Category Archives: Family

Candlelight Service

January 16, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

I have been working on something the last few days that nobody at all will care about, but I think is somewhat of an accomplishment:

I have added a SSL Certificate to my website and now my website is secure.

I know, you don’t care. Even my fellow miners at the Computer Mine aren’t impressed. That is okay. I live with only impressing myself on many a day.

What does it mean for you? Probably, absolutely nothing. But when you look up in the address bar of this here website, you will see a little lock so that you know your information is private when you send it to this site.

It is a beautiful lock. The most beautiful I’ve ever seen!

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The webmaster at my church requested that I take some pictures of the Candlelight Services on Christmas Eve. So I took a few pictures. Have a looksie:

The room with the trees is where we take communion on Christmas Eve.

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Here is an update on my 10 Step Process to buying a drone.

~~Car paid off. – I got the pink slip daddy!~~
~~Training Budget Reimbursement – Bought about 10 books and signed up for an online portrait photography class that I will discuss someday.~~
~~Purchase Popcorn Maker – The Union Street theater has procured its very own popcorn maker from Flat Earth Joe. The one that was borrowed from Andy’s friend of a friend has been returned.~~
Computer Upgrade – I have completed upgrades on my home computer. I’ve put in a solid state drive to run the OS and the applications, I upped the RAM to 16 GB and I replaced the video card with a video card with twice the ram and that is capable of running 3 monitors.
Figure out the effect of the Iowa GOP Tax Scam – The Iowa GOP Tax Scam will indeed result in me paying more taxes. There is about a $7 effect on my paycheck, meaning I am getting a tax cut of roughly $200. (Assuming the withholding from my paycheck is being done right.) However, since the Iowa GOP Tax Scam made it so a 6% sales tax is levied on all online purchases, I will be taxed well more than the $200 benefit. For example, I’ll pay over $100 in taxes on purchasing the drone that I wouldn’t have had to pay before the Iowa GOP Tax Scam became law.
~~Rear Brakes – I had the rear brakes replaced on my car last night. It costs me about 40% of what I was expecting Win!~~
Computer Mine Bonus – Whether or not we get a profit sharing bonus should be determined in the next week or so.
Bank Fraud Resolution – This is supposed to be resolved by January 31. I have my doubts. All indications are that my bank wants me to find a new bank. Perhaps a credit union. Perhaps I should talk to Nate’s friend.
Federal GOP Tax Scam – I want to see if the Federal GOP Tax Scam will hurt my refund or not. I do not anticipate it will, but I don’t want a February surprise to hit the drone budget.
Change Jar – I want fill and return my change jar to the bank before I pull the trigger on the drone purchase. I think I have about 2-3 inches of coin to collect. This isn’t really a necessity, I just want to do it.

6 out of 10 completed. What isn’t mentioned in the 10 part plan is that I won a $250 gift card to Amazon at the Computer Mine Holiday Party. That is a bonus 11th step.

Black & White, Brandon, Formal Portrait

Brandon Day and Day 2

January 12, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

The pictures from the folders Brandon Day 1 and Brandon Day 2 are pictures from Brandon’s Senior Pictures Photo Shoot.

Brandon was the 2nd person I ever did senior photos for.

Here are some of my favorites from the photo shoots:

As you can tell, when you get me for your Senior Pictures, you get a fair degree of weird.

One thing I have struggled with in the past is “poses”. I recently invested in several pose books via the self-directed training budget at the day job. This isn’t to imply that I’m going to start taking more portraits, but it might lead to some future photo projects. But not until I finish THE PHOTO JOURNAL PROJECT. I really need to knock that one out!

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve the Ames Party Bus and flowers!!

Animals, Black & White, Flowers, Macro, Naima

When I Walk with You…

January 10, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett 3 Comments

Hitting the 2018 backlog.

All of the pictures in this post were taken on June 26 in my yard.

Except for the clematis. The clematis actually grows on the back fence of Stan and Noreen’s yard. Noreen is brilliant at growing clematis. A flower that is not easy to grow. So you have to respect that.

I’m sure there plenty more pictures from my backyard in the backlog.

