Category Archives: Automobiles

Art, Automobiles, Black & White, Boone County Fair, Candid Portrait, Street Photography

Rajon Rando

June 19, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

WARNING: THERE ARE BOTH LEGITIMATELY DISTURBING IMAGES AND DEPICTIONS OF THE FEMALE BODY IN THE NUDE. IF THAT ISN’T YOUR CUP OF TEA, FEEL FREE TO SKIP STRAIGHT PAST TODAY’S BLOG

NO SERIOUSLY. NORMALLY WHEN I PUT SOMETHING LIKE THIS UP, THE DISTURBING IMAGE IS A PICTURE OF AN IOWA HAWKEYE FAN OR NEBRASKA BUGEATER FAN OR A KANSAS JAYHAWK FAN. THAT ISN’T THE CASE THIS TIME. USUALLY WHEN I WARN THAT THERE IS A DEPICTION OF NUDITY, IT A PICTURE OF A FLOWER CALL “THE NAKED LADY” OR A TASTEFUL DEPICTION OF THE FEMALE FORM IN ART. THIS ISN’T EITHER OF THOSE THINGS.

SO WHY AM I POSTED SUCH THINGS? WELL, I SAW THEM, SO I’M SHARING THE PAIN.

On Saturday I turned in my pictures for the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon. Which means that the Boone County Fair is right around the corner. When I get back from the mission trip you can bet dollars to donuts that I will be putting out a poll where you guts get to select the pictures I enter into the Boone County Fair photography “contest”.

Since I got the Boone County Fair is on my mind, it is as good a time as any to publish some random Boone County Fair images from 2018. I think I took most of these pictures for different pages in THE PHOTO JOURNAL PROJECT and then decided not to use them.

NOW IS YOUR TIME TO STOP IF DISTURBING IMAGES DISTURB YOU…

Although I don’t watch many any longer, many a high school night was spent with a bunch of friends in a now condemned house watching horror movies. To this day I can quote you chapter and verse from the books of Jason Voorhees to Michael Meyers. But I don’t think I would have ever desired a vehicle decorated in such a manner.

That being said, the artist is very skilled.

Animals, Automobiles, Basketball, Candid Portrait, Commercial, Formal Portrait, Iowa State, Jeff Daniel, Monica, Night, Ruins, Schmidt, Self-Portrait, Shannon, Still Life, Yin

12December2008

April 6, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett 4 Comments

Sometime in late 2008 my organizational process of my photos went all FUBAR. The result is that it appears that I have actually lost several images from late 2008 and early 2009.

None of the lost pictures are of much consequence, but it is annoying nonetheless.

Part of this breakdown in the system was that it seems that rather than breaking images into folders by date, I just dumped a ton of pictures into the December folder.

Fortunately for you, I don’t usually take a ton of pictures in December. However, this still potentially might be one long journal entry.

There are pictures from Iowa State at night, Toys for Tots, an American Legion event in Roland, Iowa State basketball, Shannon dressed nice for once, a night with the Daniels, and crayfish that took home from a Chinese buffet.

Here we go:

Looking at those pictures something that struck me is that I had forgotten how badly Greg McDermott had destroyed Iowa State’s basketball program. Thank you Creighton for taking him off of our hands! It is a debt that can never be repaid!

All those pictures added to the Photography 139 Gallery enabled me to restore the following historic “An Artist’s Notebook” journal entries to their original glory:

Thelma and Louise

Boone Taxi Driver

Saturday Night

Toys for Tots

Burying the Lead

Muskrat Carcass

Beavers

Plus Five

Roland, Iowa

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve hanging around the ACTORS Studio.

Animals, Automobiles, Becky, Black & White, Candid Portrait, Commercial, Flowers, Formal Portrait, Jay, Macro, Mom, Politics, Road Trip, Shannon, Still Life, Teresa, Travel, Work

10-13-08

February 2, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

There is quite the collection of images in the folder called 10-13-08. I can’t possibly include all of them in this here entry, so I’ll just have to pick out a few that I like the most.

The pictures range from Gyro Day at the Computer Mine to the Ames Party Bus in action to a road trip to Kalona with Mom, Teresa, and Jay.

Have a looksie:

While I’m not 100% sure, I believe that is the last of my Ames Party Bus pictures. Which means I should explain why you haven’t seen Becky driving around the Ames Party Bus in 10 years.

I might not be getting the details 100% correct, but the spirit of what I’m writing is dead on.

