Category Archives: Calendar

Calendar, Christianity, Flowers, Jen, Jill, Kelly, Macro, Mom, Night, Personal Photo Project, Sara, Teresa

Personal Photo Project of the Week #48

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I’ve finally distributed almost every last 2011 Photography 139 Calendar. Allow me to explain what images were used and I will include the briefest of notes on the pictures.

This year, the calendar was a little bit more of an adventure than usual. The printer from the last two years baled on me. I couldn’t find the kind of paper that I have used the last couple of years. The paper I used was too thick to duplex. In the end though, it all came together and a perfectly acceptable calendar has been produced.

Here are the pictures:


2011 Calendar - Front Cover
Front Cover

This picture was taken at the Iowa State Fair. I like to photograph one of the flower gardens at the Iowa State Fair every year. I have to confess to being a little disappointed with the garden this year, but I have no doubt it will be back to its full glory in 2011.


2011 Calendar - January
January

This picture was taken in my backyard. It is actually connected to the August picture. I purchased a bouquet of flowers for the August photo. Then I waited for the flowers to die and photographed them for the January picture.


2011 Calendar - February
February

I found this frog in my favorite frog finding spot – Lost Lake in Ledges. He was surprisingly brave for coming from a race of creatures that are notorious cowards.


2011 Calendar - March
March

Sara was with me when I took this picture down in the Papajohn Sculpture Garden. This is the only picture in the calendar that was taken with the aid of a photo assistant.


2011 Calendar - April
April

This lonely farm scene can be found between Boone and Ames on US30. There is a secret to how this picture was produced, but Photoshop isn’t that secret.


2011 Calendar - May
May

Even though I drove to Pella in a rainstorm to photograph their tulips, I found my best tulip picture in my Grandma’s front yard.


2011 Calendar - June
June

On a road trip with Mom and Teresa to State Center, I must have taken at least 300 pictures of roses, but it was this picture of a rose leaf that stood out as the most memorable image of the day.


2011 Calendar - July
July

I visited a couple different wild daisy patches, but the daisy image that made the calendar was found in my Mom’s yard. It was my belief that after “The Solace of Ordinary Humanity”, I couldn’t possibly take a better daisy picture, but I took camera in hand to photograph daisies to figure out a birthday present for Jill.


2011 Calendar - August
August

This is the only image from the Random Weekly Photo Experiment to make the calendar. This picture was taken in the middle of the Winter with a daisy bouquet. This image is hanging in Kelly’s salon – Salon 908.


2011 Calendar - September
September

This picture is meant to be parody. Nobody else in the world will understand that, but believe me, it is meant to be parody. This is also the only picture in the calendar that is manipulated by Photoshop in a meaningful way. This hibiscus grows in my Mom’s yard.


2011 Calendar - October
October

In retrospect, I’m not sure this picture belongs in October, but it is too late now. This picture was taken near the sewage treatment center in Boone. I hope that doesn’t take some of the romance away from it.


2011 Calendar - November
November

I photographed this lily in my Grandma’s flower garden. She planted so many lilies that she wasn’t sure what colors were even going to come up.


2011 Calendar - December
December

This is a picture of my Grandma Bennett’s Bible.

I have only 1 stated goal for the 2012 calendar. There will be a picture of an iris in it. Jen’s favorite flower is the iris and it is the one flower that I can’t figure out how to photograph. I will meet my adversary head on this year and 1 of us will fall.

Blogging, Calendar, Writing

General Housekeeping Information

Here are a few broad announcements.

1. Love my photography?  Ever wonder what it would like if you were in it?  Here is your chance! I’m doing portrait photography as a fundraiser for the youth group at my church tomorrow night.  So come down to the First United Methodist Church of Boone, Iowa from 5-8 pm and get your picture taken.  The rate?  $25 – cheap.  What do you get?  A couple of digital pictures of you and/or your loved ones next to the First United Methodist Church of Boone’s Christmas Tree.  It is a pretty sweet tree. On top of that every last penny of your 25 smackers goes to the Youth Group to help finance their mission trip to Kansas City next Summer.  A mission trip that I may or may not be chaperoning.  I’d guess “may not” at this point, but we’ll see.  No appointment is necessary.  Any questions, you most likely have my number or email address.

