Years in the Making

June 10, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

I’ve always been a fan of peonies. They have very bold and striking colors, but the real reason why I love them is that the way peonies bloom is that ants eat the outside leaves. Releasing the flower contained inside.

About 4 years ago, but maybe 5 and possibly 3, my Mom brought over 2 peony bushes to plant. I believe she got them from my Uncle Gary, but I don’t associate him as a “flower person”, but it might have been that he was getting rid of flowers to put down cement somewhere. In fact, I’m pretty sure that is what happened.

I didn’t pick the best place to plant the peonies and one of the bushes didn’t make it a year. The other bush has been on the struggle bus for years and I have meant to move it to a better location for a couple years now, but it hasn’t happened. This peony bush has never produced a flower, until this year.

Last year, for the first time it produced a couple of small buds, but none of them bloomed. This year though, I got one beautiful peony. Of course I photographed it:

I’m glad to finally know what color blooms this bush produces. Now I’m torn on moving it.

I’ll also took a few other flower pictures on the same day:

I like marigolds, even though they aren’t super photogenic, because they are so easy to maintain. A person needs a few flower that they don’t have to worry too much about to keep their flower gardening confidence up. Of course, alliums are truly one of the best and most fascinating flowers. One of my favorite perennials.

Art, Black & White, Mom, Road Trip, Ruins, Still Life

Audubon and Guthrie County Auxiliary Images: Vol 3

June 9, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

This is the final collection of images of the trip I took to Audubon and Guthrie Counties with my Mom to harvest their town signs. All of these pictures are taken in either Audubon or Gray.

Audubon

Gray

I know that this is the second straight day with a mention or a picture of testicles. I don’t think there will be 3 days in a row tomorrow.

Art, Road Trip, Town Sign Project

Town Sign Project: Tama County

June 8, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

I recently drove around the massive Tama County to harvest their town signs. It was a solo trip and I was surprised to discover that there are apparently many cities in Tama with Czech roots. I mostly think of the Meskwaki when I think of Tama County. That and the King Tower Cafe.

Here are some facts about Tama County:

+ Population is 17,767.
+ The largest town is Tama.
+ The county seat is Toledo.
+ Formed on February 17, 1843.
+ Named after Taimah, a leader of the Meskwaki tribe.
+ Home of the Meskwaki Settlement.
+ Major highways are: US 30, US 63, IA 8, IA 21, IA 96, and IA 146.
+ Adjacent counties are Grundy, Black Hawk, Benton, Poweshiek, Marshall, Iowa, and Jasper.
+ Home of The Bohemie Alps
+ Home of the Vining Iowa Testicle Festival – All You Can Eat for $12 (2014 Price)
+ Mollie B. will be in concert here in July 10th.
+ Home of Matchstick Marvels.
+ Population peaked in 1900 at 24,585.

Tama County has a pretty, but small courthouse:

Tama County Courthouse in Toledo, Iowa

The Tama County Courthouse is located in Gladbrook:

With Tama County conquered, here is the updated Photography 139 Conquest Map:

PURPLE=COMPLETED

22 counties completed. 22.2% of the Cyclone State conquered.

Here are the Tama County town signs:

Tama, Iowa
Tama – Welcomes You
Population: 2,877

Toledo, Iowa
Welcome to Toledo-Tama
Population: 2,341

Traer, Iowa
Wind Up in Traer
Population: 1,703

Dysart, Iowa
Dysart
Population: 1,379

Gladbrook, Iowa
Gladbrook – Alive & Growing
Population: 945

Garwin, Iowa
Welcome to Garwin – Home of the Wolverines
Population: 527

Chelsea, Iowa
Vitame Vas do Chelsea – Lincoln Highway
Population: 267

Montour, Iowa
Montour Welcomes You!
Population: 249

Clutier, Iowa
Welcom to Clutier – Founded 1900 – Pop 213
Population: 213

Elberon, Iowa
Elberon
Population: 196

Lincoln, Iowa
Lincoln – Next 5 Exits
Population: 162

Vining, Iowa
Vining – Heart of the Bohemie Alps
Population: 50

I don’t know there is a terrible sign in Tama County. Maybe the sign in Lincoln is pretty weak. But the weathering gives it character. The Dysart sign is pretty uninspired. I was confused by the Traer sign, until I saw the winding staircase for myself. It is magnificent! I have no clue why there is a motorcycle suspended over the Elberon sign, but it keeps it from being the worst sign. I love Vining’s sign, but how do you not mention the towns annual Testicle Festival? I’ll give the award for worst to Lincoln.

