Category Archives: Life

Iowa State Fair – 2018 – DNR

There are now 5 days left to vote for what pictures I will enter in the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest.

If it is too much for you to take on all 6 polls at once, you can vote in the Photojournalism poll below. At this point, there is a clear cut Photojournalism front-runner.

Photojournalism

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If you want to vote in all 6 polls, click on the link below:

Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest Poll

Thanks for your assistance!

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Since today is the opening day of the Iowa State Fair, you should remember that I do have one picture on display at the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon. You should go check it out!

I also figured that today would be a good day to publish pictures from last year’s trip to the Iowa State Fair with Jesse and Nader. This is collection is from the DNR Building. The DNR Building is probably my 2nd or 3rd favorite building to visit at the Iowa State Fair.

Iowa State Fair - 2018

Iowa State Fair - 2018

Iowa State Fair - 2018

Iowa State Fair - 2018

Iowa State Fair - 2018

Iowa State Fair - 2018

Iowa State Fair - 2018

Iowa State Fair - 2018

Iowa State Fair - 2018

Iowa State Fair - 2018

Iowa State Fair - 2018

Iowa State Fair - 2018

Iowa State Fair - 2018

Iowa State Fair - 2018

Iowa State Fair - 2018

Iowa State Fair - 2018

Iowa State Fair - 2018

Iowa State Fair - 2018

Plenty more from last year’s Iowa State Fair in the backlog!

Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest Voting

It is time once again for you to help select my entries to the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest.

Polls will close next Tuesday.

All you have to do is vote in each of the 6 polls below:

Photoshop

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Photojournalism

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Nature – Flower

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Nature – Misc.

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Hidden Treasures of Boone County – Group 1

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Hidden Treasures of Boone County – Group 2

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Thanks for voting!

A Photo Journal – Page 73

A week or so ago the largest steam engine in the world pulled into Boone and spent the night. I wasn’t able to get a lot of great pictures of it because of its location and my work schedule at the computer mine. However, I was able to get a picture for Page 73 of THE PHOTO JOURNAL PROJECT.


Photo Journal - Page 73
Page 73 – Turn form into rhythm.

The idea of this photo page is to take a picture concentrating on the shapes that make up an object, rather than the object itself.

I can only physically adhere one picture into the physical THE PHOTO JOURNAL, but I did take a few other pictures:


Photo Journal - Page 73

Photo Journal - Page 73

Photo Journal - Page 73

Photo Journal - Page 73

Photo Journal - Page 73

Photo Journal - Page 73

Photo Journal - Page 73

Photo Journal - Page 73

Photo Journal - Page 73

These are the pages I still need to photograph:

Page 18 – Shoot the other half of this picture by Jason by Jason Evans. – This is a profoundly stupid page, but I guess I’ll have to bite the bullet and do it at some point.
PAGE 27- Create drama around the edge of your frame.
Page 28 – Recreate a famous photograph without looking it up.
PAGE 31 – Tell a joke with two pictures.
Page 64 – Head out with a fellow photographer and play a game of photography dare.
PAGE 66-67 – Make a sequence of four pictures inspired by the rise and fall of Britney Spears (or another celebrity).
PAGE 101 – Find an object, close your eyes and compose your shot using touch rather than vision.
Page 106-107 – Email one of your pictures to your photography hero and ask them what they hate about it.
PAGE 116 – Shoot an advert where the image says it all without need for any additional copy.
Page 117 – Freeze the frame exactly 57 minutes and 32 seconds in to your favourite film. Take a picture inspired by what you see.
PAGE 121 – Show us that photography is a form of magic.
Page 123 – Don’t take any more photographs -none- until you see something that emotionally moves you. Only then pick up your camera.

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Here is your reminder that this week’s theme for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE is BLACK & WHITE:


WEEK 202 - BLACK & WHITE
BLACK & WHTIE

A BLACK & WHITE picture can be of any subject, as long as it is a BLACK & WHITE picture.

