Candid Portrait, Flowers, Macro, Mom, Teresa

Marnie

December 11, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

Here is another collection of pictures of me playing with the concept of freezing a flower in ice and then taking a picture of it. The flower is a zinnia. I believe that this is the time I switched to making ice with distilled water. I should have kept better notes. But I didn’t.

I still wasn’t done playing with this idea. I assure you.

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

FACELES PORTRAIT

A FACELESS PORTRAIT is simply a portrait of somebody that doesn’t show their face.

Happy photo harvesting!

Bill, Birthdays, Jay, Jesse, Kalista, Kelly, Saydie, Taylan, Willy

Postcard Recreation Project – Banks

December 10, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

I need to start today by wishing Jesse a happy birthday. Happy birthday Jesse!

I could post a thousand pictures of Jesse from thousands of adventures we shared. But you only get 5 and have to imagine the rest.

Jesse, I hope your birthday is as amazing as you want it to be!

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Today’s collection of recreated old-timey postcards are of buildings that were built to house white collar criminals. Banks. Some of my best friends are bankers. One of my closest blood relatives is a banker. But you know my commitment to the truth. They are all white collar criminals.

One of the buildings still holds bankers. The other one houses local Klan meetings, I would guess. I’m not going to go into much history of these buildings. The building that currently houses U.S. Bank, replaced a building that was destroyed by fire in 1914. Construction on it was finished in 1916. You will notice in the original postcard, that there is no brown beltcourse on the building. That was added in the late 1970s when the addition was added to the east side of the original building.

I can literally tell you nothing about the other building. It has never made its way to the National Register of Historic Places. It is the second tallest building in Boone, if you don’t count the grain elevator. If you do, I’m not sure which is taller.

The postcards for the Boone National Building:

13597 Boone National Bank Bldg. Boone, Ia – Original

13597 Boone National Bank Bldg. Boone, Ia – Redux

Boone National Building – Modern Interpretation

The postcards for the building I will always call Citizen’s National Bank:

First National Bank Building – Boone, Ia – Original

First National Bank Building – Boone, Ia – Redux

U.S. Bank – Modern Interpretation

Something I’ve noticed in the old-timey postcards is that they they like to throw a flagpole with a big American flag on top of these buildings. I don’t know if these flagpoles ever existed. But the current U.S. Bank Building is the only one that still has a flagpole on top of it.

There are a couple of old-timey bank postcards out there to recreate. I’m sitting on the fence on those. One is because I’m still trying to convince myself of the location of one of those buildings. More research!

History, Town Sign Project

Town Sign Project: Hamilton County

December 9, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 21 Comments

A couple weeks back I made a trip around Hamilton County to grab a few town signs I was missing in the county. There were a few interesting discoveries.

Hamilton is the 4th county that I’ve knocked off.

Purple = Completed

Hopefully when we get through the pandemic, I can open these little trips to other people. Particularly when I come to visit your county.

Also, any tips on some small town treasures could move a county up in the pecking order. In fact, on Saturday I got a good tip on Woolstock, Iowa that moved Wright County up in the pecking order. Maybe passing Marshall and Carroll counties.

It is kind of a well documented fact that people from Webster County are a little bit untrustworthy. There is a reason I can refer to a town as “The Dirty” and everybody instantly knows I’m talking about Fort Dodge. A town known for having a liquor store in its slums that will sell alcohol to 4 year-olds.

I bring this up because there really shouldn’t be a Hamilton County. There should just be one big Webster County, with a County Seat in Homer. Haven’t heard of Homer, Iowa? Yeah, that is because it doesn’t really exist any longer. Why? Because people from Fort Dodge aren’t trustworthy. In fact, at a time when Homer was bigger than Fort Dodge and Webster City (then called Newcastle) combined the thugs from Fort Dodge stole an election from Homer. Legitimately stole an election. Homer didn’t get their butt kicked by Joe Biden and then sat in their office whining about it and spreading disinformation via social media while trying to undermine our democracy. The election was legitimately stolen from them.

