Category Archives: Macro

Amazing Love

September 2, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

Well over a year ago my Mom paid for a brick to honor her Dad for his military service that was to be placed around the Boone County Freedom Rock. I believe that she ended up splitting that cost with her brothers and sisters. Then she purchased a brick to honor Elainie. It took well over a year and she never got to see the bricks, but they are finally in place. Well they are sorta in place:

If you look at the brick that honors Elainie’s military service, you will notice that they misspelled her name. This is supposedly going to be fixed and replaced with a brick that spells her name correctly. Sooner rather than later, so I guess we will wait and see.

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Here are pictures of some of the flowers I planted at Mom’s house on Mother’s Day. These pictures were taken on May 9, 2021.

The last two are of a squirrel that build a nest in the tree that straddles the property line with her property and the neighbors to the south.

Flowers, Macro, Mom

Crystal Chandeliers

August 26, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

It is time for another collection of pictures of flowers I took in my Mom’s yard. These pictures were taken on May 6, 2021. Once again, almost exclusively tulips, but one picture of an allium.

Still plenty more flower pictures to share.

Flowers, Macro, Mom

She’s Too Good To Be True

August 19, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

It is time for another collection of pictures from my Mom’s flowerbeds. This time the entire collection is of tulips. These pictures were taken on April 29, 2021.

I have many, many more flower pictures to share.

Contests, Flowers, Macro, Mom, State Fair

I’m Just Me

August 12, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

Today is the first day of the Iowa State Fair. In case you haven’t heard, I got 3 out of 4 pictures accepted for display. 2 pictures received Honorable Mentions. I would consider this my second best showing at the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon, behind the year I got all 4 pictures in. I know what two pictures got Honorable Mentions, but I don’t know what the third picture to get accepted for display is at this time. But hopefully by the time this publishes, I will.

It looks like participation might have been down a bit this year. I can’t remember what the numbers were in the past and I’m not going to get into the photo contest trunk just to find out but this year there were 636 photographers that submitted 2086 images. That seems a little light. From Boone County there were 11 photographers that entered 29 photographs. I was the only photographer from Boone (the city) to get any pictures accepted for display. However, several photographers from Madrid had pictures accepted. Seven if I counted correctly (4 from one family). None from Ogden.

Only two photographers got all 4 pictures accepted for display. 37% of of entered pictures were accepted for display. Of that 37%, 20% of those received a ribbon. Not counting the Youth Division, the Class that had the highest exhibition rate was Sports at 65% exhibition rate. The Class with the lowest exhibition rate was Color USA Places & Landscapes at 13%. The most entered Class was Color Animals, Insects, & Wildlife at 236 entries. The least entered category was High Dynamic Range at 20 entries. 27% of color entries are exhibited. 51% of black & white entries are exhibited. 44% of special division entries are exhibited. Next year’s special theme class is “The Open Road”. I never enter the theme class, but “The Open Road” seems to be one of my specialties.

If you want to look at the digital book, click on the link below:

Iowa State Fair Photography Salon Digital Book

You can find my two Honorable Mentions in the book, if you look real hard.

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Time to share another collection of pictures I have taken of my Mom’s flowers. Once again, mostly tulips, but one peony picture in there. These pictures were taken on April 28, 2021.

I have many, many more flower pictures to share. So many more.

Animals, Art, Becca, Black & White, Flowers, Macro, Photoshop, Vacation

2010-10-25

August 7, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

The folder 2010-10-25 includes pictures of a vacation I took to Minnesota. It is mostly pictures of a trip I took to the sculpture garden in Minneapolis with Becca, but it also includes pictures of Bethany and an old beau. I will be sharing the sculpture garden pictures and not the pictures of the old beau.

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:

MINNESOTA VACATION PICS VOLUME 1

MINNESOTA VACATION PICS VOLUME 2

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve Iowa State Football.

Flowers, Macro, Mom

Kiss An Angel Good Mornin’

August 5, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

Time to share another collection of pictures I have taken of my Mom’s flower. This is a larger collection than normal. Almost exclusively tulips. Including a pink tulip that is probably my favorite flower in my Mom’s yard. One I will definitely try to transplant to my yard. These pictures were taken on April 27.

I have lots of other flower pictures to share in the coming weeks.

Art, Black & White, Flowers, Macro, Mom, Road Trip, Ruins

2010-10-18 & 2010-10-19

July 31, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

There was really only one picture of consequence in the folder 2010-10-18, so I decided to combine it with the folder 2010-10-19. The pictures in the folder 2010-10-19 are from a road trip I took to Kalona with my Mom. We also stopped in Riverside and the Czech Village in Cedar Rapids. I do miss those trips to Kalona.

WEEK 42 - SHADOWS - CHRISTOPHER D. BENNETT

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:

RWPE #41 – DRY

RWPE #42 – SHADOWS

SOME VACATION PICTURES

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve Minnesota.

