Art, Black & White, Jesse, Nature, Road Trip

Birthday Road Trip – Malanaphy Springs

February 9, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

After we left The Little Brown Church and the possible time travelers but probably LARPers, our next stop was the Malanaphy Springs Waterfall. It is the lesser known waterfall in/near Decorah. It isn’t as pretty as Dunning’s Springs. It definitely isn’t as accessible. It is a good 20-30 minute hike on a trail that isn’t well curated.

With that being said, it is definitely worth the extra work. It is a place out in the woods that is beautiful and private. A person can collect their thoughts there.

Here are some pictures:

I would like to return to this waterfall at some point this year. Looking ahead, I’ll probably take my birthday road trip on May 15 this year. But I have no clue where I will end up. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it is back in northeast Iowa again.

More pictures from this trip still to come.

Black & White, Candid Portrait, Flowers, Formal Portrait, House, Steph

2009-08-29

February 8, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

The pictures from the folder named 2009-08-29 are mostly from a photo session I did with Stephanie. If I recall correctly, these pictures were supposed to be a headshot for her music career. I decided to convert those to black and white and save them for posterity.

The other pictures in this folder are from my garden.

This is the first time that I’ve published any of these images.

Next week’s walk down memory lane will involve Ottumwa, Iowa and fire.

Event, Jesse, WPC - Reminder

Larry Howard

February 7, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

Willy, Jay, and I are taking Jesse out for his birthday. It isn’t anywhere near his birthday. Jesse’s birthday was way back in December, but life got in the way of going out then. We had to celebrate Willy’s birth. Then the holidays got in the way. Then it was the Camping World Bowl Road Trip. It took us awhile to come together on a day that worked for everybody.

After swapping calendars, we worked out the best day was February 7. A very special FNSC. We would gather ourselves up and head to The OP in Ankeny.

This is apropos because today is the birthday of Jesse’s dad Larry. Larry passed away on February 21, 2019. Larry was a Vietnam veteran and was eventually laid to rest at the Veteran’s Cemetery in Van Meter.

I was asked to take pictures of the ceremony once I got there. I didn’t actually plan on that and I didn’t have my normal camera with me. I did what I could with the RX0II. Here are a few pictures of Larry’s graveside service:

If you have never been to the Veteran’s Cemetery in Van Meter, I recommend visiting it. Even if you don’t have anybody there. It will recalibrate your sense of priorities.

+++++++

This is your reminder that this week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE is REFLECTION:

REFLECTION

I don’t know that REFLECTION picture needs explained.

Happy photo harvesting!

Black & White, Jason, Naima, Nature, Photoshop, Self-Portrait, Underwater

70% Playing with Stuff

February 6, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

Today’s entry is a collection of random May images from last year. Some are from a trip to Dickcissel with Naima. One is a horrible green screen experiment. There is a picture of Jason from when we put my mom’s ceiling back together.

Last year my Mom’s ceiling fell on her in the middle of the night. Not the whole thing, but a good chunk of it. It definitely isn’t the way one wants to be woken up.

The weird thing is that there were no cracks in it beforehand. It just broke one night. Probably due to how close she lives to the Life Flight landing pad at the Boone County Hospital.

One big step closer to having the 2019 backlog cleared up.

Mom, Sheri, Tenderloining, Teresa

Tenderloin Appreciation Society – Three Strikes

February 5, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 6 Comments

I went through a long drought where I didn’t experience a good (new) tenderloin for several months. I decided not to torture my people with 3 separate entries on 3 bad tenderloins. I decided just to knock them all out in one swoop.

Big Al’s BBQ – Des Moines, Iowa

Back in May, Mom, Teresa, and Sheri went to Big Al’s BBQ in Des Moines to try their tenderloin. It was somewhat hyped as a tenderloin that was smoked and then fried. Baby Got Rack tried something similar once and couldn’t make it work. This also doesn’t work.

