Category Archives: Flowers

Black & White, Flowers, Formal Portrait, Photoshop, Saydie

Congratulations Saydie – Theta

July 22, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett

It is Sunday. It is 8 PM. It is time to check in with everybody’s favorite high school graduate… SAYDIE!!!

Here is some more free advice for Saydie on how to live her life:

“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all—in which case, you fail by default.”
—J.K. Rowling

This is the second to last collection of photos from Saydie’s Senior Pictures Photo Shoot:

For those of you that have become addicted to Saydie pictures and are worried that you don’t know what to do when they end next Sunday, don’t worry. You’ll find the strength to carry on!

Animals, Flowers, Macro, State Fair

After Women

July 17, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett 3 Comments

After women, flowers are the mostly lovely thing God has given the world.
-Christian Dior

This collection of flower pictures comes from the Iowa State Fair in 2016.

There is good news about this collection.

#1. I am now almost finished editing the pictures from 2016 that need to be edited.
#2. I came to a conclusion while editing these photos that may take me in a different direction with an entirely different photo project.

Here are the rest of the 2016 Iowa State Flower Pictures:

Now maybe I can start editing pictures from my 2017 trip to the Iowa State Fair!

Animals, Baby Got Rack, Flowers, Macro, State Fair

Take the Time to Plant

July 11, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett 3 Comments

I hope that while so many people are out smelling the flowers, someone is taking the time to plant some.
― Herbert Rappaport

Digging deep into the backlog here. The following are pictures from an August 2016 trip to the Iowa State Fair. Yes, I have pictures from 2016 I still haven’t even edited.

As many of you know, I the Discovery Garden is my favorite place on the Iowa State Fair fairgrounds. Every trip to the State Fair I make a stop there. This is often when I tell the people that go with me, go do something else. I’ll meet up with you later.

This particular trip to the State Fair was when Baby Got Rack was competing in the Farm Bureau Barbecue Contest. While the meat was smoking, I snuck over and grabbed these photos.

Animals, Contests, Flowers, Macro, State Fair

Without Troubling a Star

July 10, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett 4 Comments

All things by immortal power. Near of faR, to each other linked are, that thou canst not stir a flower without troubling a star.
-Francis Thompson

This post signifies the final batch of photos from Donna’s flower garden. However, before we get into that, I need to make an announcement.

Results for 2018 Iowa State Fair Photography Salon

I got two pictures into the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon this year!

A few things I want to clarify:

#1. The Iowa State Fair Photo Contest and the Boone County Fair Photo Contest are not connected. They are completely independent and couldn’t be more unrelated. The Iowa State Fair Photography Salon is one of the hardest photo contests in the country. People from all over enter it. They only display 20% of the pictures that are displayed. Full-time professional photographers often don’t get photos in. Past judges don’t get photos in. The judges change every year, so it is impossible to guess what the judges are looking for every year. I pick the photos I enter into that contest. It is the contest I take seriously, even though I know it can be very arbitrary.

#2. Therefore, the photos I entered were not the same photos that I had people voting on last week. Those photos are for the Boone County Fair. The Boone County Fair doesn’t start for another week. I will enter the photos that people voted on July 21.

#3. I have a rule that I don’t enter a picture in more than one photo contest. Therefore, none of the pictures I entered in the Iowa State Fair were in the list of 50 pictures that people could vote on for the Boone County Fair.

#4. I don’t know what pictures were selected. You are allowed to enter up to 4 pictures. I entered 4, but I Don’t know what 2 were accepted for display. 2 of the 4 entered I haven’t released yet for public consumption. No real reason for that, other than I haven’t gotten around to it yet.

#5. I’ll get to find out what two got accepted for display when I go to the Photographer Reception. I think that is the Sunday before the Iowa State Fair, but I haven’t really looked into that yet.

#6. Finally, if you go to the Iowa State Fair and want to see the pictures in person, the Photography Salon is on the top floor of the Cultural Building. You can ask the attendants where pictures by certain photographers are and they will show you, if you don’t want the challenge of trying to find them on your own.