Flowers, History, Macro, Mom

Is Anybody Goin’ To San Antone

July 29, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

I’ve decided to share some of the family history notes that I find now and again while going through some of the genealogy stuff at my Mom’s house. None of it is quite as weird as the 6 part story on my Grandma Bennett’s brief third marriage, but I hope some of you find it interesting. Today I’m sharing a little bit about a town in Iowa (that doesn’t really exist any more) that was named after one of the earliest members of my Mom’s Dad’s family to immigrate to the United States.

A Town Named Paris (Bunch) IA

This is probably the only town in Iowa with two names. It owes its schizophrenic personality to the stubborness of the U.S. Post Office and the Rock Island Railroad.

About 100 years ago, a local resident named Jackson Paris donated land for the Rock Island Railroad to build tracks and a depot here. The depot and the town that grew around it was named Paris.

About 20 years later, Paris became big enough for a post office, but postal officials told the town father they would have to come up with another name.

A town in Linn County had already registered the post office as Paris.

So the town renamed Bunch, after a local doctor, and everyone was happy except the railroad.

Railroad officials refused to recognize Bunch, because if they did, they would have to change all their timetables and other records. Postal official(s) refused to recognize Paris because doing so would mean changing their records.

So, the railroad station remained Paris, the post office was named Bunch, and the town was known as Paris (Bunch).

To add further confusion, Davis County legal platts have always called the town Paris, and residents of Paris (Bunch) have called their town Bunch.

The railroad eventually pulled its tracks out of Paris and the Post Office closed its Bunch office, leaving Paris (Bunch) with neither a railroad nor a post office.

Now all that remains are a few old houses and antique filled general store.

The problems of Paris (Bunch) is about to resolve itself. In a couple of years, this will be a ghost town.

I’m not sure when this article appeared in the newspaper, but Paris (Bunch) is definitely a ghost town now. All that remains (I’ve read) is the cemetery. The Paris in Linn County didn’t do much better. It is now an unincorporated community.

I haven’t been to Davis County for THE TOWN SIGN PROJECT yet, but when I do, I will definitely seek out this old ghost town and visit the cemetery and the graves of some of my ancestors.

Here are the scans of the documents where I gathered this information:

I’m sure I will run across another family nugget that I just have to share while going through these papers soon.

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Here is another collection of pictures I took of my Mom’s flowers. These were taken on April 25. Once again, mostly tulips.

I still have lots of flower pictures from my Mom’s house to share.

Flowers, Grandma, History, Macro, Mom

(I’m So) Afraid Of Losing You Again

July 22, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

Here is Part 4 of the story of my Grandma Bennett’s brief third marriage.

M. Handschin Funeral Rites Here Jan. 25th

Native of Boone Died in Sioux City
Formerly Employed by North Wester R. R.

Relatives, neighbors and friends paid their final respects to the memory of the late Maurice W. Handschin at funeral services held here Sunday afternoon. Dr. Edwin A. Briggs was in charge of brief rites at Schroder’s funeral home, followed by the main service at First Methodist church.

His text was Psalms 23:4 “Yes, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff comfort me.:

A solo, “Beautiful Dreamer” was sung by Mrs. Kenneth McIlvain. The hymn “The City Foursquare” was sung by a male quarter, H.J. Van Ness, Ken Goodrich, Kenneth Hakes and L.R. Johnson. Royal Duckworth accompanied the singers at the organ.

In charge of floral tributes were Mrs. Thomas Ogilvie, Mrs. E.R. Byers, Miss Leone Stiner and Mrs. Kenneth Crawford.

Pall bearers were Albert Hatt, Boyd Rothman, Levi Van Meter, Melvin Shadock, Glendon Johnson and Maurice Cox.
Internment was in Linwood Park cemetery, east.

Born in Boone

Maurice William Handschin, son of Adolph and Mertil Handschin, was (b)orn in Boone, IA, May 6, 1903 and passed away in a hospital at Sioux City, Ia., at 11:00 p.m. Wednesday, January 24, 1940.

He received his education in the Boone schools and for years was employed by the Chicago & Northwester in Boone, Ia., In 19933 he was moved to Sioux City where he was employed by the Swift Packing company.

His Survivors.

December 31, 1939, he was united in marriage to Mrs. Bernice Kessler. He was baptized on January 23, 1940.

Those who remain to mourn his passing are his wife, Norman Lee, a son by former marriage; a step-daughter, Barbara, and five sisters, Mrs. Ralph Spratt, Mrs. Carl Westberg of Boone; Mrs. Clarence Ades of Des Moines, Ia.; Mrs. Art Howd of Webster City, Ia., and Mrs. Ollie Mabee of Parker, S. D., and three brothers, Warren of Boone, Ia., Art of St. Paul, Minn., and Harry of Oregon, and also a number of nieces and nephews.

Here is the newspaper article:

I will share Part 5 of this story tomorrow.

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Here is another collection of pictures from my Mom’s yard. I took these on April 24, 2021. Almost exclusively tulips, but one picture of a peony in there.

So many more flower photos left to share!

Flowers, Macro, Mom

All I Have to Offer You is Me

July 15, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

Here is another collection of pictures of flowers I took in my Mom’s yard. These pictures were taken on April 20, 2021. Mostly tulips, but a few other flowers in there as well.

Still, so many flower pictures to share.