Although I will say that there service was good, the owner was awesome, and all their other food was good.

Here are some pictures:

It was the best of the 3 tenderloins in this entry, but it wasn’t good. It did have many of the qualities of a good tenderloin. Decent breading. Good size. Proper thickness. But the smoky flavor just didn’t work.

GroVer Flavors – Van Meter, Iowa

I’m not going to pile on this tenderloin. This restaurant has since closed because the owner has lung cancer.

Here are a few pictures:

It was burnt. It was too thin. Let’s not dwell on it.

Whistlin’ Donkey – Woodward, Iowa

Whistlin’ Donkey was also a disappointment and by far one of the worst restaurant experiences I’ve ever had. From the time we ordered, until the time we got our food, it was over 90 minutes.

Here are some pictures:

I do remember them having an appetizer that was delicious, but now I can’t remember what it was. I think the high point of this tenderloin is that it had a toasted bun.

As I look at these pictures, I see that my tenderloin photography wasn’t always the best. As I pursue tenderloins in 2020, I will also effort to improve the quality of the tenderloin photography.

This is my solemn vow!

Tenderloining

Tenderloin Appreciation Society – Paton Field Work

February 4, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

Scott and I’s schedules are often difficult to get to align, so last year I increasingly took other people with me on my tenderloin quest. Then I followed that up by not adequately reporting on my findings and furthermore, not taking good enough notes to post something of consequence at this late of date.

Therefore rather than getting a really good, solid review of the tenderloins I encountered in 2019, you are just going to get pictures and the general gist of my memories.

On of those tenderloins I remember was at 209 Main in Paton. The family and I went there after church on a Sunday in late September. Here are some pictures of the experience:

What I remember of this tenderloin is that it was delicious. Good breading. Good thickness. Toasted bun.

The rules of Tenderloin Quest are that you have to eat the tenderloin how it is served. However, I do not believe that lettuce belongs on a tenderloin. Lettuce is for the salad I should be eating for the two days before eating the tenderloin and the two days after I eat the tenderloin.

The onion rings and nachos were also delicious.

Logan took the pictures of me taking my first bites of the tenderloin.

Although it was a really good tenderloin, I’m not sure it was good enough to join the Tenderloin Pantheon. I would need Scott to back that up anyways. It takes a consensus opinion to be placed on the Tenderloin Pantheon.

I know there are at least a couple more tenderloins from 2019 for me to write about in the coming days. Plus, I might be checking out a tenderloin in Ames in the coming weeks. Plus a tentative tenderloin outing in Corning needs to happen before Ash Wednesday. If I get real ambitious, I should head up to New Hampton. However, I don’t see that happening until at least after Easter.

Until next time, happy tenderloining!

Andy, Becky, Carla, Cathie, Dawn, Elizabeth, Jen, Kim, Logan, Michelle, Micky, Shannon, Steph, Still Life, Tamara, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 229 – WORK

February 3, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

A HUGE week for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE! A COLOSSAL week! WORK was the 18th week in a row with double digit submissions!

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

Micky Augustin

Kim Barker

Carla Stensland

Tamara Peterson

Carla Stensland

Shannon Bardole-Foley

Michelle Haupt

Christopher D. Bennett

Stephanie Kim

Becky Parmelee

Dawn Krause

Logan Kahler

Andy Sharp

Cathie Raley

Jen Ensley-Gorshe

Elizabeth Nordeen

Kim Barker

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:

REFLECTION

REFLECTION! What a great theme! But what is a REFLECTION picture? Well, a REFLECTION picture is any picture that includes a REFLECTION as an essential part of its composition. A picture with a mirror would be the most common kind of REFLECTION picture. But many things have RELFLECTIONs. Including water and really anything that is shiny.

Remember that REFLECTION has more than one meaning. 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.

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 reflective Monday!

