Category Archives: Holidays

Art, Dahlia, Football, Greyson, Holidays, Iowa State, Kalista, Logan, Music, Street Photography

And You Always Say I’m Never Satisfied

June 3, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett Leave a comment

Seems like a good time for another backlog cleanup. These images were taken in October of 2022, but never really fit into any other “An Artist’s Notebook” posts. Most of these were taken before the Iowa State-Kansas State football game. A game that Iowa State completely handed away to the eventual conference champions. Last year was absolutely an awful season for Iowa State, but the fact that they lost so many games by so few points, gives one hope for this season.

Here is this backlog collection:

The neighbor lady giving candy to Dahlia unfortunately has dementia. She is the sweetest lady, but because of her memory loss, sometimes she shows up at my house confused and she doesn’t know where she is. It breaks my heart.

Alexis, Andy, Angie, Art, Bill, Black & White, Brandon, Carla, Cathie, Dawn, Elizabeth, Formal Portrait, History, Holidays, Joe Duff, Kim, Kio, Linda, Logan, Melissa, Micky, Mindi, Monica, Sara, Sarah Toot, Scottie D., Tamara, Teresa, Vest, Willy, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 402 – PARK

May 29, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett Leave a comment

I should start this entry by hoping everybody had a good Memorial Day!

And You Left Me There Cryin' Wonderin' What I Did Wrong

I know, I shared that exact same picture on Saturday. But I like it and it seems to fit Memorial Day.

I’d like to take this little piece of this website to share the poem “In Flanders Fields” by John McCare:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

This poem inspired the wearing of poppies as a rememberance symbol for those who died in war.

From the History Channel website:

In the spring of 1915, bright red flowers began poking through the battle-ravaged land across northern France and Flanders (northern Belgium). Canadian Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, who served as a brigade surgeon for an Allied artillery unit, spotted a cluster of the poppies shortly after serving as a brigade surgeon during the bloody Second Battle of Ypres. The sight of the bright red flowers against the dreary backdrop of war inspired McCrae to pen the poem, “In Flanders Field,” in which he gives voice to the soldiers who had been killed in battle and lay buried beneath the poppy-covered grounds. Later that year, a Georgia teacher and volunteer war worker named Moina Michael read the poem in Ladies’ Home Journal and wrote her own poem, “We Shall Keep the Faith” to begin a campaign to make the poppy a symbol of tribute to all who died in war. The poppy remains a symbol of remembrance to this day.

Now you are wondering about Moina Michael’s poem. Here it is:

Oh! you who sleep in Flanders Fields,
Sleep sweet – to rise anew!
We caught the torch you threw
And holding high, we keep the Faith
With All who died.

We cherish, too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led;
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies,
But lends a lustre to the red
Of the flower that blooms above the dead
In Flanders Fields.

And now the Torch and Poppy Red
We wear in honor of our dead.
Fear not that ye have died for naught;
We’ll teach the lesson that ye wrought
In Flanders Fields.
I hope you have learned a little something today.

+++++++

It is the last collection of submissions of the month, so it is a good time revisit the THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE FAQ:

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS – WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE

What skill level photographer can participate?

THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE is open to photographers of all skill levels. From award winning photographers to professionals to the highly ranked amateurs to those that are just beginning to those who don’t even know how to focus a camera. All skill levels are encouraged and welcome. You can’t be too bad and you can’t be too good! Everyone has room to learn and be challenged!

Award winning photographers? Really?

Yes. I can think of at least 5 photographers that participate regularly that have won a photography award of some kind.

Is this a competition?
No.

Is there a limit to the number of submissions I can have each week?

Yes. That limit is 3. If you send me more than 3, I will post the first 3 that you send. I’m not trying to harsh your photography buzz, but any more than that starts to overwhelm the other submissions and it takes me about 5 minutes to take a picture from my inbox to code it on the website. So I have to manage my workload.

If you are going to submit more than one picture, I strongly urge you to choose completely different subjects for each submission. If you are submitting multiple pictures of the same subject, make sure that each picture is saying something unique.

If participation rates climb, that limit of 3 is subject to lower.

Can I send you several pictures and have you pick the best one?

No! No! NO! If those words come out of your mouth or your keyboard, I consider that to be a non-submission.

Do you ever question whether somebody’s submission fits the theme?

Meh. Only if I think somebody is clearly confusing this week’s theme with last week or next week’s theme. Otherwise, if the submission makes sense in your head, that is good enough for me. However, I would urge you to not try to fit your favorite subject into the theme. This isn’t a challenge to share a picture every week of your kid or your business or your pet. It is a challenge to take pictures of different things every week. Which isn’t to say subjects can’t be repeated, but you shouldn’t become reliant on the same ones.

Why can’t I submit after 11 AM on Mondays if the post doesn’t publish until 12:01 PM?

I go to lunch at 11 AM. I leave my office. I’m not near a computer. At 11 AM I hit “Schedule” and then I go throw food down my throat. 167 hours is more than enough time to send a submission. Okay, 166 hours and 59 minutes. You got me.

Are there resolution requirements for submissions?

I won’t turn down submissions that are too small. I will probably ask you for a picture of greater resolution if it is really small. The typical 4 x 6 image posted to my website has a resolution of 1280 pixels x 853 pixels. While a 400 x 300 image might look okay on your phone, it looks like trash on a computer monitor. I prefer images that are at least 1000 pixels at their largest point, but don’t ban smaller pictures at this point.

What format should my submission be?

.JPG but .PNG also works.

If I write a description of my image will you include that in your post?

No. Photography is art that should stand on its own. Only exception is the SLICE OF LIFE theme.

When will you start accepting suggestions for next year’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE themes?

Suggestions are closed for next year’s list. It will be a minute before they open up for Year 11 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE.

+++++++

PARK! A great place to spend some time. But did many people spend time in a PARK and get a picture for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE. You will have to keep scrolling to find out.