2. The 2011 Calendar. Every year I post something about not being sure if there will be a calendar next year.  Every year it is usually a lie.  Not this year.  After steady growth for the last few years, there is a chance that the calendar will not be published this year.  The guy that printed the calendars the last couple of years is refusing to print the calendars this year because I didn’t pay him for the calendars last year.  The fact that I asked for a bill at least 5 times and never received one is apparently irrelevant to the gent, so I have to come up with a new plan.  It is possible that I won’t come up with that plan. But one thing that is a certainty is that the run of calendars this year will be significantly less than the last couple of years.  So if you don’t get a calendar for next year, it is because of market fluctuations and what-have-you, the calendar just isn’t economically viable to be printed in as large of numbers as the last few years. If nothing else, my crew will be happier for the cut in workload.

3. Tomorrow marks the beginning of December.  The beginning of December marks the beginning of my descent into self-absorption.  The time when I look back at the year and answer the Proust Questionnaire.  The difference between this year and last year is that I’m giving my loyal droogs (you people that are reading these words) a chance to pick what questions I answer.  I will start the questionnaire tomorrow.  At the bottom of the questionnaire answer will be a trivia question about Yours Truly.  The first person to correctly answer the question in the comments section of this website will get to pick the next questionnaire question I answer. The trivia questions will be difficult and very specific, but I have faith that somebody out there knows me at least a little bit.

Animals, Calendar, Derrick, Macro, Movies, Music, Personal Photo Project

Personal Photo Project of the Week No. 19

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Theories Pass
Theories Pass

Derrick likes to tell a story (and I like to listen) about the album cover for Pink Floyd’s album Atom Heart Mother. This album features a picture of a cow.

The story goes that the reason that this picture was selected for the album cover is that no other picture says “cow” like this picture says “cow”.

It must be a great picture, because this album cover appears in A Clockwork Orange during the music shop scene.

“Enjoying that are you my darlin’? Bit cold and pointless isn’t it my lovely? What’s happened to yours my little sister?”

That bit aside, my goal was take a picture that says “frog”. At least now I have next February’s calendar picture out of the way.

Here are a few other pictures that hopefully say “frog” to you:


Theories Pass - Alternate

Theories Pass - Alternate

Theories Pass - Alternate>

Theories Pass - Alternate

Theories Pass - Alternate

Theories Pass - Alternate

Theories Pass - Alternate

There is nothing as rewarding as coming home with a quality frog photo after a days mucking about in the mud. This is why the first test for applicants for Photography 139 Photo Assistants is frog spotting.

Feel free to go out to your local bog and give it a shot.

Black & White, Boone FUMC, Calendar, History, Politics

December



Pardon and Sanctify Me

This cross stands on top of my church. It no longer looks like this because the it was painted during the tuckpointing process last year. The name comes from a classic hymn:

1. On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,
the emblem of suffering and shame;
and I love that old cross where the dearest and best
for a world of lost sinners was slain.
Refrain:
So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross,
till my trophies at last I lay down;
I will cling to the old rugged cross,
and exchange it some day for a crown.

2. O that old rugged cross, so despised by the world,
has a wondrous attraction for me;
for the dear Lamb of God left his glory above
to bear it to dark Calvary.
(Refrain)

3. In that old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine,
a wondrous beauty I see,
for ’twas on that old cross Jesus suffered and died,
to pardon and sanctify me.
(Refrain)

4. To that old rugged cross I will ever be true,
its shame and reproach gladly bear;
then he’ll call me some day to my home far away,
where his glory forever I’ll share.
(Refrain)

The “story” of this picture and its original color incarnation can be seen by clicking on the link below:

Black & White, Calendar, Flowers, Jen, Macro

July



The Solace of Ordinary Humanity

Although this picture is named for the following quote from the enigmatic John Ruskin:

“Flowers seem intended for the solace of ordinary humanity.”

But the story of this flower is actually more akin to the Tennessee Williams quote:

“The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks.”

This daisy grew in a most unlikely place in my yard. It grew in a little patch of dirt between my driveway and my back porch. It sprouted through the fence and away from the evergreen bush that dominates that little patch of ground. Its existence was unlikely, but nature finds a way.

This picture was also Jen’s birthday present.

Calendar, Formal Portrait, Jill

June



Funny Face Homage Inverse

This is actually the first picture to ever be debuted in the calendar. Every other picture that has ever been in the calendar has been published in some way shape or form before being in the calendar. Jill was the only person to ever see this picture before it was seen in the calendar.

There will be more details about this picture in a future entry when I start publishing my weekly photo projects. The most important thing to note about this picture is that it represents a traditional darkroom technique.