Category Archives: Teresa

Animals, Boone FUMC, Formal Portrait, Naima, Teresa

Critter Sunday

August 30, 2016 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

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.

Angie, Becky, Black & White, Dawn, Kim, Macro, Micky, Pastor Sarah, Shannon, Steph, Still Life, Teresa, Vest, WPC - Submissions

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 50 – MACRO

August 29, 2016 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

Lots and lots of up close and personal submissions for MACRO this week.

Don’t take my word for it, have a look:

Angie DeWaard 1

Angie DeWaard 2

Micky Augustin

Kim Barker

Sarah Karber

Stephanie Kim 1

Stephanie Kim 2

Teresa Kahler 1

Teresa Kahler 2

Teresa Kahler 3

Becky Perkovich

Dawn Krause

Shannon Bardole

Mike Vest

Christopher D. Bennett

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:

ROAD TRIP!

What a perfect excuse for loading up your favorite cooler with a six pack of be… soda… and hit the open road! Of course, maybe your schedule this week doesn’t allow for you to actually hit the open road. That’s no excuse Nancy! A wide assortment of photos can be taken that suggest a road trip. From maps, to your car, to your favorite tunes, to that bag of Funyuns you have to buy or it isn’t an official road trip. Just think about it and record and image that says ROAD TRIP to you. After all, you are free to translate the theme any way you want.

WARNING!!!

Remember that next Monday is Labor Day. While the government, your bank, and even the Computer Mine takes that day off, Photography 139 doesn’t. Plan your submissions accordingly!

HOUSEKEEPING

A MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 ANNOUNCEMENT DIVISION

A quick heads up that next Monday I will be revealing the 52 themes for the next 52 weeks of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE. In the comments section below is the last chance for you to have any input.

A MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 RULES DIVISION

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 an open road kinda Monday.

Animals, Birthdays, Flowers, Macro, Scottie D., State Fair, Teresa

Discoverbee

August 17, 2016 Christopher D. Bennett 5 Comments

Yesterday, Baby Got Rack competed at the State Fair barbecue contest. After we got the pork and the chicken on the smoker, we had a couple of hours to kill. We smoke the chicken and pork for close to two hours and then we allow the meat to rest another hour.

During this time, we mostly conversate, dance, and wait anxiously for root beer stands to open. While Scottie D. and Marcus held down the fedora fort, I used a small amount of this time to pay my respects to the spot on the fairgrounds that used to hold Jennie’s Grinders. Then I went to visit probably my favorite part of the fairgrounds, Discovery Gardens.

While I was there, I took this picture:

As always, when I take a bee picture. I ask you all to take a moment to remember the horrible bee attack that decimated Houston in the 1970s. Never forget!

PARTICULARS

CAMERA: SONY SLT-A65V
ISO:640
FOCAL LENGTH: 60mm
APERTURE: f/4
EXPOSURE:1/160
DATE: 08-16-2016
LATITUDE: 41.59489°
LONGITUDE: -93.55139°
PHOTO ASSISTANT: Team Baby Got Rack
EDITING SOUNDTRACK: “Retreat” by Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings

Also, I’d be a failure if I didn’t recognize the anniversary of the birth of long time Photography 139 supporter and long time sister Teresa Kahler!

Happy Birthday Teresa!

Angie, Becky, Black & White, Carla, Flat Earth Joe, Jodie, Steph, Teresa, Vest, WPC - Submissions

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 39 – SKY/CLOUDS

June 13, 2016 Christopher D. Bennett

This week’s theme seemed to really inspire lots of people. Including first time contributor and conspiracy theory enthusiast Joe Lynch. Who wanted it known that those aren’t clouds in his picture. They are chem trails. Dropped by “them” on the “masses” to dumb us down or make us easier to control or more violent or something. Wake up people!

Here are the submissions for SKY/CLOUDS:

Joe Lynch

Angie DeWaard

Christopher D. Bennett

Carla Stensland 1

Carla Stensland 2

Jodie Bennett 1

Jodie Bennett 2

Stephanie Kim 1

Stephanie Kim 2

Stephanie Kim 3

Stephanie Kim 4

Becky Perkovich 1

Becky Perkovich 2

Mike Vest

An impressive collection of submissions methinks.

BLUE!

This should be easy enough. Almost everybody has access to something BLUE. Blue is even an emotion. My inbox should be just packed full of BLUE submissions.

If you normally don’t pay attention to HOUSEKEEPING, you might want to this week. Or you might be disappointed next week.

HOUSEKEEPING

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.

MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION DIVISION

Nothing new to report on this front. However, if you are reading these words and don’t have a Photography 139 email subscription. Let this guy know. I’ll get you hooked up!

MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 SCHEDULING DIVISION

I will be in Milwaukee next Monday for my church’s Youth Group Mission Trip. The deadline for BLUE will not change. However, the submissions will not be published next Monday. More like Friday night or Saturday when I return. However, at 12:01 PM next Monday, the week’s theme will publish and you can begin working in earnest on it.

MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 FACE BOOK IS THE DEVIL DIVISION

Just a heads up that I probably won’t be publishing a link to this here post today. Any time there is a mass shooting I stay away from Facebook for a couple days. Considering the nature of this latest symptom of our country’s disease, I’m sure Facebook is even worse than normal with posts that are racist, homophobic, scapegoating the mental health system, and highly inaccurate with its interpretation of the Second Amendment. These types of incidents always just make me sad. I don’t need anger pile on top of it.

I like to think that humans are mostly decent people. Even if most of the evidence seems to suggest otherwise. Seems like the timing of the Mission Trip is perfect.

That’s all I got, so if the good Lord’s willin’ and the creek don’t rise, we will commune again next Monday.

THE CHRISTOPHER D. BENNETT TRIVIA QUIZ

QUESTION 17

How many biological siblings do I have? Be very specific.

ANSWER: 2.5

BOUNS

What are their names?

ANSWER: TERESA, CARLA, & JODIE

Carla, History, Mom, Teresa

03-28-07

May 28, 2016 Christopher D. Bennett

These archive images are from the folder 03-28-07.

It includes a couple pictures of Carla and Teresa putting in the tile in Mom’s back entry way.

Next Saturday’s folder will include one of my all-time favorite images.

THE CHRISTOPHER D. BENNETT TRIVIA QUIZ

QUESTION 6

I rose to a certain amount of prominence in the 5th Grade based on a series of creative writing stories that featured a rabbit with super powers that lived in Carrot Castle deep in the heart of Raspberry Forest. Name both the rabbit’s super hero name and alter ego:

ANSWER: Superfluff & Fluffy

BONUS

The character was based on a rabbit that was a present from my cousin Becky. When I attained ownership of the rabbit, what was its unfortunate name?

ANSWER: Hawkeye

Birthdays, Dad, Dae Hee, Teresa

Christopher D. Bennett Quiz Results!

May 18, 2016 Christopher D. Bennett

I have tabulated the results for the Christopher D. Bennett Quiz and we have a winner!

The WINNER with a score of 61 out of 120 points was Teresa Kahler. Some day soon a semi-fabulous prize will arrive in her mailbox.

I’ve been told the quiz was too tough. I didn’t thinks so. I could’ve got every question right. But I’ve heard your complaints. Next year’s quiz will be easier. Perhaps shorter. We’ll see. We all know that sometimes I like to bloviate.

But what were the answers?

For the next 20 entries, I will reveal the answer to 1 question and its bonus question.

QUESTION 1

At what annual Boone event were my parents at when my Mom started the birthing process of me?

ANSWER: The Hillbilly Auction

BONUS

What did my Dad initially want to name me?

ANSWER: Richard Milhous

Alexis, Anders, Andree, Baier, Bethany, Birthdays, Brandon, Carla, Dae Hee, Dawn, Derrick, Evie, Geri, Gretchen, Jason, Jeff Daniel, Jeff Kewer, Jen, Jesse, Johnathan, Kelly, Kim, Layla, Linda, Logan, Michelle, Mom, Monica, Nader, Naima, Nora, Sara, Scottie D., Shannon, Shawn Lockner, Steph, Steve, Suzie, Teresa, Tim, Willy, Yin

The Birthday Party of Fate (Roundup)

May 15, 2016 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

I’ve thanked all these people in person, but I’d like to publicly thank everybody that helped out in some either small or big way with my birthday party on Saturday.

Big shout out to Scott for making tons of delicious mouth watering chicken and jalapeno cream corn. I only wish I would have had time to help do more than just brine the chicken. If I am so inclined to do this again next year and you are so inclined to help with the food next year, I will have to schedule this so I can be more hands on with the process. I may have been The Master, but Scott was undeniably the Smoker Master. I just can’t overstate how amazing the chicken was people.

Much love to Scott’s (better-other-less high maintenance) half for making the Pick and Pluck. If I would’ve thought of it, I would’ve bought several gallons of ice cold chocolate milk to knock down while setting up shop on that thing.

Thanks to Logan and Corinna for holding down the grill and making an assortment of hot dogs and sausages to compliment the mouth watering chicken. I don’t really have any photos of the event, perhaps next year I can talk him/them into doing some candid photography for the party.

I’m always able to count on Dae Hee when I need some assistance. He came over and helped put up the canopies for the outdoor dining area, the tent for an additional child area, moved all the chairs from the basement to the outdoors, and watched 2 hours of GAME OF THRONES. A pretty solid effort!

Thanks to Jason for loaning me his Cornhole set.

Thanks to Shannon for loaning me her canopies, although I’m still unclear where one gets tailgating tents that don’t have Iowa State colors. Or why a person would even want such a thing.

Thanks to Jesse for laminating the beverage identification signs.

Thanks to Teresa for helping out in various tasks before the party started.

