Category Archives: Animals

Dear Love, I Miss You Much

April 21, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 4 Comments

I’ve finally hit the point in the backlog where I am emotionally, spiritually, physically, and psychologically prepared to start curating pictures of flowers from the Iowa State Fair.

It is known that one of my favorite places at the Iowa State Fair is the Discovery Garden. I have to spend at least a couple hours there every year. In fact, here is my power rankings of my 5 favorite places at the Iowa State Fair:

#5. The Avenue of the Breeds
#4. Pioneer Hall
#3. Cultural Center
#2. DNR Building
#1. Discovery Garden

#5 is because Shorty used to take his Scottish Highland cows there. #4 is because my parents used to volunteer there. #3 is because that is where the Photography Salon is located and also because the cheapest Pepsi refills are in the courtyard. #2. Is because it is one of my favorite places to photograph. #1 is because it is my favorite place to photograph.

This list is off the top of my head. I’m sure if I considered the list longer, some of these would be shuffled. Others might be added, like the Animal Learning Center, Heritage Village, 4-H Building, or the Big Boar.
However, I’m pretty sure no matter how many times I made the list, the Discovery Garden would almost always be #1.

Here is the first of two collections of flower pictures from the 2019 Iowa State Fair:

The first few pictures were taken inside the Agriculture Building. The rest were taken in the Discovery Garden.

Animals, Holidays, Jay, Kalista, Saydie, Scottie D., Taylan, Tenderloining

2009-10-31

April 18, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

There is a diverse collection of images in the folder 2009-10-31. Some of the pictures are from when I went tenderloining with the Defeneffes to Goldie’s Ice Cream Shoppe in Prairie City. Some are from when I used to have people I actually know trick-or-treat at my house. The rest are from when I was dog sitting Sara’s pooch Jupiter.

Have a look:

Tenderloining at Goldie's Ice Cream Shoppe

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:

Samhain
Jupiter Chronicles
Tenderloining It! 2009

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve Johnathan.

Animals, Naima, WPC - Reminder

Wild Goose Chase

April 17, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

Delving into the 2019 backlog. This is a collection of pictures that span a couple different trips to Dickcissel Park with Naima. Most of the pictures are from the second trip where we encountered a wounded goose.

The goose had been injured some way above its leg. It was out there for a couple more days, but then it was gone. I’d like to think that it recovered enough and eventually flew off. I didn’t find any signs of a struggle or goose remains any way and every time I saw the goose, it was hunkered down in the same location.

While there is a fair chance it eventually became victim of a predator, it did have a pretty good system of working its way out onto the pond on the thin ice. Too thin for a creature that weighed much more than it to get to it.

Here are some pictures:

This is a meaningless statistic, but it is a huge milestone for the backlog. I am now down to two rows of folders to curate!

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A reminder that this week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is EARS:

EARS

An EARS photo is any picture that involves EARS or things that are used by EARS.

Happy photo harvesting!

Animals, Naima, Underwater

Raggle-Taggle

April 16, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

This morning’s post is a collection of some rando photos I took across a couple of days. A couple are of Naima, but most are taken in the Boone County Hospital Pond.

Feels like we are getting down to the nitty-gritty of the 2019 backlog. But there are still some big photo shoots left to curate out there.

Animals, Art, Becca, Bethany, Jonah, State Fair, Street Photography

Minnesota State Fair #3

April 15, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

Here is the final collection of Minnesota State Fair pictures that came from a real camera. This highlight being pictures of Becca and Jonah going down the giant slide. A secondary highlight is the extremely creepy statue right next to the giant slide.

The final place we visited before calling it a day was the “photo contest”. It was actually the biggest disappointment of the fair. There were hardly any photos and they were just mixed in with the rest of the art. Fortunately, the rest of the art contest was actually pretty cool.

I still have one more collection of cruddy cell phone pictures to share. Then we can close the door on the 2019 Minnesota State Fair.

Animals, Art, Becca, Bethany, Jonah, Politics, State Fair, Street Photography

Minnesota State Fair #2

April 14, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

In this second collection of pictures from my trip to the Minnesota State Fair with Bethany, Becca, Jonah, and Shawn, I reveal a picture of the All You Can Drink Milk Stand. It is a good half mile, at least from the famous cookie place.

