I recently too Rodan139 out for a flight to capture a picture of this year’s parking space paintings in the Boone High School parking lot. I think there are some good ones there this year. It makes me wonder how I would have painted my parking space if they did this when I was a senior in high school. Just kidding. I didn’t have a car when I was in high school. We were poor.
Anyways, here are the pictures:
The next time Rodan139 takes the skies it will be a picture of another parking lot.
I recently took Rodan139 down for a quick flight around the grounds of the Kate Shelley Museum. I should really take Rodan139 every day while it is still illegal to fly. Rodan139 is a DJI Mavic Pro2. On September 16, it will be illegal to fly the guy without adding a Remote ID Module. Now there is a rumor out there that the Remote ID module might get postponed. I’m hoping this happens because the Remote ID Module is not module. The average price of them is around $250. Which isn’t a terrible price to keep Rodan139 in the sky, but the other side of the coin is that many of them are on backorder. Even if I wanted to get one, I don’t know than I could.
Anyways, here is hoping that the new rule gets postponed. And here are some pictures of the Kate Shelley Museuum:
Hopefully there is another collection of drone pictures next Tuesday.
Today is Vest’s birthday. Happy birthday Vest!
I hope your birthday is as amazing as you want it to be!
The other day I took Rodan139 out for a flight around the north end of the Harrier Marsh. I just needed to spread its wings and runs some pixels through it. I haven’t taken any pictures from that side of the marsh before, so it was a new experience.
The next time Rodan139 takes to the skies, it will be in Moingona.
I had forgotten that I had went back to Madrid after RAGBRAI had left their town and took a picture of the art that Madrid put on their streets to greet the RAGBRAI riders. I will get more into what Madrid and other towns did for RAGBRAI when I get into the land based photos at some point. But it is sufficient at this point to note that Madrid went with a Alice in Wonderland theme and for me the best part was the giant Cheshire Cat mural they put on the intersection of the two main streets of their business district.
This collection of pictures is a reminder of why I hate powerlines so much. It is 2023 people! Why aren’t all powerlines buried underground or why isn’t electricity transferred without wire like Tesla pretended to invent?!?
When this publishes I will be in possession of my Iowa State Fair Photo Contest entries. So at this time, I can lift the blackout on what pictures I entered and what picture was accepted for display. I assume that everybody honored my social media blackout of my picture. And I thank you for that.
Here are the pictures I submitted. The one that got some love and the ones that were told “Get out of here kid! You have no future!”.
Not Selected for Display
Honorable Mention – Color People
Not Selected for Display
I wasn’t the only person in this little circle of trust that had pictures displayed at the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon. Logan had two pictures displayed and one of his pictures got a little love on the Iowa State Fair Show on IPTV. Nathanial and Angie both got 3 pictures in and got Honorable Mentions in the Sports class.
I hope more people I know enter again next year. Layla expressed interest in entering. I hope Vest gets back in the game too. I also wonder if Carla won’t consider entering. She is going to enter the Clay County Fair Photo Contest this year.
As for me, I probably start getting organized for next year’s contest. Start a folder of possible entries right now. Maybe I could even break a long standing tradition and have people help pick my submissions. I did give some feedback to Angie, Logan, and Nathanial on their possible entries. Maybe I could do the same. Stranger things have happened.
On Tuesday as we were leaving the Iowa State Fair after the barbecue contest, Scottie D. asked me why I loved the Iowa State Fair. So I thought I would give a list of things I love about the Iowa State Fair:
I’m sure most people would rank food higher on their list. I do love the food at the Iowa State Fair, but it isn’t actually one of the main attractions for me. I used to have a go-to where I would always get a grinder from Jennie’s Grinder, but Jennie passed away several years ago and I have never found a replacement. There is a “grinder” place near where Jennie’s used to be that sells “Gizmos”. But they aren’t anywhere near the same. Starting with the fact that they don’t use sausage, they use beef. Blah! There is a different grinder place at the State Fair, but I will get into that at a later date.
I also used to get a turkey leg from the Iowa Turkey Federation, but I’ve fallen out of love with the turkey leg. It is just not that much food for the price and it is just too darn messy. But it is very photogenic. Hard to beat a picture with a giant turkey leg.
#9 – People WatchingIt is hard to beat the Iowa State Fair for people watching. It truly is a crossroads of all of humanity. You can just post up on a bench anywhere and for hours fascinating things and people walking by.
I love the fact that there is so much free entertainment everywhere in the Fair. From concerts on the free stages to chainsaw sculpture artists to the bands playing in Pioneer Hall to the entertainers that are roaming the fairgrounds. There are hypnotists to musicians to jugglers to things that kind of defy description.
