Category Archives: Flowers

Andy, Becky, Carla, Elainie, Elizabeth, Flowers, Jen, Kim, Macro, Michelle, Micky, Monica, Tamara, Teresa, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 244 – RULE OF THIRDS

May 19, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

33 straight weeks of double digit submissions! There won’t be an easier theme than RULE OF THIRDS, so I’m not surprised!

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

Andy Sharp

Teresa Kahler

Kim Barker

Elizabeth Nordeen

Tamara Peterson

Becky Parmelee

Micky Augustin

Monica Henning

Jen Ensley-Gorshe

Carla Stensland

Michelle Haupt

Christopher D. Bennett

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:

SELF-PORTRAIT

SELF-PORTRAIT! What a great theme! A SELF-PORTRAIT is simply when the photographer is taking a picture of themselves!

I can’t wait to see your interpretations!

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HOUSEKEEPING

A MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 RULES DIVISION

The picture has to be taken the week of the theme. This isn’t a curate your pictures challenge. This is a get your butt off the couch (my personal experience) and put your camera in your hands challenge. Don’t send me a picture of you next to the Eiffel Tower, when I know you were in Iowa all week. I will point out that I have let that slide some in the past. I will not in the future. Since it is literally about the only rule.

Your submission needs to be emailed to bennett@photography139.com by 11 AM on the Monday of the challenge due date.

I now allow people to text me their submissions. In the past, I had made exceptions for a couple people that aren’t real computer savvy, even though it was an inconvenience for me and required at least 3 extra steps for me. I am now lifting that embargo because I have a streamline way of uploading photos. I’m not giving out my phone number, but if you have it, you can text me.

It should be pointed out that this blog auto-publishes at 12:01 on Mondays. So it wouldn’t hurt to get your picture in earlier.

That is it, them’s the rules.

A MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION DIVISION

Elainie Hernandez is the latest person to show taste, class, and sophistication by signing for a Photography 139 email subscription. She has extended the geographic reach of the Photography 139 empire all the way to San Diego! I was hoping to visit her and Sabas this summer, but I guess we’ll have to wait to see how this pandemic plays out. I’m guessing it just won’t happen. But welcome aboard Elainie!

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That’s all I got for today, so if the good Lord’s willin’ and the creek don’t rise, we will commune right here again next Monday. Hopefully it will be a very self involved Monday!

9 Emotions Project, Alexis, Animals, Birthdays, Black & White, Boone County Fair, Flowers, Grandma, Kanoa, Mark, Mission Trip, Mom, Nature, Railroad, Self-Portrait, Steph, WPC - Reminder

WEEK 245 THEME REVEAL

May 18, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

I need to start this post by pointing out that today is a very important day. Today is Stephanie’s birthday! Happy birthday Stephanie!

I hope your birthday is safe and amazing!

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I’m going to be away from computers for much of today, so I won’t be able to reveal the RULE OF THIRDS submissions until some point tomorrow. However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t start working on this week’s theme right away:

SELF-PORTRAIT

A SELF-PORTRAIT picture is quite simply, a picture of yourself. Almost, but not quite as easy as RULE OF THIRDS.

I look forward to seeing your interpretations!

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I also recently added to THE CANVAS WALL PROJECT. I eight new 16×20 images to the wall. I’m almost done with the project. I have basically the bottom row to finish. Most of those pictures have been ordered too and should arrive sometime this week.

However, these are the eight 16×20 images that were most recently added to the wall:

After I get the pictures that should arrive on Wednesday in place, I believe I will only need 4 more pictures to finish this project off. But it could be more. I could also be less. But my initial calculations indicate 4 more.

But I’ve been wrong before. Don’t want to be wrong any more.

Becca, Bethany, Billy, Black & White, Cathie, Colleen, Dory, Flat Earth Joe, Flowers, Formal Portrait, Holidays, J.T., Jonah, Macro, Michelle, Micky, Nate, Nora, Taylan

Senior Sunday – Taylan – Volume 4

May 10, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

I need to start this post buy wishing all mothers out there a very happy Mother’s Day. Take this picture of a Mother’s Day Peony as my way of saying thanks for all that you mothers do!