Animals, Black & White, Naima, Nature, Photoshop

Naima; Dickcissel Park

January 9, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

Hitting up the 2018 backlog. Here is a collection of pictures I took on May 5 on a trip to Dickcissel Park with Naima:

There are plenty of other pictures of Naima in the 2018 backlog. Plenty more!

Andy, Art, Carla, Michelle, Pastor Sarah, Steph, Tamara, WPC - Submissions

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 173 – ABSTRACT

January 7, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett 7 Comments

There were a decent number of submissions for ABSTRACT this week. Several of them came with a question mark attached, “is this ABSTRACT?”

I always give the same response to such inquiries. It only matters if you think it is ABSTRACT.

But you didn’t come here to listen to me talk tommyrot about how I’m not very helpful. You came to see the submissions:

Andy Sharp

Christopher D. Bennett

Carla Stensland

Sarah Karber

Michelle Haupt

Tamara Peterson

Stephanie Kim

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:

ART!

ART! What a great theme! But what is an ART photo? An ART photo is any photo of a piece of ART or a being engaged in creating ART.

As always, I look forward to seeing your 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. 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 arty Monday.

Alisa, Animals, Art, Baby Got Rack, Becky, Black & White, Blogging, Boone County Fair, Carla, Contests, Dae Hee, Dawn, Derrick, Flowers, Holidays, Jay, Jen, Jesse, Kim, Macro, Mom, Nader, Nature, Photoshop, Politics, Railroad, Road Trip, Sara, Scottie D., Self-Portrait Project, Shannon, State Fair, Teresa, Travel, Vest, Willy

Post #3252 – 2018 Year in Review

January 1, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

Happy New Year to people who celebrate such things.

I like to look at some meaningless statistics every 250 posts and I also look at fairly meaningless year end statistics.

Just so happens that I get to combine them today!!

Here is both a year in review and a celebration that I have made it to 3252 blog posts. I was on the Alamo Bowl Road Trip visiting submarines, cults, and reality television stars when post #3250 came around, so I hope you can excuse the tardiness.

The first thing I want to look at are the most popular CATEGORIES in the history of “An Artist’s Notebook”.

Top 10 Journal Entry Categories

1. Portrait – 527
2. Weekly Photo Challenge – 504
3. Flowers – 497
4. Animals – 405
5. Jesse – 361
6. Photography – 355
7. Shannon – 320
8. Teresa – 296
9. Black & White – 291
10. Carla – 280

Top 10 People Categories

1. Jesse – 361
2. Shannon – 320
3. Teresa – 296
4. Carla – 280
5. Jay – 279
6. Mom – 277
7. Derrick – 256
8. Willy – 227
9. Vest – 221
10. Jen – 209

Top 10 Not-People Categories

1. Portrait – 527
2. Weekly Photo Challenge – 504
3. Flowers – 497
4. Animals – 405
5. Photography – 355
6. Black & White – 291
7. Road Trip – 262
8. Personal Photo Project – 261
9. Life – 234
10. Nature – 215

“Photography” and “Life” are general categories that I have been working on eliminating as I go back and restore historical “An Artist’s Notebook” entries to their original glory. Hopefully they will have both dropped off the Top 10 Lists by journal entry #3500.

If you are wondering how to become a Top 10 person on this list. The easiest way is to submit to the Weekly Photo Challenge. After that, the best way is to volunteer to model and photo assist for photography projects. Then after that, I would suggest going on road trips with me or attending Iowa State athletic events with me or going on road trips to Iowa State athletic events with me.

The people that are right outside of the Top 10 are:: Sara, Kim, Dawn, Becky, and Nader.

If you are looking for a goal for 2019, you could do worse than trying to crack the Photography 139 Top Ten People Category List. You obviously could do way, way, way, way, way, way, way better too.

Now we will turn out eye towards 2018.