As of 12:01 PM on Monday, May 22, this was the current list of ACTIVE streaks (ignore the numbers in parentheses):

1-Suzie Brannen – 1 week (3)
2-Melissa Degeneffe – 1 week (2)
3-Scott Degeneffe – 1 week
4-Mary Green – 1 week (3)
5-Stephanie Kim – 1 week
6-Sara Lockner – 1 week (2)
7-Becky Parmelee – 1 week
8-Nader Parsaei – 1 week
9-Nathanial Brown – 2 weeks (3)
10-Tamara Peterson – 2 weeks
11-Sabas Hernandez – 4 weeks
12-Mike Vest – 4 weeks
13-Alexis Baugher – 7 weeks (3)
14-Jesse Howard – 7 weeks (2)
15-Mindi Terrell – 14 weeks (3)
16-Monica Jennings – 19 weeks
17-Brandon Kahler – 39 weeks
18-Linda Bennett – 43 weeks
19-Sarah Toot – 44 weeks (3)
20-Angie DeWaard – 48 weeks
21-Dawn Krause – 52 weeks (3)
22-Kim Barker – 58 weeks
23-Joe Duff – 58 weeks (2)
24-Logan Kahler – 61 weeks
25-Teresa Kahler – 70 weeks (3)
26-Carla Stensland – 70 weeks
27-Micky Augustin – 72 weeks
28-Andy Sharp – 73 weeks
29-Bill Wentworth – 74 weeks
30-Cathie Morton – 78 weeks
31-Elizabeth Nordeen – 79 weeks (2)
32-Shannon Bardole-Foley – 81 weeks
33-Kio Dettman – 83 weeks (3)

But you didn’t come here to listen to me talk all tommyrot about participation rates or streaks. You came to see the submissions and what streaks continued and what streaks flamed out:

Willy McAlpine (McHose Park – Boone, Iowa) – 1 week

Dawn Krause (Boone National Little League Park – Boone, Iowa) – 53 weeks

Dawn Krause (Boone National Little League Park – Boone, Iowa)

Dawn Krause (South Side Park – Slater, Iowa)

Angie DeWaard (Hunziker Park – Ames, Iowa) – 49 weeks

Kim Barker (Iowa) – 59 weeks

Andy Sharp (Boone, Iowa) – 74 weeks

Andy Sharp (Jester Park – Polk City, Iowa)

Logan Kahler (Iowa) – 62 weeks

Logan Kahler (Iowa)

Mindi Terrell (Mindi’s Animal Habitat – Iowa) – 15 weeks

Mindi Terrell (Terra Park – Johnston, Iowa)

Monica Jennings (Neil Smith Trail – Iowa) – 20 weeks

Monica Jennings (Iowa)

Micky Augustin (Ada Haydn Park – Ames, Iowa) – 73 weeks

Elizabeth Nordeen (Iowa) – 80 weeks

Sara Lockner (Johnston, Iowa) – 2 weeks

Sabas Hernandez (Arnolds Park Green Space – Arnolds Park, Iowa) – 5 weeks

Melissa Degeneffe (Porter’s Badass Campsite – Rural Boone County, Iowa) – 2 weeks

Scott Degeneffe (Porter’s Badass Campsite – Rural Boone County, Iowa) – 2 weeks

Scott Degeneffe (Dickcissel Park – Boone, Iowa)

Teresa Kahler (Jester Park – Polk City, Iowa) – 71 weeks

Teresa Kahler (Jester Park – Polk City, Iowa)

Joe Duff (Donovan Park – Houston, Texas) – 59 weeks

Joe Duff (Donovan Park – Houston, Texas)

Carla Stensland (Arnolds Park – Arnolds Park, Iowa) – 71 weeks

Kio Dettman (Opal Dubois Anderson Park – Boone, Iowa) – 84 weeks

Kio Dettman (Opal Dubois Anderson Park – Boone, Iowa)

Kio Dettman (Memorial Park – Boone, Iowa)

Linda Bennett (Kansas) – 44 weeks

Mary Green (Iowa) – 2 weeks

Mary Green (Iowa)

Mike Vest (Iowa) – 5 weeks

Shannon Bardole-Foley (Banner Lakes at Summerset State Park – Rural Warren County) – 82 weeks

Sarah Toot (Municipal Park – Pennsylvania) – 45 weeks

Sarah Toot (Pennsylvania)

Tamara Peterson (Pattee Park – Perry, Iowa) – 3 weeks

Tamara Peterson (Pattee Park – Perry, Iowa)

Alexis Baugher (Inis Grove Park – Ames, Iowa) – 8 weeks

Alexis Baugher (Inis Grove Park – Ames, Iowa)

Brandon Kahler (Ada Haydn Park – Ames, Iowa) – 40 weeks

Bill Wentworth (Chalco Park – Omaha, Nebraska) – 75 weeks

Cathie Morton (Iowa) – 79 weeks

Christopher D. Bennett (Jester Park – Polk City, Iowa)

29 participants! That’s a pretty great week, considering the holiday weekend and all!

There were no new states added to the map this week and at this point, I’m betting new states added will be an increasingly rare thing. Time will tell.

There were submissions this week taken in the following places:

+ Iowa
+ Kansas
+ Nebraska
+ Pennsylvania
+ Texas

Here is the current calendar year list for states:

+ Arizona
+ Arkansas
+ California
+ Colorado
+ Florida
+ Georgia
+ Illinois
+ Iowa
+ Kansas
+ Nebraska
+ New Jersey
+ New York
+ Nevada
+ Michigan
+ Minnesota
+ Missouri
+ North Dakota
+ Ohio
+ Oklahoma
+ Pennsylvania
+ South Dakota
+ Texas
+ Utah
+ Washington D.C.
+ Wisconsin
+ Wyoming

25 states and 1 district! That is pretty impressive! Over halfway there!

The Outside of the United States map is currently:

+ British Virgin Islands
+ Mexico
+ Nassau Bahamas
+ Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

I took my picture about 24 miles from my front door, so I continue to not contribute.

There were no major milestones this week. However, there was a blood bath of streaks being snapped. Suzie, Stephanie, Becky, and Nader couldn’t build on last week’s submission. That wasn’t totally unexpected for Stephanie and Nader. Nathanial’s 2 week streak no more. Most heartbreaking is that Jesse’s 7 week streak is just a memory now.

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:

TEXTURE

TEXTURE! What a great theme for Year 10 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!

