All posts by Christopher D. Bennett

Candid Portrait, Scottie D., Self-Portrait, Still Life, Tenderloining, WPC - Reminder

Tenderloin Appreciation Society – Don Williams Field Work

January 17, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett Leave a comment

It is hard to believe, but I haven’t published a tenderloining blog since August 26, 2018 when I recapped Michelle and I’s trip to The Filling Station in Ames. I actually made a few tenderloining trips and I just never got around to telling the world what I experienced. I feel guilty about this because I have a gift. A true gift for evaluating tenderloins. The fact I’m not sharing this with the world is very greedy of me.

The tenderloin I’m going to recap today comes from a trip to the Don Williams Golf Course Clubhouse. It came a few weeks after I ate breakfast there with my Mom and wasn’t overly impressed. A trip that really hammered home my loyalty to The Whistle Stop Cafe for those treasured Saturday morning breakfasts.

Despite the fact that I wasn’t impressed by the breakfast there, I was intrigued by the passion of the new operator of the Clubhouse. He spoke eloquently about his tenderloin and more than one person in the restaurant backed up his bragging.

I decided to organize a trip out there with Scottie D. to give it the test.

Because it is over 6 months since I’ve been there I won’t go into detail about the quality of the tenderloin we experienced. To say it wasn’t very good should be sufficient. I shouldn’t be surprised because people in that area think that The Lucky Pig has a good tenderloin. They are sadly misguided.

Here are a few pictures of our trip:

I have a couple other tenderloining trips to post about eventually. I promise that any 2020 tenderloin trips will be reported on as quickly as possible. Hopefully with the taste of tenderloin still swirling around my mouth.

I know for sure that at some point I have a trip to Corning with Shannon on the books. I will also be visiting New Hampton for a date with a tenderloin at some point soon. The lucky person to join me on that venture is still to be determined. Could be you. But let’s face it, do you really think you have what it takes? Search your soul for the answer.

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This is your reminder that this week’s WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is TEXTURE:

TEXTURE

A TEXTURE photo is a photo that concentrates on the feel, appearance, or consistency of the surface of a substance. A reminder that often TEXTURE is more apparent in a black & white image.

Happy photo harvesting!

Animals, Flowers, Macro, Nature

They’ve Always Been Our Friend

January 16, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett Leave a comment

Here is a collection of pictures I took in my backyard back in August of some flowers, the sky, and of course that most noble of insects, the wasp.

Want more wasp pictures? Don’t worry baby bird. I’ll feed you. Eventually.

Animals, Flowers, Macro, Road Trip, Teresa, Town Sign Project

Who’s a Big Boy – Addendum

January 15, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett Leave a comment

This is a collection of images that I took on my way home from following the Big Boy. After letting the train roll past us one last time, Teresa and I headed back to Boone after stopping off in Carroll for a delicious meal at Rancho Grande Mexican.

Then in Glidden we stopped at Dairy Mart for ice cream. Then finally made a brief stop at the Harrier Marsh to take a few photos.

Glidden, Iowa

Ralston, Iowa

I just want to say for the record that flavor burst ice cream is straight trash. I understand it is a way to try to serve several types of ice cream on the cheap, but it is garbage. It is just vanilla ice cream with some weak tasting syrup dribbled around the outside.

That isn’t to say that my experience at Dairy Mart was bad. What I got was delicous. A raspberry shake. I stayed away from that flavor burst garbage.

Railroad, Road Trip, Teresa

Who’s a Big Boy – Chapter 3

January 14, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett Leave a comment

This is my final collection of images from the day I spent following the Union Pacific Big Boy a little ways across central Iowa.

The Big Boy is 133 feet long and 17 feet tall. A standard diesel locomotive is 74 feet long and 15 foot 7 inches tall. A school bus is 40 feet tall and 10 feet tall. A standard sedan is 16 feet long and 5 feet tall.

These last pictures were taken just west of Carroll, very near a town called Maple River.

In “Who’s A Big Boy – Chapter 2”, I discussed my big gamble and defeat by the high bridge. Well here is a picture that Teresa got of the Big Boy with the RX0 II:

This concludes my Big Boy photos. Means I need to get out there and take some more train photos in the near future. Don’t care who calls me a foamer.

Andy, Becky, Carla, Cathie, Dawn, Elizabeth, Jen, Kim, Linda, Micky, Pastor Sarah, Steph, Still Life, Teresa, Willy, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 226 – FOOD

January 13, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett Leave a comment

FOOD was another very popular theme. We have reached 16 straight weeks of double digit submissions! Someday I’m going to have to have a look and see what is the record for the most submissions for one week. I don’t think today is that record, but there were a healthy number of people that enjoy photographing their food. I spoke about the “Doris Gene” when I wrote about my Grandma recently. Photographing your food is definitely a “Bennett Gene”. I discovered that when I visited my cousin Sarah in New York City what feels like… well way too long ago.

In fact, there could have been even more submissions, but apparently people don’t eat cats. I’m sure there are some people out there that eat cats, but I digress…

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

William McAlpine

Elizabeth Nordeen

Micky Augustin

Dawn Krause

Andy Sharp

Teresa Kahler

Andy Sharp

Linda Bennett

Kim Barker

Linda Bennett

Sarah Karber

Stephanie Kim

Cathie Raley

Jen Ensley-Gorshe

Christopher D. Bennett

Carla Stensland

Becky Parmelee

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:

TEXTURE

TEXTURE! What a great theme! But what is a TEXTURE photo? A TEXTURE photo is simply a picture that accents and object that has TEXTURE. An object that isn’t smooth. If you are looking for more of a challenge than just taking a picture of your siding, here is a good opportunity to combine two pictures to add texture to a subject that doesn’t have texture. This would be called multi-exposure in the old film days. But you can replicate double exposure in image editing software.