Happy photo harvesting!

Town Sign Project – Vol. 10

After parting ways with the Howards in Van Meter after lunch after Larry’s graveside service, I decided to just kind of meander back to Boone and do a little town sign hunting for THE TOWN SIGN PROJECT.

We left Grover Flavors about 4 PM, which was considerably later than I thought, so I didn’t make as large of a loop back to Boone as I had expected. However, I consider any town sign hunting trip to be a success if I harvest 5 signs. On this trip, I harvested 7!


Linden, Iowa
Linden, Iowa – Pride of “Panther” Country

Panora, Iowa
Panora, Iowa – Welcome to Panora and Lake Panorama

Scranton, Iowa
Scranton, Iowa – Scranton Welcomes You!

Redfield, Iowa
Redfield, Iowa

Yale, Iowa
Yale, Iowa – Not the Biggest, But the Best

Bagley, Iowa
Bagley, Iowa – Welcome to Bagley

Bayard, Iowa
Bayard, Iowa – Welcome to Bayard

That is all the town sign hunting I have done lately. However, I’m considering taking August 2 off from work to do some train chasing. If that goes down, I’ll probably do some sign hunting as well. I got to see where I stand with my PTO situation.

Baby Got Rack Takes the Boone County Fair

Last Saturday was the annual Boone County Fair barbecue contest. Baby Got Rack decided to take a different tact this time. Rather than entering the pizza, we decided to enter something new. Meatloaf Cupcakes. This was a big risk just based on the fact that the pizza was a surefire winner.

However, Scottie D. had become bored with winning with the same item over and over and over and over again.

The other risk we decided was to enter pork ribs. Pork is easily the most popular category and hardest to win.

One last risk Baby Got Rack decided to take was to do little to no planning. Scottie D. thought that certain things would just take care of themselves. It turns out that Melissa does those things for Scottie D and she was in the horrible place known as Nebraska on Friday night. So things didn’t get taken care of.

Baby Got Rack stumbled out the starting blocks. We didn’t get our desired spot on the end. We didn’t have any of our stuff prepared. So Scottie D. dropped Hammer and I off at the fairgrounds to get everything setup and get the fire going. He went back home and worked on getting food prep done.

It all worked out because Baby Got Rack walked out of the Boone County Fair with 2 big victories. We won best Specialty AND more importantly Best Overall. Both for the Meatloaf Cupcakes.

This means that Baby Got Rack will be competing at the Iowa State Fair again. So if you go to the Fair on Tuesday, August 13 in the morning, look us up. We will be in the Grand Concourse.

Here are some pictures from what ended up being a humid, wet, and victorious day!


Baby Got Rack - 2019

Baby Got Rack - 2019

Baby Got Rack - 2019

Baby Got Rack - 2019

Baby Got Rack - 2019

Baby Got Rack - 2019

Baby Got Rack - 2019

Baby Got Rack - 2019

Baby Got Rack - 2019

Baby Got Rack - 2019

Baby Got Rack - 2019

Baby Got Rack - 2019

Baby Got Rack - 2019

Baby Got Rack - 2019

Baby Got Rack - 2019

Baby Got Rack - 2019

Baby Got Rack - 2019

Baby Got Rack - 2019

Baby Got Rack - 2019

Baby Got Rack - 2019

Baby Got Rack - 2019

Baby Got Rack - 2019

Baby Got Rack - 2019

Baby Got Rack - 2019

Baby Got Rack - 2019

Baby Got Rack - 2019

Baby Got Rack - 2019

Baby Got Rack - 2019

Baby Got Rack - 2019

Baby Got Rack - 2019

Baby Got Rack - 2019

Baby Got Rack - 2019

Baby Got Rack - 2019

Baby Got Rack - 2019

Baby Got Rack - 2019

Baby Got Rack - 2019

Baby Got Rack - 2019

Baby Got Rack - 2019

Baby Got Rack - 2019

Last year we won the specialty category at the Iowa State Fair. Here is hoping for a repeat!

