Category Archives: Automobiles

Art, Automobiles, Baseball/Softball, History, Road Trip, Ruins

Osceola County Aux – Vol. 3

July 16, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett

Time for the final collection of auxiliary images I took while harvesting the town signs of Osceola County. This trip was cut short in Lyon County while harvesting their town signs due to inclement weather. So many of the signs in this collection were taken in Lyon County and a few were taken in Clay County. I believe this is also the trip where I hit a pheasant. People think I hate cats. They are worthless, yes, but I don’t hate them. Pheasants, I hate. They are probably, truly, the only animal in the world I actually hate. Unless you count the failed species known as humans. But I even like some humans. Pheasants, don’t like a single one.

Little Rock

Rock Rapids

George

Ashton

Melvin – I’ve stared at the mural for a bit. I can’t figure it out.

Dickens

Gillet Grove

I love the murals in Rock Rapids. I would rank it as a Top 3 town in Iowa for murals. It is up there with Creston and Le Mars, I haven’t shared the Le Mars murals yet. I went back through Rock Rapids at a later date and photographed their murals again.

In fact, the next time we hit the open road to share some auxiliary images, we will share images from Clay and Lyon County.

Art, Automobiles, Baby Got Rack, Boone County Fair, Christianity, Nature, Road Trip

Osceola County Aux – Vol. 1

July 13, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

I have big news! Big, big news! I would say news of a comeback, but don’t call it a comeback. I been here for years. Rockin’ my peers. Puttin’ suckers in fear. Makin’ the tears rain down like a monsoon. Listen to the bass go boom.

What I’m trying to say is for the first time since 2019, Baby Got Rack is dusting off their fedoras. Putting on their Hawaiian shirts and competing in the rough world of competitive barbecue! How do you like me now!

We will competing at the Boone County Fair this Saturday! So you should probably figure out a way to get there. And try some award winning barbecue, cause I can’t promise it won’t be another 3 years before Baby Got Rack is in full effect again.

+++++++

A few months back I went up to Osceola County to harvest their town signs. It was a trip that ended with me calling it a day prematurely because I ran into some sever weather. I originally intended to also harvest the town signs of Lyon County, but weather.

Here is the first collection of auxiliary images from the trip. Many of these taken in Clay County.

Greenville

Royal

Everly

May City

Harris

Ocheyedan Mound

One thing I’ve discovered one these trips is that if you want to leave a legacy behind after you die, create bizarre art in a small town.

Ocheyedan Mound was long thought to be the highest point in Iowa, but then Hawkeye Point was discovered a few miles away. That being said, Ocheyedan Mound is more impressive looking. But Hawkeye Point is more touristy.

There are still several images left to share from this trip.

Andy, Automobiles, Becky, Bill, Carla, Cathie, Dawn, Elizabeth, Jen, Joe Duff, Kim, Kio, Logan, Michelle, Micky, Monica, Shannon, Tamara, Teresa, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 334 – JUNK

February 7, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

JUNK has not proved to be a fairly popular theme.

Heading into the 5th week of Year 9 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE, the following streaks were active:

+ Mike Vest – 1 week
+ Dawn Krause – 1 week
+ Joe Duff – 2 weeks
+ Layla Gorshe – 2 weeks
+ Logan Kahler – 2 weeks
+ Teresa Kahler – 2 weeks
+ Tamara Peterson – 2 weeks
+ Carla Stensland – 2 weeks
+ Michelle Haupt – 3 weeks
+ Micky Augustin – 4 weeks
+ Monica Henning – 4 weeks
+ Jesse Howard – 4 weeks
+ Evie Gorshe – 5 weeks
+ Becky Parmelee – 5 weeks
+ Andy Sharp – 5 weeks
+ Bill Wentworth – 6 weeks
+ Cathie Raley – 10 weeks
+ Elizabeth Nordeen – 11 weeks
+ Kim Barker – 13 weeks
+ Shannon Bardole-Foley – 13 weeks
+ Kio Dettman – 16 weeks

But you didn’t come here to listen to me talk all tommyrot about participation rates. You came to see the submissions:

Elizabeth Nordeen – 12 weeks

Andy Sharp – 6 weeks

Joe Duff – 3 weeks

Kio Dettman – 17 weeks

Kio Dettman

Bill Wentworth – 7 weeks

Christopher D. Bennett

Teresa Kahler – 3 weeks

Tamara Peterson – 3 weeks

Michelle Haupt – 4 weeks

Shannon Bardole-Foley – 14 weeks

Dawn Krause – 2 weeks

Becky Parmelee – 6 weeks

Micky Augustin – 5 weeks

Jen Ensley-Gorshe – 1 week (Assist by Beck)

Logan Kahler – 3 weeks

Carla Stensland – 3 weeks

Cathie Raley – 11 weeks

Mike Vest – 2 weeks

Jesse Howard – 5 weeks

Monica Henning – 5 weeks

Kim Barker – 14 weeks

22 submissions from 21 participants! That is a good week!

