Category Archives: Evie

Both

Here is another one of my favorite images from the Women’s March back in January.


I Support Both Moms

I’ll probably bust through all those images in a couple weeks when I have some time taken off from work.

PARTICULARS

CAMERA: SONY SLT-A65V
ISO: 100
FOCAL LENGTH: 20mm
APERTURE: f/7.1
EXPOSURE: 1/200
DATE: 01-21-2017 – 12:48
LATITUDE: 41.59009°
LONGITUDE: -93.60512°
PHOTO ASSISTANTS: Sara, Shawn, Gretchen, Jen, Evie, and Layla.
PHOTO EDITING SOUNDTRACK: “ALL I HAVE” BY NF from MANSION

You Might as Well Question Why We Breathe

Last Saturday it was my great pleasure to attend the Women’s March in Des Moines with Jen, Sara, Shawn, Evie, Layla, Gretchen and 27,000 other people.

I believe this to my favorite picture from the day. But I’m only getting the editing process going.


I don’t get very political on this blog, but there will be lots of pictures from this March in the future. So I don’t know that things won’t get political from time to time in the future.

Freedom of the Press, right? As long as you own the press.

PARTICULARS

CAMERA: SONY SLT-A65V
ISO: 100
FOCAL LENGTH: 70mm
APERTURE: f/6.3
EXPOSURE: 1/160
DATE: 01/21/2017 12:54
LATITUDE: 41.59000°
LONGITUDE: -93.60516°
PHOTO ASSISTANT: The sweet pussy hat that Jen made me.
PHOTO EDITING SOUNDTRACK: “The Struggle” by Tenth Avenue North

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 55 – SIGNS

SIGNS is actually one of my favorite themes for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE. I am pleased to see that it lit the creative fires of several other people as well.

But you don’t want to listen to me talk all tommyrot about SIGNS. You want to see the submissions. Here they are:


WEEK 55 - SIGNS - BILL WENTWORTH
Bill Wentworth

WEEK 55 - SIGNS - DAWN KRAUSE
Dawn Krause

WEEK 55 - SIGNS - ANGIE DEWAARD
Angie DeWaard

WEEK 55 - SIGNS - KIM BARKER 1
Kim Barker 1

WEEK 55 - SIGNS - KIM BARKER 2
Kim Barker 2

WEEK 55 - SIGNS - CATHIE RALEY
Cathie Raley

WEEK 55 - SIGNS - TERESA KAHLER 1
Teresa Kahler 1

WEEK 55 - SIGNS - TERESA KAHLER 2
Teresa Kahler 2

WEEK 55 - SIGNS - TERESA KAHLER 3
Teresa Kahler 3

WEEK 55 - SIGNS - TERESA KAHLER 4
Teresa Kahler 4

WEEK 55 - CORINNA KEEN - SIGNS
Corinna Keen

WEEK 55 - SIGNS - STEPHANIE KIM
Stephanie Kim

WEEK 55 - SIGNS - BECKY PERKOVICH
Becky Perkovich

WEEK 55 - SIGNS - MICHELLE HAUPT
Michelle Haupt

WEEK 55 - SIGNS - SHANNON BARDOLE
Shannon Bardole

WEEK 55 - SIGNS - CHRISTOPHER D. BENNETT
Christopher D. Bennett

WEEK 55 - SIGNS - MIKE VEST
Mike Vest

I should add that I’m 99% sure that this was the first submission from Corinna! I’m expecting big, big things from her in the future!

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 56 - CHILDREN
CHILDREN!

I don’t know that I need to get into a fancy definition of CHILDREN. You know one when you see them. They are little humans. They are here to replace us. Many of you have one or two or more. Nearly everybody has access to a child or two or more. However, don’t feel constrained to hold yourself to think of this as having to take a picture of CHILDREN. There are a million things that show the existence of CHILDREN in our world. From playgrounds to toys to car seats to schools. There are also CHILDREN of all ages. So be creative with the theme and as always, feel free to define it how you see fit.

