Category Archives: Shannon

Andy, Becky, Carla, Drone, Flat Earth Joe, Kim, Logan, Michelle, Railroad, Shannon, Steph, Tamara, WPC - Submissions

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 180 – TRANSPORTATION

February 25, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

A great week of participation for the theme TRANSPORTATION. Despite the blizzard or perhaps because of the blizzard a lot of people got some great TRANSPORTATION photos.

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

Christopher D. Bennett

Kim Barker

Michelle Haupt

Tamara Peterson

Shannon Bardole-Foley

Andy Sharp

Carla Stensland

Stephanie Kim

Logan Kahler

Becky Parmelee

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:

FACELESS PORTRAIT

FACELESS PORTRAIT! What a great theme! But what is a FACELESS PORTRAIT? It is a portrait of somebody that doesn’t include their face. It is that simple.

I look forward to seeing your interpretations!

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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.

+++++++

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 faceless Monday.

Animals, Automobiles, Becky, Black & White, Candid Portrait, Commercial, Flowers, Formal Portrait, Jay, Macro, Mom, Politics, Road Trip, Shannon, Still Life, Teresa, Travel, Work

10-13-08

February 2, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

There is quite the collection of images in the folder called 10-13-08. I can’t possibly include all of them in this here entry, so I’ll just have to pick out a few that I like the most.

The pictures range from Gyro Day at the Computer Mine to the Ames Party Bus in action to a road trip to Kalona with Mom, Teresa, and Jay.

Have a looksie:

While I’m not 100% sure, I believe that is the last of my Ames Party Bus pictures. Which means I should explain why you haven’t seen Becky driving around the Ames Party Bus in 10 years.

I might not be getting the details 100% correct, but the spirit of what I’m writing is dead on.

Shortly after Becky finished restored the Ames Party Bus and began putting out an APB on fun, Big Party Bus felt threatened. In fact they were scared. Petrified.

Big Party Bus checked their address book to look up which state representatives they had in their back pockets. Then they went to these bought politicians and pulled their chains.

The bought politicians reacted by passing a law that made party buses carry an exorbitant amount of insurance. Like an incredible amount of insurance. Insurance that was price-prohibitive.

This effectively shutdown the small-time party bus. Becky was out of business, shortly after the party had begun. Rich people win again.

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

Spoiled

Euphonious

Kalona (Part 1)

Kalona (Part 2)

Next week’s walk down memory lane will involve an Iowa State football match with the Bugeaters of Nebraska.

Animals, Becky, Candid Portrait, Commercial, Flowers, Macro, Shannon

10-01-08

January 19, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

There are two types of pictures in the folder called 10-01-08. The first types are pictures taken during the restoration process of the Ames Party Bus. The second type is everybody’s favorite: flowers!

Have a looksie!

ON a future blog I will rehash the rise and ultimate demise of the Ames Party Bus, but this isn’t that post.

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

Volt-Face

Restoration

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve Iowa State football.

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!

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.

Basketball, Iowa State, Johnathan, Kim, Mom, Self-Portrait, Shannon, Tamara, WPC - Submissions

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 168 – COMMUNICATION

December 3, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett

Looks like another rough week for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE. Only a few people were able to communicate the theme COMMUNICATION. Might be time to look into retiring THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE.

But you didn’t come here to listen to me talk all tommyrot about participation rates. You came to see the submissions!

Tamara Peterson

Kim Barker

Tamara Peterson

Christopher D. Bennett

Shannon Bardole-Foley

FAMILY!

FAMILY! What a great theme! Unless your FAMILY sucks, then you have more problems that dealing with THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE.

So what is a FAMILY picture? A FAMILY picture is any picture that involves a FAMILY. Now some people have a really strict DNA based definition of a family because they weren’t hugged enough as a child. Don’t feel constrained by somebody else’s definition of a FAMILY.

I look forward to seeing your interpretations!

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 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.

+++++++

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 familial Monday.

9 Emotions Project, Alexis, Anders, Andy, Animals, Baby Got Rack, Baier, Bethany, Black & White, Boone FUMC, Brandon, Carla, Colleen, Derrick, Elainie, Flat Earth Joe, Iowa State, Jay, Jesse, Johnathan, Jorge, Laura, Logan, Michelle, Micky, Mom, Nader, Naima, Nate, Nora, Russell, Sara, Shannon, State Fair, Tenderloining, Teresa, Tim, Willy

Blessings – 2018

November 22, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett 4 Comments

I hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving! It is the time of year where we are supposed to count our blessings.

