WARNING: THE THEME FOR NEXT WEEK IS THE OTHER WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE THAT DOES HAVE A SECOND RULE. READ THE DIRECTIONS CLOSELY.

Square has proven to be a pretty popular theme.

As of 12:01 PM on Monday, May 2, this was the current list of ACTIVE streaks:

+ Jen Ensley-Gorshe – 1 week
+ Sarah Karber – 1 week
+ Angie DeWaard – 2 weeks
+ Jesse Howard – 2 weeks
+ Evie Gorshe – 3 weeks
+ Kim Barker – 4 weeks
+ Sara Lockner – 4 weeks
+ Becky Parmelee – 4 weeks
+ Joe Duff – 5 weeks
+ Dawn Krause – 5 weeks
+ Suzie Brannen – 6 weeks
+ Monica Henning – 7 weeks
+ Logan Kahler – 7 weeks
+ Teresa Kahler – 15 weeks
+ Tamara Peterson – 15 weeks
+ Carla Stensland – 15 weeks
+ Michelle Haupt – 16 weeks
+ Micky Augustin – 17 weeks
+ Andy Sharp – 18 weeks
+ Bill Wentworth – 19 weeks
+ Cathie Raley – 23 weeks
+ Elizabeth Nordeen – 24 weeks
+ Shannon Bardole-Foley – 26 weeks
+ Kio Dettman – 29 weeks

But you didn’t come here to listen to me talk all tommyrot about participation rates or streaks. You came to see the submissions and what streaks continued and what streaks flamed out:

Kio Dettman – 30 weeks

Kio Dettman

Kio Dettman

Linda Bennett – 1 week

Linda Bennett

Tamara Peterson – 16 weeks

Bill Wentworth – 20 weeks

Carla Stensland – 16 weeks

Christopher D. Bennett

Teresa Kahler – 16 weeks

Michelle Haupt – 17 weeks

Andy Sharp – 19 weeks

Shannon Bardole-Foley – 27 weeks

Joe Duff – 6 weeks

Kim Barker – 5 weeks

Logan Kahler – 8 weeks

Logan Kahler

Logan Kahler

Elizabeth Nordeen – 25 weeks

Suzie Brannen – 7 weeks

Micky Augustin – 18 weeks

Monica Henning – 8 weeks

Cathie Raley – 24 weeks

Becky Parmelee – 5 weeks

Angie DeWaard – 3 weeks

Dawn Krause – 6 weeks

Dawn Krause

Sara Lockner – 5 weeks

Sara Lockner

Jesse Howard – 3 weeks

Jen Ensley-Gorshe – 2 weeks

I’m not going to get into who had streaks broke and how many participants there were, because Mediacom sucks. Just absolutely sucks. You are lucky you are even seeing this post, that is how bad Mediacom sucks.

There were 31 submissions. That is all you get.

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:

SLICE OF LIFE

SLICE OF LIFE! What a great theme for Year 9 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!

But what is a SLICE OF LIFE photo? It might not be what you think. Hence this week’s special rule. SLICE OF LIFE is a reference to the photo postcard company that my Dad created. That is why (and here is the special rule) this week, the theme is NOT up for interpretation. This week’s theme is to take a picture that you could see used as a postcard. That is the only interpretation available to you.

Some of you might not live in a tourist hotbed like Boone, Iowa (no seriously, Boone has lots of tourist attractions from Pufferbilly Days to the Mamie Doud Eisenhower Birthplace to Ledge State Park to the Boone Speedway to name a few) but there is certainly something in your town that you could see put on a postcard. For those of you that are under the age of 40 you may have to ask an elder what a postcard is, but I’m sure they will be happy to tell you all about it. And also other amazing things that happened in the 80s or 70s or before.

To give you another few examples of postcards. Here are a few postcards that my Dad made that I hastily scanned this morning:

When you look at these postcards, remember that these were made in a darkroom. With film! Quite a bit harder than dragging and dumping layers in Photoshop.

So remember, it has to be the kind of image you would see on a postcard. Not a picture of your pet or your kid and then saying, this is a “slice of my life”. That doesn’t qualify this week.

Do I expect this to possibly be a streak killer for many people? Maybe, but maybe SQUARE already was a major streak killer, who knows?

BONUS: If you want to go the extra mile, this isn’t a requirement, you can take your image in black & white as my Dad’s postcards were black & white.

While considering your SLICE OF LIFE subjects, meditate on the following quote:

The world before us is a postcard, and I imagine the story we are writing on it.
-Mary E. Pearson

I look forward to seeing the digital postcards you send me.

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 your idea of SLICE OF LIFE in this place that is nothing more than my postcard to the world next Monday.