There are also a couple places that we walked by but couldn’t stop at that I will stop at if a future trip to the Minnesota State Fair is in my future. The butterfly building. The reptile building. Those are tops on the list.

John Deere Powered Ice Cream Machines!

Reminds me of that scene in ELF.

The Governor of Minnesota

247 miles to a better State Fair

Bernie Sanders was there. Must’ve been a big thrill for people from a state that doesn’t have a first in the nation caucus.

This is what overcrowded looks like.

Yes, that is poop.

My actual biggest disappointment in the Minnesota State Fair was the DNR exhibit. It is at least 25 times the size of Iowa’s. Somehow it isn’t as good. But it has great facilities, so there is lots of potential there. Although the fire tower is admittedly pretty badass.

Still more pictures from my trip to the Minnesota State Fair on the way!

Animals, Flowers, Macro

Speed of the Sound of Loneliness

April 8, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

This collection of pictures I took back in October. All of these pictures were taken in my backyard.

I’m down to 3 rows of folders to curate int he 2019 backlog now. That is a completely meaningless statistic to you, but it is pretty big milestone for me.

Animals, Macro, WPC - Reminder

White Anglo Saxon Protestant

March 27, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 4 Comments

You know, I thought that the hatred that some of the men I know, the ones that suffer from toxic masculinity, have for flower pictures was borderline obscene. That was I encountered the irrational hatred of my wasp photography.

They are fascinating, beautiful creatures. Learn to love them. Unless you’re allergic. Then learn to love them from a distance. A good distance.

But for all the haters that never gave a young wasp a chance to shine, I say “Peace” and this is the final set of wasp pictures from 2019. We out!

Drops mic.

Pick mic back up.

Seriously. You know what a bee does when it stings you? Rips out its butthole and dies*.

You know what a wasp does when it stings you? “It says, I’m just getting started son.”

I’ll just close with a joke:

A wasp expert walks into a record shop

He goes to the owner and asks if they have the new edition of wasp sounds 2020.

The record shop owner says that they have it in stock and asks if the wasp expert would like to listen too it before he buys.

The wasp expert agrees and the record is placed on the record player.
The pin goes down and all of a sudden a horrible buzzing noise emits from the machine.

The wasp expert is horrified stating that in all his years of being a wasp expert, he has never heard anything as far from wasp sounds in his life.

The record shop owner looks confused until he notices something.

“Sorry” says the record shop owner, “I was playing it on the bee side!”

Drops mic again.

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This is your reminder that this week’s theme for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE is MUSIC:

MUSIC

A MUSIC photo is any photo of MUSIC being created or played or of anything that might be used to create or play MUSIC.

Happy photo harvesting!

*Yes, I know this is only honey bees.

Animals, Contests, FNSC, Iowa State, Logan, Pufferbilly Days, Suzie

Pufferbilly Days – 2019

March 26, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

I didn’t take a ton of pictures at Pufferbilly Days last year. Probably because there wasn’t a petting zoo. Probably because I didn’t really make more than an appearance at the parade. Probably because there really wasn’t much left by the time Sunday came around.

I did spend 3 days at Pufferbilly Days. Friday night with Willy at FNSC. Saturday I walked around with Suzie and her friend Michelle. On Sunday I went up and took pictures of my Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest entries, and Logan’s.

Here are a few pictures from Pufferbilly Days:

I think I will appreciate Pufferbilly Days a little more this year than in past years.

Animals, Flowers, Macro, Naima, Work

I Always Credit My Enemy

March 25, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

Day 3 of working from home. I thought I was going to talk about how a positive of working from home was how soft my feet are becoming. But I’ll cover that at a later date.

Today’s positive about working from home is that Naima has actually started to hang out in the office. Not a little bit, but more than she ever used to in the past. She has never been a big fan of the office and I’m sure that is because the office is probably the most cluttered, messed up room in my house. However, as I sit in the office way more than normal AND I also start cleaning and sorting and throwing things out in my office, she has broken down and started to hang out there.

On to Day 4…

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These pictures are from my backyard that I took back in August.

Wasps are the best!