Category Archives: Birthdays

Alexis, Becca, Bethany, Billy, Birthdays, Candid Portrait, Carla, Dory, Elainie, Formal Portrait, Jason, Laura, Mom, Nate, Olympic Sports, Shorty, Teresa, Tim

2009-11-23

May 30, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

I need to start this post by wishing the happiest of birthdays to my bro Nate. Happy birthday Nate!

Truth is, I just hope Nate gets a good nap on his birthday!

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The pictures in the folder 2009-11-23 are from a trip I made with the family to Kansas City to watch Alexis compete in a cheerleading competition.

If you niece and nephew are going to compete in a sport, they can do worse than cheerleading. The routines last maybe a couple minutes. The you can leave. It isn’t a several hour commitment. Which is key, because I love my nieces and nephews dearly. But I care nothing about other people’s nieces and nephews. I don’t want to spend hours watching them compete, just to get to watch my niece and/or nephew compete. I want to watch my niece compete. Then I want to go get some tasty barbecue.

What I’m getting at is this, never, under any circumstances, agree to go to a gymnastics meet. There are multiple events and 10,000 kids. The worst part, they all use the same music for the floor exercise. Trust me, you don’t want to hear the same 30 second clip of some horrible song 10,000 times in one day. It will make you psychotic. Just saying…

One caveat though… cheerleading moms 100% live up to the stereotype.

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:

Be Aggressive

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve Jill and her foot.

Alexis, Bethany, Billy, Birthdays, Carla, Colleen, Dory, Elainie, Formal Portrait, J.T., Jason, Johnathan, Jonah, Kanoa, Kupono, Nate, Nora, Sabas

Elainie Homecoming Ch. 10

May 28, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

I need to start by wishing my mother-in-law Colleen a happy birthday. Happy birthday Colleen!

I hope your birthday was amazing! All the best people were born in May!

Can you imagine being born in a different month?

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This is the final collection of images that were triggered by Elainie coming home back in September. Most of these pictures were taken on the High Trestle Trail Bridge.

This is the last collection of pictures from Elainie’s homecoming and believe it or not, this is nearly the end of the 2019 backlog.

It will be a relief to not be in backlog, seems like I’ve been in it forever!

Alexis, Andree, Birthdays, Carla, Elainie, Grandma, Jason, Jesse, Johnathan, Kanoa, Kupono, Logan, Mom, Weddings

The Baugher Wedding – Two

May 27, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

I need to start out by wishing my brother-in-law the happiest of birthdays! Happy birthday Jason!

I almost starting to think that these birthday tributes need to be more than 5 pictures!

I hope it was the happiest of birthday Jason!

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It is time to unveil the second collection of pictures from the wedding of Alexis and Kupono!

One more collection of pictures from the Baugher Wedding still in the hopper!

Alexis, Birthdays, Black & White, Carla, Formal Portrait, Jason, Jesse, Johnathan, Kalista, Kanoa, Kelly, Kupono, Sabas, Saydie, Taylan

Elainie Homecoming Ch. 9

May 26, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

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!

9 Emotions Project, Alexis, Animals, Birthdays, Black & White, Boone County Fair, Flowers, Grandma, Kanoa, Mark, Mission Trip, Mom, Nature, Railroad, Self-Portrait, Steph, WPC - Reminder

WEEK 245 THEME REVEAL

May 18, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

I need to start this post by pointing out that today is a very important day. Today is Stephanie’s birthday! Happy birthday Stephanie!

I hope your birthday is safe and amazing!

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I’m going to be away from computers for much of today, so I won’t be able to reveal the RULE OF THIRDS submissions until some point tomorrow. However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t start working on this week’s theme right away:

SELF-PORTRAIT

A SELF-PORTRAIT picture is quite simply, a picture of yourself. Almost, but not quite as easy as RULE OF THIRDS.

I look forward to seeing your interpretations!

