After admiring the Frank Gotch Statue, admiring downtown Humboldt, and having a tasty lunch, I headed south on 169 back towards Fort Dodge. But on the way down I stopped at Frank Gotch State Park. Frank Gotch State Park is where the two forks of the Des Moines River combine… Read More »June Road Trip: Back to the Dirty
I don’t usually spend a ton of Friday at the Boone County Fair. Mostly a good chunk of Saturday while assisting or documenting Baby Got Rack or Tall & Meaty competing at the barbecue contest. That gives me more than enough time to look around and see all the things… Read More »Friday at the Boone County Fair
We are at the end of the images from work trip to Philadelphia. Day 6 was the final day and I didn’t take many pictures. It is a day that can go on forever because it is a work day, plus a large chunk of it is just waiting for… Read More »Philadelphia Day 6: End of the Trip
Darling you send meI know you send meDarling you send meHonest you do, honest you doHonest you do, whoa You thrill meI know you, you, you thrill meDarling you, you, you, you thrill meHonest you do At first I thought it was infatuationBut wooh, it’s lasted so longNow I find… Read More »You Send Me
A few weeks back the theme for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE was BLACK & WHITE. I used a picture of Johnny Orr from Hilton Coliseum as my submission, but you are a dang fool if you think that was the only BLACK & WHITE image I took that week. A… Read More »And Looking at the Stars
Today is Valentine’s Day. So I need to wish everyone a Happy Valentine’s Day, whether they celebrate it or not! HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!! I hope your Valentine’s Day was either as amazing as you wanted it to be or sucked way less than you thought it would! Today is Valentine’s… Read More »June Road Trip: Dirty Dodge
Add a little sugar, honeysuckle andA great, big expression of happinessBoy, you couldn’t miss with a dozen rosesSuch would astound youThe joy of children laughing around youThese are the makings of youIt is true, the makings of you The righteous way to goLittle one would knowOr believe if I told… Read More »The Makings of You
As the current regime’s agents are currently murdering people, kidnapping 5 year-olds, gassing 6 month-olds, randomly harassing and attacking people in Minneapolis, I thought I would be a good time to get back to sharing some pictures from some of the pro-democracy rallies I’ve attended. This collection of images is… Read More »No Kings – June – I
I’ve seen the lightAnd I’ve seen the flameAnd I’ve been this way beforeAnd I’m sure to be this way againFor I’ve been refusedAnd I’ve been regainedAnd I’ve sung my song beforeAnd I’m sure to sing my song again Once againFor I’ve been releasedAnd I’ve been regainedAnd I’ve seen your eyes… Read More »I’ve Been This Way Before
Now that I’ve revealed all of the 2026 Photography Calendar I’m going to put together a super long post. I’m not joking, this is a SUPER long post. You might want to stretch out your scrolling finger before diving in to this one. Normally I might make this into 2… Read More »Let’s Talk 2026 Calendar!
Time to reveal the September image for the 2026 Photography 139 Calendar. SEPTEMBER – 2026 The subject of the September image was Virgil the Owl. Virgil took up residence in a tree outside of Lagomarcino on the Iowa State campus this spring. So fortunately this owl was an easy owl… Read More »Des Moining II
Time to reveal the August image for the 2026 Photography 139 Calendar. AUGUST – 2026 The subject of the August is a baby pig snoozing away at the Iowa State Fair. I have so many favorite parts of the Iowa State Fair and can’t wait until I actually get to… Read More »Philadelphia Day 2: The End
EDITOR’S NOTE: i DID SOME WEIRD FORMATTING THAT MIGHT LOOK REALLY WEIRD IF YOU ARE LOOKING AT THIS VIA EMAIL. YOU MIGHT HAVE TO GO TO THE WEBSITE TO SEE THIS POST PROPERLY. Time to reveal the June image for the 2026 Photography 139 Calendar. JUNE – 2026 The subject… Read More »Weekly Photo Challenge Year 12 in Review
Time to reveal the Mach image for the 2026 Photography 139 Calendar. MARCH – 2026 Technical Details This picture is the ocean view looking back from the ocean view of the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland. If I was forced to pick my favorite part of the Ireland trip, I… Read More »State Fairin’: Trip 1
Time to reveal the February image for the 2026 Photography 139 Calendar. FEBRUARY – 2026 Technical Details The subject for the February image is a macro image of an ant on top of a peony in my backyard. I probably took hundreds of images of ants on my peonies before… Read More »A Long Goodbye
After getting back from the City Hall area I wander around the Reading Terminal for a bit and then eventually met up with Lowell and we did something super touristy. I say that without shame, but with pride. I’ve always wanted to ride one of those double decker tour buses,… Read More »Philadelphia Day 2: Bus Tour
It is something I’d like to say I do every year, but I don’t. But I’m going to try this year. And that thing is to light a candle every Sunday during Advent Season. A virtual candle. Yes, but still a candle. So this week we are lighting the Peace… Read More »Big Pizza Pie: Decorah Field Work
Can you believe that this is the 5,750th entry in the blog known as “An Artist’s Notebook”? Every 250 posts or so I like to take a moment to reflect on where this post has been and post a lot of meaningless stats. As always on these posts, I like… Read More »Post 5,750
Back on April 19, I had a big photography day. I went to Pella to do a little tulip flowertography. And I closed out the day at Iowa State University taking pictures of Virgil, the owl living in the Lagomarcino courtyard. But in between those two photo sessions, I went… Read More »Mutual Aid Rally I
THE WINDOW FOR SUGGESTIONS FOR NEXT YEAR’S THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE HAS CLOSED. So many great suggestions, it will be hard to winnow the list down to 52. Here is the list of suggestions: Angie DeWaard Lowell Davis Deb Powers Shannon Bardole-Foley Joe Duff Alexis Stensland Scott Degeneffe Andy Sharp… Read More »WPC – WEEK 530 – ANIMAL
One time I went overseasWith a woman I know too deepI live and breathe to hold her inI love to hear her speakWe went to people’s partiesAnd we haunted her old hometownWe rambled into restaurantsTracking her old friends down They all knew the magic numberThe weather, the kids, TVBut this… Read More »A Woman Oversees