Here is the tale from the Hamilton County History website:

Prepared by Martin E. Nass

Granville Burkley was successful in carrying his petition to the legislature in 1851 and they created the new county, Webster County, by taking all of Yell, all of Risley, and the lower half of Humboldt (then called Bancroft) Counties. The new county was assigned to Boone County for administration. Two commissioners, Elisha Anderson and Samuel McCall came to meet with Burkley to locate a county seat. Burkley persuaded them to select his site for the town and to name it Homer, for the epic Greek poet. They selected Secion 6-87-26. The new county obtained title to the land on October 14, 1854. Judge Pierce entered a warrant for $114.00 for the town plat.

Burkley built himself a cabin, then got himself appointed as postmaster. He kept the mail under his bed in a tin box. He constructed the first school in Homer, and then promptly padlocked it until the residents would pay him what he wanted. R. W. Alcon was first school teacher at this school. Burkley then arranged for the new state road, which came from Des Moines through Boonesboro (Montana) in Boone County, then through Mineral Ridge, entering our county and passing through Hook’s Point. The road then went to Homer before turning west through Border Plains, Brushy, and on to Fort Dodge.

Homer grew and prospered until it reached a population of about 600. Fort Dodge had about 200 and Newcastle about 100. It seemed that Homer’s future was secure.

Two men came upon the scene to change things. John F. Duncombe of Fort Dodge got together with Walter C. Willson of Newcastle and plans were made to “get” the county seat. They arranged for an election to be held to divide the huge county into two again, each to have a county seat. Since the population of Homer exceeded the combined population of Fort Dodge and Newcastle, Homer felt secure. Willson had arranged earlier to have the Western Stage Company run its line from Dubuque to Alden, Newcastle, and Fort Dodge. Fort Dodge had secured the federal land office in 1855. To ensure a legal election, Burkley stayed in Newcastle to supervise the balloting. He loved to argue politics and he loved to drink. The Newcastle people kept him busy with both, and he did not detect that stage passengers were alighting to vote and then get on the stage for a run to Fort Dodge and vote again. The results went against Homer. They complained and carried their case to the Iowa Supreme Court who ruled that there was evidence widespead cheating on both sides so the election results were upheld.

Duncombe helped Willson get elected to the state legislature to carry the petition for the split of the county. He rode a mule to Marengo and then took the stagecoach to Iowa City, the state’s capital. He planned to arrange for the west half to retain the name Webster and designate Fort Dodge as the county seat. He also had planned for the east half to take the name Sharon and have as the county seat, Newcastle, which was to be renamed Webster City. When he arrived at the state house he quickly realized that he needed some help to get his bill passed. William W. Hamilton, of Cascade, Iowa, was president of the senate. Willson changed the act to give the name Hamilton County to the east half to honor and recognize Hamilton’s help. This act was passed on December 22, 1856 to take effect on Jan 1, 1857.

Thus the name of Webster County was replaced by Hamilton County. Due to a mistake in the numbering of sections in the act, not all of Bancroft County was passed back to Humboldt County. The bottom tier of townships were left in Webster County, which accounts for the fact that the two county north lines do not align. Another act of the legislature required that any further adjusting of county lines would require a majority vote of citizens on both sides of the line. Hence, Webster County never gave back their townships, and never will.

The people of Webster County are so terrible they even stole land from Bancroft County. Never heard of Bancroft County? Yeah, cause it doesn’t exist any more either. That isn’t all the fault of the terrible people of Webster County. The terrible people of Kossuth County also had a hand in that. But we’ll get to that at a later date, I’m sure.

Here is a collection of the town signs of Hamilton County. (Population numbers are from 2010 census.)

Webster City – 8,070

Jewell – 1,215

Stratford – 743

Ellsworth – 531

Stanhope – 422

Williams – 344

Blairsburg – 215

Kamrar – 199

Randall – 173

Homer – Ghost Town

Christy Town – Ghost Town, but yeah sure 46

If you are wondering about the history of Christy Town, I thought it might be the site of a religious cult, because there is a Lutheran Camp there (apologies to Lutherans) and the word “Christ” in the name, but turns out just a woman named Christy lived there. Not even for that long. Yeah, boring!

In Hamilton County, I would rank Stanhope as having the best sign and give Jewell the second best. Blairsburg and Ellsworth have the worst.

There were a couple towns that could have really upped their town sign game. For example, Stratford is named after the town that Shakespeare was from. Almost all the streets are named after famous English authors, like Milton Street, Shakespeare Avenue, Tennyson Avenue, and Dryden Street.