My Mom’s Mother Day wasn’t typical. Teresa bought some Pizza Ranch chicken and we hung out and watched Netflix. She went out to Carla’s for a short grill-out in the evening. But I’m sure she still considered a successful Mother’s Day.

Hope all you mothers had a successful Mother’s Day too!

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Today is Becca’s birthday. Happy birthday Becca!

I hope it was a truly magical birthday!

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Also, happy birthday to Michelle!

I hope your birthday was as amazing as you wanted it to be!

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Finally, it is yet another Senior Sunday and it is once again Taylan’s turn in the rotation. Here are more pictures of Taylan:

Still a ton more Taylan photos still to come!

Andy, Black & White, Flowers, Iowa State, Macro, Music, Nature, Work, WPC - Alternate

You Know, I Hurt Myself As Well

May 8, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

35 days working from home in the book. I did discover a new positive about working from home this week. I had to go into the physical computer mine twice this week because Apple products suck. They really do. I have nothing positive to say about them.

But that isn’t the positive. The positive I figured out two positives for working from home on my trip to the mine.

One, I can control the lights in my office. I usually just daylight that streams in from my south facing office windows is enough. But on cloudy days I will sometimes run a lamp. If I need more light for some reason I can turn on the overhead lamp.

The mine has the soul crushing fluorescent lighting that is always on. I miss many things about the mine, but the lighting isn’t one of them.

The other positive, my own toilet paper. Seems like a minor thing, but the toilet paper at the mine leaves a lot to be desired. A lot!

My home listening habits were the same. Life 107.1 from 7-9. Then The Master Playlist until 2 PM roughly. This week I made it all the way to track number 1456, “Don’t Speak” by No Doubt.

A decent pandemic song:

“You and me, we used to be together
Every day together, always
I really feel that I’m losin’ my best friend
I can’t believe this could be the end”

I did delete a couple songs from the Master Playlist for sound quality reasons:

#1337 – “You” by Candlebox
#1299 – “Slow Ride” by Foghat

Pretty sure I will finish off the Master Playlist next week. At that time, it will be time, to start adding to it. That should be fun!

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Here is a reminder that the Sharp family is collecting empty laundry detergent jugs to fill with homemade laundry detergent to donate to local pantries. They have setup a collection can at the end of their driveway for you to leave your empty jugs.

They live at the very end of Division Street. Keep going south on Division until you can’t go any farther. It is easy and contact free. I dropped off a couple of jugs last night:

If you can’t find it, drop your jugs off to me and I’ll get them there.

Here are a few pictures of their soap operation that Andy has sent me:

It is a great ministry and I hope some of you can help them out!

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Last Saturday I went over to Iowa State to walk the campus with Teresa. While I was there I took a few TREE pictures that didn’t quite make the cut for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE on Monday. Here are a few of them:

Iowa State University, still world’s reigning champ for most beautiful campus!

The cherry blossom pictures are from my backyard though.

Alisa, Christianity, Equipment, Flowers, Macro, Still Life

Singleness

May 7, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

Photography 139 subscriber and all around swell person Alisa Baker was recently featured on the podcast “The Upside Down Kingdom”. I encourage you to give it a listen, because she has some real interesting things to say:

If you got this blog in an email, you will have to go to the website to listen to the podcast.

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I recently purchased a photo rail to help me do some super-macro photography. What is a 4 way macro focusing rail slider. Can’t picture that in your head. Well it looks something like this:

The rail system really aids in doing some precision focusing with a super macro lens I purchased a couple years ago, but has very limited functionality and is very user unfriendly.

But with the rail, I was able to make these images on my first round of experimentation:

Since it might be hard to figure out what the subjects of these pictures are they are sidewalk chalk, cherry blossoms, and a dandelion.

These pictures are not cropped. This is the full resolution of the original images. This new toy should be lots of fun!

Animals, Flowers, Macro, State Fair

I Miss Your Smile, And I Miss Your Touch

April 22, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

Here is the second collection of pictures of flowers I took at the Iowa State Fair on the last day of the Iowa State Fair. Almost all of these were taken in the Discovery Garden. The last one was taken near Pioneer Hall.