But what in Wes Wallace is a TEXTURE image? Well, let’s start with the definition of TEXTURE: the structure, feel, and appearance of something (as a fabric) the smooth texture of silk. wood with a rough texture. In photography that means: the visual depiction of variations in the color, shape, and depth of an object’s surface. What you are trying to do here is to convey the feel of the surface of an object through photography.

While considering possible topics for your TEXTURE submissions, meditate on the following quote and I have no doubt you will come up with an amazing image:

I search for realness, the real feeling of a subject, all the texture about it… I always want to see the third dimension of something.. I want to come alive with the object.
-Andrew Wyeth

I look forward to seeing your interpretation.

RULES

The picture has to be taken between 12:01 PM today and 11 AM next Monday. This isn’t a curate your photos project. This is a get your butt off the couch (unless you are taking your picture from the couch) and take pictures challenge. There is a limit of 3 submissions per participant. To be considered the photographer, you have to be the one that takes the picture. Don’t be stealing the work of other artists. You can submit pictures for other photographers that took pictures with your camera or phone, but give credit where credit is due.

You can send your images to either bennett@photography139.com OR you may text them to my Pixel 5.

That is it. Thems the rules!

That is all I got, so if the good Lord’s willin’ and the creek don’t rise, we will all be sharing your idea of TEXTURE in this place that is a little rough around the edges some next Monday.

Art, Christianity, Holidays, Scottie D., Tenderloining

The Infamous Tenderloin Tripleheader

April 9, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett Leave a comment

Today is Easter, so happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

Rather than trying to write something about Easter, I thought I would just borrow a devotional written by the Bishop of the Iowa Methodist churches about fish.

In Death, Shedding Life
By Bishop Kennetha Bigham-Tsai
Episcopal Leader, Iowa Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church

Keeton Bigham-Tsai with a Chinook (King) Salmon caught while fly fishing on the Pere Marquette River. Photo by Ian Dwyer.
“He is not here; for he has been raised,” Matthew 28: 6a

Our eldest son Keeton loves to fish. He has loved fishing since he was three years old and spending hours with his Winnie-the-Pooh rod at a local pond. Keeton has gone on to more adult fishing pursuits. Fly-fishing is now his favorite past-time; he has fished many of the major rivers of Michigan. He recently talked to me about fly fishing for salmon on the Pere Marquette.

Keeton explained that fresh-water salmon in Michigan are born in the rivers but spend most of their lives in the big lakes. When it is time for them to reproduce, they make their way back to the rivers in which they were born. They mate in those rivers, then make the long trek up-stream to their spawning grounds. The Pere Marquette is the longest river without a dam in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula and makes an arduous trek for the salmon.

Though they start out healthy, the journey up-river depletes them. Eventually, they become so worn that their skin becomes soggy and sloughs off. They become like zombie fish, Keeton says. And shortly after releasing and fertilizing their eggs, they die. But a single salmon can drop thousands of eggs before its death and so start the cycle of life again.

This cycle—from life, to death, to new life—is not just a cycle played out on the rivers. It also is the cycle played out in the death and resurrection of Christ. It is a cycle that is central to our understanding of what God has done for us in Jesus.

Scripture reminds us that we were dead because of our sin and brokenness, (Ephesians 2:1). Yet God sent a savior, a Messiah, who according to the prophet Isaiah, “…has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases…he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed,” Isaiah 53: 4-5.

In Jesus, God took on the suffering and sin of the world. Pandemics, violence and war—every atrocity and tragedy in history. God took it all on, then healed and redeemed it in Christ.

This is what Jesus’ long walk to the cross was about. He wore the injustice of the cross and the sins of the world in the wounds of his crucifixion. He shed his life to bring about new life for us, or, as the Apostle Paul writes, “…so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life,” Romans 6:4b.

Our newness of life depends upon the reality of Christ’s resurrection. That is the crux of the stories we rehearse at Easter. Jesus was crucified, died, and was buried. But death was not the end. An angel rolled back the stone. The crucified Christ rose from the dead. From death came resurrected life and the assurance of life everlasting.

Now back to the salmon. The death run of these fish doesn’t just create eggs and baby fish. As the salmon make their long run up the river, they shed their skin along the way. As they do that, they also nourish the whole ecosystem, literally with the detritus of their bodies. As they shed their lives and die, they feed life all along the river.

This makes for a useful metaphor for the death and resurrection of Christ and the eventual spread of the Gospel message. Jesus shed his life for our lives. After his resurrection, he commissioned the disciples to lay down their lives for him and to be his witnesses through Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, (Acts 1:8). They eventually scattered over all those regions and beyond. But as they scattered, the message of Jesus’ resurrection spread. And what started out as a little band of disciples became a movement that would span geography and generations.

These disciples and the spread of their witness was like the shedding of spiritual nutrients around the world. And that points to the irony of it all: Jesus’ ministry created 12 disciples and a lot of crowds, but his death and resurrection produced the Church.

So, when we shout this Easter, “He Lives!” let us realize and know that he lives in and through us, his Church. We are his offspring, the scattering of his life and witness along the rivers of history. We are the nutrients of the whole ecosystem of life in Christ.

And how do we bring the nutrients of new life in Christ to the world? We tell people the simple story. God so loved the world that God sent God’s son. Christ so loved all of humanity that he went to the cross on our behalf. But he did not just go to the cross and die. He rose from the dead. See, the angel has rolled back the stone! And, because Christ lives, we live. Because we live and witness to his love, others can live through him.

Have a Blessed Easter!

Christ is risen!

+++++++

Back on October 30th, I had a sort of a tenderloin tripleheader. I actually had 2 tenderloins, but there were some on this trip that at least tried to eat 3 tenderloins. Scott, Porter, Austin, and I travelled to Des Moines to the Iowa Taproom to try their tenderloin. It is on the Tenderloin Trail 2.0. Then on the way back we stopped at Whatcha Smokin’ in Luther. There I had some nachos (although I badly underestimated the size of the nachos) as I had already taken down a tenderloin and I already have the stamp for Whatcha Smokin’ on my Tenderloin Trail 2.0 Passport.