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

Nothing new to report. I’ll try to do better next week.

A MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 GALLERY DIVISION

If you want to see all the WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE images for the new cycle, they are located in a new gallery. View them by clicking on the link below:

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE YEAR 4

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 childish Monday!

The Birthday Party of Fate (Roundup)

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.

With the Beefcake Pantyhose

You can look at this collection of losers for RED from the WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE in a couple of different ways.

Either I just wanted an excuse more pictures of my dog.

OR

Well that is interesting.

You see, there is a setting on my camera that drops out all other colors but red. It is far from 100%, but it creates interesting images.


RED-LOSER

RED - LOSER

RED - LOSER

RED - LOSER

RED - LOSER

RED - LOSER

RED - LOSER

RED - LOSER

RWPE - LOSER

RED - LOSER

RED - LOSER

RED - LOSER

RED - LOSER

Oh… also a picture of my trip to Hilton with Jen, Derrick, Evie, and Layla thrown in at the end there.

Painting!

The great national nightmare, or maybe it was just my nightmare, is finally, virtually over. The 2 day house painting party this weekend is over and my house is painted!

Just a couple splashes of paint here and there, and hanging a few things up and it is over.

So thanks a million to my amazing Saturday Painting Crew:

  • Jesse
  • Teresa
  • Baier
  • Will
  • Ben
  • Monica
  • Jeff
  • Scottie D.
  • Melissa
  • Porter
  • Dalton
  • Anders
  • Ian
  • Mom
  • Shannon

Equally as great was my awesome Sunday Painting Crew:

  • Willy
  • Jesse
  • Derrick
  • Teresa
  • Carla
  • Jen
  • Evie
  • Layla
  • Jay
  • Kelly
  • Anna
  • Anthony
  • Alisa
  • Erica
  • Shannon
  • Jeff
  • Terrence
  • Mom

I’m in such good spirits that I’ll even thank the people that just stopped by to gawk:

  • Terry
  • Grandma
  • Sherrie
  • Steve
  • Andy (In fairness Andy would’ve helped if there were any work left to do).

 
Since I wasn’t able to photograph anything on Saturday on Sunday because I was covered with paint, at this time I don’t have any pictures of the actual painting to share. However, I do have some pictures of the aftermath. Some of the things might make you wonder about the cleanliness and skill level of my people. You should know that many of them are highly skilled painters: Derrick, Baier, Carla, and to my admitted shock Willy (to name a few), but everybody contributed on some level. Therefore, imperfections, spills, messes, I actually love these things. These are reminders that on one beautiful fall weekend 15 people on Saturday and 19 people on Sunday decided to come to my house and help me paint rather than do something that society may have considered more fun and more interesting. Society can go suck an egg!

I call it the house that love painted and that is even at least partially true. If nothing else, I have at least a healthy start to my Birthday Party Invite List. Don’t worry, there will be other chances to earn a coveted invite to The Party of 2016*. Not many granted, but I’m sure those chances will be out there.

Any way, here is a collection of photos of my Painting Party Aftermath:



A piece of tape leftover from where Alisa and Erica did a crackerjack job of painting the front porch!


An unintended sweet design left behind from Carla painting the house numbers!


Paint left behind from where my frog rain gauge sits. Possibly left from when Anna or Willy painted the rain spout? Actually that is probably my spill.


That cardinal even looks sweet on the brick.


Normally I would be sad if my beautiful, lush lawn looked so downtrodden and pathetic, (I pay good money for somebody else to fertilize it for me) but this is actually a sign of how many people were there painting my house at any given time. Can’t hate on that.


Cleaning out paint trays lead to this sweet white streak of grass.


The gold paint. The finishing touch that really adds some flair. Alisa and Erica also knocked it out of the park with this paint and my gate. Shannon also rocked the front threshold with this paint.

Another awesome aspect of this painting project was how much equipment I was loaned. One neighbor Stan loaned me 2 scaffoldings. The other neighbor Roger loaned me a ladder.


Stole the idea of using dish tubs to hold paint from my mission trip to South Dakota. Fortunately while painting cedar siding sucks, it doesn’t suck as bad as painting stucco.


More than a few people were infatuated with my house’s “nipple”. It is my kitchen vent. Don’t be weird, creeper. Either way, Anders and Ian did a dynamite job of painting it.


Just a few of the ladders that were used in the project. Not pictured is 1 of 2 family heirlooms used in during the project. A ladder my Grandpa Bennett bought in 1969 to paint the house at 415 Greene Street.


A few of the rollers that survived usage by Teresa the Roller Killer.


It took about 10 gallons of cardinal paint, 3 gallons of white paint, and 1 gallon of gold paint to complete this project.


Lots of experimental painting was done by me on this project. Some paint tools are excellent. Some are a waste of money. Such a waste of money.


On Saturday night I bought a gallon of gold paint and a whole set of paint brushes to use with the gold paint. When the time came around to use the gold paint, all those brushes, except one had been used for cardinal. This solo cup is an artifact left behind by Alisa and Erica from painting the gate gold.


Earlier this year I moved this wood pile from where it is pictured to the brick patio for use in the Firetub. I have had exactly zero social fire tub fires this year. Will and Ben moved the pile back to its original location. Very thankful I didn’t have to do that. Although since I am retiring the Firetub this fall, I should have one last social fire soon. What will become of the Firetub? Stay tuned. Same bat time. Same bat channel.


The other family heirloom that was used in this painting project. This step stool also belonged to Grandpa Bennett. When it isn’t being used in painting projects, it holds frog statues. It will no doubt be used when I complete Fall/Winter House Project #2 sometime soon-ish.


This was the Painting Party Cafeteria. Many a burger and dog were consumed here over stimulating conversation. Such as what do you do when you have to go to the bathroom on a 100 mile run? Loyal Instagram followers will recognize the chairs I stripped and painted John Deere colors and the plastic chairs I did a very poor job of painting Iowa State colors. The bench was built by Teresa. It normally is housed between the cherry trees and holds rain gauge no. 2 and more frog statues. Naima enjoyed her time in the cafeteria. Especially when Evie tried to bribe her with a hot dog to go on a walk.


This dog. She was in heaven with so many people around. She converted a couple of kids that were afraid of dogs and was a wonderful playmate for Layla and Evie as well. She even tried to help with the painting.


I set up the tent for its annual airing out and as a place for children to play. I think Jay might have been the one who played with it the most. Willy and Jesse helped set it up. It is always my pleasure helping people learn survival skills.


Naima’s tail got an extra shade of gold when she tried to help with the gate painting.


The best part of painting during the fall is that it doesn’t matter what happens to the flower that surround my buildings. I would have photographed the hosta that Melissa dumped (much to the chagrin of Scottie D.) quite a bit of white paint on, but we all know that hostas are weeds. So who cares what happens to them? Not this guy!


I did almost all the scraping myself. Let me tell you, scraping cedar siding is the worst. Here is just a small sampling of the piles of scraped paint chips that surround my house.


I think I had 5 paint trays going all at once on Sunday. Might have been 6.

So once again. Thanks to everybody that helped me with this project!

If you are wondering what the house actually looks like now, you might have to visit**. Or maybe that will be covered in a blog post in the future. I don’t know what the future holds.

*Actually, I can’t guarantee that the party will be that great***, but the invitations will be very amusing to at least 3, maybe 4 people.
**But don’t ring my doorbell, that freaks me out.
***Although the partial party playlist was endorsed by Anna and she knows about such things. I’m sure.

Insta

Feel like revisiting my Instagram account. It has been a long, long, time.

Obviously, if you follow me on Instagram, like a boss, you’ve already experienced these.

A few of my favorites:


That was fun! We’ll have to do that again sometime!