Best in Show for Tama County. Really a no-brainer. It is Tama, Iowa.

Tama – Best in Show – Tama County

There are quite a few alternate signs in Tama County:

Tama-Toledo Alternate

Gladbrook Alternate

Garwin Alternate

Dysart Alternate

Backside of Chelsea Sign

Here is the current list of Best in Shows:

Best in Show – Adair County

Best in Show – Audubon County

Best in Show – Boone County

Best in Show – Carroll County

Best in Show – Clarke County

Best in Show – Crawford County

Best in Show – Dallas County

Best in Show – Franklin County

Best in Show – Greene County

Best in Show – Guthrie County

Best in Show – Hamilton County

Best in Show – Hardin County

Best in Show – Jasper County

Best in Show – Madison County

Best in Show – Marion County

Best in Show – Marshall County

Best in Show – Polk County

Best in Show – Story County

Best in Show – Tama County

Best in Show – Union County

Best in Show – Webster County

Best in Show – Wright County

Next time we check in with THE TOWN SIGN PROJECT it will involve Benton County.

Carla, Cathie, Elizabeth, Joe Duff, Kim, Kio, Linda, Michelle, Micky, Shannon, Tamara, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 299 – WORDS

June 7, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

Despite last Monday being a holiday and a shorter week for some people, there were still a fair amount of submissions for WORDS.

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

Kim Barker

Linda Bennett

Tamara Peterson

Shannon Bardole-Foley

Carla Stensland

Joe Duff

Christopher D. Bennett

Micky Augustin

Elizabeth Nordeen

Kio Dettman

Michelle Haupt

Cathie Raley

Elizabeth Nordeen

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:

RED

RED! What a great theme for Year 8 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!

But what is a RED image? A RED image is simply any image where the color RED plays an important part of the composition of the image. For example, the main subject of the picture is RED.

Meditate on these words as you consider your RED image:

Red is the ultimate cure for sadness.
-Bill Blass
If you consider those words, you will no doubt create a fascinating RED image.

RULES

The picture has to be taken between 12:01 PM today and 11 AM next Monday. This isn’t a curate your photos project. This is a get your butt off the couch (unless you are taking your picture from the couch) and take pictures challenge.

You can send your images to either bennett@photography139.com OR you may text them to my Pixel 5.

That is all I got, so if the good Lord’s willin’ and the creek don’t rise, we will all be sharing our idea of RED in this place that contains much RED next Monday.

Alexis, Anela, Black & White, Carla, Elainie, Formal Portrait, Jason, Kanoa, Kupono, Sabas

The Stenslands 2020 Gamma

June 6, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

Here is another collection of images from the 2020 Stensland Family Photo Shoot:

There are a couple more collections from this photo shoot left to share.

Alexis, Animals, Black & White, Brandon, Carla, Derrick, Ernie, Formal Portrait, Holidays, Jason, Jen, Johnathan, Logan, Mom, Photoshop, Teresa

2010-09-06

June 5, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

There is a wide collection of images in the folder 2010-09-06. Some are of Jen and Derrick when she was pregnant with Evie. The others are from a Labor Day cookout I hosted at my house for the family. Also, some pictures of a toad I found in my backyard.

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:

Clu’s Holiday

PERSONAL PHOTO PROJECT OF THE WEEK #36

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve a turtle.

Art, Christianity, Mom, Road Trip, Still Life, WPC - Reminder

Audubon and Guthrie County Auxiliary Images: Vol 2

June 4, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett 4 Comments

Here is the second collection of auxiliary images I took while harvesting the town signs of Audubon and Guthrie County with my Mom. The thing is that none of these pictures were taken in Guthrie County and the biggest chunk of them was taken in Shelby County. That is #roadtriplife.

Brayton

Exira

I would love to see the size of the fire truck that came out that door.

Elk Horn

Kimballton

There is one more collection of photos from this road trip out there.

+++++++

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

WORDS

But what is a WORDS image? I know many of you didn’t come here fore reading! Top to bottom, left to right… a group of words together is called a sentence. Take Tylenol for any headaches… Midol for any cramps.