From the lunkers in the DNR Building to the Biggest Bull to the Biggest Boar to the Avenue of the Breeds I love checking out the animals. And such a wide variety. From turtles to ducks to rabbits to cows to sheep to pigs to chickens to ostriches to elk to horses there is an incredible variety to check out.
There so much amazing art to check out at the Fair. From sweet murals to sculptures to interactive art displays to sand sculptures to hay sculptures to butter sculptures to so much more.
It is well documented that the Discovery Garden is one of my favorite places at the Iowa State Fair. However, it isn’t the only place to check-out flowers and do some flowertography at the fair. There are 27 flowerbeds and 13,000 flowers. Roses, vinca, zinnias, marigolds… oh my!
Obviously I’m partial to the Photography Salon, but there is literally a contest for everybody at the Iowa State Fair. From the barbecue contest to the Ugly Cake Contest to the Big Pumpkin Contest to pie eating to husband calling to the chicken calling to the cow chip throwing to rubber chicken throwing to outhouse racing to horseshoes to crocheting to the 4-H to FFA to the Bill Reilly Talent Show! There are 178 canning categories to enter alone!
I love street photography! Any place where there is great people watching, art, flowers, animals, and food… to name just a few… you know there is going to be photo opportunities every where you look!
I love the tradition of the State Fair. I have many personal traditions I have every year at the Fair. Some are to remind me of others (such as the Scottish Highland at the Avenue of the Breeds) and some are relatively new (such as going to watch Evie and Layla dance). I have a list of things that I have to do every year. And those are my traditions.
Going to the State Fair is something that reminds me of family. Both biological and the family I don’t share DNA with. This year I saw Logan and Amanda there. Elainie and Sabas. At one time I was going to go with Teresa and/or Carla before plans fell through. Logan entered the Photo Contest this year. Which is a family tradition. My Dad used to enter the photo contest. Winning the Slide Category one year. My parents both used to volunteer in Pioneer Hall and had a booth there as well.
This year I also met up with the extended family of the Gorshes and the Degeneffes and the Jennings. Nader and Jesse as well. Well maybe, Nader. It is supposed to be in the ballpark of triple digits today, so as of the writing of this entry it is unclear if he ended up punking out.
I might make these power rankings a new Iowa State Fair tradition! Until next year’s Fair!
On the Tuesday of RAGBRAI I went to check out the festivities in Luther. I expected Luther to be empty by the time I got there and expected everybody to already be in Ames. But Luther was absolutely packed. I’m guessing the people at Whatcha Smokin’ must have made a million dollars the place was so packed. I’m guess the population of Luther more than quintupled.
After checking it out, I drove a couple of miles east of Luther and took some drone pictures of people riding from Luther to Ames.
Not sure what the next set of drone pictures will be. I need to take Rodan139 out again. While I still can. Drone laws are getting pretty ridiculous.
Time to cleanup a little bit more of the backlog. These pictures are from November of last year that didn’t really fit into any other previous posts. Most are alternates for various THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme.
Always feels good when you get a bit of that backlog cleared out!
During the Tuesday of RAGBRAI, Logan and I drove west to take some pictures of the riders making their way across Iowa. It had been several years since I’ve checked out RAGBRAI, but I had a great time or at least found so many great photo opportunities which is essentially the same thing, that I might have to make this an annual thing. Even though it will be several years before they come close to me again.
Here are some drone pictures from the first place I took the drone up, west of Jefferson:
I have one more collection of drone photos from the Tuesday of RAGBRAI to share.
A couple weeks back when the smoke from the Canadian wildfires was still hitting Iowa pretty hard I took Rodan139 out west of Boone to work out a few gimbal issues. I took a few pictures of the sunset and it seems a shame to let them go to waste.
Next time I will share some Rodan139 images, they will be some I took when RAGBRAI was in Greene County.
It is confession time. I haven’t always been great with the organization of my drone photos. I am much better now as I treat them the same as how I treat all my other pictures. Recently I came across some drone photos that I thought I had lost I took on a road trip with Logan and Brandon. They are the famous Tree in the Middle of the Road located roughly in Audubon County. Kind of in the middle of nowhere.
Here they are:
The legend of this tree that is in the middle of an intersection is ” The story is when the county lines were being established the surveyor placed a green cottonwood stick into the ground at the exact point where the lines crossed and grew into the present tree.”
Directions to the tree:
From U.S. Highway 71 at the town of Brayton, travel east on County Road T to F-65 and follow the green “Tree in the Road” signs on the gravel roads.
From Exira, go east on F-58 and follow the green ”Tree in the Road” signs. As you approach the curve take the gravel off the west side of Littlefield Park.