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I also recently added to THE CANVAS WALL PROJECT. I eight new 16×20 images to the wall. I’m almost done with the project. I have basically the bottom row to finish. Most of those pictures have been ordered too and should arrive sometime this week.

However, these are the eight 16×20 images that were most recently added to the wall:

After I get the pictures that should arrive on Wednesday in place, I believe I will only need 4 more pictures to finish this project off. But it could be more. I could also be less. But my initial calculations indicate 4 more.

But I’ve been wrong before. Don’t want to be wrong any more.

Alexis, Andy, Birthdays, Black & White, Candid Portrait, Carla, Elainie, Formal Portrait, Jesse, Johnathan, Kalista, Kanoa, Kelly, Kupono, Sabas, Saydie, Taylan

Elainie Homecoming Ch. 2

May 6, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

I need to start this post by announcing that the Sharp family is making laundry detergent like crazy and donating it to area food banks like IMPACT and the Toreador Pantry.

However, they need more laundry detergent jugs, so they have set up a garbage can at the end of their driveway where people can donate jugs for them to fill. No jug is too small or too big.

You can find the donation dropoff spot at the end of their driveway.

The live at 1005 South Division Street in Boone. Basically keep going south on Division Street until you can’t go any farther. There will be some photos of their work shared at a later point.

Thanks to anybody that donates!

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Happy birthday to Kelly! She doesn’t subscribe to this blog, so she will never see this, but happy birthday anyways:

I hope it is a great birthday!

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Time for another collection of Stensland pictures I took when Elainie came home last fall:

A reminder that I love the candid pictures that I take between the posed pictures so much more than I do the posed pictures. But that is maybe just me.

So much more coming from Elainie’s homecoming.

Becca, Bethany, Billy, Birthdays, Candid Portrait, Dory, Event, J.T., Jonah, Laura, Nate, Nora

Baby Triforce 1st Birthday Party – Beta

May 5, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

You want even more pictures of the triplets first birthday party? Guess what. You came to the right location!

The one thing about having triplets is that there is almost enough babies to go around to all the grandparents and aunts and uncles. Almost.

One more collection of Baby Triforce birthday party pictures in the hopper!

Becca, Bethany, Billy, Birthdays, Candid Portrait, Dory, J.T., Jonah, Laura, Nate, Nora

Baby Triforce 1st Birthday Party – Alpha

April 28, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

Back in October I went down to Nate and Laura’s in Manhattan to celebrate the triplets birthday party.

Did I take pictures? Boy did I!

Many more pictures from the party still to come!!

Andy, Art, Bill, Birthdays, Carla, Cathie, Dawn, Elizabeth, Faust, Jesse, Jodie Cue, Joe Duff, Kim, Michelle, Micky, Monica, Naima, Railroad, Shannon, Tamara, Teresa, Vest, Willy, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 239 – ART

April 13, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

I need to start today by wishing the happiest of birthdays to Faust!

It has been a couple of years since I saw Faust in person. When this virus passes, he will be on the shortlist of people I need to go visit. And not just because he lives in close proximity to a sweet Godzilla statue.

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We did it again! 28 straight weeks of double digit submissions! Woohoo! Apparently a lot of you have ART in their lives. Which is why Obama once said, “The arts are what makes life worth living. You’ve got food, you’ve got shelter, yeah. But the things that make you laugh, make you cry, make you connect – make you love are communicated through the arts. They aren’t extras.”

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

Katelyn and Aubrey Augustin

Andy Sharp

Dawn Krause

Kim Barker

Shannon Bardole-Foley

Michelle Haupt

Tamara Peterson

Christopher D. Bennett

Carla Stensland

Teresa Kahler

Joe Duff

Bill Wentworth

Elizabeth Nordeen

Cathie Raley

Micky Augustin

Mike Vest

Jodie Cue

Monica Henning

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:

EARS

EARS! What a great theme! But what is an EARS picture? An EARS picture is any picture of EARS or something that is affiliated with EARS. Like headphones or hearing aids. Remember, there is more than one kind of EARS and I’m not just talking about how frogs hear with their lungs.

