Calendar, Carla, Cathie, Elizabeth, Flowers, Jesse, Joe Duff, Kim, Kio, Macro, Michelle, Micky, Road Trip, Shannon, Tamara, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 275 – COLORFUL

December 21, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 4 Comments

The February image for the Photography 139 2021 Calendar is a macro photo of my favorite flower, the moonflower. It is taken with a flash ring. It was taken on July 28, 2020.

Here are some details on the picture:

DETAILS
CAMERA: Sony ILCE-7M2
LENS: FE 50mm f/2.8 Macro
FOCAL LENGTH: 50mm
APERTURE: f/8
EXPOSURE: 1/60
ISO: 160
LATITUDE: 42.05226
LONGITUDE: -93.87074

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COLORFUL is a theme that really spoke to a ton of people. I had double digit submission before I even went to bed last night. That is 64 straight weeks. Also exciting, is there was a first time contributor in Elizabeth’s son Alexander!

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

Elizabeth Nordeen

Alexander Jackson

Elizabeth Nordeen

Robyn Augustin

Micky Augustin

Kio Dettman

Tamara Peterson

Carla Stensland

Joe Duff

Kio Dettman

Christopher D. Bennett

Kim Barker

Shannon Bardole-Foley

Michelle Haupt

Cathie Raley

Jesse Howard

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:

ROAD TRIP

ROAD TRIP! What a great theme! But what is a ROAD TRIP photo? A ROAD TRIP photo is any photo you take while on a ROAD TRIP. Or if you aren’t leaving your house this week, any picture that could be taken while planning for a ROAD TRIP. What qualifies as a ROAD TRIP? To me, it is any time your car leaves your drive way. I mean, my Mom lives 3 blocks from me and I can crush a whole bag of Funyuns in that drive, which makes that journey a ROAD TRIP to me.

Here is a look back at all the times in the past that ROAD TRIP was a theme:

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 51 – ROAD TRIP

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 59 – ROAD TRIP

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 134 – ROAD TRIP

WPC – WEEK 199 – ROAD TRIP

WPC – WEEK 249 – ROAD TRIP

I look forward to seeing your new 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 road worthy Monday!

Alexis, Black & White, Calendar, Formal Portrait, Johnathan, Kanoa, Lensbaby, Nature, Photoshop

Kanoa at 1!

December 20, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

The January image of the 2021 Photography 139 Calendar was taken in lower Ledges. It was taken on January 4, 2020. It was taken shortly after a recent snow fall. One sad part about the printed version of this picture in the calendar is that the picnic table gets cut off where the pages are bound.

Here are some of the details of the picture:

DETAILS

CAMERA: SONY ILCA-77M2
LENS: DT 18-135mm f3.5-5.6 SAM
FOCAL LENGTH: 20mm (30mm in 35mm)
APERTURE: f/6.3
EXPOSURE: 1/250
ISO: 100
LATITUDE: 41.99793
LONGITUDE: -93.88033

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Back in August at Kanoa’s Birthday Party he also “posed” for some more formal portraits. Here are some of my favorites:

You’d be surprised to know how much Photoshop was used on this picture to remove Johnathan.

If you want to peruse the rest of the Kanoa pictures, click on the link below:

Kanoa – 1 Year Old

Not getting to see Kanoa very much is just one of the many things that suck about this mismanaged pandemic. But hopefully I’ll get to see him more in 2021.

Black & White, Calendar, Candid Portrait, Derrick, Music, Naima, Night, Photoshop, Sara, Still Life

2010-05-30

December 19, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

As I’ve started to distribute the Photography 139 2021 Calendars, it is time to start revealing the pictures that made the cut:

Front Cover

The front cover image is an HDR image of Naima wading into the pond at Dickcissel Park while the sun goes down in the west. It was taken on November 2, 2018. It is the oldest picture in next year’s calendar.

