Brooke, Cathie, Elizabeth, Flat Earth Joe, Formal Portrait, Jorge, Lowell, Michelle, Micky, Vest, Work

The Mine: An American Workplace

April 17, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 11 Comments

I recently had a sale in the Photography 139 Gallery. Thanks to Amy for purchasing 16 pictures from the gallery.

16 pictures! Suck on that Vincent van Gogh!

I don’t mention it very often, but almost every picture is for sale in the Photography 139 Gallery. Prices are only a hair above cost and you can buy things besides prints. You can buy key tags, cups. cards, coasters, ceramic tiles, ornaments, and whole bunch of other stuff.

If you are ever interested, you can check out the gallery here:

Photography 139 Gallery

Then click on “Buy Photos” that is above the picture on the right.

I’ not saying go buy some photos, but I don’t mention that it is something you can do very often.

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20 work from home days in the book. This week I found myself, not exactly fantasizing, but thinking about future vacations. I’m at a point where when we got the okay to go back to the office, I want to take the next 3 weeks off. I’m not sure they’d let me, but I’m ready. Ready for what, I have no clue.

My listening habits were the same this week. I’m up to Track #748 on the Master Playlist.

Track #748 is “You’re the Best Around” by Joe Esposito. Otherwise known as the montage song during the tournament scene of THE KARATE KID. A true banger if there ever was one.

I have eliminated a few songs from the Master Playlist. Either the recording quality wasn’t good enough, or it turns out, I don’t really like the song that much:

“Tell Me Lies” – Fleetwood Mac
“Hold On Loosely” – .38 Special
“Sister Christian” – Night Ranger
“Demons” – Imagine Dragons
“Roots” – Imagine Dragons
“And We Danced” – Macklemore

I don’t know that I’ve discovered any more positives with social distancing life, but I did discover that none of my smoke detectors work. Something I wouldn’t have discovered if I was working on so many cleaning projects. A new one arrived today and if I like it, I’ll buy a second one for the basement. Although I don’t know what the criteria would be for smoke detector that I don’t like would be.

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The show I have been binge watching while social distancing is THE OFFICE. I watched the show from its inception, but stopped during the writer’s strike and never got back to it.

I have officially completed all 9 seasons and somewhere during the middle of the 9th season it dawned on me, why deep inside I decided to start back up on this show. It isn’t because it is great, but it is great. I think I was drawn to it because… I’m starting to miss my co-workers.

I thought I would share a few images of my co-workers. Every year I am charged with taking the Computer Mine Holiday Card photos.

It secretly is one of my favorite secondary responsibilities I have. I even enjoy hearing the exact people give me the exact same complaint about “why can’t they just use last year’s photo”.

Here are some pictures from last year’s photo shoots of people that either subscribe to this here blog or appear in it somewhat frequently:

I’ll see you guys again. Sometime soon!

Animals, Naima, WPC - Reminder

Wild Goose Chase

April 17, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

Delving into the 2019 backlog. This is a collection of pictures that span a couple different trips to Dickcissel Park with Naima. Most of the pictures are from the second trip where we encountered a wounded goose.

The goose had been injured some way above its leg. It was out there for a couple more days, but then it was gone. I’d like to think that it recovered enough and eventually flew off. I didn’t find any signs of a struggle or goose remains any way and every time I saw the goose, it was hunkered down in the same location.

While there is a fair chance it eventually became victim of a predator, it did have a pretty good system of working its way out onto the pond on the thin ice. Too thin for a creature that weighed much more than it to get to it.

Here are some pictures:

This is a meaningless statistic, but it is a huge milestone for the backlog. I am now down to two rows of folders to curate!

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A reminder that this week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is EARS:

EARS

An EARS photo is any picture that involves EARS or things that are used by EARS.

Happy photo harvesting!

Art, Becca, Bethany, Candid Portrait, Jonah, Self-Portrait, State Fair, Street Photography

Minnesota State Fair – Pixel Pictures

April 16, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

This is the final collection of pictures from my trip to the Minnesota State Fair with Bethany, Becca, Jonah, and Shawn. These are the cruddy cell phone pictures.

One thing that I found disappointing when I went back and looked at these is that I didn’t take pictures of my food OR even the bucket of cookies. It is a genetic marker of being a Bennett to take pictures of your food. Bennetts invented hipsters, I fear.

The fact that I only took a picture of my delicious pineapple drink makes me worried that I might have been adopted, for the first time in my life.

The other thing you will learn from this collection of photos is how big of a Stan I am for British period television shows. I badly miss DOWNTON ABBEY. I grieved the recent end of POLDARK. I can’t wait for the next season of VICTORIA. All these are shows I watch with my Mom.

