Category Archives: Animals

Animals, Art, Black & White, Jesse, Personal Photo Project, Sarah Toot, Steph, Travel

Personal Photo Project of the Week #62 – Alpha

April 8, 2011 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

Self Evident Truth

Jesse and I knew that we weren’t spending a ton of time in New York and we were given a few suggestions by Sarah and Steph on places to visit. We both decided to choose one place we had to go see.

Jesse chose Central Park.

I chose the Statue of Liberty. In the 3.5 days that we were in New York City, I took approximately 800 photos. Close to half of those were on our Statue of Liberty adventure.

So here are more pictures from the Self Evident Truth Series:

There will be more pictures from the Self Evident Truth Series tomorrow.

Animals, Art, Black & White, Candid Portrait, Formal Portrait, History, Jesse, Sarah Toot, Travel

More Random NYC – Ellis Island and Financial District

April 6, 2011 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

More random New York City images from the second day of the trip. These pictures were mostly taken on Ellis Island and around the financial district.

Regrettably, I didn’t see one Goldman Sachs piece of garbage to mug.

More random New York City images will be coming your way next Wednesday as well.

Animals, Dawn, Vest, WPC - Submissions

RWPE Y2 #13 – Fast

April 4, 2011 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

Not so many submissions for FAST, but here are the ones that I have:

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Dawn Krause

Christopher D. Bennett

Mike Vest

I’ve been down to the Random Theme Generator’s office and asked it to give me a good theme for this week. It handed over the following:

DRY

I think this is a good theme for a week where the weather is getting nicer, but the Earth hasn’t sprung fully to life. Although I my rhubarb has started to grow and I have a little bit of life in some of my flower beds.

Here is a look back at last year’s submissions for DRY:

DRY – 2010

Hopefully DRY trips the shutter release finger trigger of quite a few people for next Monday.

Animals, Jesse, Music, Sarah Toot, Steph, Street Photography, Travel

Random New York City Images

March 23, 2011 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

Even though I only recently started the tradition of posting movie reviews on Wednesdays, I’m already walking away from that tradition. I want to keep this website about photography as much as possible, so I’m going to start posting my movie reviews on my collective blog:

Robot Monster Bros.

If you were to follow that link, you would not find any movie reviews. You will find an explanation of why I do my movie reviews the way I do. You will also find a posting the 10 Things I Learned in NYC. In the near future, I should have a review of Cedar Rapids up.

Wednesdays now will be more of a random photography day. This way I get more photography on the photography website and more writing on the writing website.

Here are some random pictures from my trip to New York City:

The Carnegie Deli, our first stop after the hotel.

The Melo – That is what I am talking about!

Maybe the best cheesecake of my life.

Central Park

Central Park Horse

Manhattan Skyline from Central Park

Broadway

David Letterman does not amuse me, but this was still kind of cool.

“Don’t want to be an American Idiot. Don’t want a nation under the new media. And can you hear the sound of hysteria? The subliminal mind (fudge) America….”

Want to know what 72 dollars worth of alcohol looks like in NYC? Sarah and Tim are showing it off.

Steph and I after American Idiot

Jesse and I after American Idiot

Amy’s Bread’s Red Velvet Cake. Tim said this would be the best red velvet cake of my life. Shhh…. My Mom’s is better!

Sarah and I outside of Amy’s Bread

More random New York City images will be coming your way next Wednesday and don’t forget to check out the other website for my list of 10 things I learned in NYC.

Animals, Black & White, Vest, WPC - Submissions

RWPE Y2 #9 – Silhouette

March 7, 2011 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

It is a bit disappointing how unpopular SILHOUETTE ended up being. It is perhaps the easiest artistic theme of the bunch. Oh well… here are the submissions for SILHOUETTE.

Mike Vest of Waxen Media

Christopher D. Bennett

I’ve visited the Random Theme Generator and asked it kindly to spit out an inspiration theme for this week. This is what it said to me:

STILL LIFE

A good definition of STILL LIFE photography comes from Wikipedia:

Still life photography is the depiction of inanimate subject matter, most typically a small grouping of objects. Still life photography, more so than other types of photography, such as landscape or portraiture, gives the photographer more leeway in the arrangement of design elements within a composition. The still life photographer makes pictures rather than takes them.

Click the link below to see last year’s STILL LIFE submissions:

2010 STILL LIFE

Hopefully more people have enough still in their life to submit pictures this coming week.

As always, submissions are due to bennett@photography139.com by noon on Monday.

As always there is only one rule: photo must be taken during the week of the theme.

