Category Archives: Dawn

Anders, Andree, Becky, Carla, Cousin Amy, Dawn, Derrick, Jay, Jeff Daniel, Jeff Kewer, Jen, Jesse, Johnathan, Kelly, Logan, Mom, Monica, Nader, Russ, Sara, Scottie D., Shannon, Steve, Willy, Yin

A Small, Intimate Gathering

May 19, 2010 Christopher D. Bennett 6 Comments

I had my, what could theoretically become, annual Birthday Barbecue on Saturday. I would like to thank all of the people that attended and made the evening special:

Bardole, Shannon
Bennett, Charlotte
Cousin, Amy
Daniel, Jeffrey
Degeneffe, Austin
Degeneffe, Melissa
Degeneffe, Scott
Dill, Colby
Dill, Dan
Dill, DJ
Gorshe, Derrick
Gorshe, Jen
Henning, Monica
Howard, Jesse
Howard, Kalista
Howard, Kelly
Howard, Saydie
Howard, Taylan
Hugen, Todd
Janson, Jay
Jauhari, Andree
Jenson, Terra
Johnstone, Jack
Johnstone, Jason
Junck, Sara
Kahler, Logan
Kahler, Russ
Kewer, Jeff
Krause, Dawn
McAlpine, Willy
Nitchals, Peggy
Parsaei, Nader
Perkovich, Becky
Roberts, Lori
Roberts, Steve
Runestad, Anders
Stensland, Carla
Stensland, Johnathan
Wever, Ada
Wever, Amanda
Wever, Greg
Yin, Amy

Next year, I will move the barbecue back to its traditional spot of the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. Feel free to circle the date May 28 on your 2011 calendar that you have yet to purchase. It will perhaps be an even smaller and more intimate gathering. I might start instituting a survivor type invitation policy similar to the fashion of invites that Jay uses for Symposium.

Special thanks need to be extended to the following people:

Sara for taking the pictures for the invitations.

Sara for providing the s’mores goodies.

Jay for making three desserts: chocolate raspberry cookies, key lime bars and apple crisp.

Steve for providing homemade salsa and chips.

Becky for making a pasta salad.

Scott and Melissa for bringing a banana creme pie.

Shannon for baking a fresh rhubarb pie with rhubarb picked from my personal rhubarb patch.

Johnathan for bringing over cornhole.

Logan and Russ for running the grill.

Mom for baking a cake and creating a watermelon fruit thing.

Derrick for being the fire-starter.

Andree for being the best dressed person at the party.

Shannon for opening the party.

Willy for closing the party.

There isn’t any photographic evidence to support that this party existed. I was too busy to touch a camera and Sara didn’t take any pictures this year. Maybe next year I will add “Party Photographer” to the list of Staff positions for this shindig.

If you wish to be hired for this position (no pay, no benefits, possibly a STAFF t-shirt*) simply send the answer to the following question to bennett@photography139.com:

Why would I make an awesome Party Photographer?

I suppose I should start planning Friendsmas now. It can wait a couple of months.

*That is not a joke. There will be staff t-shirts next year.

Becky, Dawn, Teresa, Vest, WPC - Submissions

RWPE #19 – Leading Lines

May 17, 2010 Christopher D. Bennett 9 Comments

Here are the submissions for last week’s Random Weekly Photo Experiment – LEADING LINES:

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Dawn Krause

Mike Vest

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Teresa Kahler

Christopher D. Bennett

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Becky Perkovich

Dawn’s Poem

Leading Line

No come-ons were needed
You peeked into my soul
We saw each other clearly
And made each other whole

No empty promises spoken
No need to ask for more
No dangers lurking in the dark
Only what fate had in store

I need a come on now
To let me know it’s fine
A word of reassurance
Or my heart for you will pine

The Random Theme Generator has been generating and generating and it spit out a fascinating theme for this week:

Panning Camera Blur

I don’t think this theme needs much of a description. Basically pan the camera and take a picture. Hopefully with a long enough shutter speed to capture the blur. Honestly that is a slightly simplified definition. This technique would usually be used while following a moving object. The idea being that the subject will stay sharp(ish) and the background will be blurred. This way the motion of the object is captured in a still photo.

As always though, interpret the theme any way that you want.

Animals, Black & White, Carla, Dawn, Jay, Jen, Julie, Macro, Night, Railroad, Shannon, Still Life, Vest, Weddings, WPC - Submissions

RWPE #18 – Wild

May 10, 2010 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

Here are the submissions for last week’s theme – WILD:

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Dawn Krause A

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Dawn Krause B

Michael Vest of Waxen Media

Christopher D. Bennett

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Carla Stensland

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Julie Johnson of The Joy is in the Journey

There were a couple of late submissions for FEET. They can be seen on the FEET post:

FEET

The Random Theme Generator has been generating and this morning it spit out the following theme:

LEADING LINES

The best definition of LEADING LINES is a photo with very strong lines in the composition that lead the viewers eyes through the photograph. A simple example would be almost any picture of railroad tracks or of a highway. A viewer will naturally follow lines through a photography, so it is a powerful compositional tool to put your subject at the end of lines.