Top 10 Most Popular Photography 139 Galleries of 2018 by Views

1. 9 EMOTIONS PROJECT – 48,722
2. WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE YEAR 5 – 37,614
3. WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE YEAR 5 – ALTERNATES – 33,622
4. 2008 – JANUARY – JUNE – 26,032
5. SELFIE PROJECT – 2017 – 23,141
6. HOUSTON MISSION TRIP – 2018 – 22,046
7. SOUTH DAKOTA TRIP – 2017 – 21,868
8. BOONE COUNTY FAIR CONTEST NOMINEES – 2018 – 17,211
9. SAYDIE HOWARD – CLASS OF 2017 – 14,808
10. IOWA STATE CYCLONES FOOTBALL – 2018

The 10 Most Popular Photography 139 Images by Views

1. 2524

2. 2386

3. 2327

4. 1958

5. 1621

6. 1456

7. 1445

8. 1321

9. 1293

10. 1241

On the Instagram, these were my 9 Most Popular Photos based on Likes:

My theme for my 2018 Instagram posts was Black & White. My theme for 2019 will be HDR Toning. Also, I will be bringing back THE SELFIE PROJECT to Instagram in 2019.

You can follow me on Instagram here:

@christopherdbennett

I entered 3 photo contests with the following results:

Red Ribbon – Boone County Fair

Purple Ribbon – Boone County Fair

Blue Ribbon – Boone County Fair

Selected for Display – Iowa State Fair

Not Selected for Display – Iowa State Fair

Selected for Display – Iowa State Fair

Not Selected for Display – Iowa State Fair

1st Place Photoshop – Pufferbilly Days

1st Place Photojournalism – Pufferbilly Days

Pufferbilly Days

3rd Place Hidden Treasures of Boone County – Pufferbilly Days

Pufferbilly Days

Last note:

My goal for 2019 is the same as it was in 2018:

I’m gonna step my game up and get what is coming to me.

Good luck in 2019 everybody!

Andy, Carla, Jesse, Kim, Michelle, Road Trip, Self-Portrait, WPC - Submissions

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 172 – FRIENDS

December 31, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

I have to confess that this is one of the saddest blog posts I’ve ever had the solemn duty to post. It seems that next to nobody out there has any FRIENDS. At least not any FRIENDS that they would be willing photography.

Or perhaps the fault lies in me and I have very few FRIENDS. I do have many failings. Sorry Clarence.

Due to the extreme simplicity of this theme, I refuse to accept the “holidays” as an excuse. Perhaps I should throw a birthday party (for myself) in 2019 just to establish that I do in fact have FRIENDS and to help out the many people out there that apparently don’t have any FRIENDS.

Despite the general lack of camaraderie that is out in the world today, “An Artist’s Notebook” will break new ground today. Today marks the first ever joint submission, at least that I can recall.

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

Kim Barker/Michelle Haupt

Christopher D. Bennett

Andy Sharp

Carla Stensland

ABSTRACT

ABSTRACT! What a great theme! This is one of the easiest things on the big board. Not as easy as FRIENDS, but pretty darn tooting easy! An ABSTRACT image is an image where there isn’t a clearly defined subject. Taking pictures of things like lights out of focus or that are moving are excellent ways to make an ABSTRACT image.

I look forward to seeing your interpretations!

HOUSEKEEPING

A MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 RULES DIVISION

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 abstract Monday.

Alexis, Art, Commercial, Football, Olympic Sports, Politics, Shannon

09-23-08

December 29, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett

The images in the folder 09-23-08 are a little bit all over the place. There are pictures from a Little White Lye Soap sales event. Pictures from Alexis reveling in athletic glory. Plus a sticker given to me by Janice. Finally a strange sculpture that I think is uniquely Midwestern.

Have a looksie:

All of Alexis’ medals came from a gymnastics meet. A sport she would have no doubt dominated, but fortunately she had the good sense to leave it behind in her youth.

I believe I placed that sticker on the side of my work computer. That was 3 work computers ago, so who knows where that sticker resides now.

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

First Meet

1928

New Sales Record

Next weekend’s stroll down memory lane will involve the Des Moines Regatta.

Animals, Brandon, Flowers, Grandma, Jesse, Linda, Macro, Mom, Steve

09-21-08

December 23, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett

The images in the folder 09-21-08 run the gamut.

There are pictures from Steve’s garden, pictures of my Aunt Linda, pictures of Brandon from his Senior Pictures Photo Shoot, and a picture of the table that became my kitchen table, eventually.

The group pictures are from a Majors Family Reunion. Those don’t happen any longer. Although I can’t say that I particularly enjoyed going to them, I can say that I am kind of sad that they are gone. I guess I am part of the problem.

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