Category Archives: Art

Art, Black & White, Christianity, Road Trip, Ruins

Delaware County Aux. – Vol. 4

December 17, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett

This is the final collection of auxiliary images from my trip to harvest the town signs of Delaware County. Once again, there are some pictures of a beautiful Catholic church. This time it is the Basilica of Saint Francis Xavier. Once again, I don’t really understand what a basilica is. I can tell you that it is technically a Minor Basilica because there are only four Major Basilicas. Every other basilica is “minor”. From what I’ve gather it is the “Pope’s church” in some part of the world. Which to me, that means that if the Vatican City gets overrun by vampires (yes I’m talking about vampires again) or say the Visigoths, and the pope has to flee to northeast Iowa, he would hole up in dyersville, Iowa. In the Basilica of Saint Francis Xavier.

I even went to a website called minorbasilica.org and read their page “What is a Minor Basilica? And I’m still going to go with this is where the Pope goes if they* has to flee vampires.

But this is what it says:

A Minor Basilica is a Church of historical and architectural value which has “particular importance for the liturgical and pastoral life” of some place. In essence, it is the Pope’s Church in some place around the world. Minor Basilicas are specifically tasked with celebrating the feasts of the liturgical year with great care and attention. “The word of God is to be diligently proclaimed either in homilies or in special sermons. The active participation of the faithful is to be promoted both in the eucharistic celebration and in the celebration of the liturgy of the hours.”

Sounds like nonsense to me because all churches should be diligent. But if you are telling me it is just a real pretty church, I’ll accept that, but it isn’t the prettiest church in Iowa. Isn’t even the prettiest Catholic Church in Iowa.

All of that being said, I didn’t even photograph that much because I have photographed it before.

Here is the final collection of images:

Dyersville

Hopkinton

Ryan

If you are of a certain age, I’ll refrain from saying aged, you might think that the umpire statue in Ryan looks vaguely familiar. It is a repurposed Happy Chef. If you are not aged and don’t know what a Happy Chef is, ask an elder. Just be kind in how you do it.

The next time we hit the open road to look at auxiliary images, we will visit Fayette County and Winneshiek County.

*Still leaving the dream that some day the Catholics will allow women or transgendered people into their clergy.

Art, Christianity, Road Trip

Delaware County Aux. – Vol. 3

December 14, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett

Time for another collection of pictures I took while harvesting the town signs of Delaware County. A good collection of this collection was actually taken in Dubuque County. It starts with finishing up the pictures of the Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Petersburg, but also includes pictures of the Saint Boniface Catholic Church in New Vienna. Both are absolutely beautiful churches. The church in New Vienna, definitely has a strong German influence to it as one could guess based on the fact it is in a town called New Vienna.

New Vienna

There are two things I take from this set of pictures.

One. I love the fact that many Catholic Churches are unlocked and vagabonds like me can go inside and photograph them. Personally, I think that is the way that all churches should be. I’m not naive. I know one of the reasons these churches can do that is that their worship space is one building and their office space is a different building. It doesn’t change how I feel though.

Two. I’m infatuated with the black Jesus sculpture. I’ve never seen one in a church in Iowa. At least not that I recall. I can only remember seeing the white Jesus sculpture that looks absolutely nothing like Jesus looked like.

It reminds me of that line from that LeCrae song:

And I love God
I love Jesus, the one out of Nazareth
Not the European with the ultra perm and them soft eyes and them thin lips

Now let’s face it, this sculpture still has that ultra perm and them thin lips, but it is a step in the right direction.

Remember most of the artistic depictions we see of Jesus aren’t based on what Jesus looked like. More than anything they are based on depictions of Greek and Roman gods. Particularly Zeus.

Either way, it is interesting to see.

There is still one more collection of images from my trip to Delaware County to share.

Art, Christianity, History, Road Trip

Delaware County Aux. – Vol. 2

December 10, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

Time for another collection of auxiliary images I took while harvesting the town signs of Delaware County. Included in this collection are some pictures of Ss. Peter & Paul in Petersburg, Iowa was the first consecrated church in the state of Iowa. As you know, I’m not Catholic. I’m Methodist. I have no clue what a consecrated church is. My assumption is that vampires wouldn’t be allowed to cross into the church without dying. But since a vampire can’t enter a house without being invited, I assume they couldn’t enter a church without being invited either. Of course, few organizations have such a seedy history as the Catholic Church (the Boy Scouts come to mind) there probably are lots of priests over the years that have invited vampires into churches. However, since vampires are considered corrupted or evil, they cannot enter holy places any ways. In conclusion, since vampires can’t enter any church,if they be holy, although I’m pretty sure there are a ton of churches out there that aren’t holy (looking at you Joe Osteen), I don’t understand the point of a consecrated church.

Here are the pictures:

Manchester

Delhi

Greeley

Edgewood

Colesburg

Petersburg

I should clarify. I know lots of Catholics. They fit into 3 categories. Practicing. Lapsed. Recovering. Lapsed is by far the largest category. Whenever I come across something in Catholicism that it completely foreign to me I’ll ring one of them up. They also seem to never know what I’m talking about. An Oratorio is a good example.

So I did a little research on my own. And by research I don’t mean watched a YouTube video and was instantly convinced by conspiracy theory X. I went to a website called Spires of Faith. Which covers 5 Catholic parishes in the area. This is what is said about the consecrated church.

On October 24, 1906, SS Peter & Paul Church became the first consecrated church in the state of Iowa. In attendance were Archbishop John Keane, Bishop Schinner of Superior, Wisconsin and many other priests and faithful. Note: A consecrated church is a building solemnly set apart for the worship of God, and therefore making abandonment or alienation for secular purposes unlawful. Perfect solidarity in the construction of the church and free from all debt are demanded as prerequisites to the consecration ceremony.

I notice that there is no mention of vampires. Seems like a miss to me.

Either way, it is one of the most beautiful churches I’ve ever seen and there are more pictures of it still coming.

For the record, none of my Catholic friends ever ask me about prevenient grace and that hurts my feelings.

Angie, Animals, Art, Sabas, Sara, State Fair, Still Life, Street Photography, Teresa, WPC - Reminder

ISF Last Day Wanderings

December 9, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

This is the final collection of pictures from the Iowa State Fair (nonflower) that I have left to share. These pictures are from the last day of the Fair. I attend it with Teresa.

I’m already looking forward to next year’s Iowa State Fair!

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I did this thing on Monday where I accidentally posted Sara’s picture twice and Sabas’ picture never. So to clarify and get Sabas’ picture some airtime, here they both are… labelled correctly:

Sara Lockner

Sabas Hernandez

Sorry for the mistake. Won’t be the last time I make one.

Here is your reminder that this week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is STREET PHOTOGRAPHY:

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY! What a great theme for Year 9 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!

But what is STREET PHOTOGRAPHY? Besides consistently the least popular theme… every single year. This is the most important thing to note: it is NOT a picture of a street. STREET PHOTOGRAPHY is photography that is done in a public place. The most popular version would be candid portraits, but it doesn’t have to be a portrait. It can be anything found in public. Like a piece of public art. Anything you find in public that interests you.

And if you think you need some extra inspiration, look into the works of Vivian Maier, Henri Cartier-Besson, Saul Leiter, Robert Frank, and Garry Winogrand. Some of the greatest street photographers of all-time.

Vivian Maier’s history is particularly interesting, and worth a Google search.

Happy photo harvesting!

Art, Basketball, Iowa State, Nature, Road Trip

Delaware County Aux. – Vol. 1

December 7, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

Tonight is the night of the big Iowa State/Iowa women’s basketball showdown. This is probably the most anticipated game in the history of the series. Many thought it would be a Top 10 showdown, but Iowa has dropped more games than anticipated. However, Iowa is still #16 in the country. Iowa State is #10. They were #8 the previous week. Played one game. Won by 50 points. Dropped 2 spots.

If you love basketball, you should watch this game. It is one of the few games you can watch this early in the season that will feel like an NCAA Tournament game. At the very least, it should be intense and exciting.

Tip off is at 6 PM. It will be televised on ESPN2.

If you aren’t overly familiar with women’s basketball, you will be overwhelmed how much the announcers will talk about Caitlin Clark, Iowa’s star guard. They will talk about her 90% of the broadcast. At least.

So here are a few things to know, that the ESPN broadcast won’t cover:

+ Iowa State is the higher ranked team.
+ Iowa State made it farther in the NCAA Tournament last year.
+ Iowa State beat Iowa last year.
+ Ashley Joens is an also an All-American.
+ Ashley Joens is also her conference’s pre-season Player of the Year.
+ Caitlin Clark will at some point hit about a 35 foot 3 pointer. It will be impressive. She shoots less than 33% from 3 point range. That is less than impressive. She also averages 5 turnovers a game for her career.
+ Emily Ryan is also an all-conference point guard.
+ Lexi Donarski is also an all-conference player and the Defensive Player of the Year in her conference.
+ Stephanie Soares was the NAIA Player of the Year the last two seasons.

I’m not bagging on Caitlin Clark. She is a great player. She singlehandedly beat Iowa State 2 years ago. She could do it again this year. Just don’t let the ESPN coverage blind you to the fact that she isn’t the only great player on the court.

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Several months back I tooled around Delaware County harvesting their town signs. This is the first collection of images from that trip and they were all taken in Manchester:

Manchester

While in the Manchester Water Park, I looked down and saw that I was pretty close to standing on a snake. It was one of two time that this happened while I was working on THE TOWN SIGN PROJECT. This time, it did freak me out a little bit since water snakes are actually pretty aggressive. But it didn’t want a piece of this. It just slithered into the river and swam away.

There are plenty more pictures from Delaware County left to share.

Animals, Art, Black & White, Boone FUMC, Dad, Iowa State, Nature, Photo of the Day, Politics, Railroad, Still Life

Fat Mum Slim – November 2022

December 4, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett

Taking a Formal Portrait Sunday off to share November’s Fat Mum Slim Photo A Day Challenge images. Only one month left for this challenge as I’m not going to continue it into 2023. I think I’ve kind of run my course with it.

Here are the November images:

November 1 – A Collection

November 2 – A Book Cover

November 3 – A Shop Front

November 4 – A For Sale Sign

November 5 – A Bridge

November 6 – A Fence

November 7 – I Didn’t Make This

November 8

November 9 – An Unmade Bed

November 10 – Power Lines

November 11 – An Arrow

November 12 – In My Pocket

November 13 – A Closed Sign

November 14 – A Flock of Birds

November 15 – Hand Shadow

November 16 – Running Water

November 17 – Wrinkles

November 18 – An Empty Table

November 19 – Rocks

November 20 – Afternoon Light

November 21 – Half Full

November 22 – Graffiti

November 23 – An Ugly Food

November 24

November 25 – A Spiderweb

November 26 – A Funny Shape

November 27 – A Splash

November 28 – Something Hidden

November 29 – A List

November 30 – A Family Member

Here is the list of the December themes:

December 1 – I Love This!
December 2 – I Bought This!
December 3 – Starts with T
December 4 – I Held This
December 5 – Something Red
December 6 – Peace
December 7 – tree
December 8 – Looking Up
December 9 – Small
December 10 – Out + About
December 11 – Free Choice
December 12 – Lights
December 13 – Something Green
December 14 – Decoration
December 15 – A Star
December 16 – Candy Cane
December 17 – A Hat
December 18 – I Made This!
December 19 – Joy Is…
December 20 – Begins with S
December 21 – On the Floor
December 22 – A Gift
December 23 – A Tradition
December 24 – Someone I Love
December 25 – My Day
December 26 – This is Delish!
December 27 – Colourful
December 28 – A Book
December 29 – Us
December 30 – How I Relax
December 31 – Best Part of 2022

Seems like a pretty good list. I think I’ve already done some good work this month!

Art, Basketball, Boone FUMC, Carla, Derrick, Football, Iowa State, Jason, Jesse, Nader, Naima, Self-Portrait, Self-Portrait Project, Teresa, WPC - Reminder

Selfie Project – November 2022

December 3, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett

I don’t know that November was a particularly active month for me. It is getting to the hardest part of the year to do this project. The sun isn’t up when I go to work. It is barely up when I get off work. That being said, I think I took a few decent picture in November for THE SELFIE PROJECT:

November 1

November 3

November 4

November 5

November 6

November 8

November 9

November 10

November 11

November 12

November 13

November 15

November 17

November 19

November 20

November 21

November 22

November 23

November 24

November 25

November 27

November 28

November 29

I don’t know that I’ll be that active in December either. But I’ll try.

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

ANIMAL

ANIMAL! What a great theme for Year 9 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!

But what is an ANIMAL picture? Simply put it is a picture of an ANIMAL. It can be a wild ANIMAL or it can be a pet or it can be a stuffed ANIMAL or it can be a statue of an ANIMAL. It can be a dog or a bird or a squirrel or a fish or a lizard or a dog or a deer or a possum or a dog or a hamster or a rat or a dog or a bear or an alligator or a dog.

Happy photo harvesting!

Animals, Art, Christianity, Iowa State, Monica, Still Life, Street Photography

ISF Day 6 Wanderings

December 2, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

On the 6th day of the Iowa State Fair I spent the morning competing with the award winning barbecue team Baby Got Rack. After we finished the competition and collecting the spoils of victory, they went home and I hung around the Iowa State Fair for a few more hours with Monica and Graham.

Here are some pictures from the afternoon:

I also went to the Iowa State Fair on the last day of the fair. A collection of pictures from that day are still forthcoming.

Art, History, Mom, Road Trip, Teresa, Town Sign Project

Town Sign Project: Davis County

November 29, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett 4 Comments

A few months back I travelled around Davis County with Teresa harvesting the town signs of Davis County. Davis County was the last county in THE TOWN SIGN PROJECT. It was left for last for a reason. It was left because of some family history in Davis County. The ghost town of Paris is in Davis County. Paris was formed when Jackson Paris donated land for the Rock Island to build a railroad depot there. Why does that matter? Cause Jackson B. Paris was the father of Lewis Marion Paris. Lewis Marion Paris is the father of Matin Henry Paris. Martin Henry Paris is the father of Lyle Ronald Paris. Lyle Ronald Paris was my Mom’s dad. There really isn’t much left in Paris, except some ruins and a cemetery where a bunch of Parises are buried. I wanted this to be the last town of what is principal photography on THE TOWN SIGN PROJECT for symbolic reasons.

Here are some facts about Davis County:
+ Population is 9,138 making it the 81st most populous county in Iowa. Below Emmet County and above Palo Alto County.
+ Largest town and county seat is Bloomfield.
+ Named after Garrett Davis, a politician from Kentucky.
+ Major highways are US-63, IA-2, and IA-202.
+ Adjacent counties are Wapello, Monroe, Van Buren, Jefferson, and Appanoose.
+ Population peaked in 1880 at 16,468.

Davis County has a gorgeous courthouse:

The Davis County Courthouse located in Bloomfield, Iowa.

The Davis County Freedom Rock is located in Drakesville, Iowa:

With Davis County conquered, here is the updated and final Photography 139 Conquest Map:

PURPLE=COMPLETED

99 counties completed. 100% of the Cyclone State conquered.

Here are the town signs of Davis County:

Bloomfield, Iowa
WELCOME TO BLOOMFIELD
Population: 2,682 (+42)

Pulaski, Iowa
WELCOME TO PULASKI PARK
Population: 264 (+4)

Drakesville, Iowa
DRAKESVILLE
Population: 164 (-20)

Floris, Iowa
Floris Veterans Memorial Park
Population: 116 (-22)

Paris, Iowa – Ghost Town
PARIS CEMETERY
FIRST BURIAL
L.B. PARIS
APRIL 20, 1854

You may be wondering what will happen now that principal photography for this project is done. The answer is the next thing I will do is start working on the book. I’m not sure when it will be finished or ready to be published, but it should be sometime next year. The book won’t probably be what you imagine, but I will get into that more in a future post. There still might be a few more Tuesday posts dedicated to THE TOWN SIGN project in our future.

Davis County isn’t loaded up with great town signs. It is a county that only has 4 incorporated towns. They are kinda terrible, but Floris’ town sign isn’t really a town sign, so it is the worst.

But who gets the purple ribbon. I guess I have to give it to Pulaski, even though it is really more of a sign for a park than a town, but at least it is in one piece.

Pulaski – Best in Show – Davis County

I should point out that there are lots of ghost towns out there that only have a cemetery to mark they ever existed. I don’t stop and photograph these cemetery signs. I only photographed the Paris sign because of the family connection and the fact that it was the symbolic last town.

There were a couple of alternate town signs in Davis County:

Bloomfield – Alternate

Here is the final list of Best in Shows:

Best in Show – Adair County

Best in Show – Adams County

Best in Show – Allamakee County

Best in Show – Appanoose County

Best in Show – Audubon County

Best in Show – Benton County

Best in Show – Black Hawk County

Best in Show – Boone County

Best in Show – Bremer County

Best in Show – Buchanan County

Best in Show – Buena Vista County

Best in Show – Butler County

Best in Show – Calhoun County

Best in Show – Carroll County

Best in Show – Cass County

Best in Show – Cedar County

Best in Show – Cerro Gordo County

Best in Show – Cherokee County

Best in Show – Chickasaw County

Best in Show – Clarke County

Best in Show – Clay County

Best in Show – Clayton County

Best in Show – Clinton County

Best in Show – Crawford County

Best in Show – Dallas County

Best in Show – Davis County

Best in Show – Decatur County

Best in Show – Delaware County

Best in Show – Des Moines County

Terril – Best in Show – Dickinson County
Best in Show – Dickinson County

Best in Show – Dubuque County

Best in Show – Emmet County

Best in Show – Fayette County

Best in Show – Floyd County

Best in Show – Franklin County

Best in Show – Fremont County

Best in Show – Greene County

Best in Show – Grundy County

Best in Show – Guthrie County

Best in Show – Hamilton County

Best in Show – Hancock County

Best in Show – Hardin County

Best in Sow – Harrison County

Best in Show – Henry County

Best in Show – Howard County

Best in Show – Humboldt County

Best in Show – Ida County

Best in Show – Iowa County

Best in Show – Jackson County

Best in Show – Jasper County

Best in Show – Jefferson County

Best in Show – Johnson County

Best in Show – Jones County

Best in Show – Keokuk County

Best in Show – Kossuth County

Best in Show – Lee County

Best in Show – Linn County

Best in Show – Louisa County

Best in Show – Lucas County

Best in Show – Lyon County

Best in Show – Madison County

Best in Show – Mahaska County

Best in Show – Marion County

Best in Show – Marshall County

Best in Show – Mills County

Best in Show – Mitchell County

Best in Show – Monona County

Best in Show – Monroe County

Best in Show – Montgomery County

Best in Show – Muscatine County

Best in Show – O’Brien County

Best in Show – Osceola County

Best in Show – Page County

Best in Show – Palo Alto County

Best in Show – Plymouth County

Best in Show – Pocahontas County

Best in Show – Polk County

Best in Show – Pottawattamie County

Best in Show – Poweshiek County

Best in Show – Ringgold County

Best in Show – Sac County

Best in Show – Scott County

Best in Show – Shelby County

Best in Show – Sioux County

Best in Show – Story County

Best in Show – Tama County

Best in Show – Taylor County

Best in Show – Union County

Best in Show – Van Buren County

Best in Show – Wapello County

Best in Show – Warren County

Best in Show – Washington County

Best in Show – Wayne County

Best in Show – Webster County

Best in Show – Winnebago County

Best in Show – Winneshiek County

Best in Show – Woodbury County

Best in Show – Worth County

Best in Show – Wright County

There is no county next week. The road trip is over. The car is in the garage. It was a crazy ride.

Animals, Art, Evie, Iowa State, Jen, Layla, State Fair, WPC - Reminder

Iowa State Fair – Day 1 Wanderings

November 25, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett

After we watched Evie’s Irish dance group perform, we wandered the State Fair for several hours taking in the sights. Here are some pictures from our day:

I went to the Iowa State Fair two more days, so lots more Iowa State Fair adventure pictures left to share.

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This is your reminder that this week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is IN THE AIR:

IN THE AIR

IN THE AIR! What a great theme for Year 9 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!

But what is an IN THE AIR image? Simply put, an IN THE AIR image is a picture where the subject of your picture is untethered from the earth. So a flag, that is technically IN THE AIR, but it is still tethered to a flagpole, which is tethered to the earth. (Yeah technically everything is tethered to the earth via gravity, but take it easy Isaac.) This picture can be as simple as throwing something up in the air (or have somebody else do it) and taking a picture of it. An exercise that produces interesting pictures is throw something to somebody and take a picture of them trying to catch it. The portraits you can get this way are often intriguing and are a different way to see somebody.

Happy photo harvesting!