Category Archives: Family

Carla, Contests, Dawn, Laura, Michelle, Micky, Pufferbilly Days, Sara, Teresa

Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest – 2017

September 10, 2017 Christopher D. Bennett

It is the time where I reveal what photos I entered into the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest, but first the good news and the “bad” news.

The good news is that my sister Carla cleaned up at the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest. She got 1st Place in Hidden Treasures of Boone County and Second Place for Photojournalism.

The “bad” news is that the 6 photos I entered got no love from the judge or judges. I really have no clue how they pick the awards. But I put “bad” in quotes because if I could choose to get no awards, that is exactly what I would choose. Plus, I’m super excited about Carla’s awards! Pretty sweet!

If I can get Carla to email me her submissions, I’ll post those at a later date. Like the day that she emails them to me.

Hopefully Teresa will enter some photos next year too!

Any way, you may recall that I had 6 people choose my 6 submission based on who left comments on an Instagram post. Here are those 6 submissions and the people that selected them:

Dawn Krause

Laura Miller

Amber Moore

Michelle Haupt

Micky Augustin

Jim Robbins

If you would like to see the pool of photos that they had to choose from, click on the link below:

2017 Pufferbilly Days Submission Pool

If you are wondering what was selected to the submission pool here are the requirements:

1. Have never been entered into another photo contest (i.e. Iowa State Fair, Boone County Fair)
2. They had to fit into 1 of the 4 categories: Nature, Photojournalism, Photoshop, or Hidden Treasures of Boone County)
3. I had to like them, sorta.

I’ll add that this is the photo that wasn’t entered, but was chosen by Selector-Alternate Sara Lockner:

I believe that is probably it for photo contests for 2017. As things now, I will probably remain unretired from Photo Contests in 2018. See you then.

9 Emotions Project, Black & White, Brandon, Formal Portrait

9 Emotions Project – Brandon Kahler

September 6, 2017 Christopher D. Bennett

Brandon was the latest to tap into his inner silent film star and pose for THE 9 EMOTIONS PROJECT. Here is his collection:

9 Emotions Project – Brandon Kahler

In case you forgot the emotions, here they are again:

Joy

Sadness

Anger

Amusement

Fear

Jealousy

Surprise

Sympathy

Boredom

So who will be the next to pose for THE 9 EMOTIONS PROJECT? I don’t know. But I have a few ideas.

Animals, Boone FUMC, Naima, Teresa, Youth Group

Critter Sunday – 2017

September 5, 2017 Christopher D. Bennett

Once a year at my church we have Critter Sunday. On Critter Sunday people bring in their pets to get blessed. I took some photos and then after Naima got blessed Jaxon Schoff took over and finished up the event. Here are some photos from the event:

Special thanks to Summer for volunteering for Naima wrangling duties and to Jaxon for being the backup Naima wrangler and taking over the photos while Naima was being blessed and after.

You might have recognized MacKenzie from the church’s youth group with her dog in the collection. I’m sure you definitely noticed Teresa and her dog in the collection.

There are more pictures from Critter Sunday for you to peruse located at the link below:

CRITTER SUNDAY – 2017

If your church isn’t blessing pets, they aren’t doing it right!

Dae Hee, Sara, WPC - Reminder

The Next 52

September 3, 2017 Christopher D. Bennett

As we near the end of the most recent 52 themes, it is time that I reveal the next 52. If there is a name in parentheses next to the theme, that is the person that suggest the theme:

Party (Sara Lockner)
Black and White
Portrait
Faceless Portrait
Old or Elderly
Signs
Road Trip
Landscape
Still Life
Night
Small Town
Family
Macro
Self-Portrait
Art
Religion
Abstract
Music
Animal
Shadow
Joy
Fear
Jealousy
Tree
High Perspective
Weather
Nature
Water
Flower
Ruins
Low Perspective
Food
Store
Transportation
Architecture
Reflection
Candid Portrait
Black
White
City
Agriculture
Competition
Framed
Work
Toy
Government
Feet
Hands
Colorful
Scary
Hobbies (Dae Hee Yoon)
Humor

Remember that this list isn’t in order. Only the random generator gods know what order these challenges will present themselves.

Angie, Bill, Kim, Politics, Sheri, Tamara, Teresa, WPC - Submissions

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 102 – HATE

August 28, 2017 Christopher D. Bennett 7 Comments

Participation rates took a pretty good hit for the theme of HATE. I was expecting this, but I think it will rebound this week.

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

Angie DeWaard 1

Angie DeWaard 2

Angie DeWaard 3

Kim Barker

Bill Wentworth

Christopher D. Bennett

Teresa Kahler

Sheri Fakhouri

Tamara Peterson

A good solid week of hateful submissions!

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:

RUINS!

