Category Archives: Macro

Animals, Black & White, Dawn, Formal Portrait, Jay, Macro, Night, Railroad

2010-09-06, 2010-09-11, and 2010-09-13

June 12, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

The folders 2010-09-06, 2010-09-11, and 2010-09-13 were all fairly small, so I decided to combine them into one post. Two of the folders include images that were taken for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE, which back then was known as the RANDOM WEEKLY PHOTO EXPERIMENT. The other pictures are of Dawn’s turtle that briefly lived in my backyard.

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 #35 – VIEWPOINT

RWPE #36 – LIGHT PLACEMENT

FUN WITH LIGHT

PERSONAL PHOTO PROJECT OF THE WEEK #45

I’m not even sure what the next walk down memory lane will involve. I’d bet that will involve a block party and Iowa State football though.

Flowers, Macro, Mom

Years in the Making

June 10, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

I’ve always been a fan of peonies. They have very bold and striking colors, but the real reason why I love them is that the way peonies bloom is that ants eat the outside leaves. Releasing the flower contained inside.

About 4 years ago, but maybe 5 and possibly 3, my Mom brought over 2 peony bushes to plant. I believe she got them from my Uncle Gary, but I don’t associate him as a “flower person”, but it might have been that he was getting rid of flowers to put down cement somewhere. In fact, I’m pretty sure that is what happened.

I didn’t pick the best place to plant the peonies and one of the bushes didn’t make it a year. The other bush has been on the struggle bus for years and I have meant to move it to a better location for a couple years now, but it hasn’t happened. This peony bush has never produced a flower, until this year.

Last year, for the first time it produced a couple of small buds, but none of them bloomed. This year though, I got one beautiful peony. Of course I photographed it:

I’m glad to finally know what color blooms this bush produces. Now I’m torn on moving it.

I’ll also took a few other flower pictures on the same day:

I like marigolds, even though they aren’t super photogenic, because they are so easy to maintain. A person needs a few flower that they don’t have to worry too much about to keep their flower gardening confidence up. Of course, alliums are truly one of the best and most fascinating flowers. One of my favorite perennials.

Alexis, Animals, Becca, Black & White, Boone County Fair, Contests, Derrick, Flowers, Formal Portrait, History, Jay, Jesse, Jill, Macro, Photoshop, Pufferbilly Days, Saydie, State Fair, Willy

My (Sad) Photo Contest History – 1

June 2, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett 5 Comments

Recently I’ve been working on an organizational project as I prepare to get rid of a bunch of things in Boone’s annual Citywide Cleanup in a couple of weeks. Part of this has been organizing every (almost) picture that I have entered in a photo contest, both physically in a trunk and digitally in my website photo gallery.

150 or so Photo Entries

Almost every photo I’ve ever entered in in that trunk. Except for a few that I gave away. I thought I would share some of the highs and lows of my photo contest career. To start with, I have only entered 4 photo contests ever:

+ Iowa State Fair Photography Salon
+ Boone County Fair
+ Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest
+ Ogden Fun Days Photo Contest (this contest only existed one year – 2005)

I’ve entered 153 pictures in these 4 photo contests.

I’ve entered pictures of the following people in these photo contests:

+ Olivia
+ Jay
+ Willy
+ Humble Narrator
+ Derrick
+ Rebecca
+ Shannon
+ Alexis
+ Wedding Couple I don’t remember
+ Jill
+ Saydie
+ Kayelee
+ Jesse
+ Shorty
+ Mike Toot
+ Freedom Flight Participants

Plus I have entered pictures of both Karma and Naima.

My very first photo contest was the 2002 Iowa State Fair Photography Salon. It was before they had standardized that pictures had to be matted on 11×14 foamboard. It was long enough ago that one of the pictures I entered was printed from a slide. I entered it because it was somewhat of a legacy contest. My Dad won a category in 1984.

At the time I didn’t realize what a tough contest it was and how hard it was to get even a single picture in. It was dumb luck (which in many ways all photo contests are luck because who knows what the judge likes) that I got one picture accepted for exhibition:

Odanata the Snake Doctor

In some ways, this is maybe the most important photo contest entry I ever made. It is possible that 2002 me would have been so distraught that I might not have even entered another photo contest, ever.

This is the picture I entered that was printed from a slide:

Quietus

I still kinda dig this picture. My other 2 entries weren’t even really in focus.

Then I didn’t enter another contest until the 2004 Boone County Fair, where this picture of Karma got a blue ribbon:

Happy Karma

I did enter the Iowa State Fair, but didn’t get any pictures exhibited. But in the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest, I got two Honorable Mentions in the Black and White Division:

Light Train by J.C. Janson

Shapes

Then 2005 came and I “cleaned up” at the Ogden Fun Days Photo Contest:

2005 Ogden Fun Days Photo Contest - Earth's Laughter

Honorable Mention Color (This picture is now the favicon for this website)

3rd Place Black and White

2nd Place Color

Best in Show and 1st Place Black and White

But my triumph was very short lived. Immediately afterwards, I had my biggest failures ever. I entered two pictures in the Boone County Fair Photography Contest and got no ribbons. This is hard to do. EVERYTHING at the Boone County Fair gets a ribbon. Well everything except me and a jar of moldy jam. My photography was the culinary equivalent of moldy jam.