There is a lot to play with there. For example, this sign advertising their business district is way better than the town sign that greets you when you enter the town on 175:

Randall’s sign isn’t bad. As far as nice signs go, it is nice. But they have this sign in their park that is better:

Although, as far as I know, Randall has no peach history. No burgeoning peach industry. Maybe there used to be a peach tree where that sign stands. Randall is pretty far north to grow peaches. Even Reliance or Polly peaches.

If you can’t tell what I like in a sign. It is the following. I like something with artwork on it. It should have a good town slogan. Preferably something that relates to the name of the town. I also like signs that look like they weren’t put together by a professional. I also like signs that reference an athletic accomplishment of a local high school from a long time ago or reference to a (minor) celebrity that was born in that town. I also like signs that are somewhat weathered. Brick signs that just say a town name are the worst. The absolute worst.

Although there are a couple signs in Hamilton County that I like. My Top 5 remains unchanged. After the next county, I might open this up to Top 10.

Christopher D. Bennett Iowa Sign Power Rankings

#5. Scranton, Iowa

#4. Collins, Iowa

#3. Boone, Iowa

#2. Pilot Mound, Iowa

#1. Moingona, Iowa

Now, that is how I feel today. I’m sure if asked tomorrow, I would rank a different Top 5. But I think the Top 3 is pretty solid.

The next county I’m going to knock off is Webster County. Visiting The Dirty! No Taco Tico though!

Drone, Nature

Rodan139: Turtle Pond

December 8, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

A few weeks back, I took the drone for a very brief flight around McHose Park’s Turtle Pond. It was very windy, so it was very brief. I just needed to get a quick “Cool” Drone Video of the Week. While I was there, I snapped a few photos:

If you look closely, in some of these pictures, you can see how low the pond is. It has atrophied at least a yard from its normal banks. Not as bad as the pond a Dickcissel, but you can see how the drought this year has really did a number on ponds in Iowa.

Candid Portrait, Carla, Cathie, Elizabeth, Jesse, Kim, Kio, Michelle, Micky, Mom, Naima, Shannon, Tamara, Teresa, Toby, Vest, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 273 – FOOD

December 7, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

It is with a heavy heart that I want to start today’s post by honoring my cousin Alan, who suddenly passed away last Monday morning. He was a wonderful person and will definitely be missed. Here is his obituary, so you can get to know him a little bit as well:

Alan Lee Johnson
May 3, 1967 – November 30, 2020

Alan Lee Johnson, age 53, died suddenly on Monday, November 30, 2020 from a massive heart attack.

Alan, the son of Sheryl and Terry Johnson, was born at Boone County Hospital, May 3, 1967, at 8:17 a.m. and weighed 8lbs and 3oz.

He attended Lincoln Elementary School and was baptized at Central Christian Church where he attended Sunday School, participated in choir, Christian Youth Fellowship (CYF), and represented the youth at The Sanctuary Cornerstone Dedication Ceremony. In 1985, he graduated from Boone High School where he was an active member of the Swing Choir, chorale, theatre, and yearbook committee. Post high school he attended one semester at Iowa State University before moving to Los Angeles, California; Ames, Iowa; Jacksonville Beach, Florida; and most recently Des Moines, Iowa where he was employed at Vision for Less.

Alan loved music. He loved singing it, playing it on the piano, dancing to it, listening to it and sharing it with his nephews. Alan also enjoyed listening to the many programs on National Public Radio and reading a wide variety of books. He kept quotes that spoke to him and cherished his books. He enjoyed creating and viewing art with his sister and nephews and attending live musical and theatrical performances. Alan spent many years living two blocks off of the beach in Jacksonville, Florida. He relished the relaxed, unhurried attitude, beautiful scenery, and mild weather. Walking with his best friend David and his dog Humphrey along the beach while collecting sharks’ teeth, was a favorite activity along with piloting the family’s speed boat for his friends and family. Alan’s quick wit, gentle spirit, accepting, loyal and selfless nature made him a friend to all who knew him.

He is preceded in death by his grandparents: Doris and Lyle Paris, Maxine (Peg) and Richard (Dick) Johnson, aunt Charlene Paris, uncles Gerald Bennett and Dean Walter, cousins Olivia and Samuel Bennett.