Finally, we ended up at Scott’s brother Steve’s house to try Steve’s homemade tenderloin.

I’m not going to break down the tenderloins like I usually do. It should be sufficient to say that Steve’s tenderloin was way better than the tenderloin at the Iowa Taproom.

Here are some pictures from the Tenderloin Tripleheader:

Iowa Taproom

Whatcha Smokin’

Steve’s Homemade Tenderloin

Steve also makes his own pickles.

I kind of like Sundays being devoted to food adventures. This just might stick.

Drone, Holidays, Lists, Movies, Nature

Rodan139: Lower Ledges

February 14, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

Need to start this post by wishing a Happy Valentine’s Day to all who celebrate. It is the one true holiday, that has yet to be adulterated by crass commercialism.

Happy Valentine’s Day

I wish I could buy you all cookies, but settle for this picture of a cookie and I might buy some of you cookies on Thursday. We’ll see how my day goes.

I do like publish power rankings on holidays. So for Valentine’s Day, I present my Top 10 Best Romantic Comedy Power Rankings:

ROMANTIC COMEDY POWER RANKINGS

10. About a Boy (2002)

STORYLINE

Twelve year old Marcus Brewer lives with his chronically depressed single mother, Fiona Brewer. Both Fiona and Marcus beat to their own respective drummers. Marcus will do whatever he can to make his depressed mother happy, even if it causes himself grief. As such, he realizes that he is perceived as different than most kids, as even the self-professed weird kids don’t want to hang out with him as he is the target of bullying. Part of the taunts against him are the fact that he sings and speaks to himself without even realizing that he is doing it. Meanwhile, thirty-eight year old Will Freeman is a slacker who has lived comfortably off the royalties of a song written by his deceased father, and as such has never had to work a day in his life. He is a solitary man who places himself as the first and only priority in life. He comes across the idea that dating single moms meets his selfish carnal needs. It is in this capacity that Will meets Marcus, as one of Will’s single mother conquests, Suzie, is friends with the Brewers. Trying to escape his life but wanting Will to date Fiona, Marcus infiltrates Will’s life, much to Will’s chagrin. Will slowly begins to realize that Marcus is more than just a nuisance, but rather someone who needs some guidance navigating through the trials of adolescence and the trials of dealing with a suicidal mother, and perhaps he can be a small part of providing that direction. Conversely, Marcus may be able to show Will the path to becoming a real adult.

FAVORITE QUOTE

I wanna be with her more, I wanna be with her all the time, and I wanna tell her things I don’t even tell you or mum. And I don’t want her to have another boyfriend. I suppose if I could have all those things, I wouldn’t really mind if I touched her or not.

9. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

STORYLINE

Much to his surprise, timid Joel Barish is shocked to discover that the love of his life, sparky Clementine, has had him erased from her memory. As a result, hurt and angry, Joel wants to pay her back in the same coin, going as far as to undergo a painless but intricate medical procedure to do the same. However, poor Joel is utterly unaware that darkness is an essential part of the light. And as the once-cherished recollections of Clementine gradually fade away, giving way to a soulless black void, something unexpected happens. Now Joel has second thoughts, toying with the idea of stopping the irreversible process. Who said ignorance is bliss?

FAVORITE QUOTE

Why do I fall in love with every woman I see who shows me the least bit of attention?

8. Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)

STORYLINE

Peter is a composer and a likable sad sack who’s devastated when his girlfriend of five years, Sarah Marshall, the star of a cheesy CSI-style crime show, dumps him. He weeps, he rails, he mopes. Finally, his step-brother Brian suggests a vacation, so Peter heads for a resort on Oahu where, as he’s checking in, he sees Sarah and her new beau, Aldous, a perverse English rocker. The weeping and moping start again, until Peter is rescued by Rachel, a thoughtful hotel clerk who invites him to a luau and to hang out. Although he constantly runs into Sarah and Aldous, Peter starts to come alive again. Will Sarah realize what she’s lost, and what about Rachel?

FAVORITE QUOTE

It’s getting kind of hard to believe
Things are going to get better
I’ve been drowning too long
To believe that the tide’s going to turn
And I’ve been living too hard to believe
Things are going to get easier now
I’m still trying to shake off the pain
From the lessons I’ve learned
And if I see Van Helsing
I swear to the Lord I will slay him
A-ha-ha-haa!
He take you from me
But I swear I won’t let it be so
A-ha-ha-haa!
Blood will run down his face
When he is decapitated, ah
His head on my mantle is how
I will let this world know
How much I love you
Die, die, die
I can’t

7. Sabrina (1954)

STORYLINE

Linus and David Larrabee are the two sons of a very wealthy family. Linus is all work — busily running the family corporate empire with no time for a wife and family. David is all play — technically employed in the family business but never showing up for work, spending all his time entertaining, and having been married and divorced three times. Sabrina Fairchild is the young, shy, and awkward daughter of the household chauffeur, who has been infatuated with David all her life, but whom David hardly notices till she goes away to Paris for two years and returns an elegant, sophisticated, beautiful woman. Suddenly, she finds she’s captured David’s attention, but just as she does so, she finds herself also falling in love with Linus, and she finds that Linus is also falling in love with her

FAVORIE QUOTE

It wouldn’t have worked out really, darling. The papers and everybody else would’ve said how fine and democratic for a Larrabee to marry a chauffeur’s daughter, but would they praise the chauffeur’s daughter? No. Democracy can be a wickedly unfair thing, Sabrina. Nobody poor was ever called democratic for marrying somebody rich.

6. High Fidelity (2000)

STORYLINE

Thirty-something Rob Gordon, a former club DJ, owns a not-so-lucrative used record store in Chicago. He not so much employs Barry and Dick, but rather keeps them around as they showed up at the store one day and never left. All three are vinyl and music snobs, but in different ways. Rob has a penchant for compiling top-five lists. The latest of these lists is his top-five break-ups, it spurred by the fact that his latest girlfriend, Laura, a lawyer, has just broken up with him. He believed that Laura would be the one who would last, partly as an expectation of where he would be at this stage in his life. Rob admits that there have been a few incidents in their relationship which in and of themselves could be grounds for her to want to break up. To his satisfaction, Laura is not on this top-five list. Rob feels a need not only to review the five relationships, which go back as far as middle school when he was 12, and try to come to terms with why the woman, or girl as the case may be, left him, but also, in the words of Charlie Nicholson, number four on the list, “what it all means” for why he has ended up where he is, which is nowhere, personally or professionally, close to what he envisioned. He also has to come to terms with what it means that Laura has moved on to Ian Raymond, a man for whom neither had any respect when they were together.

