2009-10-18

April 11, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

There aren’t a tremendous amount of photos in the folder 2009-10-18, but the ones that are there, I think are pretty great. They are great because they include disco dancing beavers.

These are pictures that we took when Jen, Sara, Jill, and I all bought matching shirts for the Beaverdale Fall Festival. I don’t know if the Beaverdale Fall Festival still produces great shirts. I know if the Beaverdale Fall Festival even exists. Sara has long since moved from Beaverdale to one of those suburbia type towns and she was my connection to Beaverale. However, when I sleep at night, I dream that the Beaverdale Fall Festival is still going strong and still producing amazing shirts!

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

Conflate

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve tenderloining, Sara’s dog Jupiter, and Halloween.

Christianity, Formal Portrait

Bravard

April 10, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 3 Comments

I’d like to start with a little Good Friday Devotional I found on MethodistThinker.com:

On Good Friday we commemorate that day nearly 2,000 years ago when the way of salvation was opened. Jesus the Messiah, the One who knew no sin, became sin for us and suffered the death we deserved.

As the Apostle Paul puts it in 2 Corinthians 5:19, “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.”

A prayer:

Father, how can we thank you enough? You did not spare your own Son, but gave Him up for us. We echo the words of the songwriter who asked, “What wondrous love is this?”

Thank you for Jesus, the perfect sacrifice, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Now, as He lives in us by the Holy Spirit, may we become living sacrifices, pouring all that we have, all that we are, all that we hope to be into the advancement of your kingdom.

This we ask in the name of Jesus Christ, the Living One, who was dead and now is alive forevermore.

This will be one Lent that I will truly never forget. It started with some much joy and fellowship on Ash Wednesday and shortly thereafter it will end in quarantine and physical isolation. But the isolation isn’t forever. The physical fellowship will return again.

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Back in October, I got together with the Bravard family to take their family portraits. As is the tradition almost every time I do family portraits, the lighting was brutally harsh, but we got some pictures I like. Have a look:

It was a lot of fun taking their family photos!

Art, Nature, WPC - Reminder

Luna

April 10, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

Happy Good Friday everybody! Good Friday was frequently my least favorite worship service, but every once in awhile I really got something out of it. I guess I’ll have to wait another year to see what Pastor Dave has in store for his Good Friday Service.

You may recall that we had a full moon on Tuesday night. I didn’t get out to photograph, but I photographed it on Wednesday night. What is interesting about this picture is the lens that I used.

It is a 400mm lens that belonged to my dad. Attached to the lens is a 2x teleconverter, that makes it an 800mm lens. I then attached it to my 77ii and took a few pictures of the moon.

Now these aren’t the sharpest full moon pictures you will ever see, because there is always a bit of image quality lost when you use a teleconverter, but the important thing to know about these 2 pictures I’m going to share is that they aren’t cropped. This is how close to the moon I can get with that setup. Wish I would’ve thought of this sooner.

I’ll go more into depth about this 400mm lens when when I go through a detailed listing of the lenses I own. You’ll just have to wait.

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

ART

An ART picture is any picture of a piece of ART or objects that are used in creating ART. A confident person would just argue that any picture they take is a piece of ART.

Happy photo harvesting!

Art, Becca, Bethany, Candid Portrait, Christianity, Jonah, State Fair, Street Photography, Work

Minnesota State Fair #1

April 9, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

14 work days of working from home in the books. I think the last time I indicated that I was starting to get a system going. Now I can say that I’m starting to get comfortable working from home. I don’t mean that in a bad way. I’ll pumped when it is safe to work from the office again, but I mean that my FOMO is tamping down quite a bit.

That being said, Naima has been pretty much a Sleepy McGee during the day and left me alone to work. However, today she was a ball of fire. I think it is because I have new neighbors that have moved in next door and they have a dog named Gator. Naima and Gator like to “play” by running up and down the fence together. It is a positive that Naima has a new friend. If there is anybody that is really bad about social distancing, it is golden retrievers.