Shortly after Becky finished restored the Ames Party Bus and began putting out an APB on fun, Big Party Bus felt threatened. In fact they were scared. Petrified.

Big Party Bus checked their address book to look up which state representatives they had in their back pockets. Then they went to these bought politicians and pulled their chains.

The bought politicians reacted by passing a law that made party buses carry an exorbitant amount of insurance. Like an incredible amount of insurance. Insurance that was price-prohibitive.

This effectively shutdown the small-time party bus. Becky was out of business, shortly after the party had begun. Rich people win again.

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:

Spoiled

Euphonious

Kalona (Part 1)

Kalona (Part 2)

Next week’s walk down memory lane will involve an Iowa State football match with the Bugeaters of Nebraska.

Automobiles, Event, Gretchen, Steve

Organized Lightning

November 28, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett

Way back in August I was invited out to the Junck farm to play with his drone. That was the moment I officially got drone fever.

I played with the drone for at least 45 minutes. I would share some pictures from that experience, but I have yet to see them. That is how the drone crashes.

Steve was in town helping his parents with an electric car tour. The tour culminated with a car show at the Junck farm.

Here are some pictures from that event:

Speaking of Drone Fever, here is where I currently stand on the goals I need to accomplish to pulling the trigger on that drone:

~~1. Pay off car.~~
2. Bank fraud refund.
3. New rear brakes.
~~4. Big 12 Championship Game Trip~~
5. Remaining Self-Directed Training Budget – $355.20
~~6. 2019 Calendars~~
7. Iowa State Bowl Trip
8. Subscribe to Des Moines Register
9. Hope to not get screwed over by the GOP Tax Scam.
10. DJI Mavic Pro 2
11. Sony RX0
12. Sony Alpah a7II

Automobiles, Candid Portrait, Jesse, Nader

Gilbert Cars

October 14, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett

Way back in October of 2017, Jesse and I took Nader to Gilbert (a town I despise) to visit the people in the church that sponsored Nader when he first came to the United States.

While we were there, we visited his friend Gene. Gene was one of Nader’s initial sponsors and continues to help Nader out now and again.

Gene has quite the collection of Buicks. Here are some pictures:

Oh yeah. He also has a nice Studebaker collection!

Animals, Automobiles, Black & White, Christianity, Contests, Flowers, Formal Portrait, Gretchen, Railroad, Sara, Shawn Lockner

The Juncks – Vol. 1

August 5, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

REMINDER

It is once again time for me (and by me, I mean you guys) to pick out my photos to enter in the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest. Once again, I am going to leave it up to a popular vote.

The Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest allows you to enter up to 6 photos.

There are 4 Categories:

1. Nature
2. Photojournalism
3. Photoshop Enhanced
4. Hidden Treasures of Boone County.

I have selected 60 images for you to consider. To simplify things, I have split the 60 photos into 6 sets of 10. If you wish to exercise your enfranchisement, clicking on the link below will take you to Poll #1. Vote for one of those pictures and then move onto the next poll, until you have voted in all six polls.

The winner of EACH poll will be entered into the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest.

Click on the link below to start voting:

Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest Nominees

Voting will end at midnight, August 8.

As of this writing, if the polls closed, there would need to be a run-off election in the categories of Photoshop and Photojournalism.

The other 4 entries would be:

2018 Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest Nominee

+++++++

Hitting that 2016 backlog again. Just a few more Sundays and I’ll have all of the 2016 backlog knocked out. Definitely before 2019!

Here we check in on a portrait session I did with the Juncks. You can tell that it is old because there is no Maven!

You think working with toddlers is hard work… try getting David Junck to look at the camera!!

There is one more collection of pictures from this photo shoot on the way. Don’t worry, there is plenty more of Gretchen being adorable coming your way!

Art, Automobiles, Baseball/Softball, Black & White, History, Photoshop, Politics, Railroad, Road Trip, Ruins, Small World, Town Sign Project, Travel, WPC - Alternate

I’m Not Complaining, I’m Just Being Honest, I Promise That I Will Not Beg for Respect, No!

April 10, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

The world was not ready for these ROAD TRIP pictures on Monday. It is highly doubtful that the world is ready for these ROAD TRIP pictures now, but I can’t hold them back any longer.

This is not an endorsement of Rick Young for Hardin County Supervisor, although he has a sweet website.

I took a little ROAD TRIP on Saturday on the way to Marshalltown to meet some fellow miners for supper. On the way there I decided to head north a little bit before heading east and to pursue some signs for THE TOWN SIGN PROJECT.