Favorite Quote:

“What came first, the music or the misery? People worry about kids playing with guns, or watching violent videos, that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands of songs about heartbreak, rejection, pain, misery and loss. Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?”

5. 10 Things I Hate About You (1999)

STORYLINE

Adapted from William Shakespeare’s play “The Taming of the Shrew,” 10 Things I Hate About You starts off with Cameron, new student at Padua High, sitting in the office of the quirky guidance counselor Ms. Perky. He is then shown around the school by Michael, who will become his best friend. During his tour is when Cameron first sees Bianca Stratford, a beautiful sophomore with one problem: she isn’t allowed to date. And neither is her “shrew” sister, Katarina, a senior who loves indie rock and feminist prose and hates conformity. But Kat and Bianca’s father alters his house rule: now, Bianca can date… as long as Kat has a date, too. Now, in order for Cameron to date Bianca, he has to find someone to date Kat. So Michael helps him enlist the help of pretty-boy/jerk/model Joey Donner, tricking him into thinking that *he* will get to take Bianca out if he pays someone to take out Kat. His choice: Patrick Verona, a bad-boy with a mysterious reputation–some say he ate a live duck once, others that he lit a state trooper on fire, and even more claim that he had a brief porn career. Will Patrick win Kat’s heart? Will Cameron win Bianca’s? Or will everything hit the fan…?

FAVORITE QUOTE

I hate the way you talk to me and the way you cut your
hair. I hate the way you drive my car. I hate it when you
stare; I hate your big dumb combat boots and the way
you read my mind. I hate you so much it makes me sick;
it even makes me rhyme. I hate the way you’re always
right. I hate it when you lie. I hate it when you make me
laugh, even worse when you make me cry. I hate it that
you’re not around. And the fact that you didn’t call. But
mostly I hate the way I don’t hate you, not even close,
not even a little bit, not even at all.

4. Juno (2007)

STORYLINE

A tale told over four seasons, starting in autumn when Juno, a 16-year-old high-school junior in Minnesota, discovers she’s pregnant after one event in a chair with her best friend, Bleeker. In the waiting room of an abortion clinic, the quirky and whip-sharp Juno decides to give birth and to place the child with an adoptive couple. She finds one in the PennySaver personals, contacts them, tells her dad and step-mother, and carries on with school. The chosen parents, upscale yuppies (one of whom is cool and laid back, the other meticulous and uptight), meet Juno, sign papers, and the year unfolds. Will Juno’s plan work, can she improvise, and what about Bleeker?

FAVORITE QUOTE

Look, in my opinion, the best thing you can do is find a person who loves you for exactly what you are. Good mood, bad mood, ugly, pretty, handsome, what have you, the right person is still going to think the sun shines out your ass. That’s the kind of person that’s worth sticking with.

3. The Princess Bride (1987)

STORYLINE

An elderly man reads the book “The Princess Bride” to his sick and thus currently bedridden adolescent grandson, the reading of the book which has been passed down within the family for generations. The grandson is sure he won’t like the story, with a romance at its core, he prefers something with lots of action and “no kissing”, but he lets grandfather continue, because he doesn’t want to hurt his feelings. The story centers on Buttercup, a former farm girl who has been chosen as the princess bride to Prince Humperdinck of Florian. Buttercup does not love him, she who still laments the death of her one true love, Westley, five years ago. Westley was a hired hand on the farm, his stock answer of “as you wish” to any request she made of him which she came to understand was his way of saying that he loved her. But Westley went away to sea, only to be killed by the Dread Pirate Roberts. On a horse ride to clear her mind of her upcoming predicament of marriage, Buttercup is kidnapped by a band of bandits: Vizzini who works on his wits, and his two associates, a giant named Fezzik who works on his brawn, and a Spaniard named Inigo Montoya, who has trained himself his entire life to be an expert swordsman. They in turn are chased by the Dread Pirate Roberts himself. But chasing them all is the Prince, and his men led by Count Tyrone Rugen. What happens to these collectives is dependent partly on Buttercup, who does not want to marry the Prince, and may see other options as lesser evils, and partly on the other motives of individuals within the groups. But a larger question is what the grandson will think of the story as it proceeds and at its end, especially as he sees justice as high a priority as action.

FAVORITE QUOTE

There’s a shortage of perfect breasts in this world. It would be a pity to damage yours.

2. 500 Days of Summer (2009)

STORYLINE

After it looks as if she’s left his life for good this time, Tom Hansen reflects back on the just over one year that he knew Summer Finn. For Tom, it was love at first sight when she walked into the greeting card company where he worked, she the new administrative assistant. Soon, Tom knew that Summer was the woman with whom he wanted to spend the rest of his life. Although Summer did not believe in relationships or boyfriends – in her assertion, real life will always ultimately get in the way – Tom and Summer became more than just friends. Through the trials and tribulations of Tom and Summer’s so-called relationship, Tom could always count on the advice of his two best friends, McKenzie and Paul. However, it is Tom’s adolescent sister, Rachel, who is his voice of reason. After all is said and done, Tom is the one who ultimately has to make the choice to listen or not

FAVORITE QUOTE

If somebody gave me this card, Mr. Vance, I would eat it. It’s these cards, and the movies and the pop songs, they’re to blame for all the lies and the heartache, everything. We’re responsible. *I’m responsible.* I think we do a bad thing here. People should be able to say how they feel, how they really feel, not you know, some words that some stranger put in their mouths. Words like “love”… that don’t mean anything. Sorry, I’m sorry. I, uh… I quit. I’m… There’s enough bullshit in the world without my help.