Thanks to my Mom for making a copious amount of side dishes and desserts. Nobody went home hungry. That is for sure.

Finally, thanks to everybody that took time out of their lives to come visit me:

Teresa
Brandon
Logan & Corinna
Aunt Linda
Kio
Steph, Katie, Jeff, & Yin
Carla, Jason, Alexis, and Johnathan
Mom
Scott, Melissa, Austin, and Porter
Steve
Dawn, Kevin, Scott, and Kayelee
Jen, Derrick, Evie, and Layla
Sara, Shawn, and Gretchen
Jesse, Kelly, Kalista, Saydie, and Taylan
Willy
Dan and Angie
Suzie
Monica and Jeff
Bethany, Dae Hee, and Nora
Jason, Will, Ben, and Nader
Andree
Anders & Nicholas
Shannon and Jason
Geri
Michelle, Craig, and Lily
Kim and Kevin

A special thanks to Dae Hee, Bethany, and Nora who came from Minnesota. Aunt Linda who came from Kansas. Stephanie who came all the way from Brooklyn. I guess I’m morally obligated to visit her in October now. Right?

Since I think that this party was a success on some level, I am tentatively planning on doing it again next year. Tentatively thinking about some time on Memorial Day Weekend next year. We’ll see how the cookie crumbles.

Now to the less than stellar news…

The Photo Booth was a success, but far from perfect. It turns out that the photo booth program I used has a painful little quirk. If the “Finish” button wasn’t pushed at the conclusion of the photo session, the program timed out and didn’t save the photo strip! The good news is that it did save the original images. The bad news is that there will be a night in my future where I’ll be piecing together photo strips from saved images. Yeah me!

For that reason, I did load up all the images into the party gallery. Not just the “finished” photo strips.

To see those images, click on the link below… (You can also download them by clicking on the down arrow icon.)

MANOS & PHOTOBOOTH IMAGES

However, thought I would share a few of them here as well:

But the good news is that I now have a thousand different ways to improve the photo booth for next year. Tentatively.

Bethany, Dad, Dae Hee, History, Laura, Music, Nate, Nora, Road Trip, Teresa, Travel

Paisley Park

April 27, 2016 Christopher D. Bennett 7 Comments

This last weekend I made a trip up with Nate and Laura to visit Bethany, Dae Hee, Nora, and Colleen. On Saturday night we made our way to Long Lake to eat at Primo. Dae Hee and I left early so we could swing by Paisley Park to see the Prince Memorial.

Below are some pictures.

So part of the reason I went to Paisley Park is because it was history. It was like going to Graceland after Elvis died. However, it wasn’t the majority of the reason that I went.

I don’t normally get too caught up in celebrity deaths. It is usually a time when people flock to social media to overstate their “relationship” with the deceased celebrity.

However Prince’s death to have an effect on me. I can’t claim to be a huge fan of Prince’s music, although I did enjoy it. I also admired his musicality and he was without a doubt one of the foremost musical geniuses of the last 50 years. He produced an album a year for over a decade. There are rumors that he has well over a thousand unreleased songs that he has recorded and not released. On some of his biggest hits he played every instrument on the recording. Often recording the song in one day. Often recording more than one song in a day in this manner.

One of my favorite Prince stories is when he played the Super Bowl halftime show in the pouring rain. The producers of the halftime show were worried that he would want to pull out. When they called him and asked him about the rain he gave a great response.

“Can you make it rain harder?”

The rain didn’t stop until he played his final song of the night, Purple Rain. Despite this fact, he gave what was easily the best Super Bowl Halftime show in history. A show that will stand the test of time for its pure virtuosity alone.

I’ll miss Prince because one of my fondest memories of my childhood was my eldest sister Teresa’s friends infatuation with Prince (even though I think Teresa was more into Phil Collins). One even dressed like Prince and his license plates matched Prince’s from PURPLE RAIN. It is up there with listening to Casey Kasem’s Top 40 on family road trips. Or Dad telling Teresa that if she wanted to go Hall some Oates, he could take her to a farm.

Prince dying is like a piece of my childhood dying.

I may have to become an adult yet.

Alisa, Boone FUMC, Holidays, Pastor Sarah, Teresa

Jesus Eggs!

April 5, 2016 Christopher D. Bennett 3 Comments

On the Saturday before Easter I was sitting in a darkened in theater in Ankeny experiencing the “tortures of the damned” that is watching BATMAN VS. SUPERMAN, my phone buzzed. Since the movie picture had lost my interest moments into it, I felt no guilt in checking my text message. After all, I was probably already checking the score of the Oklahoma-Oregon game any ways.

The text message was from my church’s (the church I attend) Youth Minister Alisa wanting me to simultaneously run a photo booth and take pictures of our Sunday School Easter Egg Hunt.

You all know how I feel about multi-tasking.

So here are a few of the pictures almost exclusively from the Easter Egg Hunt.