Category Archives: Iowa State

Andree, Candid Portrait, Football, Iowa State, Jesse, Jorge, Road Trip, Self-Portrait, Street Photography, Travel

Camping World Bowl Road Trip Day 3 – The Game

April 29, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

Day 3 was the only day we spent entirely in Orlando. It was one full day too many. Orlando is flat out one of the worst cities I’ve ever visited. It is dirty. It is poorly laid out. There is no culture. There is no music. There is no historical significance. There are no beaches. There aren’t any parks. There isn’t much to do.

I would rank Orlando just above Omaha for worst cities I’ve ever visited. Frankly, if I never go back to Orlando again, that is just fine.

The Camping World Bowl Stadium is in the worst part of Orlando. Most of the businesses that surround it are liquor stores or bail bonds. There is also a high school.

There is hardly any parking around it. What is there is poorly organized.

The stadium itself is okay. It isn’t a festering dump that ought to be burned down like where Kansas plays. However it isn’t all that nice of a stadium either.

There was a great fear that we were going to be rained on all game. That didn’t happen. It rained for a little bit. But we thought we had won the jackpot because we were sitting under the ledge of the upper deck, so we were protected from the rain.

However, we actually lost that hand. We sat under a pipe that leaked on us the entire game. So instead of being protected from a rain that barely showed up. We were the only wet people in the stadium. It is a shame we weren’t on the Notre Dame side of the stadium. It was pretty much empty. We could have sat anywhere we wanted. Instead, we sat there getting dripped on.

Here are some pictures from the morning:

#wafflelife

I ate walnuts in tribute to my Grandpa Paris, the man that introduced me to Iowa State football.

Lagoon behind our hotel.

Yeah, they have these dicks in Florida too.

I think this statue is a tribute to pedophiles that also play football.

We met up with Dre and his bro before the game.

View from backside of the stadium.

The game didn’t go the way we wanted. Iowa State finished the season decimated by injuries and it showed when they played one of the best teams in the country.

We left the stadium wet and down, but ready to see if this awful city called Orlando had anything to offer.

Animals, Black & White, Iowa State

Elaine, the Lily Maid of Astolat,

April 23, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

Here is the rest of the pictures I took hanging out on the most beautiful campus in the world with with a couple swans as my only company.

I haven’t been to Ames since I started working from home. One of the things I look forward to is visiting the beautiful Iowa State campus in the future.

Animals, Black & White, House, Iowa State

Elaine the Fair, Elaine the Loveable,

April 21, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 12 Comments

I need to start this post with warning you that if you are the type of fool that believes the false narrative that I hate cats, then you will want to turn back now! You will surely misinterpret what lies below to be anti-cat propaganda. It is not anti-cat propaganda. It is pro-public health propaganda. For the record, I agree with Orwell’s assertion that all art is propaganda. Don’t misinterpret this art as anything but pro-public health propaganda.

I feel like I should do a little bit better job documenting my cleaning. However, most of my cleaning is already done, unless you want to discuss the basement. I don’t want to discuss the basement. Why did you bring the basement up?

Last week I completed two minor, but majorly annoying cleaning projects. One was cleaning out my cupboard of all expired food. I didn’t realize that would mean pretty much throwing away everything thing that was in my cupboard. I suppose I should have.

I had lasagna noodle that expired in 2011. A bread mix that expired in 2013. I didn’t buy many groceries before this pandemic. I won’t be buying much to restock my cupboard. I clearly don’t use what I bought in the past, so replacing it would be throwing good money after bad.

I took a couple pictures though:

Everything in that bag is from the cupboard.

This is what the cupboard looks like now.

The other major, but minor thing I accomplished was getting rid of all my empty pop cans. I only drink pop once a week now, so I don’t produce a ton of empty cans, yet somehow my giant garbage can dedicated to empty cans had overflowed a long time ago. The recent winds have blown empty cans all over the yard.

Here is my dichotomy. I fully support the can deposit program. Have you ever been to a state that doesn’t have a can deposit program? Trust me. Tennessee is filthy. It makes Missouri look like Minnesota.