1. The Philadelphia Story (1940)

STORYLINE

Philadelphia socialites Tracy Lord and C.K. Dexter Haven married impulsively; their marriage and subsequent divorce are equally passionate. They broke up when Dexter’s drinking, a mechanism to cope with Tracy’s unforgiving manner toward Dexter’s imperfections, became excessive. Two years after their break-up, Tracy is about to remarry in a ceremony at her family’s mansion. Her new bridegroom is nouveau-riche businessman and aspiring politician George Kittredge, who is otherwise an ordinary man who idolizes Tracy. The day before the wedding, three unexpected guests show up at the Lord mansion: Macaulay Connor (Mike to his friends) and Elizabeth Imbrie–both friends of Tracy’s absent brother Junius–and Dexter. He works for the tabloid Spy magazine and made a deal with its publisher and editor Sidney Kidd to get a story on Tracy’s wedding–the wedding of the year–in return for Kidd not publishing a salacious story with accompanying photographs of Tracy’s father, Seth Lord, with New York showgirl Tina Marra. In reality, Mike and Liz are the reporter and photographer for Spy. Mike and Liz don’t particularly like this assignment or working for Kidd, but their chosen other fields as serious writer and painter don’t pay the bills. A suspicious Tracy is onto them, and when Dexter admits the truth, she decides to turn the tables on Mike and Liz. But hours before the wedding, as the more self-assured Dexter and Liz get to work on how to get the Lords out from under Spy’s threats, Tracy and Mike, both inebriated, go on a journey of self-discovery with Tracy ultimately coming to her realizations a little faster than Mike.

FAVORITE QUOTE

The time to make up your mind about people is never.

The storylines were taken from the Internet Movie Database.

Anyways, Happy Valentine’s Day.

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Now we got that Valentine’s Day stuff behind us, time to share a collection of drone pictures I took of Lower Ledges back in October.

Sometimes I forget how lucky I am to live so close to such a beautiful little slice of nature in Ledges State Park.

Boone FUMC, Flowers, Holidays, Iowa State, Naima, Nature, Still Life, WPC - Alternate

I Read All of Your Self-Help Books

February 11, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

Hammering away at the backlog. This is a collection of pictures I took in April that never really had a place in previous “An Artist’s Notebook” post. Some of these pictures were taken for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE, but not used. Some are from Easter. Enjoy!

Still a few more April images left to curate and share. But none of them involve dropping Mentos into Orange Soda.

Amanda, Angie, Birthdays, Brandon, Dahlia, Greyson, Holidays, Jonah Kahler, K.J., Still Life, Teresa

Christmas 2022

January 24, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

Need to start today off by wishing Angie a happy birthday:

I don’t know I’ve seen Angie in person in years, so that is a picture of her pitching Little White Lye Soap.

I hope your birthday has all the mirth that you desire!

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I had a good Christmas. I got up and went to church, cause it was on a Sunday. Then I went over to Teresa’s house for homemade pizza. We probably made too many pizzas, but since some were experimental, that was okay. Then I went out to Carla and Jason’s for a bit to watch ALIEN. Or at least the beginning of ALIEN.

Here are some pictures from Teresa’s:

Some of these pictures were taken by Logan.

I hope your Christmas is one you still remember fondly.

Andy, Angie, Art, Bill, Brandon, Carla, Cathie, Dawn, Elizabeth, Flowers, Holidays, Joe Duff, Kim, Kio, Linda, Logan, Mary, Micky, Monica, Nathanial, Sara, Sarah Toot, Shannon, Tamara, Teresa, Vest, Willy, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 383 – REFLECTION

January 16, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. It is a holiday that celebrates the the great civil rights leader. If you have never had a chance to visit the Civil Rights Museum that is near where he was assassinated in Memphis, I highly recommend it.

I won’t wish you a “Happy” Martin Luther King Jr. Day, but I do hope that you spend some time today learning more about the civil rights struggle in this country. Cause it is very far from over.

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REFLECTION! A popular photographic technique. But was it a popular WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme? You will have to keep scrolling to find out.

As of 12:01 PM on Monday, January 9, this was the current list of ACTIVE streaks (ignore the numbers in parentheses):

1-Suzie Brannen – 1 week
2-Mike Vest – 1 week
3-Jesse Howard – 2 weeks
4-Sabas Hernandez – 4 weeks
5-Becky Parmelee – 4 weeks
6-Tamara Peterson – 10 weeks
7-Brandon Kahler – 21 weeks
8-Linda Bennett – 24 weeks
9-Sarah Toot – 25 weeks
10-Angie DeWaard – 29 weeks (3)
11-Dawn Krause – 33 weeks
12-Kim Barker – 39 weeks
13-Joe Duff – 40 weeks
14-Logan Kahler – 42 weeks (2)
15-Teresa Kahler – 51 weeks
16-Carla Stensland – 51 weeks (2)
17-Michelle Haupt – 52 weeks
18-Micky Augustin – 53 weeks
19-Andy Sharp – 54 weeks (2)
20-Bill Wentworth – 55 weeks
21-Cathie Morton – 59 weeks
22-Elizabeth Nordeen – 60 weeks
23-Shannon Bardole-Foley – 62 weeks
24-Kio Dettman – 64 weeks

But you didn’t come here to listen to me talk all tommyrot about participation rates or streaks. You came to see the submissions and what streaks continued and what streaks flamed out:

Kio Dettman (Iowa) – 65 weeks

Linda Bennett (Kansas) – 25 weeks

Linda Bennett (Kansas)

Mary Green (Iowa) – 1 week

Mary Green (Iowa)

Nathanial Brown (Iowa) – 1 week

Sarah Toot (Nevada) – 26 weeks

Sarah Toot (Nevada)

Tamara Peterson (Iowa) – 11 weeks

Bill Wentworth (Nebraska) – 56 weeks

Carla Stensland (Iowa) – 52 weeks

Christopher D. Bennett (Iowa)

Elizabeth Nordeen (Iowa) – 61 weeks

Angie DeWaard (Iowa) – 30 weeks

Andy Sharp (Iowa) – 55 weeks

Micky Augustin (Iowa) – 54 weeks

Joe Duff (Texas) – 41 weeks

Logan Kahler (Iowa) – 43 weeks

Logan Kahler (Iowa)

Brandon Kahler (Iowa) – 22 weeks

Willy McAlpine (Iowa) – 1 week

Cathie Morton (Iowa) – 60 weeks

Teresa Kahler (Iowa) – 52 weeks

Teresa Kahler (Iowa)

Kim Barker (Iowa) – 40 weeks

Sara Lockner (Iowa) – 1 week

Dawn Krause (Iowa) – 34 weeks

Shannon Bardole-Foley (Iowa) – 63 weeks

Monica Jennings (Iowa) – 1 week

Mike Vest (Iowa) – 2 weeks

25 participants! That is another solid week!