The new neighbors seem good. When Linda moved out, she left a Hawkeye windsock hanging off the back of the house. As the new neighbors have moved in, I’ve been watching that windsock. After 5 days, it is still there. Unfortunately.

Last night I got to introduce myself to the patriarch of the household. I mentioned that I have been waiting for that windsock to go down. The windsock will be staying up. They are Hawkeye fans. Other than this obvious shortcoming, they seem like they will be good neighbors.

An update on what I have been listening to while I work from home:

I still listen to 96.1 from 7 to 9 in the morning. Listening to Christian music does help center me and is a good reminder that while we may feel alone in this pandemic, we are not alone. Not by a long shot.

Then from 9-11 I listen to the Master Playlist. You don’t know about the Master Playlist. It is a playlist of songs I put together for my last birthday party. It is 1,585 songs. 102 hours of music. I am listening to it to cut some of the fat. I’m up to track #307 right now. The acoustic version of “100 Years” by Five For Fighting. Not to be confused by the radio version of “100 Years” by Five for Fighting. That is track #303 silly.

Then from 11 to noon I eat lunch. Watch one episode of THE OFFICE. Then I shower. Lotion up. Gotta keep them feet soft. Put on a fresh set of clothes. Then I’m ready to take the world back on.

From 12-2 or so, I listen to the Master Playlist some more. At I turn on Murph and Andy and they take me to 4, when I clock out and call it a day.

14 days done. Who knows how many more to go, but I am beyond blessed to still be able to work 40 hours a week, have health insurance, and collect a paycheck every other week.

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Here is part of devotional I found on the Methodist Women website that I thought I would share:

John 13:34-35

“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” -John 13:34-35

Jesus calls out the importance of love to his disciples, the importance of loving one another. Love is the only way, the only path to grow with, the mark of a disciple as beloved, the keeper of the fellowship of disciples. Love is central to Jesus’ mission.

Even as he knows the pending betrayal by Judas and Peter’s denial of him, Jesus demonstrates love by washing their feet like a slave does.

Jesus is focused in his teachings on the centrality of loving one another, so that love will not be broken by troubles and doubts among the disciples.

Jesus glorifies God as the highest, the one source of the new commandment to love and act as one beloved community. The parallel verse to this new commandment is in John 15:12-14, laying down one’s life for the love of friends, and for all friends to do the same. It lifts up the heroic act, giving one’s life for others. Love is the formation of community, and love becomes eternal.

Jesus’ pronouncement in John 10:10 is made real.

Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus Christ, help us to rest in your words of love, and loving our neighbors who are suffering, be with us in search of the true meaning of life you offered and find us to be faithful in helping build communities of love, nurture and care. In your name we pray, Amen.

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Last August I went to the Minnesota State Fair with Bethany, Becca, Jonah, and Shawn. I do have to say this, “whoever said that the Minnesota State Fair is better than that Iowa State Fair is seriously disturbed.”

That being said, the Minnesota State Fair is definitely worth visiting. It is crazy overcrowded, but there is more than enough to keep a person entertained!

Here are some pictures:

I can’t tell if this is genius or madness, but I love them!

I don’t know what Swedish Egg Coffee is, but it sounds disgusting.

The one thing I was told not to miss at the Minnesota State Fair is the cookies in the bucket. We did get some and they did not disappoint, but that that is a story for another entry though.

What I want to point out is that another thing the Minnesota State Fair is famous for is a place that sells bottomless cup of milk. The tragedy of this situation is that they aren’t right next to either. In fact, they aren’t even close.

Oh the humanity!

Andy, Cathie, Elizabeth, Flat Earth Joe, Formal Portrait, Holidays, Jorge, Kim, Michelle, Micky, Schmidt, Vest, Work, Youth Group

Mish Mash

April 9, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

Happy Maundy Thursday! Traditionally I would have been a the Computer Mine for a full hour by the time this was publishing. However, my mind would be thinking about tonight’s worship service at the Boone First United Methodist Church.