The other side of that coin is that I hate taking my cans in. As far as I know, Boone closed its can redemption center years ago. Taking it to Walmart is scarier than any abandoned rest area horror movie you’ve ever seen. The people there. Terrifying.

Plus the smell! The smell is absolutely unbelievable. Not in a good way. Not in the I can’t believe it’s not butter, kind of way. I would describe the smell as high fructose corn syrup and skunk.

And, it gets worse, everything is sticky. A deep sticky too. A deep sticky that makes you wonder if this is just dried up sugar.

You can see the bind I was in, and then the answer came to me out of thin air. Then landed in my cell phone in the form of a text message.

My inside guy (who shall remain nameless to protect their identity because I know that people who own cats suffer from a wide range of mental maladies) texted me to tell me that the fact that cats can get the coronavirus puts the future of the Community Cat Program in danger.

I have long been an opponent of the repugnant Community Cat Program in Boone. Mostly because having cats in the neighborhood lowers your property value. I didn’t buy this house to have Johnny 3 Cat move in next door and drop the value of my house 15%.

I certainly don’t need a cat strolling around my neighborhood on the government dime doing the same thing.

The text jogged something loose in mind. The Boone Area Humane Society has a spot where they accept cans to help fund their activities. I could drop my cans off there!

However, I wanted to make sure they knew that my generous donation of maybe 7 bucks didn’t got to the Community Cat Program, which now, due to cats being able to contract the coronavirus, is a matter of public health safety.

So I made a graphic called Coronacat-Banned:

I printed 3 of them out and taped them to my 3 bags of cans to make it was clear that the money raised from these cans are not to be used to supported the Community Coronacat Program:

It is a matter of public health safety. I’m sure they will have no problem deciphering my graphic.

Remember, “All art is propaganda; the other hand; not all propaganda is art.”

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This collection from the 2019 backlog are from pictures I took around Lake LaVerne.

I have one more swan collection from this day spent on the most beautiful campus in the entire world.

Black & White, Derrick, Football, Iowa State, Music

Iowa State 121 Bad Guys 44

April 14, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

I didn’t take many pictures at Iowa State football games last year because they are getting stricter about the type of camera you are allowed to carry in. At least they are to me. I see plenty of other people walking in with comparable cameras, but I digress.

No, I don’t digress. The rule as written on the Cyclones website is that Cameras with lens longer than 6 inches is prohibited. Cameras with a lens less than 6 inches is permitted. However, sometimes, security people try to interpret that as nothing that they deem “professional” or anything with a “removable” lens. It is frustrating to educate security people on the rules that they are supposed to enforce and what imaginary rules in their head that they are not allowed to enforce.

After the Iowa game, I only took the Sony RXOII to a couple of games and to the Louisiana-Monroe game I took an old Sony point & shoot that Logan gave me. I wanted to give it a shot to see if it would work as a gameday camera that would prevent me from having to have to have conversations with security people.

The point & shoot takes okay pictures, but it isn’t nearly fast enough to take action photos.

Any way, here are a few pictures I took at the Louisiana-Monroe and TCU games:

Okay, I only had one run-in with a security guard this year. But I did win the run-in.

Candid Portrait, Derrick, Football, Iowa State, Jen, Olympic Sports, Sara

2009-09-27

March 28, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

The pictures from the folder 2009-09-27 come from a Saturday when I went down to Des Moines to watch Jen compete in the Des Moines Regatta and watched Iowa State beat Army in football.

All the pageantry that comes with Army coming to your stadium is pretty amazing. Iowa State was also schedule to play both Navy and Air Force, but both those games got cancelled after the Big 12 went to a 9 game conference schedule and some nonconference games had to be cancelled. I still wish those game would get rescheduled, but I know it will never happen.

I’m not sure if this was the last Des Moines Regatta that Jen ever competed in, but I’m pretty sure that it was.

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:

Des Moines Regatta
Army

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve an Art Festival.

Animals, Contests, FNSC, Iowa State, Logan, Pufferbilly Days, Suzie

Pufferbilly Days – 2019

March 26, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

I didn’t take a ton of pictures at Pufferbilly Days last year. Probably because there wasn’t a petting zoo. Probably because I didn’t really make more than an appearance at the parade. Probably because there really wasn’t much left by the time Sunday came around.

