Category Archives: Friends

Bowl Eligible

I was going to publish pictures that were related to Story County Philanthropy Day, but I think a more time relevant set of pictures would be a few images from Jesse and I’s trip to Lawrence, Kansas to watch the Cyclones shellac the Jayhawks. It should be noted that all of these pictures were taken with my phone, which has an excellent camera for a phone, but it is still a phone.

This was my first trip to Lawrence and I loved their campustown area. It reminded me that while Iowa State has the most beautiful campus, the fiercest mascot, gorgeous team colors, amazing facilities, the best set of head coaches, the prettiest co-eds, and the least date-rapey frat guys; our campustown area leaves a lot to be desired.



We dined at a place called Bob’s Smokehouse. Since Lawrence is a stone’s throw from Kansas City, we hypothesized that it would have dynamite barbecue. We were mistaken. Although Bob’s wasn’t terrible, it certainly isn’t in the same league with a Oklahoma Joe’s or a Jack Stack or Jethro’s or Jimmy’s for that matter. This is their chicken wing appetizer. We opted for the full pound version based on what 1 pound of chicken wings looks like at Pizza Pit. We were told they would be served on a bed of fries. That was a lie. We got a pound of fries and then had to play a game of find the chicken wings.


These are Alligator Bites. We were once again told that our alligator would be served on a bed of fries. Once again, the appetizer was 85% fries and 15% tasty, tasty alligator. Don’t worry, I got even. I left a scathing tip on Foursquare about their dirty appetizer scam.


Our waitress, told us that since we were getting fries with out appetizers, we would want to substitute the fries that came with our barbecue dinner for a second side. As you can tell, Bob isn’t overly generous with the portion size. The beans were the best part of the meal. The slaw was the worst. They have 2 sauces that are indistinguishable from one another. Our waitress warned us that this would be the case.


Not a terrible experience, but I will not return. Next trip to Kansas we will go across the street to Mexquito.


This “balcony cow” was not above the barbecue joint, but at a coffee house or something lame like that.


I badly want this shirt! It was for sale in a used bookstore called The Dusty Shelf. No offense to Firehouse Books (if you are still in business), but I badly wish this store was in Ames.


Jamaal Tinsley is right, The Phog is “just another gym”.


Some guy. I’m sure he is important to Kansans. Took this picture mostly because of how awesome the Jayhawk logo used to be.


Memorial Stadium holds 50,071 people. Announced attendance was 41,608. But it couldn’t have been much more than 30,000 in reality. I bet well more than 5,000 of that were Cyclone fans. Maybe as high 10,000. A couple Jayhawks sitting behind us were pretty proud that they had half filled a stadium for a 1-10 team.


A fellow Cyclone sitting in front of us took this picture for us. He was sitting with his dad, a Jayhawk, that was a pretty cool guy. However, he didn’t like it when I asked him if the reason why they have a pizza box folding contest in the middle of the 1st quarter is because that is what Kansas students do after they graduate. On my right side there were 3 more Cyclones from Mason City. The highlight of the trip for me (besides the W & the potential to go someplace warm this winter) was when a Jayhawk kid tried to taunt Jesse and I after the Cyclones went up by 17 or so points. He tried mock-imitating our cheering. We died laughing. Apparently not the reaction he was wanting, he tended to his own business rest of the game.


Shontrelle celebrating bowl eligibility.


By the end of the game, there were only Cyclones left in the stands. We moved down to be close to the team. Some Jayhawk fans yelled at us, “Its not like we’re Alabama!”


51-23!


Since Jayhawks are like the other evil twin to Husker fans (Huskers ONLY care about football, Jayhawks ONLY care about basketball) this must be similar to what it would be like to go to a basketball game in Lincoln. That being said, I was a little surprised at the bitterness of the Jayhawks in our section. They really hate Charlie Weis. The only person they seem to hate more than him is their quarterback.

I hope to be able to have a better organized trip to Manhattan next football season, but despite its brevity, this was still a pretty awesome trip.

Personal Photo Project of the Week #144

This week’s Personal Photo Project is a blatant attempt at commerce. Good old fashioned in-your-face-capitalism.

I’ve been talking to Barb Henning of Everlastings about selling high quality Photography 139 products in her store for several years now, but I have always been unable to pull the trigger. However, I’ve turned over a new leaf and have decided to invest some money in “product” and we’ll see where that gets me.

Starting tomorrow (at least I’m 98% sure) a person can go to Everlastings Flowers & Gifts in beautiful downtown Ogden, Iowa and purchase a couple different products from Photography 139.

The first line of products:



Postcards!

This is not a completely original idea. This idea is both stolen from and an homage to my Dad’s line of Slice of Life postcards. Which incidentally will be incorporated into this line of postcards as well. The picture of the #1385 is my Dad’s picture.

The current pricing structure is thus:

1 Postcard = $.75
3 Postcards = $2.00
5 Postcards = $3.00

Series #1 of the Photography 139 line of postcards consists of 5 different images. My hope is that every 3-4 months, I will release a new series and 5 different postcards. The subject matter will mostly consist of flowers or local interest. Look for Series #2 to be released around February or March.

