This collection of glorious BLACK & WHITE images i took on July 6. I had a fairly lazy Saturday. I took a mini-road trip over to Jefferson for some A&W and had Jay, Willy, Monica, and Graham over for watermelon. But that was about all I did all day.
This was Shorty & Doris’ farm.
Only 1 day of alternate glorious BLACK & WHITE images left to share, but it might take several days to share them all. We’ll see.
It had been a moment since I had been to the Madrid Labor Day Festival, so last year Teresa and I went down there to check it out. It was the day of their car show, which is enormous! Even a guy like me that really isn’t in to cars all that much was really blown away by how large it is. But let’s face it, I was really just there for the food.
Here are some pictures:
I’ll probably hit the Labor Day Festival up again this year. I’m a sucker for any place that has food trucks.
I woke up in the hotel in Normal, Illinois at about my normal time 5:45 AM or so. I packed up the tremendous amount of stuff I lugged into the hotel. A suitcase. A laptop. A CPAP. A camera bag. My ledger. Probably some other stuff as well. I figured nobody else would be up, so I hit the shower. Felt pretty dang good for a hotel shower. Much better than the whore’s bath.
Clean. Smelling good (in my humble opinion), I went down to check out the continental breakfast. We stayed at a Comfort Suites which is right in my hotel sweet spot. I like hotels that are “expensive” enough to have amenities. But not so expensive they start charging you for amenities. Basically I want free wi-fi and free breakfast. A pool is nice too, but I’m really here for the free breakfast. I don’t understand why the more expensive a hotel is, the more stuff they charge you for. If a hotel doesn’t have free breakfast this dog is out!
After I took most of my stuff to the car I went to the breakfast room. I was the first one there. I expected to be. There was no way all the Gorshes were ALL up and going.
Not gonna lie. First thing I did when I got settled in my room the night before was going to check out the breakfast layout. Before entering, saying a silent prayer that they would have a waffle maker. The conveyor belt pancake maker is okay, but if you know I’m all about that #wafflelife.
I’ve heard that all prayers are answered. Just many times the answer is “Not today bro.” But on this day, the answer was “I got you bro.” Staring back at me from the corner of the breakfast bar was a shiny, beautiful waffle maker! It was a great morning.
Here are some pictures from the trip home:
I went chocolate of course! If you are going to eat unhealthy, jump in with both feet! Besides calories that you eat in a different state don’t count. That is some kind of adultery loophole I saw on a sitcom once. But the exercise you do counts double. That’s just science. #chocolatewaffelife
While I was eating my waffle Dave showed up for his breakfast. Then Derrick and the dog showed up. I told them I was going to eject from the caravan and go ahead and hit the road because I was going to do some meandering on the way back and I was ready to hit the dusty trail and they wouldn’t be ready for a couple of hours. I got in the RAV4 and considered opening my Christmas present from Sara that Jen took all the way to Indiana to give to me. I took it all the way back to Iowa to open it.
My first stop in Iowa was in Le Claire. Le Claire is near the “Quad Cities” which means that it is Happy Joe’s country. I didn’t eat at Happy Joe’s because it wasn’t open for several hours, but I had to stop to at least take a picture of the sign to make Elizabeth (a noted Happy Joe’s fiend) jealous. Also, out of the blue on the trip Derrick told me really had been having a hankering for Happy Joe’s ham & sauerkraut pizza. I don’t think he stopped in Le Claire for some, but at least I let him know he had the option.
That is a mango-strawberry with banana smoothie. Don’t ever accuse me of drinking coffee!
Endorsed. Cody Road Coffee for smoothies.
Reminds me of Carla’s camper.
Also reminds me of Carla’s camper.
You know the theme from Golden Girls? I had no clue that was a song that existed outside of that show until a few months ago when I was listening to the Casey Kasem flashback countdown (a Sunday tradition in my sphere of influence) somebody requested it as Long Distance Dedication. My mind was blown. I also love Bob Ross. I’m not a Swiftie though. I’m a Lipsey. But Taylor Swift is cool.
If anybody is looking for a beer tap, I know a place.
This was in Aunt Hattie’s Fanciful Emporium Unique Gift Shop. Spoiler: Guess what I’m putting in the Computer Mine Gift Exchange this year!!!
Ya know your boy was checking out the sticker selection.