I did spend 3 days at Pufferbilly Days. Friday night with Willy at FNSC. Saturday I walked around with Suzie and her friend Michelle. On Sunday I went up and took pictures of my Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest entries, and Logan’s.

Here are a few pictures from Pufferbilly Days:

I think I will appreciate Pufferbilly Days a little more this year than in past years.

Candid Portrait, Football, Iowa State

2009-09-12

March 14, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

The pictures from the folder 2009-09-12 are from the Iowa State-Iowa football game in 2009. I don’t recall who won the game, but I just hope everybody had fun!

Here are a few of my favorite pictures:

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:

The Iowa Hawkeyes

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve the Howards.

Candid Portrait, Football, Holidays, Iowa State, Self-Portrait, Work

2009-09-02 & 2009-09-04

February 22, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

The pictures in the folders 2009-09-02 and 2009-09-04 are from two separate but nearly equally great events.

A couple of the pictures are from Alligator Shirt Day. A holiday that I invented back in 2009, but then forgot to honor on a yearly basis. You can bet dollars to donuts that on the 2021 Photography 139 Calendar, you will find Alligator Shirt Day in it. Just one of the changes you will see in the 2021 calendar as I will make it an even more personal project, since I don’t sell them any longer.

The other event is the Iowa State football game against North Dakota State. Back then, I didn’t realize that North Dakota State had one of the most annoying fanbases in the world. A pretty big accomplishment for a nothing university in a town that nobody would’ve heard of if the Cohen brothers didn’t name a movie after the town and then set the movie in Minnesota.

Here are some pictures:

Iowa State defeated the North Dakota State 34-17 on that evening.

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:

Alligator Shirt Day

North Dakota State

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve a couple of road trips I went on.

Black & White, Flowers, Iowa State, Macro, WPC - Reminder

Behind Curtiss

January 24, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

Last year I failed to make it to Pella to photograph tulips. In fact, I think it has been a couple of years since I’ve been to Pella. Which is sad, because I really enjoy photographing tulips. Even though, there are those that hate my flower photography, I persist.

While I didn’t make it to Pella last year, I did photograph a lovely patch of tulips behind Curtiss Hall on Iowa State’s campus while I was waiting for a Bernie Sanders event to start.

In many ways, that is better than Pella since it is known that Iowa State is superior to Central. While Central is filled with a bunch of wooden-shoe-humpers, Iowa State is filled with some of the best people on earth.

Here are my tulip photos:

Truth is that I will probably effort to make it to Pella this tulip season. If for no reason that I need to visit their bakeries. While dutch letters are straight trash, bokkepootjes are a little slice of heaven.

That is right, Photography 139, come for the high quality flower photography and stay for the straight fire pastry takes.

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This is your reminder that this week’s WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is COUNTRY:

COUNTRY

A COUNTRY photo is any photo that is taken outside of a city or town.

Happy photo harvesting!

Animals, Black & White, Boone County Fair, Calendar, Candid Portrait, Contests, Event, Geri, Iowa State, Jaycees, Jesse, Music, Nature, Road Trip

2009-08-05

December 28, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett 3 Comments

Today we reveal the images for May and June from the 2020 Photography 139 Calendar.

The May Image:

May

The May image is of the Dunning Spring waterfall in Decorah, Iowa. Jesse and I took a road trip to check them out and to photograph them as my birthday road trip. I entered this picture in the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon, but it was not selected for display. In fact, the picture that was selected for display is not in the 2020 calendar. It is the September image for the 2019 calendar. This picture was taken on May 17, 2019.

Details

Camera: Sony ILCA-77M2
Focal Length: 20mm
Aperture: f/18
Exposure: 1/2
ISO: 50

The June Image:

June

If you think it was weird that there was a picture from 2013 in the calendar, then this one will really mess with your head. This black and white image of a swan was taken at Lake Laverne on the beautiful campus of Iowa State University. I came across it when during our Saturday walks down memory lane as I restore old entries of “An Artist’s Notebook”. I liked it and I decided to throw it into the collection of nominees for the pictures I would enter in the Boone County Fair Photo Contest. I didn’t expect anybody to pick it, but Logan did. It won a Purple Ribbon. It was taken May 10, 2006.

