Here is a collection of pictures I took at Dickcissel back in early September. Mostly of Naima, but one wildflower picture.
Naima sure enjoys her trips to Dickcissel.
Dickcisselin’
Category Archives: Naima
Blessings 2020
Let’s face it. 2020 has been a terrible year. I could spend hours and hours polishing this turd, but a turd is still a turd.
I basically only see 2 other people on a regular basis right now. Willy and I haven’t held a Friday Night Supper Club since March 13. We went to Jimmy’s for their Friday the 13th sale. I can count on one hand the amount of times I’ve seen any of my nieces and nephews this year. I’ve been able to hold a couple of Union Street Theater Nights in the reconfigured Union Street Theater, but it isn’t really the same. The masks and the sound of the air purifiers makes conversation a little difficult and food is definitely a missing element. Since March, the only stores I have been inside are the Boone Wal-Mart and Boone Hardware. I go to Hy-Vee every other week. I’ve seen Bethany twice. Nate and Laura once. Becca, not at all. I haven’t seen the Lockners at all. I’ve seen the Gorshes thrice. I run into Willy around town now and again. Jay stops by here and there to work on his homework. I see Jesse now and again. I haven’t met Kalista’s baby. Baier, Russell, Andree? Distant memories. Since I left the Computer Mine with the belief that I would be working from home for a few weeks, the only co-workers of note that I’ve seen in person are Vest, Lowell, Kim, and Elizabeth. I haven’t met Jorge’s twins. My church has had maybe a dozen worship services and those are suspended again. The Mission Trip is cancelled. There will be no Mission Trip next year. Youth Group has been put on hold indefinitely. For the first time since September 18, 2004, they played football games at Jack Trice Stadium and I wasn’t in attendance. The Cyclones Women’s Basketball Season just tipped off. I wasn’t there. I will most likely, not be able to attend any Cyclones Men’s games this year.
All of that being said, 2020 has still been an embarrassment of blessings for me. In a time where the pandemic was horribly mismanaged by an inept and corrupt federal government, causing employment rates to go through the roof and food insecurity and evictions to sweep across the country like a second plague, I have not had to worry about my job. As these pandemic pounds can attest, I haven’t once had to worry about my next meal. I was in a solid enough financial position that when the $1200 dollar stimulus check hit my bank account I wasn’t sure what to do with it. We were supposed to put it where it would do the most good, so I donated some of it to Joe Biden’s campaign.
While the only people I see on a regular basis are Mom and Teresa. I am still blessed with a pretty incredible family:
While I see them rarely, I still have a pretty incredible set of friends:
While we don’t get to worship an awesome God together right now, I still have a pretty incredible church family:
While I continue to work at home, I still talk to and try to stay in contact with my amazing work family:
And while Naima is becoming off the charts spoiled, I’m blessed to have her in my life as well:
I hope to see so much more of all of you in 2021. In fact, I’ve started to compile a list of things that I look forward to doing when this pandemic subsides. It isn’t a glamorous list. But that is a sign of 2020.
Ivor the Engine Driver
Just a quick little collection of pictures from here and there to clean up some small folders that hadn’t been curated, so they can be put to bed and the robocopy script ran upon their heads.
There are some larger photo shoots I really need to start tackling. Can’t put these things off forever!
Tamron 70-180 f/2.8
When I got a refund for my Iowa State football season tickets back in August, I used the money and put it towards the purchase of a new lens. The biggest gap in my Sony mirrorless line up was what I would call a mid-telephoto lens. I don’t need a 400mm lens, yet. But something near a 200mm lens was definitely needed.
I considered about 4 or 5 different lenses before ultimately deciding on the Tamron 70-180 f/2.8. I was willing to sacrifice a bit on the length in exchange for have a consistent widest aperture of f/2.8. That was a pretty easy trade to make.
Here are some of the specs of the lens:
Specifications
Focal Length: 70-180mm
Maximum Aperture: f/2.8
Minimum Aperture: f/22
Angle of View: Diagonal: 34 Degree 21′ – 13 Degree 42′ (for full-frame mirrorless format
Minimum Object Distance: 33.5 inch.
Filter Size: 67mm
Here are some pictures of the lens:
I took a series of pictures to present an idea of the lenses reach. A 50mm lens is pretty close to way the naked eye sees the world. I took a picture with a 50mm lens and then a picture with the widest setting on the lens (70mm) and then the closest setting on the lens (180mm).
50mm at 5 yards
70mm at 5 yards
180mm at 5 yards
50mm at 10 yards
70mm at 10 yards
180mm at 10 yards
50mm at 25 yards
70mm at 25 yards
180mm at 25 yards
50mm at 50 yards
70mm at 50 yards
180mm at 50 yards
Here are a collection of the first images I took with the new lens:
It has been a few months since I bought a new lens. I’m starting to jones for one. Look, Lensbaby is having a sale!
WPC – WEEK 267 – ANIMAL
56 weeks in a row people. We even had double digit submissions before Monday morning! Now this week’s theme is a little more challenging, I feel like we will once again, hit double digits. You can tell that the weather must be getting colder. While the theme is ANIMAL, every single picture taken was of a pet. Wel, one isn’t, but it is also taken inside. I wasn’t going to take a picture of Naima, but my original plan fell through. Or actually fell down. Well, wasn’t inflated anyways.
I’m not saying my submission this week is anything special, but it uses a new technique that is fairly controversial in photography circles. If you were in Iowa last week, you might have a good idea of how it is manipulated. Or you might not. There will be a post on this “new” thing in the future.
But you didn’t come here to listen to me talk all tommyrot about participation rates, you came to see the submissions:
Tamara Peterson
Tamara Peterson
Bill Wentworth
Aaron Barnett
Kio Dettman
Dawn Krause
Micky Augustin
Kim Barker
Kim Barker
Kio Dettman
Kio Dettman
Christopher D. Bennett
Jesse Howard
Elizabeth Nordeen
Cathie Raley
Andy Sharp
Shanno Bardole-Foley
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:
FRAMED
FRAMED! What a great theme! But what is a FRAMED image? A FRAMED image is easier to make than it might sound. All it is, is an image where your main subject is buffeted on a least one side by something that isn’t the main subject. So basically, a subject matter, with negative space on multiple sides of it. For the sake of this challenge we will consider negative space, either something that is nondescript, one color, or out of focus. Of course, there are other ways to define FRAMED. Something that is in a framed is FRAMED. However, the idea here is to create a framed for you subject with other things in the environment.
Here is a look back at the 5 times previously that FRAMED was a theme:
RWPE #5 – FRAMING
WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 15 – FRAMED
I look forward to seeing your new interpretations.
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.
OR
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
Nobody showed class, taste, and sophistication this week by signing up for a Photography 139 email subscription. I’ll try and do better next week.
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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 framed Monday!
Ice Ice Daisy
I took these pictures on what was surely a beautiful July day. I was beginning to work on a photo project where I freeze a flower in a block of ice. I still really haven’t got one I’m looking for exactly, but this was the beginning of the dream. A dream that I continue to pursue to this day. But this post is mostly other pictures.
While I was already missing all the flowers that populate my yard, now I’m starting to miss the insects. So sad.
Put that Fire in Your Soul
You know that BLACK AND WHITE is my favorite theme. You know darn well that I’m going to have lots of BLACK AND WHITE alternates. Lots and lots of alternates. Actually I think I have less alternates than I normally do for BLACK AND WHITE. That being said, I’m still going to break this down into multiple posts. Probably 2. Maybe 3. Definitely more than 1 though.
Plenty more, BLACK AND WHITE images still coming later this week.
Tell of Who You Are
I need to start today with wishing Dae Hee a happy birthday. Happy birthday Dae Hee!
I hope your birthday is as amazing as you want it to be.
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Mike
The main collection of pictures from today are alternates for last week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme SELF-PORTRAIT. A few of those pictures were taken on the roof of my house. I climbed up there without anybody holding the ladder or spotting me.
I bring this up, because I acknowledge that is dangerous and foolish. I bring this up, because a guy I know recently fell off a roof and broke his back. He is now in need of help with the medical expenses that come with that kind of injury and our broken health care system. If you are interested in helping out with his medical expenses, you can make a donation to his GoFundMe page here:
We’ve Got Mike’s Back ( – He broke it!)
You may remember Mike as the lead singer and bass player for Derrick’s band. He’s a good guy with a long road to recovery in front of him.
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Here is a collection of SELF-PORTRAIT images that I took for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE, but didn’t use on Monday. They are mostly cruddy cell phone pictures, but a few were taken with Rodan139.
The pictures taken down by the river are with the remains of the bridge that Kate Shelley crossed to save all those lives, all those years. If you don’t know the story of Kate Shelley, don’t worry. You will at some point.
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This is your reminder that BLACK AND WHITE is the week’s theme for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE:
BLACK AND WHITE
A BLACK AND WHITE image is a picture of any subject that is taken in BLACK AND WHITE, sometimes called monochrome.
Happy photo harvesting!
A Little Fall Cleaning
Today is a collection of small folders with a just a couple images here and there, that I just wanted to get cleaned up and out of my organizational workflow.
Feels good to get some of those cobwebs cleared out.
All You’ll Ever Need
Today I’d like to share a collection of flower pictures I took in late June.
Still plenty of flower pictures left to curate.