I’ll Be Leaving Alone

September 30, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

Here is another collection of pictures I took of flowers from my Mom’s yard. These pictures were taken on May 30, 2021.

More flower pictures to share. Plenty more.

New Hartford Flower Garden

September 29, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

Several weeks back Carla and I cruised around Butler County harvesting their town signs. One of my favorite places we stopped was this cool garden/park in New Hartford. Of course, I took many flower pictures:

I have many more pictures to share from Butler County.

Art, Road Trip, Town Sign Project

Town Sign Project: Adams County

September 28, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

A few weeks back I cruised around Adams County on a solo town sign harvesting trip. Adams County was just the first county I harvested on that day.

Here are some facts about Adams County:

+ Population is 3,704, making it the 99th most populous county in Iowa. Also known as the least populous county in Iowa. Behind Ringgold County and above no counties.
+ The largest town and county seat is Corning.
+ Established in 1851.
+ Named after the second POTUS John Adams or his son the sixth POTUS John Quincy Adams.
+ Was the site of one of the last Icarian Cult (Community) Compound.
+ Major highways are: US-34, IA-25, and IA-148.
+ Adjacent counties are Cass, Adair, Union, Taylor, and Montgomery.
+ Population peaked in 1900 at 13,601.

The Adams County Courthouse is mostly meh:

The Adams County Courthouse in Corning, Iowa.

The Adams County Freedom Rock is located next to a gas station in Corning, Iowa:

With Adams County conquered, this is the updated Photography 139 Conquest Map:

PURPLE=COMPLETED

38 counties completed. 38.4% of the Cyclone State conquered.

Here are the town signs of Adams County:

Corning, Iowa
CORNING
Population: 1,564 (-71)

Lenox, Iowa – Mostly in Taylor County
WELCOME TO LENOX
EST. – 1872
Population: 1,339 (-68)

Prescott, Iowa
Welcome to Prescott
Home of the Kline Museum
Population 266
Population: 191 (-66)

Nodaway, Iowa
A Perfect Place to… NODAWAY
Population: 74 (-40)

Carbon, Iowa
Welcome to CARBON
EST. 1873
Coal Mining Town
Population: 36 (+2)

I’m going to put Lenox aside for now because it is mostly in Taylor County. That really only leaves 4 signs to choose from and that means obviously Corning has the worst town sign in Adams County.

But who has Best in Show of the remaining 3. Prescott and Carbon have solid signs, but it is pretty obvious that Nodaway has the Best Town Sign in Adams County:

Nodaway – Best in Show – Adams County

Only Lenox had alternate town signs:

Lenox – Alternate

Best in Show – Adair County

Best in Show – Adams County

Best in Show – Audubon County

Best in Show – Benton County

Best in Show – Boone County

Best in Show – Butler County

Best in Show – Calhoun County

Best in Show – Carroll County

Best in Show – Cass County

Best in Show – Cerro Gordo 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 – Grundy County

Best in Show – Guthrie County

Best in Show – Hamilton County

Best in Show – Hancock County

Best in Show – Hardin County

Best in Show – Humboldt County

Best in Show – Ida County

Best in Show – Jasper County

Best in Show – Lucas County

Best in Show – Madison County

Best in Show – Marion County

Best in Show – Marshall County

Best in Show – Pocahontas County

Best in Show – Polk County

Best in Show – Poweshiek County

Best in Show – Sac County

Best in Show – Story County

Best in Show – Tama County

Best in Show – Union County

Best in Show – Warren County

Best in Show – Webster County

Best in Show – Worth County

Best in Show – Wright County

The next time we hit the open road for THE TOWN SIGN PROJECT, we will make a stop in Montgomery County.

Bill, Elizabeth, Iowa State, Kio, Micky, Self-Portrait, Shannon, Tamara, Teresa, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 315 – DREAM JOB

September 27, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

DREAM JOB wasn’t an extremely popular theme. I guess people just have forgotten how to dream.

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

Elizabeth Nordeen

Tamara Peterson

Bill Wentworth

Christopher D. Bennett

Shannon Bardole-Foley

Micky Augustin

Teresa Kahler

Kio Dettman

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:

FLOWER

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

You might think it is kind of late in the year for FLOWER, but in my yard I still have moonflowers, asters, marigolds, and zinnias still blooming. And that is just off the top of my head. But the FLOWER you photograph doesn’t have to be living. It doesn’t even have to be real. It can be fake or it can be painting or a sculpture. It can be a seed packet. There are so many options for the creative thinker!

Think on the flower quote when considering your FLOWER image:

In joy and sadness, flowers are our constant friends.
-Unknown

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 DREAM JOB in this place that more than a few people think already has too many flowers next Monday.

Dad, Grandma, Linda, Mom

Mom’s Birthday

September 26, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

Today is my Mom’s birthday. I considered writing about what an amazing person she was and how she was so good at being a Mom that it still makes it hard for me to relate to people who had subpar parents. It just doesn’t calculate in my head what it would be like to have a Mom that wasn’t your biggest supporter, didn’t always put your needs before her needs, or always made sure that there was a roof over your head and delicious food in your stomach.

Instead of writing about her many merits, I decided instead to share some pictures from what was sorta (but not exactly) my parents’ wedding. I don’t know many of the people in the pictures and maybe only a few of them are still with us, but it is still an incredible snapshot in time that I want to share. A day of love shared between my Mom and my Dad:

Something I will tell you about these pictures is that they were taken in the old house at 415 Greene Street. The house I lived in from second grade until shortly after I got out of college. It is weird to see how in many ways, the house didn’t change much from the time of these pictures until we moved into that house twenty years later. That house was torn down a couple years ago.