Details
CAMERA: SONY ILCA-77M2
LENS: DT 18-135MM F3.4-5.6 SAM
FOCAL LENGTH: 18MM (27MM IN 35MM)
APERTURE: f/4.5
ISO: 100
FIELD OF VIEW: 67.4 degrees
LATITUDE: 42.03875
LONGITUDE: -93.81687

I will reveal one calendar image every day, for the rest of 2020.

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The pictures from the folder 2010-05-30 are from a series of pictures I took at both Rieman Music and on a bridge over 235 in Des Moines. Derrick was an assistant for the pictures at Rieman Music. Sara was an assistant for the pictures of 235.

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:

Euphony

RWPE #21 – HARMONY

PERSONAL PHOTO PROJECT OF THE WEEK NO. 25

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will probably involve flowers.

Black & White, History, Photoshop, Postcard

Postcard Recreation Project – Masonic Temple

December 18, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 13 Comments

Today’s THE POSTCARD RECREATION PROJECT subject is the Champlin Memorial Masonic Temple. It now houses the Boone Historical Center.

I didn’t look to deep into the history of this building because I watch a lot of History Channel and I don’t want to get on the bad side of the Masons. I know that they are apparently responsible for the New World Order and covering up everything from the Kennedy assassination to flat earth. I don’t want to mysteriously disappear in the middle of the night because I said the wrong thing about them. So these facts should be sufficient:

The Champlin Memorial Masonic Temple was built in 1907.
It housed Mr. Olive Lodge No. 79 until 1990, when they moved to a new, more secretive building.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
It is haunted, obviously, cause who knows what kind of weird rituals this building has housed.

Click on the link below to read about the hauntedness of the building:

Iowa Paranormal group checks out Boone History Center

Here is a look at the pictures from THE POSTCARD RECREATION PROJECT:

Original

Redux

Original

Redux

Original

Redux

Modern Interpretation

I have found that a key aspect of the “modern interpretation” is the avoidance of power lines, and stop lights, and other signs, as best as one can.

The next time we visit this project, it will be of one of the most beautiful churches in Boone.

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

COLORFUL

A COLORFUL image is an image of something that is filled with color.

Happy photo harvesting.

Christianity, Drone, Panorama

Rodan139: Swede Valley Lutheran Church

December 17, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 20 Comments

A few weeks back I took Rodan139 out to Swede Valley Lutheran Church and took a few pictures. A very pretty country church, that unfortunately doesn’t have the pretties setting. The farm fields in the background are okay. It is just unfortunate that what I’m sure was a parsonage at one time, is so close to the church to the north. I also, didn’t wish it was on a fairly major highway. All that being said, it is very photogenic.

I’m sure I’ll be back here to photograph this church some more, but probably a couple other country churches I will have to photograph first.

Town Sign Project

Town Sign Project: Webster County

December 16, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 10 Comments

I’m not going to go hard on history with Webster County. When I covered Hamilton County, I covered how notoriously awful the people of Webster County are. How they killed the poor town of Homer, Iowa in a vicious power grab and created two counties.

Webster County is the 5th county that I have completed in the project:

PURPLE=COMPLETED

Now I just need to complete Dallas County and Polk County to finish off the counties that surround Boone County. I’m not looking forward to Polk County, cause it is mostly suburbs. Suburbs aren’t real towns. They are where rich people that like to pretend they live in a city move because they don’t want to be around poor people. But we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.

Here are the town signs of Webster County (Population from 2010 Census):

Fort Dodge – 25,206

Gowrie – 1,037

Dayton – 837

Stratford – 743

Badger – 561

Otho – 542

Lehigh – 416

Duncombe – 410

Callender – 376

Farnhamville – 371

Harcourt – 303

Barnum – 191

Vincent – 174

Clare – 146

The only town in Webster County that didn’t have a sign was Moorland. It only had one of those green and white DOT signs and I’m no longer documenting those. Moorland has a 2010 population of 169. There are two unincorporated towns in Webster County. Burnside and Lanyon. I did not check out either of those. Although I have been to Burnside before and when I was there, they only had the lame green and white DOT sign.