Alan is lovingly remembered by his parents; Terry and Sheryl (Paris) Johnson; sister Dee Ann (Johnson) Wulbern; brother-in-law Shands Wulbern; nephews Carsten Alan and Andrew Shands Wulbern; closest friend David Henderson; aunts Charlotte Bennett, Delores (Dee) VanDePol, Lori Sebring and Dianna (Annie) Walter; uncles Lyle (Butch) Paris, Gary Paris, Richard VanDePol, Roger Sebring; and many loving cousins.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the family requests no home visits, and a visitation is not planned. Thoughts, prayers and cards will be appreciated, 702 Fremont Street, Boone, IA 50036. A private burial will be held at Linwood Park Cemetery at a later date.

In lieu of flowers the family requests memorials be given to the Boone Food Pantry at IMPACT Community Action Partnership – Boone at 606 Greene Street, Boone, IA 50036.

Special thanks to all of the precious friends, old and new, that have held Alan in their hearts throughout the years.

I live in the same town as most of my cousins (on my Mom’s side of the family). There are a couple spread out in other states, but most live in central Iowa. That being said, it is rare that I see any of them. With the pandemic, I see them even less. Alan is the last cousin I’ve seen in person. That was in May, I think. His parents took over my Grandma’s house and I was over there looking through some of Grandma’s possessions. Alan was there helping point out some of the best stuff or we were laughing at some of her “worst” stuff.

When I heard of his sudden passing, it made me think about the last time all of the cousins were together. It was 2002. At Grandpa’s funeral. Grandma passed away on Christmas Day in 2019. She had a visitation a couple weeks later. Not all of the cousin’s made it back for that, cause there was supposed to be a family burial service on Mother’s Day weekend, where she was to be lain to rest next to Grandpa. That was another thing taken away from us by this pandemic. When the service happened, it was limited to 10 people.

I don’t know that all of my cousin’s would’ve made it back for the funeral, but I like to think they would have.

When I heard the news, I went to a trunk where I had put away some old pictures. In there I found a picture taken on the day of Grandpa’s funeral. The day that would end up being the last day that all of us were together. 18 years ago.

If you are wondering which one in the picture is Alan, he isn’t in the picture. When everybody gathered up on the stage in the Fellowship Hall of the Central Christian Church, he wasn’t there. He had ran home to take some medication (if memory is correct). I don’t know why we couldn’t wait 15 minutes for him to get back to take this picture. My memory doesn’t hold that reasoning.

If I had to take a guess, it was because it was thought that we would be able to get this cousin picture at the next family gathering. A wedding. A family reunion. God forbid, another funeral (and there have been too many in the following 18 years). Somewhere along the way, a picture with Alan in the mix would be taken. It just never happened. That makes me even sadder, that whatever happened on the day of Grandpa’s funeral that caused this picture to be taken without Alan happened.

Since I don’t have a picture of Alan easily available, I lifted this picture off his Facebook page:

It was from near the last day I saw him. He was helping sort Grandma’s attic treasures down to the garage for the family to go through. I’m sure it isn’t the best picture of him out there, but I think his personality and sense of humor really comes through in it.

Rest in peace Alan. You are missed.

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62 straight weeks y’all. Sorry, I meant 62 straight weeks all of you! Good to see so many of you have good food in your lives! Also glad to see a submission by a 9, or maybe a 10 year old. Makes me proud to see that THE RANDOM WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE ripples across generations.

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

Elizabeth Nordeen

Kim Barker

Kio Dettman

Christopher D. Bennett

Tamara Peterson

Michelle Haupt

Jesse Howard

Shannon Bardole-Foley

Cathie Raley

Katelyn Augustin

Micky Augustin

Mike Vest

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:

FACELESS PORTRAIT

FACELESS PORTRAIT! What a great theme! But what is a FACELESS PORTRAIT? A FACELESS PORTRAIT is simply a picture of somebody that doesn’t include their face. It doesn’t even have to include their head. It is also possible to do this theme without including any parts of their body at all. Pictures of objects that are unique to a person can also be a FACELESS PORTRAIT.

Click on a link below to have a look back at all the times in the past that FACELESS PORTRAIT has been a theme:

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 6 – FACELESS PORTRAIT

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 81 – FACELESS PORTRAIT

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 144 & WEEK 145

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 181 – FACELESS PORTRAIT

WPC – WEEK 252 – FACELESS PORTRAIT

I look forward to seeing the 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 faceless Monday!