Below are a couple of examples of LEADING LINES:

2009 - Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest Nominee

Remember, the lines don’t have to be straight. An “S” Curve in an image is a very powerful compositional tool. Of course, as always, no reason to be too literal with the theme.

Alexis, Becky, Dawn, Vest, WPC - Submissions

RWPE #17 – Feet

May 3, 2010 Christopher D. Bennett 6 Comments

Here are the submissions for last week’s theme, feet. Included is a new first time contributor – Alexis. That is good, because there seemed to be fewer contributors this week. Perhaps the subject matter scared some people away. I know not everybody likes feet. After all, most feet are kind of gross, but some feet are funny. Hopefully most people find these feet to be to their liking. (At least the pictures of the feet.)

Alexis Stensland

Michael Vest

Christopher D. Bennett

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Becky Perkovich

The random theme generator has spit out the following theme for this week:

Wild

As always, I will be interested to see what people do with this theme.

A couple of late submissions:

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Dawn Krause

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Justin Whitaker

Becky, Dawn, Flowers, Teresa, Vest, WPC - Submissions, Writing

RWPE #16 – Rule of Thirds

April 27, 2010 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

Teresa is a first time contributor this week. The contributions for last week’s theme – Rule of Thirds:

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Teresa Kahler

Christopher D. Bennett

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Becky Perkovich

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Dawn Krause

Mike Vest

Dawn’s Weekly Poem

Rule of Thirds

Rule of Thirds

It’s just us three
Same as always
Even with four

We talk we laugh
We cry we smile
We always share

Someday she will
Grow up and leave
Down to two-thirds

Some time with him
And he will fly
One-third alone

Two thirds always
Have one-third watch
Throughout their lives

This week’s theme is an easy one:

Feet

After all, almost everybody has at least one foot and everybody at least knows somebody with a foot.

Dawn, Jay, Jen, Sara, Shannon, Vest, WPC - Submissions, Writing

RWPE #15 – Long Exposure

April 19, 2010 Christopher D. Bennett 7 Comments

The submissions for this week include the youngest contributor to date. I’m not sure of Scott’s exact age, but I know it is south of double digits. I should really know his age, considering I helped plan the guest list for his birthday party.

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Dawn Krause

Michael Vest

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Scott Krause

Christopher D. Bennett (Not touched by Photoshop)

Dawn’s Poem of the Week

Long Exposure

The bones ache from a long cold frost
the flowers wilt and whither
a tear glistens on her frozen face
no fire to beckon hither
desolate, forsaken, out of place
the heart has lost it’s dream

Shall she awaken from this dream
to find her world blanketed in frost
rocking in this forgotten place
where beauty will fade and whither
not a sole to motion hither
would there be confusion upon her face

A close glance upon her face
reveals her captive dream
to laugh and call him hither
and melt the frost
and no longer whither
to finally escape this place

Time has no bearing on this place
It holds the demons she must face
Her choice to live, love, or whither
to lose her dream
to bitter frost
or to let the warmth come hither

Searching for hope to draw her hither
an escape to a happier place
no threat of frost
on her lovely face
her hope gives birth to every new dream
letting the old ones die and whither

Never let her spirit whither
to love she must come hither
replace a shattered dream
make her world a happy place
let joy alight her face
and warm her heart to frost

Lest we let the dream whither
Melt the frost and call her hither
Bring happiness to her place and joy upon her face

Dawn’s poem is a sestina. It is a highly structured poem consisting of six six-line stanzas followed by a tercet for a total of 39 lines. Don’t feel bad. I had to look that up too.

Shannon Bardole’s Artistic Appreciation Pick of the Week

Next week’s theme is considerably less complicated. A person could make an argument that almost any picture that is off center would qualify.

Next week’s theme is:

Rule of Thirds

The technical way to define The Rule of Thirds is as follows:

The rule of thids is a compositional rule of thumb in visual arts such as painting, photography and design. The rule states that an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal parts by two equally spaced horizontal lines and two equally spaced vertical lines, and that important compositional elements should be placed along these lines or their intersections.

Thanks Wikipedia!

Here is an example, albeit not a perfect example of the technique:

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On the intersections…

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With the lines clearly drawn out…

This isn’t a perfect example, but I wanted to make sure that this was a picture that included Jen because she was the first person I ever heard utter the phrase: “Good use of the rule of thirds” when looking at one of my pictures. A picture of the Gilbert water tower if my memory isn’t faulty.

It might have been the exact moment that I knew that Jen was a keeper.

Becky, Dawn, Formal Portrait, Julie, Nader, Photoshop, Vest, WPC - Submissions, Writing

RWPE #14 – Symmetry and Patterns

April 12, 2010 Christopher D. Bennett 3 Comments

The submissions for last week’s theme: Symmetry and Patterns.

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Becky Perkovich

Michael Vest

Christopher D. Bennett

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Dawn Krause

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Julie Johnson

Dawn’s Weekly Poem

Symmetry and Patterns

See the parallels in our lives
Lines drawn in to the sands of time
Running forever side by side
Just like a perfect worded rhyme
From pain to sad to glad and joy
We’re all alike more than we think
Foundations in stone bind our hearts
Just open our minds to that link

The theme for this week is:

Long Exposure

I don’t know if there is a good way to define “long exposure”. This is how I’m going to define it and while it most likely isn’t technically correct, it is good enough for me. The human hand can only remain steady for 1/15 of a second. Therefore a long exposure could be defined as a picture with a shutter speed longer than 1/15 of second.

Of course you can define “Long Exposure” however you want. Maybe you have a pasty friend with a sunburn. Maybe you have a friend that keeps chili in the fridge well past a time when it should have been thrown away.

It will be interesting to see what people decided to do with this theme.

Baier, Basketball, Becky, Bill, Dawn, Derrick, Faust, Frank, Jesse, Linda, Nader, Robert, Russell, Schmidt, Toby

3Peat

April 6, 2010 Christopher D. Bennett

“This is the end,

Beautiful friend,

This is the end,

Of our elaborate plans, the end,

Of everything that stands, the end,

No safety or surprise, the end.”

– The Doors (The End)

Another college basketball season has come to an end. It is a sad, sad day. At least it is only 11 days to Iowa State’s Spring Football Game. 11 long days!

The end of another college basketball season means it is time to crown the champion of year 6 of the Roundball Oracles tournament pool.

This is beginning to sound like a broken record, but a few years back Pat Riley was man enough to patent the word 3peat. What he wasn’t man enough to do is actually 3peat. He came up woefully short in his attempt to win a 3rd straight championship.

Mark Wolfram is not Pat Riley. Mark Wolfram was man enough to be crowned the Roundball Oracles Champion for the 3rd straight year. It was a little embarrassing when a guy living in Taiwan won the first time. Even more embarrassing when he repeated last year. I’m not sure if there are words to express how embarrassing it is that he won for a third straight year.

Hopefully next year somebody will step up and snatch that crown off of his head. Could be you! Could be me! Although I’ll have to rebound from an extremely pathetic performance this year. At least I finished third and won ten bucks in the pool at work.

The Final Standings

1. Mark Wolfram (Taiwan Hoops) – 81 points

2. Nader Parsaei (Charlie Chaplin) – 79 points

3. Dawn Krause (Dawn’s Dunkin’ Dribblers) – 75 points

4. Frank Meiners (Frank’s Picks) – 73 points

4. Corey Faust (Always Go Top Shelf) – 73 points

6. Dan Dill (dan) – 71 points

7. Jason Baier (JLB) – 70 points

8. Robert Henning (Shot In The Dark) – 67 points

9. Nate Buckingham (Wade Lookingbill Allstars) – 65 points

9. Tim Peterson (Dominate Monkey) – 65 points

9. Linda Toot (JWB) – 65 points

12 – Derrick Gorshe (Derrick) – 63 points

13 – Jesse Howard (ISU Yes McDermott No) – 62 points

14 – Becky Perkovich (A169032477) – 61 points

15 – Corey Schmidt (TakeIt2ThaHole) – 58 points

15. Toby Sebring (Lickliter Is Out!) – 58 points

17. Russell Kennerly (i’m also transferring greg) 57 points

18. Christopher D. Bennett (I See Things) – 56 points

19. Jon DeWaard (Lono’s bracket) – 54 points

20. Bill Wentworth (Bill’s Bracket) – 53 points

21. Carrie Baier (Couragers) – 52 points

21 competitors was a new Roundball Oracles record for participants. 4 female competitors was a record for female competitors!

I am hopeful that next year, both of those records will be broken.

Dawn, Julie, Macro, Vest, WPC - Submissions, Writing

RWPE #13 – Macro

April 5, 2010 Christopher D. Bennett 4 Comments

The submissions for last week’s theme Macro:

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Julie Johnson

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Dawn Krause

Michael Vest

Christopher D. Bennett

Dawn’s Poetry Submission

Macro

With tendency to over think
And analyze the motives
We watch our world slowly shrink
And stress hit like locomotives

The Random Theme Generator has been spun and it spit out the following theme for this week:

Symmetry and Patterns

That should be a fairly interesting subject. Hopefully we get several contributors next week. I’ve already heard rumors about a possible new first time contributor being on the horizon!