Animals, Black & White, Nature, WPC - Alternate

There is No Blame, Only Shame

February 2, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 7 Comments

By the time this email flies through the tubes of the internet and gets flushed down into your computer, phone, web tv, or whatever device you use to upload Photography 139 content into your brain, the Super Bowl will probably be somewhere in the third quarter. You will probably be ready for a distraction.

However, I’m going to give you more than a distraction. I’m just going to go ahead and tell you that the final score of the Super Bowl is going to be 28-24. The San Francisco 49ers will win. Defense wins championships. Period.

I wish it wasn’t the case. I don’t have much rooting interest in the Super Bowl (or any NFL game) these days. I guess I’m slightly rooting for the Chiefs because I have family that are Chiefs fans. Frequent contributor to the WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE, Michelle is also a Chiefs fan.

However, I have on friend that really stands out as a Chiefs fan. He is a former season ticket holder and he lives in Ballardville, Iowa. That is like a 3 hour drive to the Chiefs stadium. Whatever it’s called. When I asked him where he was going to watch the game, he replied:

“In a locked room, by myself.”

He would go on to talk about how he had been waiting 30 years for this moment.

I told him that I appreciated his passion. I pretty much always appreciate passion that isn’t derived from mental illness. Even though, you could certainly make the case that being an avid sports fan is a form of mental illness, I’m not going to make that argument. It strikes a little too close to home.

I told him that locked in a room by myself was exactly the same way that I watched the series finale of DOWNTON ABBEY.

Another friend on the same group text chimed in that it wasn’t fair to compare the Super Bowl to DOWNTON ABBEY. I reassured him that while American football is only popular in the United States and DOWNTON ABBEY was an international phenomenon, it is still fair. American football is still a pretty big deal. Not as a big of a deal as the Crawleys, but people still like it.

So, I’m rooting for the Chiefs right now. Despite the fact that their fans spit on America by blaspheming the national anthem. Despite the fact that many of the traditions that go on in that stadium crossed the “is that racist” border several miles back.

I hope I forgot to carry a one and the Chiefs don’t disappoint my friend that is locked in a room (hopefully not one with padded walls) right now. I don’t want him to go through the same disappointment I did when Tom Branson and Laura Edmunds didn’t hook up.

+++++++

Here are some pictures that didn’t make the cut for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme COUNTRY:

Hope you have gotten your WORK photo by now. Even if you haven’t, you probably have plenty of time to get a picture from where you WORK on Monday morning.

Black & White, Formal Portrait, Jill, Photoshop

2009-08-27

February 1, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

The pictures in the folder 2009-08-27 are from a photo session I did with Jill. It was the beginning, I think, or near the beginning of a thing I did for a couple years I call THE PERSONAL PHOTO PROJECT. It was something I did where at least once a week I took pictures entirely for me. Meaning, I had this list of ideas for pictures I wanted to take, but I would never take them because I always seemed to be working on somebody else’s project. At least that is how I felt. It might be something I need to get back to doing. We’ll see.

One of these pictures was turned into a piece of artwork where I placed it inside of a window and then hung it on my wall. It was on my wall for several years until it started to fall apart and I moved on to a different piece of art for that piece of wall. I think its remains are still in the basement somewhere. You don’t want to go to my basement, unless it is for Monthly Movie Night. Then you definitely want to go to my basement.

One of those pictures does still hang in my office. The office is filled with pictures that have been retired from the living room.

It has been 3, maybe 4 years, maybe 5 years since the last time I talked to Jill. I think one day she just woke up and thought, “Screw that guy.” Which raises a good question: Why haven’t more people had that thought? I mean besides Eric, who one day, woke up and thought “screw that guy” and then sent me a formal email ending our friendship. A few weeks after he lived with me for a week. If I still had that email, I would print it out, frame it, and put it on my wall. It was maybe the best rejection letter I’ve ever received.

Regardless, I hope she is doing well and I hope Eric is doing the best that he can. We weren’t meant to be in each other’s lives.

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

No. 14

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve Stephanie and my green thumb. Not together though.