Before we get into the submissions for this week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE I want to say that I’m starting to work on the 2023 Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest. There are a couple of changes from last year in the photo classes. I split NATURE into ANIMALS and PLANTS. The majority of images submitted last year were for the NATURE class. This way these are split into two categories. I also eliminated the class HIDDEN TREASURES OF BOONE COUNTY and replaced it with PLACES. The amount of classes went up from 5 to 6.
There are still 3 Age Divisions. Youth (7-12), Teen(13-17), and Adult (18+).
Another change is that the photos are not going to be displayed at KWBG this year. The Pufferbilly Days Committee is pushing to have all the activities centered around Story Street on Friday and Saturday. Details are still be worked out, but the current plan is to display the photo amongst various downtown retailers and then Sunday at Art in the Park at McHose Park.
Here is a look at this year’s entry form:
More information will be released as it becomes available. This is just the beginning of the journey. Also thanks to Michelle for updating the entry form!
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ODD CAMERA ANGLE! A great theme! But were there a ton of oddballs out there to give this theme a spin? You will have to keep scrolling to find out!
As of 12:01 PM on Monday, April 3, this was the current list of ACTIVE streaks (ignore the numbers in parentheses):
1-Porter Degeneffe – 1 week
2-Becky Parmelee – 1 week
3-Jen Ensley-Gorshe – 2 weeks
4-Sabas Hernandez – 2 weeks
5-Willy McAlpine – 2 weeks
6-Mindi Terrell – 7 weeks (3)
7-Suzie Brannen – 11 weeks
8-Monica Jennings – 11 weeks
9-Nathanial Brown – 12 weeks
10-Mike Vest – 12 weeks
11-Tamara Peterson – 22 weeks
12-Brandon Kahler – 32 weeks
13-Linda Bennett – 36 weeks
14-Sarah Toot – 37 weeks (3)
15-Angie DeWaard – 41 weeks
16-Dawn Krause – 45 weeks (2)
17-Kim Barker – 50 weeks
18-Joe Duff – 52 weeks
19-Logan Kahler – 53 weeks
20-Teresa Kahler – 63 weeks (3)
21-Carla Stensland – 63 weeks
22-Micky Augustin – 64 weeks (2)
23-Andy Sharp – 66 weeks
24-Bill Wentworth – 67 weeks
25-Cathie Morton – 71 weeks
26-Elizabeth Nordeen – 72 weeks (2)
27-Shannon Bardole-Foley – 73 weeks
28-Kio Dettman – 76 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:
Suzie Brannen (Iowa) – 12 weeks
Suzie Brannen (Iowa)
Suzie Brannen (Iowa)
Mindi Terrell (Iowa) – 8 weeks
Mindi Terrell (Iowa)
Mindi Terrell (Iowa)
Kim Barker (Iowa) – 51 weeks
Angie DeWaard (Iowa) – 42 weeks
Susanna Funk (Colorado) – 1 week
Cathie Morton (Missouri) – 72 weeks
Linda Bennett (Kansas) – 37 weeks
Linda Bennett (Kansas)
Mary Green (Michigan) – 1 week
Mary Green (Michigan)
Mary Green (Michigan)
Shannon Bardole-Foley (Iowa) – 74 weeks
Tamara Peterson (Iowa) – 23 weeks
Carla Stensland (Iowa) – 64 weeks
Brandon Kahler (Iowa) – 33 weeks
Brandon Kahler (Iowa)
Bill Wentworth (Nebraska) – 68 weeks
Elizabeth Nordeen (Iowa) – 73 weeks
Christopher D. Bennett (Iowa)
Monica Jennings (Iowa) – 12 weeks
Monica Jennings (Iowa)
Monica Jennings (Iowa)
Joe Duff (Texas) – 53 weeks
Dawn Krause (Iowa) – 46 weeks
Dawn Krause (Iowa)
Andy Sharp (Iowa) – 67 weeks
Kio Dettman (Iowa) – 77 weeks
Kio Dettman (Iowa)
Sarah Toot (Pennsylvania) – 38 weeks
Micky Augustin (Iowa) – 65 weeks
Micky Augustin (Iowa)
Teresa Kahler (Iowa) – 64 weeks
Nathanial Brown (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) – 13 weeks
Nathanial Brown (North Dakota)
Nathanial Brown (South Dakota)
Logan Kahler (Iowa) – 54 weeks
Willy McAlpine (Iowa) – 3 weeks
Sabas Hernandez (Iowa) – 3 weeks
Alexis Stensland (Iowa) – 1 week
Mike Vest (Iowa) – 13 weeks
Jesse Howard (Iowa) – 1 week
Scott Degeneffe (Iowa) – 1 week
Scott Degeneffe (Iowa)
31 participants! That is the most this year for sure and possibly the most ever. Maybe tied for the most ever. I would have to check the books and I don’t have last year’s Ledger in front of me right now. We will just go with tied for most ever participants for now.
First ever submissions from Funk and Alexis. I don’t expect Funk to keep contributing, but I knew she was in Colorado doing her mountain climbing thing again, so I hit her up for a submission. But maybe she will find it addictive. One never knows about such things. I do expect big things from Alexis though. She has that good Bennett photography blood flowing through those veins. After all, there are consistently 7 regular participants with that good Bennett photography blood flowing through their veins. Your humble narrator, Linda Bennett, Teresa Kahler, Carla Stensland, Sarah Toot, Brandon Kahler and Logan Kahler. Alexis would be the 8th.
There were submissions this week taken in the following states:
+ Colorado
+ Iowa
+ Kansas
+ Nebraska
+ Michigan
+ Missouri
+ North Dakota
+ Pennsylvania
+ South Dakota
+ Texas
Four more states have been filled in on the map this week, thanks to Nathanial’s long road trip we get to fill in North Dakota and South Dakota. Thanks to Funk’s mountain climbing exploits, we also get to fill in Colorado. Also, Mary took her submissions in Michigan. WooHoo!
Here is the current calendar year list for states:
+ Arizona
+ Arkansas
+ Colorado
+ Florida
+ Georgia
+ Illinois
+ Iowa
+ Kansas
+ Nebraska
+ New Jersey
+ New York
+ Nevada
+ Michigan
+ Minnesota
+ Missouri
+ North Dakota
+ Oklahoma
+ Pennsylvania
+ South Dakota
+ Texas
+ Washington D.C.
+ Wisconsin
21 states and 1 district! That is pretty impressive!
Thanks to Nathanial’s super long road trip, we also got another submission from outside of the United States. Canada is on the big board now!
The Outside of the United States map is currently:
+ British Virgin Islands
+ Nassau Bahamas
+ Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
I took my picture about 3 miles from my front door. So I continue to contribute nothing. There were no major milestones this week. But Kim is closing in on joining the 1 Year Club.
While there was, maybe, record participation this week, it wasn’t all great news. Porter and Becky couldn’t extend last week’s submissions into a 2 week streak. Maybe the pressure of being the youngest contributor this year got to him. Maybe when school’s out, I’ll start hitting up Evie and Layla for submissions. They need to start getting their entries for the Story County Fair (I honestly don’t know if they still do 4-H) and the Pufferbilly Photo Contest taken sometime soon. Jen’s 2 week streak is also history. She ghosted me after I sent her a picture of a matchstick sculpture of the set of BACK TO THE FUTURE. I might have accidentally blown her mind.
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:
SCENES FROM YOUR COUCH
SCENES FROM YOUR COUCH?!? That seems like an odd theme for Year 10 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!
This theme was suggested by Angie. It was meant to be subversive. If you have read the rules for (and there aren’t many rules, but they do grow a little by little) THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE, you may remember the this line:
“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.”
Here is your chance to not get your butt off the couch. You can literally sit on your couch. Take a picture of whatever you see from your couch and submit it to me. Now, you don’t have to take the picture from your couch. You can pile a bunch of your favorite people on your couch and take a picture of them. You can take your picture from behind the couch. It actually doesn’t even have to be your couch. You can find somebody else’s couch you like better and take your picture from there. It could be a couch in a store or a hotel or a bar. Doesn’t matter. It just has to be a SCENE FROM A COUCH.
There are two things I love about this theme. First, it means that there is somebody that actually reads the rules. Second, this picture can be the easiest one you take for this year’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE or you really take your creative juices for a walk to figure out how make this picture, let us say different. To really stretch the boundaries of the theme.
All sorts of stuff happens on a couch. I can’t wait to see what happens on some of yours.
While considering possible subjects for your SCENES FROM YOUR COUCH submission, meditate on the following quote and I have no doubt you will come up with a fascinating submission:
I stick to simple themes. Love. Hate. No nuances, I stay away from psychoanalyst’s couch scenes. Couches are good for one thing.
-John Wayne
John Wayne might have been a racist, draft dodging prick*, but the guy knew couches.
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 due.
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 SCENES FROM YOUR COUCH in this place that was probably dreamed up on a couch next Monday.
* I still love quite a few John Wayne movies. I can separate art from artist. Also I don’t blame him for draft-dodging. I blame him for acting like he didn’t hide behind his marriage to dodge the draft in WWII so he could cheat on his wife with Marlene Dietrich, probably on a couch.
I always enjoy “odd camera angle” week. Mine wasn’t particularly inspired (although the map is hanging on a wall, so it’s taking it toward the ceiling); I actually ended up taking a better one yesterday, but didn’t get it to you in time. Some of these photos are super fun.
I have high hopes for couch week! And I’m glad you don’t mind subversive-osity.
Sorry, hit “post comment” too soon.
Excited about the changes to Pufferbilly Days, and looking forward to helping out. Not limiting it to Boone County gives a little more grace to long-distance entries.
The PLACES class was a slow evolution. It started with me getting rid of “Hidden” from Hidden Treasure of Boone County. I first thought, that Hidden confused things. I remember in the Teen Age Division only one picture was entered. It was a picture of the top of a garbage can. I honestly can’t tell if that was the worst interpretation of a theme ever or the best interpretation of a theme ever.
Then it started to gnaw on me that there was a place to enter landscapes, so I decided to go to PLACES. I think Hidden Treasures of Boone County might have been a category that was designed to help the Chamber get pictures for marketing materials. I have no evidence to back that up, but it is just what I think. Either way, all of the people that might have been instrumental in creating that class are no longer involved.
It just dawned on me that there are now zero classes left from when I took over. When I took over there were 4 Classes:
+ Photoshop (Which nobody interpreted properly)
+ Photojournalism (Which nobody entered)
+ Nature (Which everybody entered)
+ Hidden Treasures of Boone County (Which once again, next to nobody entered)
I just hope there are some Black & White entries. Since last year you were the only adult to enter a Black & White picture. Well mostly I just hope there are entries in general. But Black & White is always my favorite.
I used to split ODD CAMERA ANGLE into LOW PERSPECTIVE and HIGH PERSPECTIVE. Probably works better this way. But it is a good week.
I’ll be curious to see how COUCHES go. I once had a real ambitious idea for this category, But I doubt I cash in it. I always have ambitious ideas. They rarely pan out.
Perhaps the teen was hoping that he/she could cause a gigantic scavenger hunt for the garbage can lid? That would have been an amazing troll job.
I want to say I was the only contestant in Photojournalism last year? (And that was my black and white entry.) I so love black and white – I didn’t enter more simply because my other entries specifically didn’t work well in B&W. I mostly don’t do portraits except for friends anymore – and a lot of that is because I don’t want to do the boring, full-color, super-posed photos that a lot of people want.
You were the only contestant in Photojournalism 2 years ago. A picture of Chick-Fil-A if I remember correctly.
Also, in the next couple of weeks, can you put together a biography and 4 or so pictures you have taken for the Meet the Judges board (not sure this will get displayed) and for those pages in the book?
This year is going to be different, but I hope we build on the “momentum” of last year.