Animals, Black & White, Dawn, Derrick, Faust, Formal Portrait, Jay, Jen, Jesse, Jill, Movies, Music, Sara, Willy

The Story

April 1, 2010 Christopher D. Bennett 5 Comments

“You see the smile that’s on my mouth
It’s hiding the words that don’t come out
And all of my friends who think that I’m blessed
They don’t know my head is a mess.

No, they don’t know who I really am
And they don’t know what I’ve been through
like you do.”

-Brandi Carlile (The Story)

Most people know that I am a loner. I keep to myself mostly. Most nights I can be found sitting home alone working on my studies or my projects or watching my shows.

A couple of years ago Jay decided to give one of his friends the nickname “Lone Wolf”. I was quite shocked when this nickname did not come my way. Instead it was given to the social butterfly and vice-mayor William McAlpine.

I knew this was a dreaded mistake. If there was a member of the animal kingdom that best described Willy’s social agenda it was clearly the salmon. Chinook, steelhead, pink or sockeye. I’m not sure which one, but he is definitely a salmon.

However, I made peace with the slight because I don’t have a particular affinity for nicknames.

Then it happened. Jay came to his senses and stripped Willy of the nickname that he did not deserve and placed it squarely on my shoulders. The true loner.

Jay made me a mask and we had a small ceremony where the title was rightfully transferred to me.

I AM LONE WOLF!

However, something hasn’t sat right with me in the few weeks since I became Lone Wolf. I don’t doubt that I am the Lone Wolf. A quick perusal of my social calendar shows that I do little more than go to work and come home and sit on my couch, alone.

I don’t get many emails. I don’t write many emails. I don’t get many calls. I don’t make many calls. I don’t get many texts. I don’t send many texts.

I have 289 Facebook Friends. Not a single one of them can tell you my favorite color, my favorite movie, my favorite show or my favorite musician.

With apologies to Travis Bickle, “Loneliness has followed me my whole life. Everywhere. In bars, in cars, sidewalks, stores, everywhere. There’s no escape. I’m God’s lonely man…”

I’ve learned to embrace this loneliness. In fact, Jill introduced me to a movie called World’s Greatest Dad. The core message of the movie is summed up near the end with the following voice over:

“I used to think the worst thing in life was to end up all alone. It’s not. The worst thing in life is ending up with people who make you feel all alone.”

That is my philosophy. Or I should say, that is the philosophy of The Lone Wolf.

But even though I know without the foggiest doubt that I am the true Lone Wolf, it didn’t feel right. Jay unilaterally stripping Willy of his moniker and giving it away. That is a lot of power for one man to possess.

Therefore I am giving Willy a chance to win back his nickname. I have challenged the vice-mayor, the social butterfly, the salmon to a Lone-Wolf-Off!

The month of April will be a Lone-Wolf-Off between the true Lone Wolf and the Salmon. Winner gets the name! (But I keep the sweet mask either way!)

What is a Lone-Wolf-Off? For the entire month of April we will be tracking our social engagements. At the end of the month, an impartial panel (consisting of Jesse, Dawn and Faust) will determine who is the true Lone Wolf.

Therefore, I should point out that for the next 30 days, don’t be distressed if you don’t see me, if I don’t return your emails, phone calls or texts. I’m in full Lone Wolf mode. I will most likely return your correspondence on May 1 when I am celebrating International Worker’s Day!

Although I should point out that at some point in April many of you will be getting an invitation to my birthday barbecue in the mail. It is a well known fact that lone wolves like meat cooked over a fire and the antiquated feeling of using the United State Postal Service.

Last night I went to see Chloe and have dinner with Sara. Since it was my last social engagement for the next 30 days, we took a few pictures to celebrate my Lone Wolfness.

The Lone Wolf is a savage beast.

Insane Enough

But the Lone Wolf also knows how to keep it laid back.

The Lone Wolf – confident, but not cocky.

Hoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooowwwwwl!!

On a sidenote, since this seems to be the year of nickname stripping, I also think that Willy is also in extreme danger of losing the nickname The Dance Machine.
Jen and Jill can assuredly attest to the following statement:
On Sunday, Derrick set my living room carpet on fire with the dance moves he busted off to the Norah Jones compact disc that was playing on my home stereo.

I would propose a Dance Machine Off between these two gents, but I think we all know that Willy doesn’t really dance. He just likes to pretend that he does.