But one of the greatest comedies of all-time aside, WORDS are merely collections of letters. You can find WORDS all over the place. Books. Signs. Advertising. Newspapers. Magazines. All over the place. You are literally (used correctly) looking at WORDS right now!

Happy photo harvesting!

Animals, Art, Becca, Black & White, Boone County Fair, Christianity, Contests, Dawn, Derrick, Flowers, Formal Portrait, Jen, Jesse, Jill, Laura, Logan, Michelle, Micky, Monica, Nature, Night, Photoshop, Pufferbilly Days, Russell, Scottie D., Shannon, Shorty, State Fair, Still Life, Willy

My (Sad) Photo Contest History – 2

June 3, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett 4 Comments

When we left off, I had just won 1st Place in Black and White and 3rd Place in Color at the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest, but had been completely rejected by the Iowa State Fair for the 4th year in a row.

Whatever I was selling, the judges were not buying. I was despondent, but not discouraged because I knew I had entered some great photos, but they were not what the judges were looking for that year.

2011 comes around. I decided to retire from the Boone County Fair Photo Contest and to start a new way of picking pictures for the Pufferbilly Days. I also had what was probably the peak of my photo contest career at the Iowa State Fair. I got all 4 pictures exhibited. This is extremely hard to do. Thousands of people enter the contest every year. Only 5 of us got all 4 pictures exhibited. You can do the math. It is a big deal.

These are the pictures that were exhibited:

2011 Iowa State Fair Photography Salon - I Recommend Pleasant

2nd Place Class 25

Honorable Mention Class 13

For the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest it was the second year of letting other people select my entrants. Dawn, Derrick, Jen, Scott, Russell, and Rebecca chose my entries. Dawn’s choice got 2nd Place in Black and White:

2011 Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest - Radiant Beams

2nd Place – Black and White

I was pretty excited for 2012. I thought I had cracked the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon Code, but there is no code. Some years the judge like you. Some years they don’t. In 2012, they like one of my pictures:

2012 Iowa State Fair Photography Salon - Truth Perception

That year, I decided to retire from the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest.

Then shortly after that, I decided to retire from Photo Contests altogether.

But in 2017, the itch came back. I decided to put on a Washington Wizards Jersey and come out of retirement. Hard. I decided to enter all 3 contests again. I got all Blue Ribbons at the Boone County Fair:

I got one picture selected for display at the Iowa State Fair:

2017 Iowa State Fair Photography Salon - Little Apple

I had the following people select my entries for the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest: Jim Robbins (yeah that is a long story), Micky, Michelle, Amber, Laura, and Dawn. However, none of the pictures earned a ribbon.

In 2018, my Boone County Fair entries were determined by popular vote:

Red

Purple

Blue

I had two pictures selected for display at the Iowa State Fair:

2018 Iowa State Fair Photography Salon - Peep

My Pufferbilly Days entries were also selected by popular vote that year:

2018 Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest - INRI

1st Place Photoshop

1st Place Photojournalism

3rd Place Hidden Treasures of Boone County

2019 would also be a successful year. I moved to having individuals select my Boone County Fair entrants. Shannon, Michelle, and Logan selected my entries.

Purple

Blue

Red

Blue

Purple

I had one picture selected for exhibition at the Iowa State Fair and it earned a ribbon:

2019 Iowa State Fair Photography Salon Entry - Green Little Vaulter

Honorable Mention Class 18

My Pufferbilly Day entries were once again selected by popular vote:

2019 Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest - Hocks

1st Place Nature

1st Place Photoshop

In 2020 the pandemic hit and all photo contests were cancelled. Which was sad and I think it was avoidable because in a digital age, I think they could have found a way. For example the Iowa State Fair still held its Fine Arts competition.

Which brings us to 2021. I’m currently working on my next embarrassing failure at the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon. However, I am not going to enter the Boone County Fair this year. There is a reason for this decision. A very good reason. However, I’m not going to share the reason until it becomes official or it falls through. Things seem to fall through quite often these days. No decision has been made on Pufferbilly Days yet, but Pufferbilly Days has been moved to early August this year. I’m not crazy about the decision, but I’ll give it a chance.

If you want to peruse all 153 Photo Contest entrants in this long weird journey, click on the link below:

Photo Contests

You can see them all from the out of focus to the award winners. The good, the bad, and the moldy jam equivalent.