Animals, Naima

Dogs

December 6, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

This is just a small collection of pictures I took in my Mom’s backyard back in September. They were attached to a folder of a bunch of pictures I took for THE POSTCARD RECREATION PROJECT. Cleaning these up, so I can file that folder into the proper folder in my photo organizational system.

I think I might have been experimenting with some aperture settings here. I’ll go with that.

Animals, Art, Black & White, Flowers, Grandma, Iowa State, Logan, Macro, Mom, Railroad, Teresa

2010-05-24

December 5, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

There was a very large collection of images in the folder 2010-05-24. Most of them are flower pictures. Some taken from my yard. Others taken from Reiman Gardens. I’ll just get to it, because there is a ton of photos here:

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:

Reiman Gardens

RWPE #20 – PANNING CAMERA BLUR

The Yard

PERSONAL PHOTO PROJECT OF THE WEEK NO. 23 ALPHA

PERSONAL PHOTO PROJECT OF THE WEEK NO. 23 BETA

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

Alexis, Birthdays, Brandon, Elainie, Flowers, Frank, Johnathan, Logan, Macro, Mom, Russ, Teresa, WPC - Reminder

On the Rocks

December 4, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

I need to start the day by wishing a couple people a happy birthday. I need to start with my nephew Brandon. Happy birthday Brandon!

I hope your birthday is as amazing as you want it to be!

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It is also Frank’s birthday. Frank was instrumental in getting this website up and going. Its first home was the webserver living in his basement. He helped get it set up originally and hosted it for free and helped with the domain registration. I don’t think I’ve seen Frank since the pandemic started, and that really sucks. Happy birthday Frank!

I hope your birthday was as amazing as you want it to be!

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I started my freezing flowers in blocks of ice with your standard daisy. But I thought I would try some flowers with more color. So next I tried Brown-eyed Susans and Zinnias.

I wasn’t done playing with this idea still. So there are more ice block flower pictures yet to be curated.

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

FOOD

A FOOD photo is any image of FOOD or people eating FOOD or ingredients to make FOOD or people preparing FOOD or people cleaning up after eating FOOD.

Happy photo harvesting!

History, Photoshop, Postcard

Postcard Recreation Project – Ericson Public Library

December 3, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 8 Comments

The most recent subject of THE POSTCARD RECREATION PROJECT is the Ericson Public Library. There are actually quite a few old timey postcards out there for Boone’s library. I guess that isn’t much of a surprise, because it is a beautiful building. What did surprise me that there isn’t that much historical information about the library. At least in the quick cursory search that I did.

Here is what I think you should know about the library from a description of the library from landmarkhunter.com.

The roots of the Boone library go back to a “free reading room” that was established by Boone residents in 1885. In 1889, the room was given to the city as the basis of a public library. Senator C.J. A. Ericson of Boone gave the city a building in 1901 that would become the library. In 1923, a significant donation by Rena Ericson, Senator Ericson’s daughter, allowed expansion of the building. The library was enlarged again and remodeled in 1993.

I’m very intrigued by this “free reading room”.

Also, all of the postcards that were recreated, must date before 1923, because they are clearly before the first library expansion.

Here is today’s collection:

Original

Redux

Original

Redux

Original

Redux

Original

Redux

I’ve decided not to get overly worked up about trying to match fonts from old postcard to recreation. I will be satisfied, as long as I am in the ballpark.

I have also decided to add a new element to THE POSTCARD RECREATION POSTCARD. This new element is the “Modern Interpretation” of what a present day postcard of the Ericson Public Library would look like. If I were making postcards of the Ericson Public Library.

Modern Interpretation

The library used to house a museum on the second floor. That museum has since moved, possibly to a building that is a future subject of THE POSTCARD RECREATION PROJECT.

Black & White, Flowers, Macro, Naima

Girl Don’t Play the Fool Now

December 2, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

Today’s collection of pictures was taken in the middle of August. I was still playing around with photographing a flower frozen in a block of ice. I was still using a normal daisy. This is a concept that I will continue to play with in the future and this wasn’t the last time I played with this idea in 2020.

There are also other pictures from the day to boot.

One thing you shouldn’t do is leave a block of ice unattended in the backyard when Naima is around. She is probably going to take off with it. Then drop it. Then roll around on it. Then chew on it. Then not give it back. This is what she does.