I left Boone and went through the remains of Mackey. Took a few moments in Story City before heading north and spending quite a bit of time in the fascinating town of Randall. One of the fascinating things I found in Randall was the Dodge truck. I find it fascinating that on the hood ornament was the Star of David. I wonder when they took the religious symbol out of their marketing.

I looked into this and found the following:

1. The Dodge brothers were not Jewish. It is not a Star of David.
2. But nobody seems to know what it means. It might represent the Greek letter delta or it might be a masonic symbol or it might have to do with medieval mysticism.
3. It was not done to taunt Henry Ford, who was a noted anti-Semite as has often been theorized.
4. They symbol disappeared from Dodge cars when the 1939 model was introduced. Hmmm… what was going on in the world in 1939.
5. The Dodge brothers both died in 1920 as victims of the influenza epidemic of that year. They took the truth of the symbol with them to their graves.

Here endeth the lesson.

The small world picture is of Randall. From Randall I headed north. I stopped briefly at Little Wall Lake to take a couple of self-portraits. I also took a couple lake pictures, but they did not please me.

After Little Wall Lake, I spent a few minutes cruising Jewell. Just to the east of the Jewell town signing (heading north of 69) is the fascinating remains of the animal sculptures. They’ve sadly fallen into a degree of disrepair. I could analyze this piece of of art for days.

It feels like the kind of tableau that should be in any respectable roadside curiosity book about the great Cyclone State!

There are a few more images from this ROAD TRIP in the hopper. You’re welcome America!

Automobiles, Event, Gretchen, Music, Nature, Sara

Happy Anniversary Juncks!

January 24, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett

As you become aged, you get invited to less and less parties. I think I was invited to 3 toddler birthday parties and 1 anniversary party last year. I think that was it. My entire social calendar for 2017.

The anniversary party was for the parents of Sara and Steven Junck. I love visiting the Junck farm and snapped a couple of pictures while I was there:

I think I could spend days photographing the Junck farm and never get bored with it. But I only took a few pictures, cause I was partying it up! Actually I believe this was the day after I returned from the Mission Trip, so I was mostly ready to nap it up!

Animals, Art, Automobiles, Bethany, Dae Hee, Nora, Travel

My Minnesota Spirit Animal

October 20, 2017 Christopher D. Bennett

Back in August I went up to Minnesota to visit some of my favorite peeps, but I also had an ulterior motive. For years I’ve driven up to the Twin Cities area and just south of Lakeville I would come across a strange collection of sculptures on the east side of I-35. I’ve never been able to figure out how to get there. Or for that matter, what it even was.

This trip to Minnesota I vowed to crack the mystery. Before supper Bethany, Nora, and Dae Hee and I and a sense of wonderment loaded up into a vehicle and tried to solve the mystery… and solve the mystery, we did.

After some wrong turns we finally located the source of the wonderful mystery sculptures. The source was Hot Sam’s Antiques and Foto Park. For $10 your party could take as many cruddy cell phone pictures as you wanted. It was $25 for an actual camera-camera.

We plunked down the Hamilton and wandered and wondered around the Minnesota magical wonderland that is Sam’s Foto Park. Here are some cell phone pictures from this wondrous adventure:

Dino Bustin’

So this is what happened to the bus from TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE

Dae Hee in Repose

Nora LOVED this car!

#outhousesofinstagram

I both love and am creeped out by old industrial trucks!

This is a fence of nightmares!

Worst Pixar movie ever! Not counting the worse sequels.

Plan 9 from Outer Space?

You know this would look amazing in my yard!

My birthday is 7 months away… If you start saving now…

You can have Disneyland. Give me Hot Sam’s Foto Park. Every day of the week and… wait for it…. thrice on Sundays!!

Automobiles, Black & White, Logan, Mom, Photoshop, Road Trip, Still Life, Street Photography, Teresa

All the Fleas!

July 27, 2017 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

A couple months back Mom, Teresa, Logan, and I hopped into a vehicle of some kind and headed due east for famous What Cheer, Iowa and it’s even more famous flea market.

It didn’t disappoint. I think a person could spend all day there and still not see all the vendors.

Here are some pictures from that trip. You’re welcome Kio!

My favorite part of the What Cheer Flea Market is that they (seemingly) allow you to climb up onto the roof of their rickety grandstand. The roof is made out of sheet metal and their doesn’t seem to be any reinforcements as you walk across it. Hoping you don’t plummet to your death. It was awesome!