Thanks to all my Postcard Beta Testers:

Jen, Derrick, and Evie Gorshe
Sara and Shawn
Russell Kennerly
Andree Jauhari
Aunt Linda
Becky Perkovich
Dawn Krause
The Fausts
The Kewers
Robert Henning

The second line of products:



Calendars!

The second product line is a calendar consisting of high quality Photography 139 flower images. The first run of these is extremely limited, so the price structure is a little higher than I would like, but there is a chance that a second run of calendars will be printed and the price might go down slightly. No promises though.

Calendar Price Structure:

1 Calendar = $15.00

But what about the future? I’m also looking into releasing a line of holiday cards. Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and Mother’s Day. It is somewhat dependent on how the first two lines of high quality products fare in the marketplace. I would consider it highly doubtful that there will be Christmas cards available for this Christmas, but stranger things have happened.

To repeat, these high quality products will be available at Everlasting Flowers & Gifts starting tomorrow.

Everlastings Info:

223 W. Walnut St.
Ogden, IA 50212
Store Hours: M-F 9:30 am to 5 pm; Sat. 9:30 am to noon
Website: http://www.everlastingsbybarb.com/
All major credit cards accepted

These products may come to other venues in the future, but Barb definitely gets to be the launching point for this commercial endeavor.

Yes, you can buy products straight from me, but I don’t accept credit cards at this time. If you need something shipped to you, there would be a shipping and handling fee.

You can find out that info by writing me directly at: bennett@photography139.com

Next week’s Personal Photo Project will either involve trains or mums. We’ll see.

365 Day Photo Project: 92 -105

I think this is an interesting collection of images:


Day 92 - Zombie
Day 92 – Zombie

Day 93 - Spooky
Day 93 – Spooky

Day 94 - Happy Halloween
Day 94 – Happy Halloween

Day 95 - Something Beginning with C
Day 95 – Something Beginning with C

Day 96 - Color
Day 96 – Color

Day 97 - Breakfast
Day 97 – Breakfast

Day 98 - TV
Day 98 – TV

Day 99 - Nature
Day 99 – Nature

Day 100 - Humor
Day 100 – Humor

Day 101 - Reflection
Day 101 – Reflection

Day 102 - Siblings
Day 102 – Siblings

Day 103 - Small
Day 103 – Small

Day 104 - Education
Day 104 – Education

Day 105 - Music
Day 105 – Music

The themes for the next 7 days:

Day 106 – Drink
Day 107 – Where You Slept
Day 108 – Something Handmade
Day 109 – Strategy
Day 110 – The View from Your Window
Day 111 – Open Spaces
Day 112 – Happened this Weekend

Omega

Monday night Obama made his last campaign stop ever in the East Village in Des Moines. I attended his first ever campaign stop in Iowa at Hilton Coliseum all the way back in 2007 with Jen and Derrick and maybe Willy. I figured that I should be there for the last. So Jesse and I went down there and got in line with at least 20,000 other people to at least say that “we were there”.

The line to get in was over 8 blocks long and it kept growing after we took our place at the end of it.

When we got in, we were probably 2 blocks from the actual stage and couldn’t actually see the stage, but we could hear everything clearly and there was a giant jumbotron, so we could see everything clearly.

I didn’t take a good camera in, but I did snap a few photos of the event with my camera phone. So, understand that these pictures aren’t all that great.



The Capitol lit up to look impressive on television.


The backside of the rally space, from outside.


A protester.


I love protesters as a general rule. Even when I disagree with them, I still love protesters. Maybe it is because I love making signs and chanting. But these protesters kept chanting: “1 More Day!”. Even if Romney didn’t get pounded on Election Night, he wouldn’t have taken over on November 7th. Work on your rhetoric people! Since this picture is so bad, I don’t know if you’ll be able to make it out, but 1 of my favorite protesters ever is in this picture. She is holding the sign that says “Real Women for Real Change”. I love this kind of rhetoric. When you take a word like “real” and misuse it to insinuate that other women aren’t “real” because they don’t hold your political beliefs or frightening levels of anger.


Another one of my favorite protesters of all-time is in this picture. The other is the woman (presumably not in the ‘real’ demographic) holding the sign that says “Short People for Romney”. What a delightful demographic to identify one’s self with! I also love the guy in the picture that isn’t holding a sign, but a coffee from Starbucks. He strikes me as a guy that doesn’t really support Romney. He just came down because he didn’t have anything to do on a Monday night and his buddy told him that protesting was a great way to meet chicks. Sorry. My apologies. A great way to meet “Real” Women. Incidentally short women too.


A sign outside of Zombie Burger. A chick standing outside Zombie Burger gave us a tip on how to get to the end of the line, that saved us several blocks of walking.


The American flag at the back of the rally event space.


After the speech, we wormed our way up to the stage. Snagged a pretty sweet poster to boot!


Another weak photograph of the stage.


Another…

I actually wanted to run over and see if I could get my picture taken with the protesters, but the line was moving too quickly. Maybe next big protest movement or 2016.

I need to find out what other political movements short people are passionate about. Shannon?