmas - 2008

Foggy Night Supper Club

Foggy Night Supper Club

Roland VFW Fundraiser

Roland VFW Fundraiser

Roland VFW Fundraiser

2009 Mark Reunion

The Hero of Africa

By adding these pictures to the Photography 139 Gallery, I was able to restore the follow historic “An Artist’s Notebook” entries to their original glory:

Foggy Night Supper Club

The Hero of Africa

Sedulous

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve Brandon, Sara, and Ledges. But not all at the same time.

But the Law Never Will

Here it is! The last batch of pictures of Melissa and Scottie D.’s children from the 2018 backlog! I think there are only 2 folders left in the 2018 backlog, but it might be less. I might just do a special Sunday “An Artist’s Notebook” entry just to be done with the 2018 backlog so I can begin in earnest hacking away at 2019.

Here is the final collection of Austin and Porter pictures:


Austin & Porter - 2018

Austin & Porter - 2018

Austin & Porter - 2018

Austin & Porter - 2018

Austin & Porter - 2018

Austin & Porter - 2018

Austin & Porter - 2018

Austin & Porter - 2018

Austin & Porter - 2018

Austin & Porter - 2018

Austin & Porter - 2018

Austin & Porter - 2018

Austin & Porter - 2018

Austin & Porter - 2018

Austin & Porter - 2018

Austin & Porter - 2018

Austin & Porter - 2018

Austin & Porter - 2018

Austin & Porter - 2018

Austin & Porter - 2018

Austin & Porter - 2018

A few of these pictures Scottie D. had made into canvas prints and he gave them to Melissa for Christmas. A truly wonderful husband!

+++++++

This is your reminder that this week’s theme for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE is HIGH PERSPECTIVE.


WEEK 221 - HIGH PERSPECTIVE
HIGH PERSPECTIVE

A HIGH PERSPECTIVE picture is a picture where your perspective comes from higher than your subject. It can be as simple as looking down on your subject OR you could just get up into a building or tree or whatever and get a perspective that is higher than ground level.

Happy photo harvesting!