But what sign was my favorite sign from Webster County. Last week Shannon told me she likes to guess what my favorite sign is. I don’t think she’ll have a hard time guessing this week. So I’ll start with who has the worst sign. The worst signs are Barnum and Vincent.

I’ll give a shoutout to Badger. I had high hopes for them and they did deliver. Beaver, take note, this is what your sign should look like. I also really like the signs in Gowrie and Otho. It is a county of solid signs.

I’ll also give props to the people of Duncombe for putting their sign on top of an old garage door. At least I’m pretty sure that is what going on there. I almost missed their town sign and went with a pretty sweet mural they have in their town:

I would love to know what the squiggly line going across the state of Iowa is supposed to represent. My first theory is the historic route of Highway 20. Another theory is the rout of the railroad tracks that go through town. My last theory is that it is a RAGBRAI route that once went through Duncombe.

But the obvious winner is clearly Farhamville. But they don’t have just one great sign. They have 3.

Here is the sign I picked to represent Farhamville:

This is the other side of that sign:

But the first sign I saw when I came into the town from the north was this one:

Now, I was very curious about what the heck was in that circle on the state of Iowa, so I took a close-up image:

Now that I’ve seen it, it answers no questions and creates even more questions. It almost looks like a cult symbol to me. But maybe I just have cults on the mind after just watching the NXIVM cult documentary on Starz recently.

Then as I was leaving Farhamville, heading towards Jefferson for cheese curds, I came across this stone town sign.

I’m sure you’ve picked up that I don’t like stone or granite town signs. However, this one is quite the exception. If you are going to do a town sign, this is how it is done friends.

Farmhamville is mostly in Calhoun County. Only a small sliver of it is in Webster County. So maybe it isn’t fair for it to be Best in Show for Webster County cause I’m not sure how some town in Calhoun County beats this one. But hopefully some town comes strong from Calhoun County. I guess we’ll see when I get there.

But maybe Farhamville is my Ohio State. I have one set of rules for them and an entirely different set of rules for the University of Indiana.

Here is my current Town Sign Top 5:

Christopher D. Bennett Iowa Sign Power Rankings

#5. Scranton, Iowa

#4. Boone, Iowa

#3 Farhamville, Iowa

#2. Pilot Mound, Iowa

#1. Moingona, Iowa

These are the Top 5 as I see them at this second. But that could change any moment. It is a very fluid situation.

I believe that Dallas County will be next, but I also have my sites on Polk County, Wright County, Carroll County, Marshall County, and Crawford County in the coming months. Weather and life permitting.

Boone FUMC, Event, Holidays, Johnathan, Kio

Community Thanksgiving – 2020

December 15, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

On Thanksgiving, my church (Boone First United Methodist) served nearly 800 free meals to the community. I could write about it, but why bother, when Kio has already done such a great job at that:

Seven hundred seventy one meals were served at First United Methodist Church’s 23rd annual free Thanksgiving dinner held on Nov. 26 at the church, 703 Arden St. in Boone.

Meals were also delivered to the local police and fire stations, an apartment complex and a homeless shelter in Ames. Due to COVID-19, this year’s event was drive-thru pickup only.

According to the event’s chairperson, Brad Filipiak, “the drive-thru was very busy the first 35 minutes with cars lined up for over three blocks. We had to add another serving line and enlist more food baggers.”

Food for the event included 35 turkeys, 12 pans of dressing, 10 pans of mashed potatoes with side helpings of gravy, 24 commercial size cans of green beans, 8 gallons of cranberry sauce, 748 rolls and 60 apple and pumpkin pies.

Preparing, handling and serving of the food followed strict health and safety guidelines. To make social distancing easier, the number of volunteers needed to put on the event was reduced from the 60 of past years to 25 this year. Couples and families were encouraged to volunteer to keep the amount of households to a minimum. Everyone was required to wear gloves and masks.

Dealing with COVID-19 gave this year’s meal a different feeling. Filipiak added, “We didn’t have the normal fellowship of the in-person meal.” The event still provided a meal for many people who wouldn’t otherwise have the means to make it get a Thanksgiving dinner.