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.

I now allow people to text me their submissions. In the past, I had made exceptions for a couple people that aren’t real computer savvy, even though it was an inconvenience for me and required at least 3 extra steps for me. I am now lifting that embargo because I have a streamline way of uploading photos. I’m not giving out my phone number, but if you have it, you can text me.

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.

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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 eerie Monday!

Animals, Birthdays, Black & White, Equipment, Logan, Macro, Mom, Naima, Nature, Pufferbilly Days, Scottie D., Self-Portrait, Still Life, Underwater, Work, WPC - Reminder

I Don’t Know Why You’re Mean to Me

March 20, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 6 Comments

I took Thursday and Friday off this week to watch basketball. Obviously there is no basketball right now. There is no basketball for at least a month and there is no NCAA Tournament this year at all. I wasn’t sure if I was going to still take these two days off. I waffled for a few days and then I ultimately decided that I needed a few days off.

I understand that can sound tone deaf. To need a few days off, when there are many people that aren’t able to work right now. People who suddenly are finding themselves unemployed. I am blessed that for at least now, the Computer Mine is still open for business. I am also blessed that starting a couple days ago, the Computer Mine opened up the option to work from home for some employees. They started by opening it up to workers that are in high risk groups and workers that are around people that are in high risk groups. I fit into that second category.

I wasn’t sure I was going to work from home or continue to work from the office, but after listening to a few co-workers regurgitated Fox propaganda talking points, I knew that I no longer trusted my co-workers to make smart decisions for their health, for the health of the people the come into contact with, and the health of the people that they come into contact with.

Starting on Monday, I’m going to start working from home. Because of this, I spent Thursday building a computer to use as my work from home computer from some computer parts I have laying around. I didn’t want to complicate my main home computer. So that is what passes for ENTERTAINMENT for me yesterday.

I also added a web camera to my work-from-home-computer so I could have video calls with my co-workers:

It isn’t the best web camera in the world. In fact, it is the web camera I bought a few years back so I could set up a modest photo booth at my birthday party:

But it will get the job done as far as video chatting goes. Because the one thing that I’m definitely going to miss as I work from home for at least a couple of weeks is some of my fellow miners. Most of them have opted to work from home, but I think Joe, Micky, Elizabeth, and Ron and a few others still seem to be committed to showing up to the mine. I’m going to miss you guys

Working from home does mean that I’ll have more time on my hands. I won’t have the 20 minute or so one way commute every day. My one hour lunch break will also be spent at home. Plus with not going pretty much anywhere at night, I will definitely have added time to work on my photography backlog. You guys might have to endure some days of TWO “An Artist’s Notebook” entries! Oh the humanity!

Hopefully the webcam will help with the social isolation. Hopefully my dog adjusts to having me around all the time!

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Since I mentioned birthday parties, I might as well mention that while I have been planning to have a birthday party this year, it is definitely off. Which is sad because Scottie D. and I had a tremendous menu planned. Baby Got Rack was going to cater the heck out of that party! You’ll just have to imagine what it would have been like.

What you don’t have to imagine what it is like, was what the invitations were going to look like. My nephew Logan took some of the photos that were going to be used for the invitations, that were going to look like they came from a political candidate. Here are a couple of the pictures that won’t get used:

That last picture wasn’t getting used for sure, I just like it. Maybe 2021 will be a better year to bring the party back!

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Last week I took more than one picture for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE, so here is a good chance to share the once that didn’t have what it takes to make the big show on Monday:

The pictures of Naima were taken with a new Lensbaby lens I bought for my new camera. I will probably going into some boring detail about it at some point in the future.

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This is your reminder that this week’s WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is ENTERTAINMENT:

ENTERTAINMENT

I have no clue what participation will look like this week. However, I can assure you that even if you are taking social distancing to self-quarantine, this theme and every theme in the WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE is a theme that can be accomplished within the confines of your house or your yard.

Happy photo harvesting!