Only 2 streaks were broke this week. Layla had a streak of 2 weeks snapped and Evie had a streak of 5 weeks snapped. Their Mom picked up the slack though by hopefully starting out a new streak this week.

The current top streaks:

#1. Kio – 17 weeks
#2. Kim – 14 weeks
#2. Shannon – 14 weeks
#4. Elizabeth – 12 weeks
#5. Cathie – 11 weeks

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:

BELIEVE

BELIEVE! What a great theme for Year 9 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!

I’m going to be 100% transparent on this theme. It is 100% inspired by TED LASSO. Let’s face it, if you aren’t watching TED LASSO, then you are watching television wrong! You better do something about it. Like start watching TED LASSO!

All of that being said, what is a BELIEVE image. While on the surface, this seems like a very abstract, conceptual streak killing theme, it is really quite simple. All you have to do is take a picture of something you BELIEVE in. BELIEVE in Jesus? Take a picture that reflects your Christian faith. Or whatever religion you practice. BELIEVE in your favorite sports team. Take a picture that reflects your rooting interests. BELIEVE that education is the foundation of a successful life, take a picture of that. BELIEVE in your children? BELIEVE in gravity? BELIEVE the world is flat? If you think about it, you BELIEVE in a lot of things.

While considering the possible subjects for your BELIEVE image, meditate on the following quote from a speech my man Ted Lasso gave in Season 1 Episode 10:

I’ve been hearing this phrase y’all got over here that I ain’t too crazy about. “It’s the hope that kills you.” Y’all know that? I disagree, you know? I think it’s the lack of hope that comes and gets you. See, I believe in hope. I believe in belief. Now, where I’m from, we got a saying too. A question, actually. “Do you believe in miracles?”
– Ted Lasso

RULES

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.

You can send your images to either bennett@photography139.com OR you may text them to my Pixel 5.

That is all I got, so if the good Lord’s willin’ and the creek don’t rise, we will all be sharing our idea of BELIEF in this place that is little more than a collection of my beliefs next Monday.

Art, Automobiles, Black & White, Christianity, History, Road Trip, Ruins

Monona County Auxiliary Images

January 26, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

A few weeks back a tooled around Monona County and part of Harrison County harvesting town signs. Here is a collection of the auxiliary images I took on that trip:

The correct color tractor.

Restaurant & Malt Shop. Goodtime Charlie indeed!

They don’t make numbers high enough to count the number of drunk people that would hit this thing if it was in Boone.

Lewis and Clark State Park

Onawa

Onawa claims to have the widest main street in America. 150 feet wide. Eskimo pie was also born here.

Turin

Castana

Turin, again.

Blencoe

River Sioux

Little Sioux

Pisgah

Here is a little more information on the Turin Man from clio.com:

In 1955, a skeleton was discovered in a gravel pit near Turin, Iowa. Experts first proposed that these remains were about 10,000 years old, going back to the “early people” of the ice age era. As archaeologists continued to excavate, they found in succession three more human skeletons. After months of rigorous reconstruction of the remains and scientific testing, experts concluded that the skeletons were likely a family unit about 6,000 years old. The site provided evidence of prehistoric burial practices with many similarities to ancient burials found throughout the eastern United States. The skeletons found here in Turin were the oldest human remains discovered in the state until August of 2011, when archaeologists excavated a 7,000 year old village in Des Moines.

Next set of auxiliary images we will peek at are from Shelby and Mills counties.

Art, Automobiles, Black & White, Flowers, History, Nature, Railroad, Road Trip

Hancock County Auxiliary Images Vol. 3

November 10, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

Here is the final collection of auxiliary images I took while harvesting the town signs of Hancock County. Although I would say about 50% of these pictures were taken in other counties. Like Winnebago County or Cerro Gordo County or Worth County.

Forest City

Pilot Knob State Park

Fertile

Thornton

Dows

The next county I need to share auxiliary images from is Pocahontas County.

Art, Automobiles, Christianity, History, Road Trip, Ruins, Shannon

Warren County Auxiliary Images Vol. 2

October 15, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

Here is a second collection of auxiliary images I took while harvesting the town signs of Warren County with Shannon.

Medora

New Virginia

Couldn’t quite figure out what this was…

This is one of the most enigmatic things I’ve come across in my travels. It was just there. No explanation. Nobody monitoring it. Nothing else around it.

Shannon really wanted to take this picture.

You didn’t know The 4 Wheel Drive was invented in Iowa, did you?

St Marys

They must’ve heard I was coming to town.

87 wins in a row! That is impressive!

88 wins in a row! That is even more impressive!

The streak was 88 wins in a row. It was eventually ended by Des Moines East, which is a school that has more students than St Marys and Martensdale has people combined.

About that 4 Wheel Drive, Here is the story from the Des Moines Concours website:

At the 2020 Des Moines Concours, we’re honoring the Iowa roots of 4-wheel drive. Our 4×4 and 4-Wheel Drive Class pays tribute to the foundational work of Jesse Livingood in creating a 4-wheel drive attachment for a Ford automobile in 1914.