Here is another hint, black and white photography shows off texture more than color photography.

I look forward to seeing your interpretations!

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HOUSEKEEPING

A MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 RULES DIVISION

The picture has to be taken the week of the theme. This isn’t a curate your pictures challenge. This is a get your butt off the couch (my personal experience) and put your camera in your hands challenge. Don’t send me a picture of you next to the Eiffel Tower, when I know you were in Iowa all week. I will point out that I have let that slide some in the past. I will not in the future. Since it is literally about the only rule.

Your submission needs to be emailed to bennett@photography139.com by 11 AM on the Monday of the challenge due date.

I now allow people to text me their submissions. In the past, I had made exceptions for a couple people that aren’t real computer savvy, even though it was an inconvenience for me and required at least 3 extra steps for me. I am now lifting that embargo because I have a streamline way of uploading photos. I’m not giving out my phone number, but if you have it, you can text me.

It should be pointed out that this blog auto-publishes at 12:01 on Mondays. So it wouldn’t hurt to get your picture in earlier.

That is it, them’s the rules.

A MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION DIVISION

Congratulations to Randy Rios (not actual last name) for being the latest person to show taste, class, and sophistication by signing up for a Photography 139 email subscription. I don’t know that she really wanted the subscription, but Jorge told her it would be good for her. Jorge is the law.

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That’s all I got for today, so if the good Lord’s willin’ and the creek don’t rise, we will commune right here again next Monday. Hopefully it will be a very textured Monday!

Animals, Naima, Nature, Photoshop, WPC - Alternate

The Constant Shame of My Existence

January 12, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett Leave a comment

Last Saturday I took Naima for a walk around Ledges to take a picture for the HDR theme of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE.

Obviously I took more photos than the one I shared. Here are the ones that didn’t make the cut:

Since HDR (true HDR) is the taking of multiple pictures at different exposures and combining them into one image, if you try to do it with a moving object, you can get a ghosting effect.

Here is an example:

I hope many of you have already got your FOOD picture for this week’s challenge and are already firing it off to me through the internets!

Camping, Candid Portrait, Derrick, Flowers, Jay, Jen, Nature, Night, Road Trip, Sara, Shannon

Backbone Road Trip

January 11, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett Leave a comment

Rather than naming the folders that include images from the Backbone State Park Road Trip I took with Jay, Derrick, Jen, Sara, and Shannon, I’m just going to call this post Backbone Road Trip.

Here are a look at a few of my favorite images from the road trip:

It truly was a great trip and one of my favorite road trips of all time. We did have to pack up and leave Backbone State Park really early on Sunday morning to beat a storm, but it was still a weekend filled with treasured memories.

By adding these images to the Photography 139 Gallery, I was able to restore the following historic “An Artist’s Notebook” entry to its original glory:

Spine

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve potatoes, probably a whole bunch more, but definitely potatoes.

Birthdays, Candid Portrait, Flowers, Lowell, Macro, Still Life, WPC - Reminder

Will You Pardon Me?

January 10, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett Leave a comment

I spent a few moments taking pictures of flowers one day back in May. Here are some of my favorites:

The tulips belong to my Mom. The rest belong to me.

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One thing I wanted to bring back this year was happy birthdays. Today is Lowell’s birthday, so happy birthday Lowell!

I hope it is a good one!

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This is your reminder that this week’s WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is FOOD:

FOOD

A FOOD photo is any photo that centers around FOOD. A picture of FOOD. Preparation of FOOD. People eating FOOD. You get the idea!

Happy photo harvesting!

Animals, Black & White, Candid Portrait, Equipment, Flowers, Logan, Naima

Logan’s Toy

January 9, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett Leave a comment

Back in August, Logan purchased a new mirrorless Sony camera. I took it for a brief run through my backyard for fun.

I’ve been on the struggle bus lately because it is about time that I purchase a new camera but I can’t decide if I should stay in the world of the DSLR or join the mirrorless revolution. The issue being that Sony really only makes one DSLR that is better than my current DSLR.

Mirrorless is undeniably the future, but to make the move, I would have to commit to an entirely different lens lineup and I kind of like my current lenses. Not to mention I shudder to think what it would cost to replace them with comparable lenses.

I haven’t made my mind up and an upcoming auto bill means that I probably won’t pull the trigger any time soon, but we’ll see what happens. I could probably spend that money in better ways, but we both know that isn’t really what I do.

Here are some pictures I made playing with Logan’s mirrorless camera:

I guess there is no rush to make a choice. The 77ii is still going strong, even though I thought I had killed it twice this year under some rainy circumstances.

The number one thing other photographers don’t respect about me (to my face) is my lack of care for my equipment. But you know what? I’m going to get the shot I want!

Art, Basketball, Candid Portrait, Dae Hee, Event, Flowers, Road Trip

Part Ballroom, Part Baller

January 8, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett Leave a comment

Last April I went up to Minneapolis to checkout all the hoopla that surrounds the Final Four. Dae Hee and I went downtown and checked everything out. I snapped a few pictures. Here are some of my favorites:

It appears to be a down season for the Cyclones this year. I can only imagine what this team would look like if THT would’ve come back instead of going to the NBA. That being said, there is still time for the current team to get it figured out, starting tonight against Kansas. Go Cyclones!