WPC – WEEK 201 – ANGER

I thought for sure that this week would not be a double digit week, but it was! The 4th straight week! That makes me happy that so many of you found your ANGER, which I consider to be one of the hardest them of this set of 52.

A note, if you have an idea for a theme for the next set of 52, leave it in the Comments section of this here blog.

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


WEEK 201 - ANGER - ANDY SHARP
Andy Sharp

WEEK 201 - ANGER - ANDY SHARP
Andy Sharp

WEEK 201 - ANGER - ANDY SHARP
Andy Sharp

WEEK 201 - ANGER -MONICA HENNING
Monica Henning

WEEK 201 - ANGER -KIM BARKER
Kim Barker

WEEK 201 - ANGER -KIM BARKER
Kim Barker

WEEK 201 - ANGER - CHRISTOPHER D. BENNETT
Christopher D. Bennett

WEEK 201 - ANGER - MICKY AUGUSTIN
Micky Augustin

WEEK 201 - ANGER - MICHELLE HAUPT
Michelle Haupt

WEEK 201 - ANGER - SHANNON BARDOLE-FOLEY
Shannon Bardole-Foley

WEEK 201 - ANGER - STEPHANIE KIM
Stephanie Kim

WEEK 201 - ANGER - TAMARA PETERSON
Tamara Peterson

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:


WEEK 202 - BLACK & WHITE
BLACK & WHITE

BLACK & WHITE! What a great theme! This is the closest you get to a wild card theme. You can literally take a picture of anything, and as long as that picture is in BLACK & WHITE, it qualifies for this theme.

You may have to do some editing after you take the picture, but a lot of digital cameras have a BLACK & WHITE setting.

This is my favorite theme, so I definitely look forward to 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.

OR

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 monochrome Monday!

Boone County Fair Photography Contest Results

Now that the Boone County Fair is winding down and my collection of Boone County Fair Photography Contest entries are bagged up and safely stowed in one of the now TWO trunks that archive my past photo contest entries, I can release the results to the general public that didn’t make it to the Boone County Fair this year. A fair that I can safely say if Family-Friendly Fun & Entertainment, Right here in Central Iowa! I would dare say that this year’s fair was “Picture Perfect”.

Here are my submissions, along with who selected them for entry and the result:


Boone County Fair Photo Contest Entry
Purple Ribbon – Logan Kahler

Boone County Fair Photo Contest Entry
Blue Ribbon – Michelle Haupt

Boone County Fair Photo Contest Entry
Red Ribbon – Monica Henning

Boone County Fair Photo Contest Entry
Blue Ribbon – Jesse Howard

Boone County Fair - 2019
Purple Ribbon – Shannon Bardole-Foley

A reminder that I do have one picture that will be displayed at the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon. I don’t know what it is, but I will find out at the Photographer Reception here in a couple weeks. I’ll release that photo at the conclusion of the Iowa State Fair on August 18.

There is still good seats available to join me at the Iowa State Fair on August 18. But they are filling up fast!

As for the last photo contest I enter this year, the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest. I will again be selecting my entries by poll. I will be putting that poll together in the next couple of weeks. So stay tuned to this station. Information will be forthcoming!

A Photo Journal – Page 16

REMINDER that starting tomorrow, my 5 entries for the Boone County Fair should be on display. They usually put them out about noon. They will be displayed in the Community Building.

Thanks to:

Logan Kahler
Jesse Howard
Michelle Haupt
Shannon Bardole-Foley
Monica Henning

For selecting the 5 entries.

Special thanks to Stephanie Kim who volunteered to pick a photo, but I think took it too seriously and ran out of time.

Plus thanks to Jodie Cue who volunteered to be an alternate.

Soon I’ll begin the process of selecting photos for the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest. Keep your eyes peeled to this website for details!