We had submissions taken in:
+ Iowa
+ Kansas
+ Texas
+ Nebraska
+ Nevada

Nevada was a new one for this year. Making this year’s list:

+ Iowa
+ Kansas
+ Arkansas
+ Texas
+ Pennsylvania
+ Nebraska
+ Nevada

I took my picture in my yard. So once again, I didn’t venture very far.

I’m most excited about a newcomer to THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE. Nathanial Brown! He made his first ever submission! Nathanial is one of the most talented photographers I know. He was a judge the last two Pufferbilly Days Photo Contests and he got 3 photos in the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon.

Remember, you don’t have to be as talented or a professional like Nathanial to participate. Just a love for photography.

There were two huge milestones reached this week. Both Teresa and Carla reached the 52 Week Streak Club! Is it a coincidence that they are sisters? Is it a coincidence that they are my sisters?

But it wasn’t all great news. Suzie couldn’t extender her participation into a 2 week streak. Jesse’s 2 week streak is gone. Sabas’ 4 week streak is gone. Becky’s 4 week streak is gone. And Michelle’s 52 week streak is nothing more than a distant memory.

RED

RED! What a great theme for Year 10 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!

But what is a RED image?

A RED image is simply an image where the subject or a major compositional element of the image is the color RED. That is simple enough!

While considering possible subjects for your RED image, meditate on the following quote and I’m sure you will come up with a great image:

Red is the ultimate cure for sadness.
-Bill Blass

I look forward to seeing your interpretation of RED!

RULES

You can send your images to either bennett@photography139.com OR you may text them to my Pixel 5.

That is it. Thems the rules!

That is all I got, so if the good Lord’s willin’ and the creek don’t rise, we will all be sharing your idea of RED in this place that’s favorite shade of RED is cardinal next Monday.

Art, Automobiles, Baseball/Softball, Basketball, Becca, Black & White, Brandon, Calendar, Christianity, Dad, Flowers, Geri, Gretchen, Holidays, Iowa State, Linda, Logan, Maven, Michelle, Mom, Music, Naima, Night, Photo of the Day, Road Trip, Sara, Self-Portrait, Shawn Lockner, Shorty, Still Life, Teresa, Work

Hello 2023.

January 1, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

It is the first day of 2023. I’m not really a “resolutions” person. Pastor Adam was on vacation today so we had a substitute seromizer in church this morning. He gave an impassioned, longwinded sermon on resolve. It took more than a bit of my resolve to stay awake during the longest sermon these ears have heard in quite sometime.

But if I were to take the words on resolve to heart, I would say that I’m not without goals. Last year my main goal was to complete THE TOWN SIGN PROJECT. I did that.

My main goal in 2023 is to complete Phase 2 of THE TOWN SIGN PROJECT and put the book together. I should be freeing up sometime to work on that buy dropping a couple of photo projects that I did in 2022.

My second goal in 2023 is to begin work and complete my new photo project. Details are still foggy, but it is to create Boone postcard. Not a bunch of Boone postcards. Not even to print up a bunch of one Boone postcard. But to make one big image of one Boone postcard. While the end goal is one image, it will involve taking at least several hundred (probably thousand) images. It will make more sense when I get going on it.

My third goal in 2023 is to keep the positive momentum that was achieved in 2022 in participation rates for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE. I’m not likely to go out and beat the drums looking for participants, but doesn’t mean you guys can’t. Right?

My fourth goal in 2023 is to consider and maybe take action on visiting and photographing every State Park in Iowa.
That seems more straight forward than it actually is because in addition to State Parks there are State Forests and State Preserves and State Recreation Areas. Boone County contains 3 Minor State Forests alone! We will see where this one goes, but we all know I could use the exercise.

I don’t have any goals related to the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon. That type of stuff is a considerable amount of luck. So best not to have goals that are out of one’s hands. Maybe my goal should just be to give my best effort.

Hopefully 2023 is a good year for all of us!

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Time to share the December images for the FatMumSlim Photo A Day Challenge. This is also the final collection of images as I will be dropping this pursuit in 2023. It doesn’t take a lot of time, but it still eats up a fair amount of time. Hopefully time freed up that I can use to pursue some of those 2023 goals.

Here are the December images:

December 1 – I Love This!

December 2 – I Bought This!

December 3 – Starts with T

December 4 – I Held This

December 5 – Something Red

December 6 – Peace

December 7 – Tree

December 8 – Looking Up

December 9 – Small

December 10 – Out + About

December 11 – Free Choice

December 12 – Lights

December 13 – Something Green

December 14 – Decoration

December 15 – A Star

December 16 – Candy Cane

December 17 – A Hat

December 18 – I Made This!

December 19 – Joy Is…

December 20 – Begins with S

December 21 – On the Floor

December 22 – A Gift

December 23 – A Tradition

December 24 – Someone I Love

December 25 – My Day

December 26 – This is Delish

December 27 – Colourful

December 28 – A Book

December 29 – Us

December 30 – How I Relax

December 31 – Best Part of 2022

Top 9 Most Popular Images

I did enjoy this project and I’m not walking away from it because I didn’t enjoy it. I “met” numerous other people in this community that I will continue to follow, like @bea.photoaday, @sara.fms.photoaday, @outnbout, @gerkgirl, @pink_koffie, and @lostfate13.

But there were other things I didn’t like. Most people used the challenge to curate images, rather than take new images every day. The person that ran the challenge is Australian. That meant that a lot of the prompts were seasonal for Australia, meaning they weren’t seasonal for Iowa. Prompts repeated an awful lot. Not that they wouldn’t after 365 days, but I felt like they repeated more than necessary.