Black & White, Cousin Amy, Formal Portrait, Sara

2011-01-27

September 25, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

I’m trying to piece the 2011 archives together across a few different hard drives. I know I have definitely lost a bunch of images in 2011, but I’m always discovering some that I thought were lost but really aren’t. In the folder 2011-01-27 are the first set of pictures I ever took for THE 9 EMOTIONS PROJECT. It is a project I keep saying that I’m going to visit again, but then, I just never do. I’ll get to it. I just need to find more friends that like having their picture taken.

Here are the pictures from the folder 2011-01-27:

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:

PERSONAL PHOTO PROJECT OF THE WEEK #54

PERSONAL PHOTO PROJECT OF THE WEEK #57

The next time we walk down memory lane, it will involve a 6 month old.

Art, Automobiles, Christianity, Road Trip, Ruins

Sac County and Ida County Auxiliary Images Vol. 3

September 24, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

This is the third and final collection of images I took while harvesting the town signs of Sac County and Ida County. However all of these pictures were taken in Pocahontas County, Webster County, and Hamilton County.

Varina

Fonda

Palmer

Fort Dodge

Stanhope

I have a feeling that werewolves drive a pretty hard bargain when selling cars.

The next county to share auxiliary images from is Butler County. Flowertography haters be warned, we came across an amazing garden there!

Animals, Flowers, Macro, Mom

She’s Just An Old Love Turned Memory

September 23, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

Here is another collection of pictures of flowers from my Mom’s yard. These were taken on May 26, 2021.

The last picture is of a robin’s nest that was built in a hanging flower basket on my Mom’s front porch.

Art, Black & White, Road Trip

Sac County and Ida County Auxiliary Images Vol. 2

September 22, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett 3 Comments

Here is the second of three collections of pictures I took while tooling around Sac and Ida County with Teresa harvesting their town signs.

Battle Creek

Cushing

Holstein

The next picture is of the top of this building that no longer stands

Galva

Schaller

Early

Newell

The unfortunate mashup of my love for outhouses and my disdain for the comedic stylings of Daniel Whitney.

There is one more collection of pictures from this road trip in the hopper.

Art, Brandon, Logan, Road Trip, Town Sign Project

Town Sign Project: Cass County

September 21, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

A few weeks back I cruised around Cass County with Brandon and Logan harvesting the town signs of Cass County. We did a little more sightseeing in other counties than I normally do, so it was one of the rare trips where all the town signs are harvested were only in one county. It was a good trip.

Here are some facts about Cass County:

+ The population is 13,127 making Cass County the 58th most populous county in Iowa. Behind Allamakee County and above Wright County.
+ The largest town and county seat is Atlantic.
+ Established in 1851.
+ Named for Lewis Cass a Michigan senator and Democratic candidate for president in 1848.
+ Birthplace of Edwin Perkins, the inventor of Kool-Aid.
+ Major highways are: I-80, US-6, US-71, IA-48, IA-83, IA-92, IA-148, and IA-173.
+ Adjacent counties are: Audubon, Adair, Montgomery, Adams, Pottawattamie, and Shelby.
+ Population peaked in 1930 at 19,422.

The Cass County Courthouse looks similar to Boone’s City Hall:

Cass County Courthouse in Atlantic, Iowa.

The Cass County Freedom Rock is located in Lewis, Iowa:

With Cass County conquered, this is the updated Photography 139 Conquest Map:

PURPLE=COMPLETED

37 counties completed. 37.4% of the Cyclone State conquered.

Here are the town signs of Cass County (Population is 2020 Census. In parentheses is change since 2010 Census):

Atlantic, Iowa
Atlantic
Coca-Cola CAPITAL OF IOWA
Population: 6,792 (-320)

Griswold, Iowa
GRISWOLD
ESTABLISHED 1879
Population: 994 (-42)

Anita, Iowa
ANITA
A Whale Of A Town
Population: 963 (-9)

Massena, Iowa
Welcome to MASSENA
Population: 359 (+4)

Lewis, Iowa
WELCOME TO OUR HOME LEWIS, IOWA
Population: 357 (-76)

Cumberland, Iowa
Welcome to Cumberland
Since 1884
Population: 215 (-11)

Marne, Iowa
WELCOME TO MARNE
FROM A PROUD PAST TO A PROMISING FUTURE
EST.1875
Population: 110 (-10)

Wiota, Iowa
WELCOME TO WIOTA FROM DENNIS ANDERSEN
Population: 91 (-25)

The worst town sign in Cass County is pretty obvious. It is Atlantic. Coca-Cola? We all know that RC Cola is the poo, so take a big whiff Atlantic*. However, if you get past how gross Coca-Cola is, Wiota’s sign or lack of sign was pretty awful. That Welcome to Wiota banner I found was hanging off some guy’s flagpole in his front yard. And what is with the handcuffs? Is Wiota the host to a big bondage convention? I guess only Dennis Andersen truly knows. But I like to think the gimp from PULP FICTION was originally from this little southwest corner of Iowa.

The best town sign is so completely obvious, I don’t even have to say it:

Anita – Best in Show – Cass County

This was the rare Best in Show that I knew before I even got there. Carla went camping there earlier this year and sent me a picture of it. Anita’s town sign is so great, it could be the sign that goes on the cover of my future book.

Here are the alternate town signs of Cass County:

Marne – Alternate

Lewis – Alternate

Cumberland – Alternate

Atlantic – Alternate

Anita – Alternate

Here is the current list of Best in Shows: