Animals, Black & White, Candid Portrait, Holidays, House, Running, Willy

2010-04-30

October 31, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

Happy Halloween! At the time of my writing this, the CDC has recently announced that Beggars’ Night should be cancelled. I have a feeling Boone will still be handing out candy, because if we allowed Super Nationals to happen… well the bar has been set pretty low and the greatest worry is not tripping over it. Either way, I’ll be sitting on my couch watching scary movies tonight. Maybe with a table of candy on my driveway. Maybe not. I guess we’ll see.

Happy Halloween!

Which makes it time for me to reveal by 2020 Candy Bar Power Rankings. There are some changes from last year:

2020 Candy Bar Power Rankings
10. Baby Ruth
9. Rolo
8. Payday
7. Heath
6. Snickers
5. Twix Caramel
4. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup
3. Take 5
2. Peanut M&M’s
1. Whatchamacallit

No interviews at this time. Please respect my decision.

Still, Three Musketeers and Milky Way are the most garbage candy that you will never see me handing out to trick-or-treaters.
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The pictures in the folder 2010-04-30 fall mostly into two categories. Pictures of Willy running. Pictures of frogs. Two pretty great subjects in my book!

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:

Vacation Day 2 – The Tub

Vacation Day 7 – Couch Time

PERSONAL PHOTO PROJECT OF THE WEEK NO. 20

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve flowers, Alexis, and my Mom.

Animals, Drone, History, Nature, Panorama, WPC - Reminder

Rodan139: Kate Shelley’s Bridge Remains

October 30, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

A couple weeks ago I followed the trail from the Kate Shelley Railroad Museum to the remains of the bridge that she crossed to save all those lives all those years ago.

If you don’t know the story of Kate Shelley, it goes something like this from the Wikipedia page:

On the afternoon of July 6, 1881, heavy thunderstorms caused a flash flood of Honey Creek, washing out timbers that supported the railroad trestle. A pusher locomotive sent from Moingona to check track conditions crossed the Des Moines River bridge, but plunged into Honey Creek when the bridge fell away at about 11pm, with a crew of four — Edgar Wood, A. P. Olmstead, Adam Agar, and Patrick Donahue.

Kate heard the crash, and knew that an eastbound express passenger train was due in Moingona about midnight, stopping shortly before heading east over the Des Moines River and then Honey Creek. She found two surviving crew members, Edgar Wood and Adam Agar, and shouted that she would get help, having to cross the Des Moines River bridge along the way. Although she started with a lantern, it went out, and she crawled the span on her hands and knees with only lightning for illumination. Once across, she had to cover about two miles on ground to the Moingona depot to sound the alarm. She then led a party back to rescue Edgar and Adam. Edgar, perched in a tree, grasped a rope thrown to him, and came ashore hand-over-hand. Adam couldn’t be reached until the floodwaters began to recede.[6] Pat Donahue’s body was eventually found in a cornfield a quarter mile downstream from the bridge, but A .P. Olmsted was never found. The passenger train was stopped at Scranton, with about 200 aboard.

Only the remains of the bridge are left as this set of railroad tracks was abandoned a long time ago. A lot of people think the bridge that she crossed is the Kate Shelley Memorial High Bridge, but that bridge was actually built decades later. The construction of that bridge ultimately doomed the railroad line that went through Moingona.

This map of the railroads from 1908 shows where these tracks went from leaving Boone to entering Ogden.

As near as I can tell, there is only one picture of the bridge that Kate Shelley did cross out there. It is very small:

From what I can tell, the bridge she crossed was replaced in 1894. If you go out to the remains now, there are a couple of the stone supports left, but the structures that held up the middle of the bridge had been replaced with concrete supports. Now I’m not an archaeologist, but I believe that the piles of stone that are found near the base of the concrete supports are what remains of the stone supports that they replaced. I also believe that the remains of the wood box that would’ve been built to hold the river back while they built the concrete support can also be found near the center concrete support.

All of that is 100% conjecture on my part, but I think it makes sense. You can only see these things when the river is crazy low. It was crazy low when I went out there a couple weeks ago.

If you want to get the remains of the bridge, you go to the Kate Shelley Railroad Museum and then walk the trail that goes along where the old railroad tracks were until you get to the Des Moines River. With apologies to Wikipedia, I’d guess it is closer to a mile rather than 2 miles. See map:

Any way, here are some pictures I took out there with Rodan139:

Rodan 139: Kate Shelley's Bridge Remains

I will be going out there again in the near future for part of THE POSTCARD RECREATION PROJECT in the near future. Let me know if anybody is up for a short hike.

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

FRAMED

A FRAMED image is an image where the subject of your picture is framed by objects that create negative space around it.

Happy photo harvesting!

Animals, Macro

He Sure is a Good Friend

October 29, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

Today’s collection is a series of macro photos I took of a grasshopper hanging out by my back patio. I took this series of pictures back in August. Looking at these pictures I think has triggered the earliest I’ve ever missed warm weather. Even though the temperature yesterday was fairly decent.

At least the weather for Halloween is supposed to be okay and it is supposed to be pretty nice on Election Day.

Black & White, History, Photoshop, Postcard

Postcard Recreation Project Reboot

October 28, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 3 Comments

Several years ago Jen suggested that for a photo project, I “recreate” old postcards. I loved the idea and I did it for exactly one postcard. Then did absolutely nothing else. For years. While I was on my vacation, I decided to start that project up again. I think I underestimated how difficult it might actually be to do well. I’m not sure my first (okay second) attempt at is necessarily done well.

In fact, in retrospect, I learned that I need to do a little more research before actually leaving my house and going out there to take the picture, to deliver on what I’m trying to do. For example, one of the pictures that was meant for today’s reveal, I definitely have to do again. I was not far enough west on 8th Street.

My goal is to go about near where the original postcard was taken, approximate the focal length of the original postcard, and then in editing deliver on the spirit of the original style of the postcard. Obviously, none of these will be a perfect recreation. In particular, the exact focal length will definitely be off. However, I think as long as I’m in the ballpark, I will be satisfied.

Postcard No. 2

Original

Redux

This picture is looking south down Story Street, from the intersection with 9th Street. The original is more of an illustration than a photo, so I tried to make it look like an illustration in the editing. Making it bright and colorful. Like it probably was originally (I’m guessing) rather than how it has faded over the years.

Postcard No. 3

Original

Redux

This picture postcard is looking north up Story Street from near Sixth Street. I really struggled with this one because I’m guessing this picture is probably from the 1950s. I am surprised by how many of the buildings in the original picture are gone. On that corner of 6th and Story used to house Vogler-Nieman Chevy, Buick and Pontiac. Plus a Champlin Oil. There was also a small building that sold popcorn there was well.

Here is a look at a couple old photos from a Boone News Republican article by Ed Mondt of that intersection:

1958

1940

If a guy wasn’t going to open a donut shop in his spare time, he could do worse than bringing back the popcorn shack.

Postcard No. 4

Original

Redux

This postcard is a picture of the entrance to McHose Park. Not much has really changed much. There is a stop sign now. The road has been paved. There is a new McHose Park sign. The park was closed at the time I took the picture because of derecho damage. In the editing, I put a slight sepia tone to try to match the original.

I think I’m going to try to do these in sets of 3. The next set of 3 will probably involve the Boone Biblical College, Ledges State Park, and the location of Boone’s old post office.

Animals, Boone FUMC, Commercial, Equipment, Fisheye, Flowers, Mom, Night, Shannon, Still Life, Youth Group

A Little Here, A Little There

October 27, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 3 Comments

This post is mostly a catch-all of cleaning up some image collections taken back in August, that were either going to part of bigger journal entries that I have abandoned or just a few rando pictures taken here and there that I just want to clean up and get out of the way.

The first little collection is pictures taken from church when they presented scholarships to Autumn, Summer, and Jentry:

Church went back to the building in October. They opened all the windows in the sanctuary to increase air circulation. It gets pretty cold in there. Makes me miss warm weather all the more.

The second collection of pictures is of the creamed honey I purchased from Honey Hollow, AKA Shannon and her husband’s business. I got the straight honey, raspberry, and mango. I was going to do a little review and endorsement deal on them, and I still might some day. But I think it is sufficient to say, that it is honey. It is delicious. It doesn’t crystallize because it is creamed.

At one point I was going to do an entry on a remote control I bought for the A7 II. I think it is sufficient to say that I bought a remote control and I use it now and again. Usually with long exposures.

Speaking of photo equipment entries I planned and never made. I bought an infrared filter to play with. I have since misplaced this filter. It is one of 3 things in my house that I’m currently keeping an eye out for.

Test shot.

There there were some night sky photo I took when playing with a new fisheye lens.

I need to do some night photography again before it gets too cold.

Then finally, just a couple rando photos:

Feels good to get these pictures out there. Real good.