So true. I log onto Facebook everyday to read poorly informed political opinions of people I try to continue to respect. Or I never go on Facebook. One of those things is true.
I feel so seen.
What is the budget for the Computer Mine Christmas Gift Exchange again?
Give me a few more years before I start rocking this hat.
What did the seahorse do?
This book is in the Gorshe Library.
But not this one… yet.
I know these people.
Next stop was Antique Archaeology. I love hitting this store because it reminds me of my parents and the old Bennett Antiques & Primitives store.
Even though it is actually super touristy and the price on most things is outrageous.
I switched to YouTubeTV over a year ago now. I absolutely can’t endorse it enough. But the one thing is I don’t get now is the History Channel. I do miss this show and ANCIENT ALIENS of course.
I stopped in Belle Plaine for lunch. I’ve wanted to eat at the historic Lincoln Cafe for a minute, so I took this opportunity to stop there and eat on my way home. But that is a story for a future food adventure entry.
I hope somebody took them up on this.
Finally made it home. 1150.3 miles later.
That is all I have for cell phone pictures from this trip. But I have plenty of real camera pictures to share at some point in the future.
It was a phenomenal trip and I’m very thankful for the Gorshes letting me crash their eclipse party! Let’s do it again in 20 years.
Time to share the October image from the 2024 Photography 139 Calendar. It is a picture of a mural of Jack from THE SHINING near Graffiti Alley in Des Moines.
I chose this image for October since it is an artistic depiction from THE SHINING, one of the 5 best horror movies every made.
TECHNICAL DETAILS
CAMERA: Sony ILCE-7M4
DATE: September 30, 2023 – 1:23 PM
LENS: 17-28mm f/2.8
APERTURE: f/5
EXPOSURE: 1/100
ISO: 100
Tomorrow I will share the November image from the calendar!
Seems like a good time to start sharing pictures from Pufferbilly Days that aren’t related to the Photo Contest. I’m not a car person, per se, but I do like attending the occasional car show. Partially cause old cars are cool looking and partially because I have a few friends that display cars at car shows.
Here are some pictures:
Next Friday I will share some pictures from the Pufferbilly Days Parade.
Time for another collection of images from my trip to the Stanhope Watermelon Day with Teresa. This collection of images is of the parade. I’m not really a parade person. In fact few things are more boring than a parade. Well actually few things have greater gap between participating in and watching. Being in a parade is tons of fun. Watching a parade is tons of boring. Similarly to fireworks. Lighting off fireworks is tons of fun. Watching fireworks is boring. Baseball also fits into this category as well. But I digress.
Here are the parade pictures:
Still plenty more pictures to share from Watermelon Day. Including many pictures of delicious… delicious watermelon!
This is the final collection of images from the road trip to Dysart to see their illusions I took with Nader. This collection starts in Traer, but also goes through the Matchstick Marvels Museum in Gladbrook.
Gladbrook
Toledo
A different town sign.
It was a good road trip, even if I confess, the Dysart illusions were a little bit of a disappointment. But the Matchstick Marvels Museum was definitely not a disappointment!
Here it is. The final collection of auxiliary images I took during THE TOWN SIGN PROJECT. Finally being shared almost 14 months after I took them. Closing the book on pictures I took in 2022. To be honest there is one last collection of pictures I took in 2022, but I’m not going to share those. Those I will keep for me.
The final county of town signs I harvested was Davis County. A county I left for last because I wanted to save the Paris, Iowa (there are two unincorporated towns named Paris in Iowa) for the end because I have some family history on my Mom’s side of the family there. Paris is almost a ghost town now. There is a cemetery a couple miles down the road. There are a few houses and there are the remains of a general store. But it was still interesting to visit and I don’t regret leaving it for last, even though it really didn’t have a town sign.
Here is the final collection of images, starting at a general store in Cantril.
I swear Randall’s had this exact same signs when I was a kid.
The artist definitely spend most of their time and effort on the boobs.
Troy
This building housed the Troy Academy. Which was one of the first institutions of higher education west of the Mississippi.
It is also the subject of a painting by Buckley Moss.
Back to Bloomfield
Paris Cemetery
Marshalltown
It is a little sad to close the last page on this photo project. My original plan for THE TOWN SIGN PROJECT was to turn it into a book. I have made next to no progress on that. None. I haven’t really made much or no progress on what was going to be my next photo project. I have let you down…
But maybe I will make progress on the book this winter. Stranger things have happened.
I’m not sure what will be posted on Wednesdays going forward. But there isn’t a shortage of RAW images waiting to be edited and shared!
Time to share another collection of images from my trip to Scott County to harvest their town signs. Most of these pictures are also taken in Le Claire and this collection ends in Davenport. It includes a brief stop I made at Antique Archaeology. The store made famous by the show American Pickers. It is a cool store and definitely worth the trip, but I think the downtown area of Le Claire is also worth the trip as well.
The collection starts where Volume 2 ended. With a great blue heron on the banks of the Mississippi River.
Pleasant Valley
Davenport
This is actually in Illinois.
Back in Davenport.
Still plenty of pictures from this road trip left to share.
Time once again to clean up some backlog. These pictures I took during December of 2022, but they didn’t really fit into any previous posts. Some were taken at the Community Christmas Concert that I went to, to watch Logan and Nathanial and Logan work it. Some are alternates for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme WATER. Some are taken at the candlelight service at Boone First United Methodist Church. Some are just of Naima.
Apparently Logan and Nathanial and Janae did a pretty good job with the Christmas Concert video because now an independent movie company wants to come to Boone and shoot a movie based on seeing the video on the internet. It will be interesting to see if that actually happens.
SELF-PORTRAIT! Maybe not the most artistic theme, but on the other hand, it is a chance for some of you to introduce yourself to the rest of you. But did a bunch of people do that? You will have to keep scrolling to find out!
As of 12:01 PM on Monday, July 31, this was the current list of ACTIVE streaks (ignore the numbers in parentheses):
1-Becky Parmelee – 2 weeks
2-Willy McAlpine – 3 weeks
3-Scott Degeneffe – 4 weeks
4-Mike Vest – 4 weeks
5-Suzie Brannen – 5 weeks
6-Sabas Hernandez – 5 weeks
7-Sheri Fakhouri – 7 weeks (2)
8-Monica Jennings – 8 weeks
9-Logan Kahler – 8 weeks
10-Nathanial Brown – 9 weeks
11-Jesse Howard – 9 weeks
12-Tamara Peterson – 12 weeks
13-Alexis Stensland – 17 weeks (3)
14-Mindi Terrell – 24 weeks (3)
15-Brandon Kahler – 49 weeks
16-Linda Bennett – 53 weeks
17-Sarah Toot – 54 weeks (2)
18-Angie DeWaard – 58 weeks
19-Dawn Krause – 62 weeks
20-Kim Barker – 68 weeks
21-Joe Duff – 69 weeks
22-Teresa Kahler – 80 weeks (2)
23-Carla Stensland – 80 weeks
24-Micky Augustin – 82 weeks
25-Andy Sharp – 83 weeks
26-Bill Wentworth – 84 weeks
27-Cathie Morton – 88 weeks
28-Elizabeth Nordeen – 89 weeks
29-Shannon Bardole-Foley – 91 weeks
30-Kio Dettman – 93 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:
Sara Lockner (Washington D.C.) – 1 week
Sara Lockner (Altoona, Iowa)
Sara Lockner (Washington D.C.) – 1 week
Becky Parmelee (Bella Vista, Arkansas) – 3 weeks
Willy McAlpine (Boone, Iowa) – 4 weeks
Mike Vest (Iowa) – 5 weeks
Sabas Hernandez (The Outlets at Orange – Orange County, California) – 6 weeks
Suzie Brannen (Iowa) – 6 weeks
Sheri Fakhouri (Ankeny, Iowa) – 8 weeks
Monica Jennings (Iowa) – 9 weeks
Logan Kahler (Boone, Iowa) – 9 weeks
Nathanial Brown (Iowa)- 10 weeks
Jesse Howard (Boone, Iowa) – 10 weeks
Jesse Howard (Boone, Iowa)
Tamara Peterson (Iowa) – 13 weeks
Alexis Stensland (Iowa) – 18 weeks
Mindi Terrell (Iowa) – 25 weeks
Mindi Terrell (Iowa)
Mindi Terrell (Iowa)
Brandon Kahler (Iowa) – 50 weeks
Linda Bennett (Kansas) – 54 weeks
Linda Bennett (Kansas)
Sarah Toot (Sedgefield Country Club – Greensboro, South Carolina) – 55 weeks
Sarah Toot (Sedgefield Country Club – Greensboro, South Carolina)