Details

Camera: Konica Minolta Dynax 5D
Focal Lenght: 300mm
Aperture: f/5.6
Exposure: 1/500
ISO: 200

Tomorrow we’ll reveal the images for July and August.

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The pictures in the folder 2009-08-05 are from the last Ames Jaycees event I ever attended. It was at that point just a formality. I had joined the Ames on the Half Shell Committee, therefore I was going to fulfill my duties. The moment that last not of the Ames on the Half Shell season faded from existence, I was Audi 5000.

Now that you have sat through several entries about my ill-fated time with the Ames Jaycees, I think you, loyal reader, deserve an explanation for why it came to an end.

I joined the Ames Jaycees for two reasons. First, a friend asked me to join. This person, we will refer to as “1”, was like 1000% into the Ames Jaycees. Her passion was somewhat contagious. I was also doing her a favor because recruiting a new member made her like a 33rd degree Mason. I don’t know, the inner workings and rankings of the organization were something I never cared about. Even when I was at my peak Jayceeness. Which I’m guessing was about January of 2009. my passion for the Jaycees was about a 5 on a scale of 1-10.

By March of 2009, I knew that that my time with the Jaycees was over, but I also knew, I would finish out the Ames on the Half Shell. I was a quitter, but I always finish out my commitments.

In January of 2009 I joined the Board as a Vice-President in some capacity. VP of Promotions or something like that. All it really meant was that I ran the website and had to go to an extra meeting a month. Which was okay, even though I am a person that to their very core, loathes meetings.

Which brings me to the other reason I joined the Jaycees. I needed an excuse to leave my house now and again. This provided that. I didn’t realize it would put so much undesired drama into my life.

The Board was split into basically two factions. There were 1’s friends, who were also all 1000% into the Jaycees. The other half of the boardroom was dominated by the President and his cronies. The President was apparently buggering one of the vice-presidents, which wasn’t cool because he was married, but not to the vice-president he was buggering. I can’t even recall how this even factored into the story, but it provided me with a chance to use the term buggering.

The President and the VP he was buggering didn’t like one of 1’s friends, we will call her 2. I think it was because 2 knew about the buggering, but I don’t know that to within a degree of certainy. What I do know is that what happened next is that the Buggered VP accused 2 of some creative accounting involving some kind of Halloween drinking outing that involved the Jaycees.

One reason why I was a 5 on the Jaycees at my peak Jayceeness was that they like to talk about drinking. I don’t mean they liked to drink. They liked talking about drinking. You know that thing that high school students and college students do when they drink, they can’t stop talking about it. “Look at me I’m drinking.” Yeah, nobody cares. Shut up and drink your Zima Chad.

This is all hypothetical at this point. I haven’t been around a high school student or college student that is drinking alcohol, since I left the service of the Evil Clown Empire, but I’m sure it hasn’t changed much. Other than, I assume that nobody drinks Zima now. White Claws?

But I digress…

The charges were at least 76% hokum that stemmed from some kind of personal grievance with 2. Plus, there might have been a bit of a power play in there. A chance to show dominance. A chance to show that the Buggered VP wasn’t the President, but she was still running this beach.

I think there was some kind of trial. Not really, it was really just one person’s word and then there was some kind of vote. 2 got sent to Jaycee prison. I think she wasn’t allowed to touch money for a year.

Almost as soon as the sentence was handed down, 1 and all of her friends resigned. Grabbed their Jaycee ball and went to Nevada and Des Moines. That left me alone. Like I said, I was a 5. In January. at this point, I was a 3. Even at a 3, I was willing to stick around and fight for the soul of the Ames Jaycees. When the people who were at a 1000% were like deuces and checked out, I was like make that 3 a -2.

The funny thing is that after everybody else left, 2 stuck around. I’m not sure if I respect that or not. Maybe I’ll have to talk to her about it someday.

I fulfilled my obligations and haven’t been to a Jaycee event since. I sometimes see them at the unofficial reunions and I chalk this up as a life lesson. I don’t leave my house now.

(This is how I remember everything going down, I’m sure some of my details aren’t 100% accurate, but if you are going to complain about that, you can bugger off.)