Aaron, Andy, Animals, Bill, Cathie, Dawn, Elizabeth, Fisheye, Jesse, Kim, Kio, Micky, Naima, Photoshop, Shannon, Tamara, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 267 – ANIMAL

October 26, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

56 weeks in a row people. We even had double digit submissions before Monday morning! Now this week’s theme is a little more challenging, I feel like we will once again, hit double digits. You can tell that the weather must be getting colder. While the theme is ANIMAL, every single picture taken was of a pet. Wel, one isn’t, but it is also taken inside. I wasn’t going to take a picture of Naima, but my original plan fell through. Or actually fell down. Well, wasn’t inflated anyways.

I’m not saying my submission this week is anything special, but it uses a new technique that is fairly controversial in photography circles. If you were in Iowa last week, you might have a good idea of how it is manipulated. Or you might not. There will be a post on this “new” thing in the future.

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

Tamara Peterson

Bill Wentworth

Aaron Barnett

Kio Dettman

Dawn Krause

Micky Augustin

Kim Barker

Kio Dettman

Christopher D. Bennett

Jesse Howard

Elizabeth Nordeen

Cathie Raley

Andy Sharp

Shanno Bardole-Foley

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:

FRAMED

FRAMED! What a great theme! But what is a FRAMED image? A FRAMED image is easier to make than it might sound. All it is, is an image where your main subject is buffeted on a least one side by something that isn’t the main subject. So basically, a subject matter, with negative space on multiple sides of it. For the sake of this challenge we will consider negative space, either something that is nondescript, one color, or out of focus. Of course, there are other ways to define FRAMED. Something that is in a framed is FRAMED. However, the idea here is to create a framed for you subject with other things in the environment.

Here is a look back at the 5 times previously that FRAMED was a theme:

RWPE #5 – FRAMING

RWPE Y2 #29 – FRAMING

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 15 – FRAMED

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 112 – FRAMED

WPC – WEEK 212 – FRAMED

I look forward to seeing your new 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.

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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 framed Monday!

Animals, Flowers, Macro, Naima

Ice Ice Daisy

October 25, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 3 Comments

I took these pictures on what was surely a beautiful July day. I was beginning to work on a photo project where I freeze a flower in a block of ice. I still really haven’t got one I’m looking for exactly, but this was the beginning of the dream. A dream that I continue to pursue to this day. But this post is mostly other pictures.

While I was already missing all the flowers that populate my yard, now I’m starting to miss the insects. So sad.

Animals, Art, Basketball, Black & White, Candid Portrait, Faust, Flowers, Formal Portrait, Iowa State, Macro, Nader, Road Trip, Still Life

2010-04-29

October 24, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

Whew! This is a big one. Just by adding these pictures to the SmugMug Gallery from the folder 2010-04-29, I was able to fix 5 “An Artist’s Notebook” posts. I believe I added pictures to 14 different photo albums.

The pictures in this folder are taken from over several days of vacation I took back in 2010. Some in Minnesota. Some at Iowa State. Lots of flowers. A few of people.

Here are a few of them:

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:

VACATION DAY 3 – GUINEA PIG DENIAL

VACATION DAY 4 – COTTON CANDY

VACATION DAY 5 – THE JUICY LUCY

VACATION DAY 6 – CAMPUS

PERSONAL PHOTO PROJECT OF THE WEEK NO. 21

In that collection of restored posts, is a very bad take on how well Fred Hoiberg would do at Iowa State.

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve Willy.

Animals, Art, Black & White, Candid Portrait, Derrick, Flowers, Holidays, Night, Road Trip, Self-Portrait, Still Life, WPC - Alternate, WPC - Reminder

Back in Black and White

October 23, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

Here is another collection of alternates for last week’s BLACK AND WHITE theme for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE. Some were taken on my way back from Manhattan, Kansas. Some were taken around my house. Some were taken around my Mom’s house. Some were taken out by Don Williams.

I can’t wait for BLACK AND WHITE to be a theme in the next set of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE themes!

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

ANIMAL

An ANIMAL picture is any picture of an ANIMAL or something related to an ANIMAL.

Happy photo harvesting!

Animals, Flowers, Macro

Flower Deeds. Done Dirt Cheap.

October 22, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 4 Comments

Here is a collection of flower pictures that I took back in July. I could see one of these making the 2021 Photography 139 Calendar. I actually had a request of sorts on a picture to put in the calendar. First time that has happened in quite some time. The flower pictures still work for someone, at least.

Still, plenty of flower pictures left to curate. Unfortunately, not many left to take this year.