I lost the Howard account in 2020, but they did come back to me in 2021. We took a road trip up to Cedar Falls and did their annual family photo shoot on in a park which name now escapes me.
Here is the first collection of images from the day:
Next Sunday’s formal portraits will once again involve Kyle’s senior pictures.
The majority of the pictures in the folder 2010-11-01 are from when the Iowa State Cyclones bested the Kansas Jayhawks on the gridiron. I believe that was like 7 Kansas football coaches ago. Back then there coach was a guy who used to coach at Buffalo. Their current coach is a guy who used to coach at Buffalo.
The last Kansas coach was fired because he “tried to sexualize the staff of student workers in the football program by, for instance, allegedly demanding that he wanted blondes with big breasts, and ‘pretty girls.’” So that’s fun.
There are also pictures of a few trick-or-treaters I got on Halloween in 2010:
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:
Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve more Iowa State football.
The pictures in the folder 2010-10-17 is a collection of images from the fairly annual Howard Family Photo Shoot from 2010.
By adding these pictures to the Photography 139 Gallery, I was able to restore the following historic “An Artist’s Notebook” entry to its original glory:
Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve a road trip to Kalona I took with my Mom.
August 9, 2006. That was the date where I first took keyboard in hand and began typing out the blog that I entitled “An Artist’s Notebook”. I entitled that first post “First Journal Entry”. The categories for that first post were “Blogging”, “Contests”, “Jay”, and “Sara”.
This is the first paragraph I posted:
So here is the first journal entry. I felt like having as pretentious sounding name as possible for my journal. I have a few goals about this journal. My main goal is just to actually write in it. My second goal is to be as truthful as possible towards my true thoughts and feelings. I have another journal on another website, but it is really just a collection of sarcastic statements and cheap jabs at open faced sandwiches. This journal is meant to be about what my achievements and failures are in the world of art. What projects I am working on and what I have accomplished and what I have failed to accomplish. What I am photographing and what I am thinking about entering in photo contests. What I am thinking about. It might not always make sense. It might just be things I need to write down because they strike me as poignant or inspirational. This is in a small way an online “idea box”.
Then it goes on to talk about how I attended the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon Reception with Sara to see what two pictures had been accepted for display that year. Then I would go on to talk about how Jay had talked me into entering the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest.
The last line of the entry was simply:
I don’t want to mail it in.
While I was actually referencing the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest, it is my hope that I also didn’t choose to “mail it in” as it pertains to “An Artist’s Notebook”.
It has been 5,276 days since that first post. 5,276 days to reach this day and the 4,000th post in this blog, or “online journal” like I sometimes call it when I don’t like calling it a blog. It is hard to believe I have made it this far, for this long.
It hasn’t been necessarily smooth sailing the whole time. My website has been through a couple different servers. I have been through a couple different hosts for the blog part of the website. I have been through 4 (I think) different image hosting options in those 5,275 days. That jumping around for image hosting solutions did cause the problem that images from my posts from the first few years of this website’s existence have had to be “restored” slowly over time. So far I have semi-successfully restored all the entries though June of 2010. Which means, I still have a full year’s worth of entries left to restore. Somewhere in 2011, was when I fully made the move to my current SmugMug image hosting solution. I have unfortunately lost a few images, probably forever, mostly old phone pictures, but those old posts are as complete as they will ever be.
When I hit these milestones, I like to publish a lot of fairly meaningless stats. This one will be no different. So, here are the “An Artist’s Notebook” categories that I have used the most often:
#8. WPC – Submissions – 381 Entries
#5. WPC – Submissions – 381 Entries
People often ask what is the best way to improve their Photography 139 Category Score. The easiest way is to submit pictures to THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE. But posing for and assisting me with photo project or photo adventures is also a very good way.
What people have a shot at cracking the Top Ten by the time we hit Post #5,000? Kim, Sara, Logan, and Micky all have a shot. But 1,000 posts is a long ways away. So anybody has a shot!
But what are the Ten Most Popular Photo Galleries in Photography 139 history? Unfortunately, I can’t answer that question. I can only process stats up to 365 days ago. However, I can tell you the Ten Most Popular Photo Galleries of the last 365 Days are.
Click on the image to peruse that gallery.
#2. Christopher D. Bennett – 41080 Views
#3. 9 Emotions Project – 36972 Views
#4. Taylan Howard – 2020 – 34075 Views
#5. Daisies – 26800 Views
#6. Drone – 24659 Views
#7. Weekly Photo Challenge – HOF – 24603 Views
#8. Family Happenings – 18,231 Views
#9. Alexis Pregnancy Photo Shoot – 2020 – 17057 Views
#10. Black Lives Matter – Boone – 2020 – 16160 Views
#2. 3153 Views
#3. 2460 Views (Photo by Logan Kahler)
#4. 2228 Views
#5. 2127 Views
#6. 2111 Views
#7. 1971 Views
#8. 1916 Views
#9. 1891 Views
#10. 1830 Views
Now the secret to the popularity of some of these images is that they are cover photos for albums, but shhhh… don’t tell anybody!
Another category of meaningless statistics, I’d like to share is what have been the most popular posts since the inception of “An Artist’s Notebook”. Although it might not be the most accurate way to judge such things, the only statistic I can use to judge this is “Comments” left on each post. That doesn’t mean emails or text messages or comments I received in person. These are comments that were left in the Comments section of each post.