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Last Friday I took off work early to go down to Van Meter to the military cemetery to join the Howards for Larry Howard’s graveside service. It isn’t the type of event where I take a camera or ever think about taking pictures. I’m not altogether comfortable taking pictures at a funeral, but this is, strangely, the second time that I’ve done such a thing.

However, after I arrived I was asked to take some pictures, so I did. I don’t know that I’ll share those, but we’ll see. After the service was over I wandered around the cemetery looking around. It was there that I stumbled across the perfect subject for Page 16 of THE PHOTO JOURNAL PROJECT.


Photo Journal - Page 16
Page 16 – Photograph the last thing that made you laugh.

With Page 16 put to rest, here are the following pages that I still need to photograph:

Page 18 – Shoot the other half of this picture by Jason by Jason Evans. – This is profoundly stupid page, but I guess I’ll have to bite the bullet and do it at some point.
PAGE 27- Create drama around the edge of your frame.
Page 28 – Recreate a famous photograph without looking it up.
PAGE 31 – Tell a joke with two pictures.
Page 64 – Head out with a fellow photographer and play a game of photography dare.
PAGE 66-67 – Make a sequence of four pictures inspired by the rise and fall of Britney Spears (or another celebrity).
Page 73 – Turn form into rhythm.
PAGE 101 – Find an object, close your eyes and compse your shot using touch rather than vision.
Page 106-107 – Email one of your pictures to your photography hero and ask them what they hate about it.
PAGE 116 – Shoot an advert where the image says it all without need for any additional copy.
Page 117 – Freeze the frame exactly 57 minutes and 32 seconds in to your favourite film. Take a picture inspired by what you see.
PAGE 121 – Show us that photography is a form of magic.
Page 123 – Don’t take any more photographs -none- until you see something that emotionally moves you. Only then pick up your camera.

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The Boone County Fair is going down right now, which means tomorrow is the annual barbecue/grill-out competition. Baby Got Rack will once again be there competing!


Baby Got Rack - Boone County Fair 2018
BABY GOT RACK!

If you are around the fair, go ahead and stop by and say hello. It is going to be a brutally hot one so you might want to check to see if we are still conscious.

We are taking a completely different set of recipes than we normally do, so we’ll see how it turns out. Baby Got Rack is nothing, but risk takers!

Hopefully it pays off and we qualify for the Iowa State Fair, but if it doesn’t, we will have no regrets!

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This is your reminder that this week’s WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is ANGER.


WEEK 201 - ANGER

An ANGER photo is any photo of somebody thit is ANGERy or something that makes you ANGERy.

Happy photo harvesting!

Town Sign Project Vol. 9

When I went on my birthday road trip with Jesse back in May, I used the trip to Decorah as a chance to do some sign hunting for THE TOWN SIGN PROJECT. This was the first time that I had hunted for signs this year. I thought I would have made more progress than that by now, but I have hunted in most of the areas immediately surrounding Boone, so now I have to expand my hunting grounds.

Here are the signs I harvested on that day:


Dumont, Iowa
Dumont, Iowa – Small Town Big Heart

Fort Atkinson, Iowa
Fort Atkinson, Iowa

Hampton, Iowa
Hampton, Iowa – The Heart of Franklin County

Ionia, Iowa
Ionia, Iowa – The Little Town with a “Big Welcome”

Rowan, Iowa
Rowan, Iowa

Latimer, Iowa
Latimer, Iowa – A Progressive Community

St. Lucas, Iowa
St. Lucas, Iowa

Allison, Iowa
Allison, Iowa

Blairsburg, Iowa
Blairsburg, Iowa

Calmar, Iowa
Calmar, Iowa

Decorah, Iowa
Decorah, Iowa

Coulter, Iowa
Coulter, Iowa – A Nice Place to Call Home – Population 282

I have actually went sign hunting since then. I’ll publish that harvest soon.

A Photo Journal – Page 36

A week ago I went to my mailbox and found the results sheet from the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon sitting in my mailbox waiting for me.

The Iowa State Fair Photography Salon is one of the most prestigious and hardest photo contests in the state. I usually count myself lucky if I get one picture accepted. There have been plenty of years where I have been shutout. It is always with low expectations when I grab the yellow card out of my mailbox and take a look at it:



It would appear that I got one picture accepted and that picture got an award. That is nice. If you pushed me on it, I would probably rather get multiple pictures in rather than an award, however an award comes with a cash prize, so that is nice.

I don’t know what picture got accepted, but I guess this gives you a reason to go to the Iowa State Fair. I will find out when I go to the Photographer’s Reception in early August.

Since I can’t pick up my pictures until the last day of the fair, it looks like I will be going to the fair on the last day again. If you would like to attend with me, let me know. I usually hit the fair about 11 AM on that day. Leave after 10 PM, so this isn’t a trip to be considered lightly. And if you are a woman, for God’s sake, wear sensible shoes!

Unfortunately, there is no badass band like Here Come the Mummies playing on the last day of the fair this year. However, Nelson will be taking the stage at 8 PM that night. Although I confess, I’ll probably try to make my way to the Bill Riley Stage at 8 PM to see Unspoken. They are a Christian rock band.

Looks like all the hands that were in the air to join me at the fair just went down when the bodies they were attached to read the words “Christian rock”. I’m telling you, Unspoken is a solid band and you would probably love the song “Who You Are” and more than enjoy the tune “Reason”. If you don’t like “Start A Fire”, I think you probably just have terrible taste in music.

Hit me up on the horn or the Snapchat or the Insta or the Tweets or the emails if you are interested.

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The other Sunday Brandon joined us for our post-church feeding. I have had my eye on Brandon for awhile now as the model for Page 36 of THE PHOTO JOURNAL PROJECT. I used this chance to get him to come over so we could get Page 36 knocked out.


Photo Journal - Page 36
Page 36 – Use shutter speed to capture anger.

I took several pictures for Page 36 (including one with a camera inside the aquarium), but only one can be physically adhered into the physical A PHOTO JOURNAL. Here are some of the other pictures I liked, but will only exist in the tunnels of cyberland:


Photo Journal - Page 36

Photo Journal - Page 36

Photo Journal - Page 36

Photo Journal - Page 36

Photo Journal - Page 36

Photo Journal - Page 36

The shutter speed on these pictures is 1/8000th of a second.

This is the list of pages I have left to capture for THE PHOTO JOURNAL PROJECT:

PAGE 16 – Photograph the last thing that made you laugh.
Page 18 – Shoot the other half of this picture by Jason by Jason Evans.
PAGE 27- Create drama around the edge of your frame.
Page 28 – Recreate a famous photograph without looking it up.
PAGE 31 – Tell a joke with two pictures.
Page 64 – Head out with a fellow photographer and play a game of photography dare.
PAGE 66-67 – Make a sequence of four pictures inspired by the rise and fall of Britney Spears (or another celebrity).
Page 73 – Turn form into rhythm.
PAGE 101 – Find an object, close your eyes and compse your shot using touch rather than vision.
Page 106-107 – Email one of your pictures to your photography hero and ask them what they hate about it.
PAGE 116 – Shoot an advert where the image says it all without need for any additional copy.
Page 117 – Freeze the frame exactly 57 minutes and 32 seconds in to your favourite film. Take a picture inspired by what you see.
PAGE 121 – Show us that photography is a form of magic.
Page 123 – Don’t take any more photographs -none- until you see something that emotionally moves you. Only then pick up your camera.

I might be looking for some volunteers to help finish this project off.

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Reminder that this week’s theme for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is SIGNS:


WEEK 200 -SIGNS
SIGNS

A SIGNS picture is any picture that involves a SIGN(S).

Happy photo harvesting!