#7. In about a month I’ll unveil the process of picking the photos for the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest. It will be similar-ish to the way we did the Boone County Fair Photo Contest, but with some slight tweaks.

I’m pretty stoked. Glad I came out of Photography Contest Retirement!

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Here are the rest of the flower pictures:

Don’t worry Russell, there is plenty more flower pictures in the backlog!

Black & White, Flowers, Macro, Nader, Photoshop

06-01-2008

July 7, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

Today’s pictures came from the folder 06-01-2008.

Many of these pictures were taken when Nader came back from visiting his family in London. He came back with a horrible mustache. I’m still not quite over it a decade later.

Let this be a warning to you. You want to be my friend, don’t grow a mustache. I will forgive most things, but some things are beyond forgiveness.

Also some flower pictures.

By adding these images to the Photography 139 Photography Gallery I was able to restore the following historic “An Artist’s Notebook” entries to their original glory:

Real American

Random Flower Day

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve anther night at Ames on the Half Shell.

Flowers, Macro

Stacked!

July 5, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett 3 Comments

The other day I decided to play with a new photography technique called “focus stacking”. Here is the resulting image:

Focus stacking has become trendy lately. It is sorta the current HDR, which was way too trendy about 4 or 5 years ago.

Focus stacking involves stacking multiple images with different focus points together to extend the depth of focus of an image.

These are the images I stacked:

On a personal note, these are the first time I’ve had hollyhocks in a couple years. I’m ecstatic that they are back Ecstatic I say!!

Andy, Animals, Baby Got Rack, Contests, Flowers, Football, Holidays, Iowa State, Kio, Linda, Macro, Michelle, Micky, Mom, Nature, Pastor Sarah, Photoshop, Shannon, Teresa, Travel, Vest

Freedom and Flowers

July 4, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

With freedom, books, flowers, and the moon, who could not be happy?
-Oscar Wilde

Before we get into the meat of today’s blog, we need to start with…

Happy 4th of July!

I hope you had an continue to have an enjoyable 4th of July!

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Time to hit up the back log and publish more pictures from Donna Jones’s flower bed!

There are more of Donna Jones’ flowers in the hopper. For those of you that are fans of “flower porn” as Micky likes to call it.

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The votes have been tabulated and these are the photos that I will be entering in the Boone County Fair:

Technically there was a frog picture that got more votes than the picture of Shorty, but I’m not going a photo contest without entering a black & white image.

Thanks to the people that voted: Sarah Karber, Michelle, Micky, Vest, Mom, Teresa, Shannon, Kio, Aunt Linda, Jordan, Andy, and all of the fellow SmugMuggers that voted.

If you want to see the photos in the flesh (so to speak) they will be on display at the Community Building at the Boone County Fairgrounds. on July 21 and 22.

Baby Got Rack will also probably be competing on July 21. So mark your calendar!

We will do something similar when it comes to the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest.

9 Emotions Project, Animals, Bethany, Black & White, Contests, Flowers, Formal Portrait, Macro, Nature, Travel

The 9 Emotions Project – Bethany

July 3, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett

Reminder, tonight at midnight is the deadline to vote on what pictures I enter at the Boone County Fair Photo Contest. Click on the link below to vote:

If the website isn’t working for you, email/text me your votes.

BOONE COUNTY FAIR PHOTO CONTEST ENTRY SELECTION

You must have a Facebook account or a Google+ account to vote. You vote by leaving a comment on a photo. You can vote for up to 5 photos.

If the website isn’t working for you, email/text me your votes.

Here are the currently leaders:

There are several pictures that are tied for the last 2 spots.

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Bethany was the most recent victim… subject of THE 9 EMOTIONS PROJECT. She is the 23rd person to participate in the project. I always have my eye on the next person to participate in the project. I can think of at least 3 people that have claimed that they were interested, but have yet to full under the aperture blades.

If you want to be #24, just contact me and we will get you on the calendar.

Bethany’s sitting was unique in the fact that I was experimenting with a new lighting set up for her session. She was a good sport.

Bethany – The 9 Emotions

In case you have forgotten, these are The 9 Emotions:

Joy

Sadness

Anger

Amusement

Fear

Jealousy

Surprise

Sympathy

Boredom

Hopefully I’ll publishing #24 very soon.

If you want to see past THE 9 EMOTIONS PROJECT subjects, click on the link below:

THE 9 EMOTIONS PROJECT

Maybe you’ll be inspired!

Andy, Art, Candid Portrait, Flowers, Jaxon, Mission Trip, Travel, Vacation, Youth Group

Houston (Vidor) Mission Trip – Day 3

July 2, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

This is my telling of my experience on the Boone First United Methodist Church Youth Group’s Mission Trip to Houston (Vidor). There were 18 people on the mission trip and all of them experienced the mission trip in a completely different way than I did.

Therefore, you should pull your tired bones out of bed on Sunday, July 8 and drag yourself to the basement of the Boone First United Methodist Church (703 Arden Street) between worship services (approximately 10 AM) and listen to the other 17 people give their testimony about the mission trip. I’ll probably run my yap as well. There will also be a video. Also, there will be refreshments.

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The Cowboys had breakfast prep. This means that you have to be in the kitchen by 6:45 to make breakfast for everybody. I like having this chore on Monday because it gets it out of the way early. Although truth is that the only chore I don’t really like is Building Maintenance because it involves cleaning toilets. I have that in common with many of my co-workers and the employees at that Road Ranger in Illinois.

This was my day in pictures:

Kolbe and Jordan cutting lunch supplies. Everybody makes and packs their own lunch. You eat lunch at your work site.

Anna bageling.

Mackenzie, right on time!

The Schoff Boys waiting for breakfast.

The breakfast prep team has to do a little skit to announce what is for breakfast in the morning. We had cereal.

The Heat Waves had breakfast cleanup. Andy and Emily doing dishes.

Andy doing dishes.

Jentry.

Hailey clearing the tubs.

Donovan changing garbage.

Heat Waves cleaning up after everybody had packed their lunch.

Not going to lie, the Cowboys got probably the easiest work assignment. While most groups installed insulation and hung drywall, we puttied, caulked, and painted. Lots of window trim and doors.

Kolbe puttying.

Megan puttying.

Anna painting trim.

Mackenzie and Tiffany painting doors.

Lunch!

Megan and Cousin Kari painting doors.

Kolbe!

Anna!

Jordan and Anna!

It still hadn’t stopped raining!

A masterpiece.

Mackenzie!

Anna knocking out that door.

Jake from Missouri.

Megan!

Pretty flower!

The Cowboys didn’t come to play (okay maybe a little bit)!

More closet action!

Cleaning up for the day!

More cleanup!

Mackenzie was our inventory master!

A hard day’s work.

More hard workers!

A FEMA trailer. The woman who’s house we were working on lives in the FEMA trailer. She is 91 years old. I sent this picture to Flat Earth Joe because he believes that eventually we will all be rounded up into FEMA camps. If recent events are any indication, those FEMA camps will be abandoned Wal-Marts and Toys’r’Uses, but I wanted him to see FEMA at work.

Long shot of clean up.

We took people to Sonic. That meant somebody had to go out in the rain to get the van.

Guess who that was?

Sonic!

This game is called Signs. Megan is really, really bad at it. She was always in the middle.

YouthWorks has a nightly cultural event. This was easily the weakest that we ever had. Monday night’s cultural event was listening to a speaker from Nehemiah’s Vision. She came to the building we were staying at and spoke for about 15 minutes. The bonus was that there was more free time before worship in free time.

Not pictured: Kolbe really likes the song CARAVAN and the boys from the other churches really, really like the song COUNTRY ROADS.

Animals, Art, Black & White, Contests, Flowers, Formal Portrait, Photoshop, Road Trip, Saydie, Travel

Congratulations Saydie – Epsilon

July 1, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett

Reminder, you have until next Tuesday at midnight to vote on what pictures I enter at the Boone County Fair Photo Contest. Click on the link below to vote: