Category Archives: Naima

The Failed Selfie Project of 2016

Back at the beginning of 2016, I had this dream of taking a selfie every day to document that growth of one awesome beard. Well. I made it a few days into April.

As I’m going to rekindle this project for 2017, thought I’d look back at my favorite photos from that failed project.


December 31, 2015

January 1, 2016

January 2, 2016

January 6, 2016

January 9, 2016

January 10, 2016

January 12, 2016

January 16, 2016

January 17, 2016

January 21, 2016

January 24, 2016

January 29, 2016

January 30, 2016

February 1, 2016

February 3, 2016

February 8, 2016

February 9, 2010

February 10, 2016









































Hopefully I can make it later than April in 2017 before I shave the beard. But I am at the mercy of whether or not I have a birthday party in 2017 and what I do for the invitation. I guess it is a waiting game.

Instagram Year in Review

It has been awhile since I did an Instagram post. This isn’t exactly one of those. This is just a look back at my most popular Instagram posts from 2016. Here they are:




Just for fun, these were the 9 most popular in 2015:




I don’t get what you would call a lot of likes on Instagram (I’m not in high school), even though it is by far my favorite social media medium. However, I got 2,000 more likes in 2016 than I did in 2015. Or put another way, the same amount of likes that my niece gets for 1 selfie.

If you don’t follow me on Instagram, you can follow me at @christopherdbennett.

I also run the Instagram account (with plenty of assistance from Amber and Sarah G.) for my church’s Youth Group. Here are the 9 most popular pictures from that account:




If you want to see what I do with my Wednesday nights or the occasional Mission Trip, you should follow that account at @boonefumcyg

Critter Sunday

One of the new things that our new pastor (Doug) brought to our church in an animal blessing ceremony. On Sunday, you could bring your pet to church or email a picture of your pet and the church blessed your pet.

I took Naima to the service and she handled as well as she does. Kio wanted pictures for the Boone News Republican taken of the service. So while I did that, Summer (from our Youth Group) handled Naima. They even went on a walk.

While Naima was getting blessed, Teresa took the photos.

Here are some photos from Critter Sunday:


It was an interesting experience for Naima. When she has been in the church in the past, she hasn’t had to be on a leash and has been able to slam into people as hard as she wants. She obviously couldn’t slam into people on Sunday.

This is a great new tradition. I hope a lot more people come to it next year.

National Naima Day

Today (Friday, August 26, 2016) apparently is National Dog Day. At least it is on Twitter. So I thought I would share a few photos of Naima and her recent trip to the Boone Pool.

At the end the swimming pool season, Boone has a take your day to the pool event that is a fundraiser for Boone’s dog park. I always take Naima because she enjoys some aspects of it. She loves being in water where she can touch the bottom. Water where she has to swim. Not a fan at all.

This year I did throw her into the 4 foot section of the pool. Which she did not enjoy and then she was a little leery of even getting too near the pool at all.


After about 45 minutes, Naima decided she was done. So she got out of the wading pool and then walked out the front door of the pool. So we went to the car and hit the open road. Where she enjoyed sticking her head out the window on the ride home. I sure she is already looking forward to leaving from next year’s event.

Naima is going to church on Sunday, so I’m sure there will be more Naima pictures in your future!

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 49 – REFLECTIONS

I have to confess, I was a little worried about this week. As I crawled out of bed this morning to head to the Computer Mine, I had only received 1 submission in my email inbox. Despite one person telling me at the State Fair that they had just taken their picture and another person messaging me to ask me if a certain subject met the criteria of the theme.

SPOILER ALERT:

Every time you ask me that question, my response is going to be: “Define the theme any way you see fit.”

I mean yes, if you just send me a picture every week of your kid, dog, cat, chinchilla, iguana, ’64 Impala, Uncle Art… I’m eventually going to call poppycock on your “interpretations” of the theme. However, if your subject makes sense to you. It makes sense to me. I’m not going to question it.

But I digress.

The good news is that my worries were for naught, as REFLECTIONS submissions flooded my inbox this morning. Including 2 first time submitters in Debra Krause and Scott Krause. A brother-sister tandem that hails from Boone, Iowa. Hopefully, this is just the beginning of their submitting ways.

But I could stand here and talk tommyrot about this morning, or I could show you the submissions. I know you guys love tommyrot, but here are the submissions:


WEEK 49 - REFLECTIONS - ANGIE DEWAARD
Angie DeWaard

WEEK 49 - REFLECTIONS - MIKE VEST
Mike Vest

WEEK 49 - REFLECTIONS - CHRISTOPHER D. BENNETT
Christopher D. Bennett

WEEK 49 - REFLECTIONS - STEPHANIE KIM 1
Stephanie Kim 1

WEEK 49 - REFLECTIONS - STEPHANIE KIM 2
Stephanie Kim 2

WEEK 49  - REFLECTIONS - DEBRA KRAUSE 1
Debra Krause 1

WEEK 49 - REFLECTIONS - DEBRA KRAUSE 2
Debra Krause 2

WEEK 49 - REFLECTIONS - DAWN KRAUSE 1
Dawn Krause 1

WEEK 49 - REFLECTIONS - DAWN KRAUSE 2
Dawn Krause 2

WEEK 49 - REFLECTIONS - DAWN KRAUSE 3
Dawn Krause 3

WEEK 49 - REFLECTIONS - DAWN KRAUSE 4
Dawn Krause 4

WEEK 49 - REFLECTIONS - KIM BARKER
Kim Barker

WEEK 49 - REFLECTIONS - SCOTT KRAUSE 1
Scott Krause 1

WEEK 49 - REFLECTIONS - SCOTT KRAUSE 2
Scott Krause 2

WEEK 49 - REFLECTIONS - BECKY PERKOVICH
Becky Perkovich

WEEK 49 - REFLECTIONS - BILL WENTWORTH
Bill Wentworth

WEEK 49 - REFLECTIONS - SHANNON BARDOLE
Shannon Bardole

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:


WEEK 50 - MACRO
Macro!

But what is this MACRO you speak of? Is it pictures of carrots?

No, that’d be crazy! (Picks up a pencil and writes down CARROTS as a theme for the next 52 weeks.) There is a terribly sterile definition of MACRO that involves a 1:1 ratio of subject to 35mm film and you don’t want to hear it and while I want to tell you about it, I’ll restrain myself and define MACRO like this:

MACRO photography is all about getting up into something/sombebody’s grill and telling it “I’m here. I’m up in your grill. I’m not backing down. I’m taking your picture.”

Another way to look at it is that MACRO photography is close-up photography.

But as always, feel free to define the theme anyways you want.

HOUSEKEEPING

A MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 RULES DIVISION

1. 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.

2. Your submission needs to be emailed to bennett@photography139.com by 11 AM on the Monday of the challenge. 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 this week showed class, taste or sophistication by signing up for a Photography 139 Email Subscription. I’ll try to do better next week.

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 no-personal-space kinda Monday.