In looking back on the event during this time of a pandemic, Filipiak said, “it showed that with everything going on we can still find a way to calm our fears and serve our community”.

As for next year’s Boone First United Methodist Church free Thanksgiving dinner, Filipiak hopes it will be back to the normal in-person meal with a new goal of serving 800 to 1,000 meals.

Kio’s write-up appeared in the “Boone News Republican”.

Here are some pictures from the day:

If you would like to take a gander at the rest of the pictures of this event, click on the link below:

Community Thanksgiving – 2020

I have a few other pictures from this event and the preparation for this event that will come out in due course.

Aaron, Art, Becky, Cathie, Elizabeth, Joe Duff, Kim, Kio, Micky, Shannon, Tamara, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 274 – FACELESS PORTRAIT

December 14, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

63! 63! 63 straight weeks of double digit submissions! I was a little worried about FACELESS PORTRAIT, but I had double digit submissions before I even rolled of the couch this morning.

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

Kim Barker

Shannon Bardole-Foley

Micky Augustin

Tamara Peterson

Becky Parmelee

Aaron Barnett

Joe Duff

Christopher D. Bennett

Cathie Raley

Elizabeth Nordeen

Kio Dettman

COLORFUL

COLORFUL! What a great theme! But what is a COLORFUL image? A COLORFUL image is simply a picture with bold, saturated colors. Wow, that seems easy! Especially in a time with so many Christmas decorations out there in the world. Of course, there is more than one definition for the term COLORFUL.

Here is a look back at all the times in the past that COLORFUL was a theme:

RWPE #24 – COLORFUL

RWPE Y2 #19 – COLORFUL

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 124 – COLORFUL

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 163 – COLORFUL

WPC – WEEK 220 – COLORFUL

I look forward to seeing your new interpretations.

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HOUSEKEEPING

A MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 RULES DIVISION

Your submission needs to be emailed to bennett@photography139.com by 11 AM on the Monday of the challenge due date.

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 colorful Monday!

Amanda, Black & White, Candid Portrait, Formal Portrait, Logan

Amanda and Logan – Pre-Dahlia No. 1

December 13, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

Today I want to share a few photos I took of Amanda and Logan a couple weeks before Dahlia was born. These were taken out at Don Williams and They were definitely looking for some silhouette pictures. You’ll be able to tell that, I’m sure…

There is one more collection of images from this photo shoot still left to be curated.

Black & White, Flowers, Macro, Photoshop

2010-05-26

December 12, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

All the pictures in the folder 2010-05-26 are of daisies. I believe they are from a daisy patch in Cap Erbe Park. They were taken for Personal Photo Project #24 – “The Girl in the Blue Skirt”.

I’ve had mixed results growing these kind of daisies in my yard. Some years, there is a healthy amount of them. This year I had zero daisies. I will probably try again in 2021. I need to do something about the area behind my garage all the way back to the fence. A nice daisy patch could fit the bill. Or something else. I need to get some of the pre-work for that stuff done before the ground freezes though.

One of these pictures was displayed at the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon. I think it got Second Place in the Black & White Flower category. Which is, I believe, the best any of my pictures have ever done. That was definitely the year that I got all 4 pictures I submitted selected for display. Which is one of the hardest things to accomplish in the competitive photography field. The closest I’ve gotten since then is two pictures chosen for display. Maybe 2021 will be the year I excel at the Photography Salon again. I’m sure it will be a tough year as people will have 2 years worth of photos stored up to enter by then.

Here are the “The Girl in the Blue Skirt” images:

Originally there were more pictures to this series, but it appears that the ravages of time and the failings of my old organizational system have caused them to be lost forever. It is possible that they are still on a hard drive in an old desk drawer somewhere, but not likely. Thankfully, my use of multiple hard drives, robocopy scripts, and cloud backups, I won’t lose future images.

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

PERSONAL PHOTO PROJECT OF THE WEEK NO. 24 ALPHA

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve music and the night!