Alexis, Animals, Becca, Black & White, Boone County Fair, Contests, Derrick, Flowers, Formal Portrait, History, Jay, Jesse, Jill, Macro, Photoshop, Pufferbilly Days, Saydie, State Fair, Willy

My (Sad) Photo Contest History – 1

June 2, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett 5 Comments

Recently I’ve been working on an organizational project as I prepare to get rid of a bunch of things in Boone’s annual Citywide Cleanup in a couple of weeks. Part of this has been organizing every (almost) picture that I have entered in a photo contest, both physically in a trunk and digitally in my website photo gallery.

150 or so Photo Entries

Almost every photo I’ve ever entered in in that trunk. Except for a few that I gave away. I thought I would share some of the highs and lows of my photo contest career. To start with, I have only entered 4 photo contests ever:

+ Iowa State Fair Photography Salon
+ Boone County Fair
+ Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest
+ Ogden Fun Days Photo Contest (this contest only existed one year – 2005)

I’ve entered 153 pictures in these 4 photo contests.

I’ve entered pictures of the following people in these photo contests:

+ Olivia
+ Jay
+ Willy
+ Humble Narrator
+ Derrick
+ Rebecca
+ Shannon
+ Alexis
+ Wedding Couple I don’t remember
+ Jill
+ Saydie
+ Kayelee
+ Jesse
+ Shorty
+ Mike Toot
+ Freedom Flight Participants

Plus I have entered pictures of both Karma and Naima.

My very first photo contest was the 2002 Iowa State Fair Photography Salon. It was before they had standardized that pictures had to be matted on 11×14 foamboard. It was long enough ago that one of the pictures I entered was printed from a slide. I entered it because it was somewhat of a legacy contest. My Dad won a category in 1984.

At the time I didn’t realize what a tough contest it was and how hard it was to get even a single picture in. It was dumb luck (which in many ways all photo contests are luck because who knows what the judge likes) that I got one picture accepted for exhibition:

Odanata the Snake Doctor

In some ways, this is maybe the most important photo contest entry I ever made. It is possible that 2002 me would have been so distraught that I might not have even entered another photo contest, ever.

This is the picture I entered that was printed from a slide:

Quietus

I still kinda dig this picture. My other 2 entries weren’t even really in focus.

Then I didn’t enter another contest until the 2004 Boone County Fair, where this picture of Karma got a blue ribbon:

Happy Karma

I did enter the Iowa State Fair, but didn’t get any pictures exhibited. But in the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest, I got two Honorable Mentions in the Black and White Division:

Light Train by J.C. Janson

Shapes

Then 2005 came and I “cleaned up” at the Ogden Fun Days Photo Contest:

2005 Ogden Fun Days Photo Contest - Earth's Laughter

Honorable Mention Color (This picture is now the favicon for this website)

3rd Place Black and White

2nd Place Color

Best in Show and 1st Place Black and White

But my triumph was very short lived. Immediately afterwards, I had my biggest failures ever. I entered two pictures in the Boone County Fair Photography Contest and got no ribbons. This is hard to do. EVERYTHING at the Boone County Fair gets a ribbon. Well everything except me and a jar of moldy jam. My photography was the culinary equivalent of moldy jam.

2005 Boone County Fair Photography Contest - Black, White, and Marigold

The equivalent of moldy jam.

I did rebound to get one picture in at the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon and that picture did get an Honorable Mention:

2005 Iowa State Fair Photography Salon - Colgate Smile

Honorable Mention

But that was bittersweet. It was my first ribbon at the Iowa State Fair, but it was a picture that I had already won a photo contest with, so that was the seeds of my rule of never entering a picture in more than one photo contest.

Also, this picture is still one of my all-time favorites and it has never gotten any love from a photo contest:

My Giverny

I get why, but I don’t like it.

Then in 2006, I tried my luck at the Boone County Fair and this time, I got 2 Blue Ribbons, take that moldy jam!

2006 Boone County Fair - Internal Struggle

Blue Ribbon

I would also get 2 pictures exhibited at the Iowa State Fair:

Kentucky Appetizer

Portrait of Self-Portrait

I would also have a good run at Pufferbilly Days:

2006 Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest - Building 429

3rd Place Black and White

1st Place Black and White

Honorable Mention Color

2007 wasn’t a great year for me and Photo Contests. I got shutout at the Iowa State Fair. I didn’t enter the Boone County Fair. I did enter Pufferbilly Days and believe a picture of a train wheel got a ribbon, but I’m struggling to find the documentation for that