We started watching the DURRELLS IN CORFU, but it is only okay. I might have to look into BELGRAVIA, but I don’t have my hopes up.

Weird to see the globe Earth cover-up in person.

Teach them the globe lie young.

By the way, I know the Earth isn’t flat.

It looks like as of now, the Iowa State Fair is still a go. I got my information about the Photography Salon in the mail on Tuesday. I need to start thinking about getting my entries ready.

Animals, Naima, Underwater

Raggle-Taggle

April 16, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

This morning’s post is a collection of some rando photos I took across a couple of days. A couple are of Naima, but most are taken in the Boone County Hospital Pond.

Feels like we are getting down to the nitty-gritty of the 2019 backlog. But there are still some big photo shoots left to curate out there.

Animals, Art, Becca, Bethany, Jonah, State Fair, Street Photography

Minnesota State Fair #3

April 15, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

Here is the final collection of Minnesota State Fair pictures that came from a real camera. This highlight being pictures of Becca and Jonah going down the giant slide. A secondary highlight is the extremely creepy statue right next to the giant slide.

The final place we visited before calling it a day was the “photo contest”. It was actually the biggest disappointment of the fair. There were hardly any photos and they were just mixed in with the rest of the art. Fortunately, the rest of the art contest was actually pretty cool.

I still have one more collection of cruddy cell phone pictures to share. Then we can close the door on the 2019 Minnesota State Fair.

Flowers, Naima

Hasbro

April 15, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

One of the problems with being so far behind in photo editing is that I come across a collection of pictures and I vaguely remember why I took them. I believe that I took most of this pictures when I was dinking around with the “toy camera” setting on the old 77II. I think I was doing that for a picture for the TOY theme of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE, but I couldn’t testify to that in a court of law. Rashomon!!!

I’m so ready for flowers to be back. I mean real flowers. Sorry daffodils, you just don’t do it for me!

Black & White, Derrick, Football, Iowa State, Music

Iowa State 121 Bad Guys 44

April 14, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

I didn’t take many pictures at Iowa State football games last year because they are getting stricter about the type of camera you are allowed to carry in. At least they are to me. I see plenty of other people walking in with comparable cameras, but I digress.

No, I don’t digress. The rule as written on the Cyclones website is that Cameras with lens longer than 6 inches is prohibited. Cameras with a lens less than 6 inches is permitted. However, sometimes, security people try to interpret that as nothing that they deem “professional” or anything with a “removable” lens. It is frustrating to educate security people on the rules that they are supposed to enforce and what imaginary rules in their head that they are not allowed to enforce.

After the Iowa game, I only took the Sony RXOII to a couple of games and to the Louisiana-Monroe game I took an old Sony point & shoot that Logan gave me. I wanted to give it a shot to see if it would work as a gameday camera that would prevent me from having to have to have conversations with security people.

The point & shoot takes okay pictures, but it isn’t nearly fast enough to take action photos.

Any way, here are a few pictures I took at the Louisiana-Monroe and TCU games:

Okay, I only had one run-in with a security guard this year. But I did win the run-in.

Animals, Art, Becca, Bethany, Jonah, Politics, State Fair, Street Photography

Minnesota State Fair #2

April 14, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

In this second collection of pictures from my trip to the Minnesota State Fair with Bethany, Becca, Jonah, and Shawn, I reveal a picture of the All You Can Drink Milk Stand. It is a good half mile, at least from the famous cookie place.

There are also a couple places that we walked by but couldn’t stop at that I will stop at if a future trip to the Minnesota State Fair is in my future. The butterfly building. The reptile building. Those are tops on the list.

John Deere Powered Ice Cream Machines!

Reminds me of that scene in ELF.

The Governor of Minnesota

247 miles to a better State Fair

Bernie Sanders was there. Must’ve been a big thrill for people from a state that doesn’t have a first in the nation caucus.

This is what overcrowded looks like.

Yes, that is poop.

My actual biggest disappointment in the Minnesota State Fair was the DNR exhibit. It is at least 25 times the size of Iowa’s. Somehow it isn’t as good. But it has great facilities, so there is lots of potential there. Although the fire tower is admittedly pretty badass.

Still more pictures from my trip to the Minnesota State Fair on the way!

Andy, Art, Bill, Birthdays, Carla, Cathie, Dawn, Elizabeth, Faust, Jesse, Jodie Cue, Joe Duff, Kim, Michelle, Micky, Monica, Naima, Railroad, Shannon, Tamara, Teresa, Vest, Willy, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 239 – ART

April 13, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

I need to start today by wishing the happiest of birthdays to Faust!

It has been a couple of years since I saw Faust in person. When this virus passes, he will be on the shortlist of people I need to go visit. And not just because he lives in close proximity to a sweet Godzilla statue.

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We did it again! 28 straight weeks of double digit submissions! Woohoo! Apparently a lot of you have ART in their lives. Which is why Obama once said, “The arts are what makes life worth living. You’ve got food, you’ve got shelter, yeah. But the things that make you laugh, make you cry, make you connect – make you love are communicated through the arts. They aren’t extras.”

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

Katelyn and Aubrey Augustin

Andy Sharp

Dawn Krause

Kim Barker

Shannon Bardole-Foley

Michelle Haupt

Tamara Peterson

Christopher D. Bennett

Carla Stensland

Teresa Kahler

Joe Duff

Bill Wentworth

Elizabeth Nordeen

Cathie Raley

Micky Augustin

Mike Vest

Jodie Cue

Monica Henning

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:

EARS

EARS! What a great theme! But what is an EARS picture? An EARS picture is any picture of EARS or something that is affiliated with EARS. Like headphones or hearing aids. Remember, there is more than one kind of EARS and I’m not just talking about how frogs hear with their lungs.

I look forward to seeing your interpretations!

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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 eerie Monday!

Black & White, Christianity, Formal Portrait, Holidays, Taylan, Youth Group

Senior Sunday – Taylan – Volume 2

April 12, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

I should start with wishing everybody a Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

It is definitely one of the weirdest Easters that most of us have ever experienced. I didn’t go to church on Easter Sunday since I don’t know when. Instead, I drove around and took a few pictures of church signs while listening to KWBG.

From 8-9 they played the Palm Sunday worship service of the local Baptist service. The Pastor of that church now helps with our Youth Group and she truly has been a godsend.

From 9-10 they played our worship service. Which was a live Easter service. I just want to share a couple of my favorite signs I saw this morning:

I would like to share an Easter Devotional from the Bishop of the Iowa Conference of the Methodist Church:

After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the tomb. Look, there was a great earthquake, for an angel from the Lord came down from heaven. Coming to the stone, he rolled it away and sat on it. Now his face was like lightning and his clothes as white as snow. The guards were so terrified of him that they shook with fear and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, “Don’t be afraid. I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He isn’t here, because he’s been raised from the dead, just as he said. Come, see the place where they laid him. Now hurry, go and tell his disciples, ‘He’s been raised from the dead. He’s going on ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there.’ I’ve given the message to you.”

With great fear and excitement, they hurried away from the tomb and ran to tell his disciples. But Jesus met them and greeted them. They came and grabbed his feet and worshipped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Go and tell my brothers that I am going into Galilee. They will see me there.”

—Matthew 28:1-10 (CEB)

Billy Sunday was the first great traveling evangelist of the twentieth century. He traveled the country with his flamboyant revival showmanship, which attracted enormous crowds. A consummate showman, Sunday he would invite his listeners at the end of the sermon to come forward by walking down the sawdust trail of the temporary wooden structure to give their lives to Christ. “Hitting the sawdust trail” became a synonym for repentance and conversion.

The first people to ever hit the sawdust trail, however, were the women, weren’t they? Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to the tomb, where they encountered an angel sitting on a stone who said, “Don’t be afraid. Jesus has been raised from the dead. Now, hurry and go, tell his disciples.”

The phrase, “hitting the sawdust trail,” actually predates Billy Sunday, originating in the forests of Oregon, where lumber jacks would get lost deep in the woods. Needing find their way out, they would lay a trail of sawdust along the way so they could follow it out to a place where they could get their bearings.

Like the lumberjacks, we, too, are totally lost and have to rely on God’s grace to lead us to and then along the sawdust trail. We cannot control resurrection because resurrection is God’s work of grace. Do you, too, want to hit the sawdust trail? Then practice resurrection by welcoming and walking beside all kinds of people traveling the way of spiritual formation.

In his poem, Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front, Wendell Berry captures the unpredictability of resurrection. He says, “So, friends, every day do something that won’t compute. Love the Lord. Love the world. Work for nothing. Take all that you have and be poor. Love someone who does not deserve it…. Practice resurrection.”

Prayer:

God of new birth, this is the day of resurrection, and we are ready to hit the sawdust trail, a trail that leads right back into everyday life where we commit ourselves to practice resurrection. With your grace leading the way, we will welcome all people to journey with us, so that one day the kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. And he shall reign forever and ever, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah! Amen.

By: Bishop Laurie Haller, Resident Bishop, Iowa Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church

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Here is a second collection of pictures from Taylan’s Senior Picture Photo shoot:

More senior pictures next Sunday!