The last theme of Year 9 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE! Going into Year 10 I am going to make one change. I am making the Kio Dettman Suggestion the Kio Dettman Rule. In Year 10 there will be a limit of 3 submissions per participant. This could go lower if the number of participants goes up. I considered moving the time of the deadline and the publishing time of this post to later in the day, but for now I’m going to leave everything as it is.

The reason for the Kio Dettman Rule isn’t to squash anybody’s creativity. On the contrary, limitations actually fan the flames of creativity. Compare Spielberg’s early movies to the movies where he had an infinite budget. However, the limitation isn’t about encouraging creativity. It is because a ton of submissions by one person overwhelms the submissions of other people. Also, on average it takes me 5 minutes to process every image I receive to get it from where I got it, to store it locally, to rename it, to upload it, to label it, and to code it so it shows up on these posts. So the Kio Dettman Rule is a way of streamlining my workload.

So what happens if somebody submits more than 3 pictures? Will I choose the 3 that I think are best or fit the theme best? No, I will use the first 3 I get. Sorry, but it is a blessing that participation numbers are up so high, but I have to balance the workload too.

One more thing, I’m toying with retconning the first 2 years of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE, when it was known as the RANDOM WEEKLY PHOTO EXPERIMENT into the numbering scheme. So if next Monday the week number jumps 104 numbers (technically 105), you weren’t in a coma for two years. You didn’t gets sucked into a wormhole. You didn’t accidentally trigger a time machine. There wasn’t a blip. It was just me retconning like the director of a HALLOWEEN movie*.

So, was BODY PART a popular theme? You will have to keep scrolling to find out!

As of 12:01 PM on Monday, December 26, this was the current list of ACTIVE streaks (ignore the numbers in parentheses):

1-Sabas Hernandez – 2 weeks
2-Becky Parmelee – 2 weeks
3-Willy McAlpine – 6 weeks (3)
4-Tamara Peterson – 8 weeks
5-Brandon Kahler – 19 weeks
6-Linda Bennett – 22 weeks
7-Sarah Toot – 23 weeks
8-Angie DeWaard – 27 weeks
9-Dawn Krause – 31 weeks
10-Kim Barker – 37 weeks
11-Joe Duff – 38 weeks (2)
12-Logan Kahler – 40 weeks (3)
13-Teresa Kahler – 49 weeks
14-Carla Stensland – 49 weeks (2)
15-Michelle Haupt – 50 weeks
16-Micky Augustin – 51 weeks
17-Andy Sharp – 52 weeks
18-Bill Wentworth – 53 weeks
19-Cathie Morton – 57 weeks
20-Elizabeth Nordeen – 58 weeks
21-Shannon Bardole-Foley – 60 weeks
22-Kio Dettman – 62 weeks (3)

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:

Mary Green – 1 week

Mary Green

Jesse Howard – 1 week

Monica Jennings – 1 week

Sarah Karber – 1 week

Sara Lockner – 1 week

Sabas Hernandez – 3 weeks

Becky Parmelee – 3 weeks

Willy McAlpine – 7 weeks

Tamara Peterson – 9 weeks

Brandon Kahler – 20 weeks

Linda Bennett – 23 weeks

Linda Bennett

Linda Bennett

Sarah Toot – 24 weeks

Angie DeWaard – 28 weeks

Angie DeWaard

Dawn Krause – 32 weeks

Kim Barker – 38 weeks

Joe Duff – 39 weeks

Logan Kahler – 41 weeks

Teresa Kahler – 50 weeks

Teresa Kahler

Carla Stensland – 50 weeks

Carla Stensland

Michelle Haupt – 51 weeks

Micky Augustin – 52 weeks

Andy Sharp – 53 weeks

Bill Wentworth – 54 weeks

Cathie Morton – 58 weeks

Elizabeth Nordeen – 59 weeks

Shannon Bardole-Foley – 61 weeks

Kio Dettman – 63 weeks

Kio Dettman

Kio Dettman

Christopher D. Bennett – 485 weeks

28 participants! That is a pretty great week considering it was coming off a holiday weekend.

I received submissions (assumptions mostly on my part) from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Arkansas, and Texas. Elizabeth’s picture was from Ohio. That is the first submission from Ohio for Year 9 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE.

And since the next theme will beginning of Year 10, it will wipe the map clean and we will start again. I do ask you, if you took your picture in a different state than the one you live in, please let me know where the picture was taken. For example, Bill lives in Nebraska, so when I get a picture from Bill I will assume it was taken in Nebraska, unless he tells me that it was taken in say Wyoming.

My picture this week was taken in the middle of my house. Well, not the exact middle.

Tomorrow, hopefully, I will be putting together a post with a bunch of statistics and what not from Year 9 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE. A bunch of stuff that only me and Joe Duff will probably care about.

The big milestone this week was Micky joined the 1 Year Streak Club! There are some whispers that he was going to throw in the towel after he hit 52 weeks. I guess we will find out next week.

There were no streaks snapped this week! Huzzah!

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:

TRAINS, PLANES, & AUTOMOBILES

TRAINS, PLANES, & AUTOMIBLES! Oh my! What a great theme for Year 10 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!

But what is a TRAINS, PLANES, AND AUTOBOMILES picture? Simply put it is a picture that involves a TRAIN or a PLANE or an AUTOMOBILE. All 3 don’t have to be in the picture. One will suffice. The picture can also be of anything that is tangential to TRAINS, PLANES, AND AUTOMBILES. Roads, bridges, train tracks, terminals, stations, are all fair game.

I made this a theme this year because it will be one of the categories in this years Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest. If you submit a photo for this theme, you have a picture you can enter in the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest.

Boone has lots of TRAINS. Plenty of AUTOMOBILES. Technically 3 airports! If Boone has all that, I bet your town does too.

While considering your subject for TRAINS, PLANES, AND AUTOMOBILES meditate on the following quote and you will no doubt create a great image:

You can start by wiping that f****** dumb-ass smile off your rosy f****** cheeks. Then you can give me a f****** automobile. A f****** Datsun. A f****** Toyota. A f****** Mustang. A f****** Buick! Four f****** wheels and a seat!
-Neal

I look forward to seeing your interpretation!

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. There is a limit of 3 submissions per participant. To be considered the photographer, you have to be the one that takes the picture. Don’t be stealing the work of other artists. You can submit pictures for other photographers that took pictures with your camera or phone, but give credit where credit is ude.

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

That is it. Thems the rules!

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 PLANES, TRAINS, AND AUTOMOBILES in this place that was heavily influenced by a book on trains next Monday.

*Thanks to the maybe two people that will get that joke and quietly guffawed to themselves. Which another 2023 goal is to replace LOL with QG. Quietly guffawed.