Maundy Thursday is traditionally one of my favorite worship services of the year because you never know what you are going to see. This was going to be Pastor Dave’s first Maundy Thursday Service at our church and I really wonder he would have had in store for us.

But there won’t be a worship service at our church tonight. But I still think it would be apropos to include a picture of the Youth Group to start your morning.

After all, my co-worker that likes to call this my “Jesus blog” would be disappointed if there wasn’t a little bit of Jesus’ disciples included on Maundy Thursday.

This is a small entry with a small collection of pictures that stretched across 3 consecutive days back in October. The Youth Group pictures are from the annual Hayrack Ride. The other pictures are from the Computer Mine. One is a Computer Mine company photo. The other is from the Computer Mine Halloween festivities.

I swear I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel with this backlog. When it is done, I’m going to bore you with an extensive history of my cameras.

Black & White, Event

Fly Iowa – The Reboot

April 8, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

Here it is! The 12th and final collection of pictures from when Fly Iowa was in Boone. Hope you enjoyed this collection of pictures nearly as much as I enjoyed taking them. I know Tamara did at least!

Exhales. Plenty of giant folders of images to curate still left in the backlog though.

If you want to go back and checkout any of the Fly Iowa pictures, click on the link below:

Fly Iowa – 2019

Probably going to be lots of Minnesota State Fair pictures in your future. Prepare yourself accordingly!

Animals, Flowers, Macro

Speed of the Sound of Loneliness

April 8, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

This collection of pictures I took back in October. All of these pictures were taken in my backyard.

I’m down to 3 rows of folders to curate int he 2019 backlog now. That is a completely meaningless statistic to you, but it is pretty big milestone for me.

Black & White, Event, Photoshop

Freddy vs. Fly Iowa

April 7, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

It is time for the 11th installment of pictures of when Fly Iowa was in Boone last August.

All these pictures are of the plane that was painted like Air Force One.

Only 100 Fly Iowa pictures left to reboot.

Black & White, Naima, Running, Willy, WPC - Alternate

Chewed Up and Spit Out and Booed Off Stage

April 7, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

This collection of images from the 2019 backlog are from December. The pictures of Naima I took out at her favorite stomping grounds, Dickcissel Park. The pictures of Willy are from track at Goeppinger Field. The Willy pictures are alternates for the THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme of SPORTS/GAMES.

Chewed Up and Spit Out and Booed Off Stage

Really making good time on this backlog thing now!

Andy, Angie, Art, Becky, Carla, Dawn, Jen, Jodie Cue, Kim, Micky, Monica, Tamara, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 238 – GOVERNMENT

April 6, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 4 Comments

As we get deeper and deeper into quarantine, I think that there is a chance that participation rates will decline. However, this week, we did manage to make it all the way to 27 straight weeks of double digit submissions! WooHoo!

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

Jen Ensley-Gorshe

Micky Augustin

Andy Sharp

Carla Stensland

Kim Barker

Monica Henning

Tamara Peterson

Christopher D. Bennett

Jodie Cue

Dawn Krause

Carla Stensland

Angie DeWaard

Becky Parmelee

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:

ART! What a great theme! But what is ART?

Here are a few observations on ART from experts:

“Art is never finished, only abandoned.”
-Leonard da Vinci

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.”
-Thomas Merton

“Without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable.”
-George Bernard Shaw

“All art requires courage.”
-Anne Tucker

“I shut my eyes in order to see.”
-Paul Gauguin

“Love of beauty is Taste. The creation of beauty is Art.”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.”
-Johnathan Swift

and of course the quote that is the tagline for this website:

“Art is a lie that enables us to see the truth.”
-Pablo Picasso

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 artistic Monday!