At the time, Iowa’s road system covered a good portion of the state. Roads, particularly in rural Iowa, were little more than graded dirt. Iowa’s “gravel bees” in 1916 and 1917 saw the first concerted efforts by communities to make huge improvements of these roads.

Livingood lived in New Virginia, Iowa and ran his repair shop out of an empty corn crib on the family farm. He tinkered as he sought to improve traction, reduce wear, and lower the running costs of driving on Iowa’s roads and around the farm. This led him to develop a bolt-on 4-wheel drive system that he fitted to a Ford Model T. The system could be mounted to any Ford chassis in three to four hours, and would provide braking on all corners and sure footing in mud, sand, and snow or any other inclement weather Iowa could muster.

Livingood is credited for many more inventions including the “pulley and ball” thrust bearing, the differential transmission, the speed governor, two- and four-cylinder steam engines, and the four-wheel brake system. Sadly, due to errors at the U.S. Patent Office, Livingood did not profit from his inventions and lived a modest life.

There will be one more collection of Warren County pictures.

+++++++

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

PASSION

PASSION! What a great theme for Year 8 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!

But what is a PASSION picture? First we need to establish the difference between love and PASSION. What separates PASSION from love isn’t just a warm feeling about something or somebody. PASSION is what you are willing to suffer for. That is why the movie is called THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST not THE WARM FUZZIES OF THE CHRIST. Because Jesus’ love for us was so intense that he was willing to suffer for us. In the theme reveal picture it shows the result of Jesus’ PASSION for us as he has been lowered from the cross into Mary’s arms after being tortured to death for our sins. I’m sure there are many things in your life that you love. But this challenge asks you to take a picture of something you love so much that you are willing to suffer for it. Remember though the PASSION in your submission doesn’t have to be your own. It can be somebody else’s PASSION as well.

Happy photo harvesting!

Art, Automobiles, Christianity, Road Trip, Ruins

Sac County and Ida County Auxiliary Images Vol. 3

September 24, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

This is the third and final collection of images I took while harvesting the town signs of Sac County and Ida County. However all of these pictures were taken in Pocahontas County, Webster County, and Hamilton County.

Varina

Fonda

Palmer

Fort Dodge

Stanhope

I have a feeling that werewolves drive a pretty hard bargain when selling cars.

The next county to share auxiliary images from is Butler County. Flowertography haters be warned, we came across an amazing garden there!

Automobiles, Black & White, Evie, Flowers, Formal Portrait, Jill, Macro

2010-10-04, 2010-10-11, 2010-10-12, 2010-10-15, and 2010-10-16

July 10, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

So many of the folders 2010-10-04, 2010-10-11, 2010-10-12, 2010-10-15, and 2010-10-16 had so few images, that I decided to make a mega conglomeration. There are pictures here that were used for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE (back then known as the RANDOM WEEKLY PHOTO EXPERIMENT) and pictures used for the program for the 2010 Philanthropy Day and finally pictures from a photo shoot with the Gorshes shortly after Evie was born.

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:

RWPE #39 – FAST

RWPE #40 – ODD CAMERA ANGLE

Commendable

PERSONAL PHOTO PROJECT OF THE WEEK #41

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve another baby.

Art, Automobiles, Derrick, Football, Formal Portrait, Iowa State, Night, Russell, Willy

2009-04-11 & 2009-04-20

July 27, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

There aren’t many pictures in the folder 2009-04-11, so I’m publishing photos from the folder 2009-04-20.

The pictures from the folder 2009-04-11 are from when Derrick and Jen moved into their new house. They moved about a month after I moved. They have since moved again. I have not. They have added 4 people to their living circumstances. I have added Naima. I’m not moving anytime soon. Naima seems to like it here.

The pictures from the folder 2009-04-20 are from the Iowa State Spring Game. I miss the Spring Game. I hope Iowa State brings it back someday. Not for the game itself, but it is just nice to get outside and watch some football in April.

Here are some pictures:

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:

Prayer, Reflection, Horseradish & Jumpshot

Spring Game

Next week’s walk down memory lane will involve Tom Harkin, ice cream, and probably flowers.

Automobiles, Sara

2009-04-07/Electric_Car

July 13, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

The pictures in the folder 2009-04-07/Electric_Car are from a trip I took out to the Junck Farm with Sara.

We went out there shortly after her parentals had purchased an electric car from 1925. I had no clue that they made electric cars in the 1920s. It seems weird that the technology existed back then and then abandoned it for about 80 years. It is almost as if big oil companies have way too much power. But I’m sure that isn’t the case. Can’t be…

I almost died in this car years later…

By adding these pictures to the Photography 139 Gallery, I was able to restore the following historic “An Artist’s Notebook” post to its original glory:

Junck Family Adventure

Next week’s walk down will definitely involve the Cadillac of breakfast pastries.