Animals, Contests, Karma

The Archives: Edition Six

March 1, 2011 Christopher D. Bennett

This picture is from backup/Old My Pictures/County Fair 2004

Apparently I must have entered this picture of Karma in the Boone County Fair. This must have been the year before the “Moldy Jam Incident”.

Next week’s folder is: backup/Old My Pictures/County Farm

Anders, Animals, Bill, Faust, History, Jay, Jesse, Movies, Steph

The Archives: Edition Three

February 8, 2011 Christopher D. Bennett

These pictures are from: backup/Old My Pictures/ Animals

In retrospect, I don’t know why I named this folder Animals. There aren’t that many animal pictures in it. I guess I must have considered it witty at the time.

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Kalona

For my 30th Birthday Party, I talked Andy and Jesse into dressing up like Sandmen from Logan’s Run and posing for pictures all over the awe-inspiring beauty of the Iowa State University campus. Jay was the photographer. I really need to watch Logan’s Run again sometime.

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The notorious Black Angel in Iowa City.

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Bill took this picture of Faust at our wedding.

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Tulum

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Kalona, in front of the now defunct Kalona Cupboard.

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The poster for Steph’s Senior Recital.

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Brandon as Henrik Ibsen.

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Lost Lake.

Next week’s look at the archives will be: backup/Old My Pictures/Backgrounds

Still another week before I have to come up with a good excuse for the Beaver Machete Massacre Project.

Animals, Black & White, Boone FUMC, Nature, Personal Photo Project

Personal Photo Project of the Week #52

January 28, 2011 Christopher D. Bennett 5 Comments

Heavenly Peace

Most people have already seen this picture that I took to send as a Christmas e-card. (Just one of the many awesome features of the Photography 139 Galleries!)

I borrowed a hymnal and candle after the early evening Candlelight Service on Christmas Eve and took this picture and returned them during the later service.

Since this isn’t new to many people, here are a couple unrelated bonus pictures:

I’m also excited to report that my new website is almost fully functional. Now it is merely a matter of getting some content and recruiting some more writers. Perhaps there will be a full-fledged announcement in a week or so.

Next week’s Personal Photo Project is the first in a series of pictures that are going to seem somewhat (completely) self-absorbed. Perhaps even worse than my Twitter account. If my greatest influence on myself is me, I’m going to start re-doing some “classic” Christopher D. Bennett images.

The first redux will be Nuclear Library.

Angie, Animals, Art, Becky, Black & White, Personal Photo Project

Personal Photo Project of the Week #46 Beta

December 18, 2010 Christopher D. Bennett 6 Comments

The rest of the I Recommend Pleasant pictures.

Personal Photo Project #46 Alternate - I Recommend Pleasant

I think if you look closely at these pictures, you can see the exact moment where Foster is no long amused.

Something else I am reminded of when I look at these pictures is that I need to invest in another backdrop. I’ve also been considering painting the “studio” area of my basement silver. Mostly because of its light reflective properties and it will look awesome in black and white. I do worry that people will think that I stole the idea from Andy Warhol and I can’t stand Andy Warhol. I can live with it though.

There have been a couple of developments in the world of Foster Q. Bunny.

1. Thanks to Angie, Foster now has an actual cage. Foster was living in a giant rubbermaid container with a screen window on top to prevent escape attempts.
2. My rabbit expert Becky came over and sexed up Foster. Foster is officially a chick rabbit. Good thing Foster is an androgynous name.

Animals, Black & White, Dawn, Personal Photo Project, Shannon

Personal Photo Project of the Week #46 Alpha

December 17, 2010 Christopher D. Bennett 3 Comments

I Recommend Pleasant

There is a long and elaborate story about how this rabbit came into my possession. The details that you need to know are that he was homeless so I opened up my home to him.

To slightly elaborate, I borrowed him from Dawn to photograph. While he was in my care all of his siblings died a horrible parasitic death. So he has kind of de facto became mine.

However, he needed a name. I understand that naming a rabbit is kind of like naming a car or a cat or fish or a washing machine. It is a complete waste of time. But since it easier to just say “Name X” rather than explaining why it is a waste of time to name a rabbit I finally settled on the name Foster Q. Bunny.

I gave him the name Foster to remind him that the people that were supposed to love him rejected him. I never want him to forget that. It will burn inside him and propel him to greatness. The Q. part is from John Q. Public. I want him to be a rabbit of the people. The bunny part is fairly self-evident. Bunny is clearly cuter than rabbit and lepus gives me nightmares because of the epic giant rabbit movie Night of the Lepus.

A special thanks to Shannon for acting as the bunny wrangler on this job.

Here are more pictures from the I Recommend Pleasant Photo Sessions.