I thought I would share a few of my current blessings:

I am blessed with a great family!

I have plenty of friends that share my love for the Cyclones!

I have a job I don’t hate going to, where I work with several people I don’t want to punch in the face.

I have an amazing church family!

I have an amazing friends family!

I’m blessed to share my life with Naima!

This is really just a handful of the blessings in my life! But I’m already getting this out late, so I’ll cut if off here. I’ll just end with a passage from a Rob Bell NOOMA video that really spoke to me:

“So the verse in First Timothy, it says command those that are rich to not put their hope in wealth… and then it goes on and it continues… and it says, but to put their hope in God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.

That phrase, a God that richly provides us with everything. All that we have is a gift.

Food. It is a gift.

Clothes. Gift.

Roof. Gift.

That breath you just took. It’s a gift.

Now there are some that will say: No, you don’t understand. I’ve worked for what I have. I deserve it. It is mine. But like it says in the book of Deuteronomy, Chapter 8: You may say to yourself, my power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me. But remember the Lord your God, because it is God that gives you the ability to produce wealth.”

I thank God for the embarrassment of riches in my life!

Animals, Becky, Black & White, Cathie, Micky, Naima, Railroad, Shannon, Tamara, Teresa, WPC - Submissions

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 166 – PETS

November 20, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett 3 Comments

Heads up that next week we will be back on our normal schedule of Monday WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE drops into the foreseeable future.

PETS did get a few people revved up and taking pictures. Although not as many as I would’ve thought. Some of you people don’t love your PETS nearly enough. You need to get on that.

But you didn’t come here to listen to me talk all tommyrot about loving PETS. You came here to see the submissions:

Cathie Raley

Shannon Bardole-Foley

Teresa Kahler

Tamara Peterson

Christopher D. Bennett

Becky Parmelee

Micky Augustin

? PLACE

? PLACE! What a great theme! But what is a ? PLACE theme. Take the question mark out and replace it with where you are from or where you are at. So it could be a BOONE PLACE or an IOWA PLACE for me, since I’m not planning on traveling anywhere this week. The idea is basically taken from the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon that has categories like Iowa Place, US Place, or International Place. The idea for this category is to take a picture of a PLACE in you area. A PLACE that is well known or famous. At least to the people in your area.

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.

+++++++

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 well placed Monday.

Commercial, Jay, Nature, Shannon, Willy

Little White Lye Soap and Boone County Sea Dogs

November 10, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett

At this point on our stroll down memory lane, rather than go through full folders, I’m taking a a bit out of a folder at a time, because some of these folders have hundreds and hundreds of images.

These images are from a “tubing” trip down the Des Moines River and pictures I took for Shannon for an article on her for The Des Moines Register.

The pictures that were taken on the river were taken with a disposable camera.

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:

That Picture

Slow on the Take…

Boone County Sea Dogs

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve a trip to the Field of Dreams.

Andy, Angie, Candid Portrait, Carla, Cathie, Football, Iowa State, Kim, Michelle, Shannon, Tamara, Vest, WPC - Submissions

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 161 – ENTERTAINMENT

October 15, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

A metric ton of people were motivated by ENTERTAINMENT this week. I think this was one of the higher submission weeks in months!

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

Cathie Raley

Carla Stensland

Andy Sharp

Kim Barker

Shannon Bardole-Foley

Michelle Haupt

Tamara Peterson

Angie DeWaard

Andy Sharp

Christopher D. Bennett

Carla Stensland

Mike Vest

COLLECTIBLE

COLLECTIBLE! What a great theme! But what is a COLLECTIBLE image. It is simple enough. It is an image of anything that is COLLECTIBLE. Some people collect Funko Pops. Some people collect old cameras. Some people collect the souls of their enemies. But enough about me. I’m sure there are other things to collect. Like spoons or shot glasses or figurines. A picture of anything that is COLLECTIBLE is a COLLECTIBLE image.

As always, I look forward to 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.

+++++++

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 collected Monday.