Sarah Toot (Sedgefield Country Club – Greensboro, South Carolina)
Angie DeWaard (Nebraska – probably) – 59 weeks
Dawn Krause (Iowa) – 63 weeks
Dawn Krause (Iowa)
Kim Barker (Fort Madison, Iowa) – 69 weeks
Joe Duff (Texas) – 70 weeks
Teresa Kahler (Gretna, Nebraska) – 81 weeks
Teresa Kahler (Gretna, Nebraska)
Teresa Kahler (Gretna, Nebraska)
Carla Stensland (Don Williams Lake – Ogden, Iowa) – 81 weeks
Carla Stensland (Room M4470B, Converse, 4th Floor, Friley Hall, Iowa State University, Ames, IA)
Micky Augustin (Undisclosed Location – Iowa) – 83 weeks
Andy Sharp (Las Vegas, Nevada) – 84 weeks
Bill Wentworth (Omaha, Nebraska) – 85 weeks
Cathie Morton (Iowa) – 89 weeks
Elizabeth Nordeen (Iowa) – 90 weeks
Shannon Bardole-Foley (Lake Okoboji United Methodist Camp – Spirit Lake, Iowa) – 92 weeks
Kio Dettman (Iowa) – 94 weeks
Christopher D. Bennett (Boone, Iowa) – 516 weeks
32 submissions this week! That is a pretty great week! Plus, thanks to Sarah Toot, we’ve now added South Carolina to the map! WooHoo!
There were submissions this week taken in the following places:
+ Arkansas
+ California
+ Kansas
+ Iowa
+ Nebraska
+ Nevada
+ South Carolina
+ Texas
+ Washington D.C.
Here is the current calendar year list for states:
+ Arizona
+ Arkansas
+ California
+ Colorado
+ Florida
+ Georgia
+ Illinois
+ Iowa
+ Kansas
+ Louisiana
+ Maryland
+ Michigan
+ Minnesota
+ Missouri
+ Montana
+ Nebraska
+ New Jersey
+ New York
+ Nevada
+ North Carolina
+ North Dakota
+ Ohio
+ Oklahoma
+ Oregon
+ Pennsylvania
+ South Carolina
+ South Dakota
+ Tennessee
+ Texas
+ Utah
+ Washington
+ Washington D.C.
+ Wisconsin
+ Wyoming
33 states and 1 district! That is pretty impressive! Over 60% of the way there!
The Outside of the United States map is currently:
+ British Virgin Islands
+ Mexico (General)
+ Isla Mujeres, Mexico
+ Riviera Maya, Mexico
+ Nassau Bahamas
+ Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
I took my picture about 1 mile from my front door, so I continue not to contribute.
Both Nathanial and Jesse joined the Double Digit Streak Club. WooHoo! But it wasn’t all good news. Scottie D.’s streak came crashing to a halt at 4 weeks. The humanity!
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:
NEGATIVE! What a great theme for Year 10 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!
But what exactly is a NEGATIVE photo? NEGATIVE might be an abstract theme that might be hard to wrap your mind around at first. But there are multiple types of NEGATIVE. There are simply bad things or things you don’t like. In the theme reveal picture there are dead sunflowers, which is a NEGATIVE. Plus, I inverted the colors so it looks like an old school NEGATIVE. You know a film NEGATIVE. So you could just edit a photo so that colors are inverse. That would be a NEGATIVE. So it could be something that is a NEGATIVE in your life. Like bad weather or work. Or it can simply mean rejecting something. A disagreement. Or in science (and electricity) there is also NEGATIVE. I think once you put your mind to it, you will come up with something that is NEGATIVE. Maybe some of you still have physical film NEGATIVE(s).
While considering possible subjects for your NEGATIVE picture meditate on the following quote and I have no doubt you will come up with an interesting picture:
It’s as if my life were magically run by two electric currents: joyous positive and despairing negative – whichever is running at the moment dominates my life, floods it.
-Sylvia Plath
I look forward to seeing your interpretation!
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 NEGATIVE in this place that started with a pile of negatives next Monday.