These minor complaints aside, I would consider doing it again in a future year. Just not this year. I’m sure many of you have minor complaints about how I run THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE as well.

Alexis, Anders, Andy, Baier, Becky, Bethany, Brandon, Calendar, Colleen, Dawn, Derrick, Elainie, Elizabeth, Holidays, Jason, Jay, Jen, Jesse, Kim, Kio, Michelle, Micky, Nature, Nora, Road Trip, Russell, Sabas, Sara, Scottie D., Self-Portrait, Shannon, Teresa, Willy, WPC - Reminder

Goodbye 2022.

December 31, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett

Happy New Year to those of you sheeple that follow the Gregorian Calendar. I for one, moved to Unix time years ago. So if I have a birthday party this year (Sara wants me to have one, but I doubt it happens) the invites will list the time of the event in Unix Time, like an adult. But I don’t want to tell you what calendar to use.

I think you should look at the options. By the Gregorian Calendar, when this post publishes, it is the year 2022. But there are other calendars.

Here is a list of other calendars and what year it is if you use those calendars:

Hebrew – 5783
Islamic – 1444
Chinese – 4659
Coptic – 1739
Japanese – Reiwa 4
British Regnal – 1 Cha. 3
Buddhist – 2566
Nanakshahi – 554
Hindu – 5123
Juche – 111
Byzantine – 7531
Roman – 2775
Holocene – 12022
Unix Time (like an adult): 1672531199 (roughly)

As you can tell, Unix Time is clearly superior.

Even though I don’t celebrate New Years, I do like to give holiday Power Rankings.

Here are my champagne power rankings:

CHAMPAGNE POWER RANKINGS
10. All champagne is trash.
9. All champagne is trash.
8. All champagne is trash.
7. All champagne is trash.
6. All champagne is trash.
5. All champagne is trash.
4. All champagne is trash.
3. All champagne is trash.
2. All champagne is trash.
1. Champere

So Happy New Years to those who celebrate it. I will have been asleep a couple hours when the bell tolls for 2022. I’m old, lame, and don’t get invited to adult parties.

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Time to reveal the December image for the 2023 Photography 139 Gregorian Calendar:

December

The December image is a picture of the old mill in Independence, Iowa. I took it while harvesting the town signs of Buchanan County for THE TOWN SIGN PROJECT. In retrospect, it isn’t a great image for the brutal colds and snows of December. But it was the last selected image and December was the last month that didn’t have an image. These things tend to sort themselves out.

TECHNICAL DETAILS
CAMERA: Sony ILCE-7M4
DATE: May 28, 2022 – 9:41 AM
LENS: Tamron 17-28 f/2.8
FOCAL LENGTH: 28mm
APERTURE: f/9
EXPOSURE: 1/320
ISO: 100
EXPOSURE BIAS: +.3

I have no calendar images to share tomorrow. Or again until December. If the Photography 139 Calendar exists again in 2024.

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This year when I handed a calendar to somebody I asked them to pick a favorite image. Then I photographed them with their favorite image. I also asked people that I didn’t hand deliver a calendar to to pick a favorite image and then send me a picture of them with that image. Like 3 people did that. So good for them? Not that such treachery might factor in who gets a calendar next year…

I forgot to do this for the attendees of the Westhaven Christmas, so this won’t be held against them. Maybe Nate. I did ask him and he said “No problem” and then never sent me a picture.

Any way here is a collection of, but not comprehensive collection of pictures of people with their favorite pictures from the calendar:

Shannon

Bethany and Nora

Colleen

Also Colleen

Also, also Colleen

Andy

Baier (Jason)

More Baiers (Olivia)

More Baiers (Ben)

More Baiers (Carrie and J.J.)

More Baiers (Will)

Russell

Michelle

Elizabeth

Willy

Micky

Kio

Kim

Brandon

Teresa

Logan

Elainie

Sabas

Johnathan

Jason

Carla

Dawn

Lockners

Gorshes

Scott

Anders

Becky

Alexis

Jesse

Jay

Nader

It is possible more pictures might trickle in, if people I mailed calendars to haven’t received them yet. I think every picture got picked except for January. Poor January. Might try this again next year. We’ll see if the people like it.

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This is your reminder that this week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is BODY PART:

BODY PART

IT IS POSSIBLE I MIGHT ROAD TRIP ON MONDAY. IF I DO, THERE WILL BE NO ADDITIONAL REMINDERS. YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN!!!

BODY PART! What a great final theme for Year 9 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!

But what is a BODY PART image? Simply put, it is a picture where a major compositional element of the image is a BODY PART. Doesn’t have to be your BODY PART. Could be somebody else’s. It could belong to an animal. There are so many BODY PART(s) to choose from! Heads. Shoulders. Knees. Toes. Just to name a few.

Happy photo harvesting!

Art, Black & White, Calendar, Cathie, Elizabeth, Event, Flat Earth Joe, Holidays, Jesse, Kim, Michelle, Micky, Work

Computer Mine Holiday Party

December 30, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett

It is time for me to reveal the November image of the 2023 Photography 139 Calendar:

November

The November image is a picture of the Tin Man sculpture in Stanley, Iowa. In retrospect, it does feel a little strange that I chose to process this image in black and white when the Tin Man is only in the color portion of THE WIZARD OF OZ. But I do love processing the decrepit in black & white because black & white photography shows off the textures so much better. I chose November for this image as November is when Olivia’s birthday is and THE WIZARD OF OZ was her favorite movie.

TECHNICAL DETAILS
CAMERA: Sony ILCE-7M2
DATE: May 28, 2022 – 11:03 AM
LENS: Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8
FOCAL LENGTH: 75mm
APERTURE: f/9
EXPOSURE: 1/250
ISO: 100
EXPOSURE BIAS: +1.0

Tomorrow I will reveal the December image for the 2023 Photography 139 Calendar.

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Last week we had a mini office party for the few people that actually work in the physical computer mine. I was tasked (sorta) for taking some pictures of the even for the computer mine socials.

Here are a few of my favorites: