Animals, Art, Billy, Birthdays, Black & White, Christianity, Dory, Formal Portrait, Iowa State, J.T., Logan, Nature, Railroad, Still Life, Street Photography, WPC - Alternate

150-600

October 21, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

Today is the birthday of the Miller Triplets. So I must wish them happy birthday!

Happy birthday Doris, Jimmy, and Billy!

This picture was taken at their 1st birthday party in 2019 so that makes them… 5! They are 5 years old?!? How did this happen!

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Back in February I purchased a new lens. It was a Sigma 150-600mm DG DN OS Sports Lens. At one point, I was going to write a long post on it with a collection of the first images I took with it. But here it is. Halfway through October and the lens is old news now, so real need to go into too much details about the specifications of the lens. But I still want to share some of the first images I took with it. I went down to the Kate Shelley High Bridge and went to Lake LaVerne and took a few pictures of Logan.

Here are those pictures:

On the day I went to Lake LaVerne I also hit up the Ames Library. I took pictures there for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme BOOKS. I didn’t use any of those images. Here is a collection of those:

I do love that lens. It is kind of a limited purpose lens, but I should find more of those limited purpose opportunities.

Animals, Art, Flowers, Jesse, Music, Nader, Road Trip, Street Photography

Orange City Tulip Festival IV

October 20, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

Here is the final collection of images of my trip to the Orange City Tulip Festival with Jesse and Nader for my birthday road trip.

We start this collection where the last collection left off. Jesse shopping in an Orange City market:

While this is the final collection of Orange City Tulip Festival images, it isn’t the end of the road trip images. More to come!

Flowers, Lensbaby, Macro

This Time Tomorrow

October 19, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

When the fire inside that burns so bright
Begins to grow faded
It can be hard to see the ground on which you stand
Though you may not be afraid of walkin’ in the darkness
You will feel like a stranger in this land

When the hope that you hold tightly to has all but vanished
And there are no words of comfort to be found
You will know what it means to be lost and without love
May you fight to kill that deafening sound

But our holy dreams of yesterday aren’t gone
They still haunt us like the ghosts of Babylon
And the breakin’ of the day might bring you sorrow
You know I may not be around this time tomorrow
But I’ll always be with you
I’ll always be with you
-Brandi Carlile

Thursdays are for flowers! Last week I might have indicated that this collection was going to be from my yard, but that is before I realized I had more tulip pictures to share from the Orange City Tulip Festival! This is the final collection of tulip pictures from 2023.

Next Thursday the flowers will come from my yard!

Animals, Art, Black & White, History, Road Trip, Street Photography

Scott County Aux. – Vol. 5

October 18, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

This is the fifth and final collection of images I took on my trip to Scott County to harvest their town signs for THE TOWN SIGN PROJECT.

But I want to start by discussing Georges Seurat. I’m not a huge fan of Georges Seurat, which isn’t to say that I don’t like him. But my favorite painter is Van Gogh and I’m not sure their styles could be any different. However, I still like Seurat and I think you should too.

Here is a little information on him from the Wiki:

Georges Pierre Seurat 2 December 1859 – 29 March 1891) was a French post-Impressionist artist. He devised the painting techniques known as chromoluminarism and pointillism and used conté crayon for drawings on paper with a rough surface.

Seurat’s artistic personality combined qualities that are usually thought of as opposed and incompatible: on the one hand, his extreme and delicate sensibility, on the other, a passion for logical abstraction and an almost mathematical precision of mind. His large-scale work A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884–1886) altered the direction of modern art by initiating Neo-Impressionism, and is one of the icons of late 19th-century painting.

Why am I bringing him up and pointing out his contributions to the history of art?

Check out this final collection to find out:

Walcott

Iowa City

Newhall – I tried to buy some meat here, but I got kicked out because I’m not an elitist. Just a simple working class no-collar joe. It was really eye-opening for anybody that thinks I’m an elitist.

The statue version of Seurat’s “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” is one of the coolest things I didn’t know existed that I stumbled across on this journey to get to know Iowa better. It is one of the things I want to go back and photograph again. I just absolutely love it!

The next time we hit the dusty trail to finish up the auxiliary images from THE TOWN SIGN PROJECT we will visit Davis County.

Art, Drone, Football, Street Photography

Rodan139: Homecoming Art

October 17, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

I got a chance to take Rodan139 out of the hangar recently to stretch its wings and check for a new firmware update that was rumored, but it was not there. I took it to Goeppinger Field to photograph some of the street art done by Boone High students for their Homecoming game a couple of weeks ago.

I did take Rodan139 out a couple of different times this weekend. So there are more pictures coming! One of those trips including a run-in with a pit bull, but that is a story for another day.

Alexis, Amy, Andy, Angie, Becky, Bill, Birthdays, Brandon, Carla, Cathie, Dawn, Derrick, Elainie, Elizabeth, Fran, Funk, Jen, Jesse, Joe Duff, Kim, Kio, Layla, Linda, Logan, Mary, Micky, Mindi, Monica, Nathanial, Nature, Sabas, Sara, Sarah Toot, Scottie D., Shannon, Sheri, Suzie, Tamara, Teresa, Vest, Willy, WPC - Submissions

WPC- WEEK 422 – #INSTAGOOD

October 16, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

NOTE: – AT THE END OF THE MONTH I WILL BE OPEN TO SUGGESTIONS FOR NEXT YEAR’S THEMES. THE LAST MONDAY IN OCTOBER AND THE 1ST MONDAY IN NOVEMBER ARE WHEN SUGGESTIONS CAN BE MADE. THOSE SUGGESTIONS HAVE TO BE MADE IN THE COMMENTS SECTION OF THOSE POSTS. NOT VIA EMAIL, TEXT MESSAGE, TEAMS, PHONE CONVERSATION, SNAPCHAT. ONLY IN THE COMMENTS SECTIONS OF THOSE 2 POSTS. START THINKING OF THEMES YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE CONSIDERED FOR NEXT YEAR.

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Today is Becky’s birthday, so I must wisher her a happy birthday.

Happy birthday Becky!

I hope your birthday is as amazing as you can handle!

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#INSTAGOOD! A simple theme. Only asking people to submit the best picture they took this week. But did a bunch of people pick a best picture to make it a popular theme? You will have to keep scrolling to find out! It will be exciting to see the best picture that people took last week!

As of 12:01 PM on Monday, October 2, this was the current list of ACTIVE streaks (ignore the numbers in parentheses):

1-Suzie Brannen – 1 week
2-Myriah Sharp – 2 weeks
3-Elainie Stensland – 2 weeks
4-Scott Degeneffe – 7 weeks
5-Sabas Hernandez – 8 weeks
6-Willy McAlpine – 8 weeks
7-Mike Vest – 14 weeks
8-Sheri Fakhouri – 17 weeks (3)
9-Monica Jennings – 18 weeks
10-Logan Kahler – 18 weeks
11-Nathanial Brown – 19 weeks
12-Jesse Howard – 19 weeks (2)
13-Tamara Peterson – 22 weeks
14-Mindi Terrell – 34 weeks (3)
15-Brandon Kahler – 58 weeks
16-Linda Bennett – 63 weeks (3)
17-Sarah Toot – 64 weeks
18-Angie DeWaard – 68 weeks
19-Dawn Krause – 72 weeks
20-Kim Barker – 78 weeks
21-Joe Duff – 79 weeks
22-Teresa Kahler – 90 weeks (2)
23-Carla Stensland – 90 weeks
24-Micky Augustin – 92 weeks
25-Andy Sharp – 93 weeks
26-Bill Wentworth – 94 weeks
27-Cathie Morton – 98 weeks
28-Elizabeth Nordeen – 99 weeks (2)
29-Shannon Bardole-Foley – 101 weeks
30-Kio Dettman – 103 weeks (3)

The third week of each month I like to share a map of all the state that have had pictures taken in that were submitted for this calendar year. Well, I checked my calendar and this is the third Monday of the month. Here is the map, heading into this week:

That is a lot of states filled in. In fact, going into this week, there are only 12 states that haven’t been visited and photographed by somebody that submits here. I don’t think there is any chance we will fill in the entire map this year, but we sure have gotten a lot closer than I ever would have guessed!

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:

Micky Augustin (Iowa) – 93 weeks

Lori Backous (Iowa) – 1 week

Shannon Bardole-Foley (Iowa) – 102 weeks

Kim Barker (Iowa) – 79 weeks

Christopher D. Bennett (Ledges State Park – Boone County, Iowa)

Linda Bennett (Boone, Iowa) – 64 weeks

Suzie Brannen (Texas) – 2 weeks

Nathanial Brown (Faribault County, Minnesota) – 20 weeks

Scott Degeneffe (Iowa) – 8 weeks

Kio Dettman (Boone, Iowa) – 104 weeks

Angie DeWaard (Iowa) – 69 weeks

Joe Duff (League City, Texas) – 80 weeks

Pepper Duncan (Iowa) – 1 week

Jen Ensley-Gorshe (Santa Fe, New Mexico) – 1 week

Sheri Fakhouri (Ankeny, Iowa) – 18 weeks

Susanna Funk (Iowa) – 1 week

Derrick Gorshe (New Mexico) – 1 week

Evie Gorshe (New Mexico) – 1 week

Layla Gorshe (New Mexico) – 1 week

Mary Green (Lake Christian Home – Holt, Michigan) – 1 week

Elainie Hernandez (Ankeny, Iowa) – 3 weeks

Sabas Hernandez (Eldon, Iowa) – 9 weeks

Jesse Howard (Iowa) – 20 weeks

Monica Jennings (Iowa) – 19 weeks

Brandon Kahler (Iowa) – 59 weeks

Logan Kahler (Ada Haydn Park – Ames, Iowa) – 19 weeks

Teresa Kahler (Boone, Iowa) – 91 weeks

Dawn Krause (Boone, Iowa) – 73 weeks

Sara Lockner (Iowa) – 1 week

Willy McAlpine (Nerja Beach – Spain) – 9 weeks

Cathie Morton (Cumming, Iowa) – 99 weeks

Elizabeth Nordeen (Kansas) – 100 weeks

Amy Peterson (Iowa) – 1 week

Tamara Peterson (Iowa) – 23 weeks

Andy Sharp (Boone, Iowa) – 94 weeks

Alexis Stensland (Des Moines, Iowa) – 1 week

Carla Stensland (Highway 330 – Iowa) – 91 weeks

Mindi Terrell (Iowa) – 35 weeks

Sarah Toot (Kilmaine Saints band at Finola’s Bar – Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania) – 65 weeks

Mike Vest (Iowa) – 15 weeks

Bill Wentworth (Nebraska) – 95 weeks

41 participants! I think that is a new record!

There were submissions this week taken in the following places:

+ Kansas
+ Iowa
+ Minnesota
+ New Mexico
+ Pennsylvania
+ Spain
+ Texas

Thanks to the Gorshe trip to New Mexico, we have added another state to our list.

Here is the current calendar year list for states:

+ Arizona
+ Arkansas
+ California
+ Colorado
+ Florida
+ Georgia
+ Hawaii
+ Idaho
+ Illinois
+ Iowa
+ Kansas
+ Kentucky
+ Louisiana
+ Maryland
+ Michigan
+ Minnesota
+ Missouri
+ Montana
+ Nebraska
+ New Hampshire
+ New Jersey
+ New Mexico
+ New York
+ Nevada
+ North Carolina
+ North Dakota
+ Ohio
+ Oklahoma
+ Oregon
+ Pennsylvania
+ South Carolina
+ South Dakota
+ Tennessee
+ Texas
+ Utah
+ Vermont
+ Washington
+ Washington D.C.
+ Wisconsin
+ Wyoming

39 states and 1 district! That is pretty impressive! Over 75% of the way there! Every continental state west of the Mississippi is now accounted for.

This is the list of states currently missing:
+ Alabama
+ Alaska
+ Connecticut
+ Delaware
+ Indiana
+ Maine
+ Massachusetts
+ Mississippi
+ Rhode Island
+ Virginia
+ West Virginia

The Outside of the United States map is currently:

+ Alto del Perdon – Spain
+ British Virgin Islands
+ Mexico (General)
+ Isla Mujeres, Mexico
+ Riviera Maya, Mexico
+ Nassau Bahamas
+ Ontario, Canada
+ Vallunareju Norte – Peru
+ Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
+ Puenta de la Reina, Spain
+ St. John pied de port, France
+ Vienna, Austria
+ Munich, Germany
+ Rome, Italy
+ Cannes, France
+ Koper, Slovenia

The big, huge, monster milestone this week is Elizabeth joining the Triple Digit Club! WooHoo!

The other big milestone was the first ever submission from Pepper Duncan. I know it was a bit of a accidental Snapchat fluke that lead to the submission, but maybe it is the beginning of big things in the future.

But it wasn’t all sunshine and flowers. Myriah’s 2 week streak came to an end.

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:

VINTAGE – Suggested by Sarah Toot

VINGTAGE! What a great theme for Year 11 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!

But what is a VINTAGE image? It is simply a picture where the subject of a major compositional element is something that is VINTAGE. So what is VINTAGE? Is it just a nice way to say old?

Yes and no.

Old but not that old. But not new. Generally speaking to be considered VINTAGE, it should be no older than 100 years old. But not newer than 20 years old. Older than 100 years is an antique. Newer than 20 years old and looks old… well that is just retro.

While considering possible subjects for your VINTAGE image, meditate on the following quote and I have no doubt you will come up with a great picture:

It is easily overlooked that what is now called vintage was once brand new.
-Tony Visconti

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 VINTAGE in this place that is ran by somebody that is considered VINTAGE these days next Monday.

Boone County Fair, Jay, Self-Portrait, Tenderloining, Willy

Food Truckin’: Boone County Fair Field Work

October 15, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

On the Friday of the Boone County Fair, I went out there with Jay and Willy for supper. I’m a big fan of the grinder and I found a food truck called Off the Griddle serving a variety of the sandwich, so I thought I would give them a try.

Here are some pictures:

Food Truckin': Boone County Fair Field Work

I can say that service was very friendly, but it was INCREDIBLY slow. It is not an exaggeration to say that I waited well over 15 minutes before I got my food. I ordered my food at the same time as Willy. He got his food and had eaten it, cleaned up his mess, and began to think about what he wanted to dessert before I even remotely saw my food. It is also not an exaggeration to say that double digit people that ordered after me got their food before me. I was fairly certain that they had completely forgot about my order.

When I finally got my food and went back to the table to eat it, by myself, since it took so freaking long, the food was okay. It was what those of us in the grinder biz say. NJGG. Not Jennie’s Grinders Grinder. But in fairness, the only thing that has ever approached it is Mema’s Grinders.

The verdict on Off the Griddle is that it was okay. I would never pursue it. If it was at a place and it was the only food truck there I would eat there, but I wouldn’t get the grinder again. Maybe go for the Philly Cheesesteak.

To washdown the grinder I went to Hawaii Grill for a Lotus Refresher:

They made me an off-menu drink that was incredible. The kid that designed it was very proud of it and he should have been. I would have knocked down about 4 or 5 of them, if they weren’t crazy expensive for such a small drink. However, the drink definitely redeemed the meal.

Next Sunday’s meal will cover all the food I ate at the Iowa State Fair!

Animals, Birthdays, Boone FUMC, Football, Naima, Nature, Railroad, Sarah Toot

Don’t You Think I Loved You Too Much to be Used and Discarded?

October 14, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

Today is Sarah’s birthday so I need to say Happy birthday Sarah!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Weird thing is that the picture above was taken during the great solar eclipse debacle of 2017 and today there is a solar eclipse that you can see in a few parts of these United States. Iowa wasn’t one of them, but I won’t hold a grudge against the sun and moon.

Anyways, I hope Sarah’s birthday is as amazing as she can handle. Filled with good music and without her plans getting rained on!

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Time once again for another whack at the January backlog. This time, the rest of the backlog has been whacked and thrown into the fires of… finished. I don’t know, I’m still workshopping a better name for that.

These pictures never really fit into a previous blog. Some of them are alternates for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE.

Now it is time to start working on the February backlog!

Art, Flowers, Jesse, Nader, Road Trip, Street Photography

Orange City Tulip Festival III

October 13, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

We begin the third collection of images from the Orange City Tulip Festival where the second collection left off. Jesse, Nader, and I were wandering around the food court area admiring a truck that sold Belgian waffles. But I didn’t have any cause I had just knocked down a fried almond patty and it was like I was living in a whole new world.

Seriously? Who is surrounding by so much amazing food and then eats at Pizza Hut. Pizza Hut is so terrible we recently burned the Boone one down to the ground just to send a message to any other subpar pizza joint that is thinking of coming to Boone. Sleep with one eye open Pizza Ranch!

Only one more collection of images from the Orange City Tulip Festival left to share. But so many more pictures from this road trip left to share! We’re just starting to get warmed up!

Flowers, Macro, Nature

You and Me on the Rock

October 12, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

They build wooden houses on frozen ponds
In the summertime when the water’s gone
Diagonal lines in their rolled-out lawns
And the sage always smells so pretty
But nobody cares where the birds have gone
When the rain comes down on Babylon
The stonemason’s phone rings all day long
And you gotta get back to the city

I built paper planes when I learned to fly
Like a 747 fallin’ out of the sky
I folded ’em crooked and now I’m wonderin’ why
I could always end up in the water
But nobody’s askin’ why she lookin’ so thin
Why she’s laughin’ too hard, why she drinkin’ again
A falling star, she’s a paper plane
And she was goin’ down when you caught her

I build my house up on this rock, baby
Every day with you
There’s nothin’ in that town I need
After everything we’ve been through
Me out in my garden and you out on your walk
Is all the distance this old girl can take
Without listenin’ to you talk
I don’t need their money, baby
Just you and me on the rock, mm
It’s you and me on the rock
You and me on the rock
-Brandi Carlile

Brandi often tells the story about this song in concert. She got the idea from a Sunday School lesson from her childhood. She told Stereogum.com:

I had just finished the book (her memoir), and I was chronologically mining my really, really early memories. I remember Sunday school class about building your house on a rock as a little kids’ Bible story about basically building your life on a solid foundation. That foundation I think in that situation would definitely be Jesus. There was a song about building your house on a rock, and there was a little picture you colored in about building your house on a rock.

When my life changed, when everything that I identify myself by went away, I was just kind of left with a question of, well, is what I’ve built my life on really a solid foundation? I turned to [my wife] Catherine and the girls, and I wrote that song, and I realized that, yeah, even the most intensely self-identifying things can go away, but what my life is really built on, which is faith and my family, it’s a rock, and it’s solid. And then I just used some of the textures, some of the things that were happening in my day, from me being in my garden and her taking her space and going on her walks. She’s got the most beautiful English accent that I just could listen to even when she’s bitching at me. I could listen to it all day. And I just realized that they’re my foundation and that anything can change, and that won’t.

What did that earlier foundation look like for you?

CARLILE: Well, I just think that when you’re a kid and the first thing that happens when you pick up a guitar and learn to play a couple chords or open your mouth and sing a song is, the adults start telling you, “You better have a backup plan. I hope you have a plan B because the shit could hit the fan.” I’m always just like, “Eh, fuck off.” There is no plan B for an artist. But you always wonder. What if I get cancer? What if I break my back? What if I have a vocal hemorrhage, and my voice doesn’t come back? Basically, what if my job goes away? What if the thing that makes me me just stops? It happens to people every day for all different reasons in their lives, but musicians and artists almost universally have that lecture many times in their life about this backup plan.

When the pandemic hit, it was like all of our nightmares just kind of ushered in. Nobody had a backup plan. We’re artists. We don’t have any money saved. We don’t do that. It was scary because it makes you question whether or not you should’ve had a backup plan. Or what if the thing that makes me me goes away? Am I still me? Those were the questions that were in my mind. It’s like I’m not going to get a round of applause for emptying the dishwasher. But I looked around, and then I saw that what made me me wasn’t ever that.

I’ll be honest, this isn’t one of my favorite Brandi songs, but dang do I love the message.

To be honest, I would sometimes like a round of applause for emptying the dishwasher.

But Thursdays are for flowers and not for getting applause for doing basic household chores. Here is a collection of flowertography images mostly from my yard.