RUINS! What a great theme!! This has been a theme every year of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE. So I don’t really need to define it more than to say it is the remains of something that was once in great shape and has been abandoned to the ravages of time.

I can’t wait to see everybody’s interpretations!

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

Great news people! Sheri Fakhouri is the latest and greatest person to show taste, class, and sophistication by signing up for an email subscription to this here blog. Sheri has known me all my life and I’ve known her since I was able to start having memories as she is one of my eldest sister’s best friends. She also has excellent taste in tenderloins. If you see Sheri out and about walking the mean streets of Ankeny, feel free to giver her a knowing glance and show her the super secret Photography 139 handshake.

Want your own Photography 139 email subscription? Call, email, or text me and I’ll get you the hook up.

A MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 GALLERY DIVISION

Sometimes people send me descriptions of their photos. I’ve never done anything with that information in the past. However, if you send me a description in the future, I will add it to your image in the Weekly Photo Challenge Gallery that houses all the submissions.

**************************************

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 ruinous Monday!

Animals, Flowers, Football, Iowa State, Jason, Nature

10-20-07B

August 26, 2017 Christopher D. Bennett

There is quite the mixture of nature and Iowa State football pictures in the folder called 10-20-07B:

Iowa State Cyclones vs. Oklahoma Sooners

There are many more pictures of the Iowa State-Oklahoma game from 2007. You can see them by clicking on the link below:

IOWA STATE CYCLONES FOOTBALL – 2007

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve a railroad. A very scenic railroad.

Bill, Cathie, Kim, Micky, Sheri, Tamara, Teresa, Vest, WPC - Submissions

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 101 – HUMANIZE

August 22, 2017 Christopher D. Bennett

Here are the submissions for HUMANIZE for last week’s WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE:

Bill Wentworth

Kim Barker

Micky Augustin

Mike Vest

Sheri Fakhouri

Christopher D. Bennett

Teresa Kahler

Tamara Peterson 1

Tamara Peterson 2

Cathie Raley

Hopefully you guys have already got to work on your interpretations for this week’s theme… HATE. We should be back to the regular release schedule next week.

9 Emotions Project, Alexis, Black & White, Formal Portrait

9 Emotions Project – Alexis Stensland

August 22, 2017 Christopher D. Bennett

Alexis was the most recent volunteer for the 9 EMOTIONS PROJECT:

Alexis

In case you forgot what the emotions are:

Joy

Sadness

Anger

Amusement

Fear

Jealousy

Surprise

Sympathy

Boredom

It will be interesting to see who the next “volunteer” the 9 EMOTIONS PROJECT will be!

Johnathan, WPC - Reminder

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE THEME REVEAL

August 21, 2017 Christopher D. Bennett

I am most likely standing in a field or a park in Kansas or Missouri doing this right now:

Photo Credit: Johnathan Stensland

Therefore, I won’t post this week’s submissions for HUMANIZE until I return to the Cyclone State on Tuesday.

However, you can still get started on this week’s theme:

HATE!

HATE! What an awful theme! Especially in light of the events of the domestic terrorist attack in Charlottesville by a white supremacist. I actually gave some small consideration to swapping out this theme, but that would be allowing the terrorists to win.

So go out there and either photography something you HATE. Somebody or something exhibiting HATE.

As usual, I will be anxious to see all the interpretations!

PostScript: If things break right, I’ll release the next 52 themes on Sunday.

Equipment, Formal Portrait, Johnathan, Naima, Teresa

Another New Toy

August 17, 2017 Christopher D. Bennett 3 Comments

One of the many benefits of having Johnathan living with me is that I have a photo assistant hanging around the house that is more useful than Naima.

So thanks to him for helping out by taking a couple of these pictures and posing for the other two.

I’m actually writing this blog to talk about a new toy I recently picked up. I bought a Sigma 120-400mm lens.

I’m pretty pleased with this purchase so far. Hopefully she will earn her keep.

Truth is that this lens wasn’t much “longer” than my current “longest” lens, but it is buy far the highest quality telephoto I’ve ever owned. At least if weight is sign of quality, it is the best.

To show its reach I’m going to show you two pictures that will actually exaggerate its length.

For the purposes of this example, we will pretend that there isn’t a magnification factor on lens created by cameras with APS-C sensors. In that honor, a true example of showing the “length” of this lens would be to compare it to a 50mm lens. A 50mm lens has the same “length” as the human eye.

Instead, I’m going to show a comparison with one of (but not THE) widest (shortest) lenses I own. A Sigma 10-20mm lens set at 10mm.

Johnathan at 10mm

Johnathan at 400mm

I guess I should point out I technically have a “longer” lens than this, but it is a mirror 500mm lens. It really is nothing to write home about.

I’ll finally add that I should wish my sister Teresa a “happy birthday”, but then I’d have to wish all my subscribers a “happy birthday” and that just isn’t going to happen.