I see more than a couple potential future photo contest entries or calendar pages or additions to THE CANVAS WALL PROJECT in this collection. Hopefully there is an Iowa State Fair or a Boone County Fair or Pufferbilly Days to have a contest. At the very least THE CANVAS WALL PROJECT isn’t going anywhere.

Animals, Flowers, Macro, State Fair

Dear Love, I Miss You Much

April 21, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 4 Comments

I’ve finally hit the point in the backlog where I am emotionally, spiritually, physically, and psychologically prepared to start curating pictures of flowers from the Iowa State Fair.

It is known that one of my favorite places at the Iowa State Fair is the Discovery Garden. I have to spend at least a couple hours there every year. In fact, here is my power rankings of my 5 favorite places at the Iowa State Fair:

#5. The Avenue of the Breeds
#4. Pioneer Hall
#3. Cultural Center
#2. DNR Building
#1. Discovery Garden

#5 is because Shorty used to take his Scottish Highland cows there. #4 is because my parents used to volunteer there. #3 is because that is where the Photography Salon is located and also because the cheapest Pepsi refills are in the courtyard. #2. Is because it is one of my favorite places to photograph. #1 is because it is my favorite place to photograph.

This list is off the top of my head. I’m sure if I considered the list longer, some of these would be shuffled. Others might be added, like the Animal Learning Center, Heritage Village, 4-H Building, or the Big Boar.
However, I’m pretty sure no matter how many times I made the list, the Discovery Garden would almost always be #1.

Here is the first of two collections of flower pictures from the 2019 Iowa State Fair:

The first few pictures were taken inside the Agriculture Building. The rest were taken in the Discovery Garden.

Flowers, Naima

Hasbro

April 15, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

One of the problems with being so far behind in photo editing is that I come across a collection of pictures and I vaguely remember why I took them. I believe that I took most of this pictures when I was dinking around with the “toy camera” setting on the old 77II. I think I was doing that for a picture for the TOY theme of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE, but I couldn’t testify to that in a court of law. Rashomon!!!

I’m so ready for flowers to be back. I mean real flowers. Sorry daffodils, you just don’t do it for me!

Animals, Flowers, Macro

Speed of the Sound of Loneliness

April 8, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

This collection of pictures I took back in October. All of these pictures were taken in my backyard.

I’m down to 3 rows of folders to curate int he 2019 backlog now. That is a completely meaningless statistic to you, but it is pretty big milestone for me.

Flowers, Macro, Vest, Work

Yesterday is Gone Now

April 2, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

People have actually asked me what I have been listening to while I have been working from home. I just finished off Day 9 from work from home and my listening choices have reflected a little bit what they are when I work at the office.

Now I can’t listen to music in a meaningful way when I’m at the office. But on my drive to work I listen to 96.1. It seems to center me and prepares me for the day.

I now listen to 96.1 from 7-9 in the morning. After that, I have been listening to classical music.

Today I listened to Rachmaninoff, Liszt, Ravel, and Dvorak.
On Wednesday I listened to Richard Strauss, Wagner, Johannes Strauss, and Brahms.
On Tuesday, I listened to Chopin, Schubert, Beethoven, and Mozart.
On Monday, I listened to Haydn, Handel, Vivaldi, and Bach.
Tomorrow, I have Mendelssohn, Grieg, and Schumann on deck.

One thing I discovered is that I now like Liszt way more than I recall. I’m going to have to pursue this at a future time.

The classical music usually takes me to about 2:30. The last 90 minutes of my day I listen to Murph and Andy on KXNO.

I don’t know if I can think of any other positives about working from home, but I can say that this week I’m starting to hit more of my stride. I have a better handle on my system now. Hopefully it is smooth sailing here on out.

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Tonight’s post is a bit of a short post. I worked with my webmaster a bit this evening to work out some kinds in the website that resulted from a recent update. That took up some of my website time.

However, I think those of you that don’t hate flowers will enjoy this small collection of flower photos I took last October:

Zinnias and mum, if you are wondering.