#2. Weekly Photo Challenge – Week 9 – Food – 22 Comments
#2. Weekly Photo Challenge – Week 43 – Sunrise/Sunset – 22 Comments
#4. Town Sign Project: Hamilton County – 21 Comments
#4. Town Sign Project: Dallas County – 21 Comments
#6. Postcard Recreation Project: Some Churches – 20 Comments
#6. Rodan139: Swede Valley Lutheran Church – 20 Comments
#8. Will History Blame Me… – 19 Comments
#9. Yo, Ya Just Get in that, You Get in that Head Space, Ya Know – 15 Comments
#9. You Can Call it a Comeback – 15 Comments
#9. Wild Goose Chase – 15 Comments
#9. Sorry Not Sorry – 15 Comments
One thing to note is that each “An Artist’s Notebook” entry has its Comments section close 30 days after being posted. Some of those still have a chance to grow, but most have been locked into place forever.
The last statistic I want to share before closing out Post #4,000 is kind of a loyalty score. To even be considered for this list, you first have to have a Photography 139 Email Subscription. The following is a statistic based on “loyalty” for lack of a better term to that service.
1. Michelle Haupt – 99%
2. Joe Duff – 97%
3. Shannon Bardole-Foley – 94%
4. Sara Lockner – 90%
5. Corey Faust – 89%
Thanks to everybody that has supported this adventure for 14 years, 5 months, and now 10 days!
I need to start today by wishing Jesse a happy birthday. Happy birthday Jesse!
I could post a thousand pictures of Jesse from thousands of adventures we shared. But you only get 5 and have to imagine the rest.
Jesse, I hope your birthday is as amazing as you want it to be!
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Today’s collection of recreated old-timey postcards are of buildings that were built to house white collar criminals. Banks. Some of my best friends are bankers. One of my closest blood relatives is a banker. But you know my commitment to the truth. They are all white collar criminals.
One of the buildings still holds bankers. The other one houses local Klan meetings, I would guess. I’m not going to go into much history of these buildings. The building that currently houses U.S. Bank, replaced a building that was destroyed by fire in 1914. Construction on it was finished in 1916. You will notice in the original postcard, that there is no brown beltcourse on the building. That was added in the late 1970s when the addition was added to the east side of the original building.
I can literally tell you nothing about the other building. It has never made its way to the National Register of Historic Places. It is the second tallest building in Boone, if you don’t count the grain elevator. If you do, I’m not sure which is taller.
The postcards for the Boone National Building:
13597 Boone National Bank Bldg. Boone, Ia – Redux
Boone National Building – Modern Interpretation
The postcards for the building I will always call Citizen’s National Bank:
First National Bank Building – Boone, Ia – Redux
U.S. Bank – Modern Interpretation
Something I’ve noticed in the old-timey postcards is that they they like to throw a flagpole with a big American flag on top of these buildings. I don’t know if these flagpoles ever existed. But the current U.S. Bank Building is the only one that still has a flagpole on top of it.
There are a couple of old-timey bank postcards out there to recreate. I’m sitting on the fence on those. One is because I’m still trying to convince myself of the location of one of those buildings. More research!
Here it is, the final collection of pictures of Senior Pictures. I might reserve the right to keep publishing Sunday journal entries because I have so many flower pictures to the shower. That is what I do. I take pictures of flowers and I know things.
Here is the final collection of Taylan images:
If you want to take a look at all the Taylan pictures in one swoop, click on the link below:
Doubt I’ll take any Senior Pictures this year, but I guess you never know.
Here we are, another Senior Sunday. Only a couple of them left and then you will be able to have your Sabbath back. Down to 6 blog posts a week. Seems like just a couple of weeks ago we were at 11 blog posts a week.
Here is the 7th collection of Taylan pictures:
Only 2 weeks left of Senior Sundays!!
A weird thing is happening in Boone tomorrow night. Boone is having a Black Lives Matter event. I have to say that I am pretty shocked. Boone isn’t exactly a bastion of diversity, but is has had an important place in other civil rights fights. Don’t forget that the first ever women’suffrage parade was in Boone.
Any way, even though I am supportive of the movement, I would place myself as kind of doubtful for going tomorrow night. There is still a virus hanging around that has killed over 110,000 Americans so far. Over 2 million Americans have now tested positive.
I might put on one of my face masks and go check it out from a healthy distance. Like a block away. We’ll see.
Here is the information:
Remember, I don’t think it was ever put better than this:
Boone isn’t the only small town in Iowa to hold an event. The following towns (and their population) in District 4 that have held an event:
Spencer 11,031
Orange City 6,107
Grundy Center 2,682
LeMars 9,996
Fort Dodge 24,098
Mason City 27,944
Jefferson 4,4148
and now…
Boone 12,470
Very cool!
(Source: J.D. Scholten)
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It is time for another round of Senior Sunday pictures with Taylan. Here are some of my favorites from this round of Taylan photos:
Another Senior Sunday in the books! There are 5 Senior Sundays left on the books!
I should start by saying Happy birthday to Kalista. So, happy birthday Kalista!
I hope it is a very happy birthday indeed!
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It is time for the 9th and nearly last installment of pictures that were triggered by Elainie’s homecoming!
I do believe that when you are from Iowa and you marry somebody from California, you are legally obligated to have your picture taken in front of corn.
One final collection of Elainie Homecoming pictures left to go!
It is Senior Sunday! Time for another stirring volume of senior pictures! It is once again Taylan’s turn in the rotation!
Still several weeks of Senior Sundays to go!