2005 Boone County Fair Photography Contest - Black, White, and Marigold

The equivalent of moldy jam.

I did rebound to get one picture in at the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon and that picture did get an Honorable Mention:

2005 Iowa State Fair Photography Salon - Colgate Smile

Honorable Mention

But that was bittersweet. It was my first ribbon at the Iowa State Fair, but it was a picture that I had already won a photo contest with, so that was the seeds of my rule of never entering a picture in more than one photo contest.

Also, this picture is still one of my all-time favorites and it has never gotten any love from a photo contest:

My Giverny

I get why, but I don’t like it.

Then in 2006, I tried my luck at the Boone County Fair and this time, I got 2 Blue Ribbons, take that moldy jam!

2006 Boone County Fair - Internal Struggle

Blue Ribbon

I would also get 2 pictures exhibited at the Iowa State Fair:

Kentucky Appetizer

Portrait of Self-Portrait

I would also have a good run at Pufferbilly Days:

2006 Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest - Building 429

3rd Place Black and White

1st Place Black and White

Honorable Mention Color

2007 wasn’t a great year for me and Photo Contests. I got shutout at the Iowa State Fair. I didn’t enter the Boone County Fair. I did enter Pufferbilly Days and believe a picture of a train wheel got a ribbon, but I’m struggling to find the documentation for that

2007 Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest - Wheel

2008 also wasn’t a great year. I did get a couple blue ribbons at the Boone County Fair:

But once again I got shut out at the Iowa State Fair. But I did rebound to get a ribbon at Pufferbilly Days:

2008 Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest - The Last Refuge

3rd Place Black and White

2009 was also not a stellar year. I did get 2 ribbons at the Boone County Fair:

Blue Ribbon

Purple Ribbon

But got no other love at any other photo contest.

2010, I once again got two Blue Ribbons at the Boone County Fair:

2010 Boone County Fair -The Best Place to Seek God

Blue Ribbon

But once again, I was shut out at the Iowa State Fair. If you are counting, that is four straight years. The Iowa State Fair really hated me.

However, Pufferbilly Days started to show some love:

2010 Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest - Open Mic Night

3rd Place Color

1st Place Black and White

Then 2011 happened. But we’ll get into that story in the conclusion of My (Sad) Photo Contest History.

Flowers, Macro, Naima, Nature

Macrocicle

May 25, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

This post is a collection of some macro (mostly) pictures I took across February. Most are of an icicle, but a couple are of a lilac bud from my lilac bush. I might get into the history of those lilacs at some point, but not today.

And of course, a couple pictures of Naima in there too!

Alexis, Animals, Art, Black & White, Christianity, Derrick, Flowers, Formal Portrait, Jen, Macro, Nader, Photoshop, State Fair

2010-08-23

May 15, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

The folder 2010-08-23 is absolutely stuffed to the gills. There are so many images in there I almost considered breaking it up into a couple posts, but decided against it. There are pictures in there from a trip to the Iowa State Fair and pictures of Jen and Derrick when Jen was preggers with Evie. Alexis competed in a cheerleading/tumbling competition this year.

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:

PERSONAL PHOTO PROJECT OF THE WEEK #32

PERSONAL PHOTO PROJECT OF THE WEEK #43

STATE FAIR TRIP 2 – COLLECTION 1

STATE FAIR TRIP 2 – COLLECTION 2

RWPE #33 – SILENCE

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve a full moon and possibly a baby shower.

Equipment, Macro, Naima, Nature, Still Life

Sigma 105mm f/2.8 DG DN Macro Art Lens

May 6, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

The third new lens I purchased at the beginning of the year was a Sigma 105mm f/2.8 DG DN Macro Art Lens. I had a 50mm macro lens, but I needed a longer macro lens.

Here are the first pictures I took with it:

I might go into some technical details about the lens at some point in the future, we’ll see.

Animals, Flowers, Macro, Nature

2010-08-11

May 1, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

The pictures in the folder are from when the Creek formerly known as Squaw flooded Duff Avenue in the August of 2010. I’m not being sarcastic, I just know that they recently changed the name of Squaw Creek, I just have no clue what they changed it to. Ioway maybe?

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

Contaminationville

Next week’s walk down memory lane will involve flowers and Jesse, but not necessarily together.

Kim, Kio, Macro, Micky, Still Life, Tamara, Vest

WPC – WEEK 293 – HANDS

April 26, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

There was a decent amount of submissions for HANDS. Including, what I believe to be the first ever submission by Amy Peterson. Very excited to have Amy as a future contributor and I expect big things from here in the future.

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

Micky Augustin

Kio Dettman

Tamara Peterson

Amy Peterson

Kio Dettman

Christopher D. Bennett

Kim Barker

Mike Vest

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:

TRAVEL

TRAVEL! Another great theme for Year 8 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE.

A TRAVEL image is pretty simple. It is merely a picture that involves TRAVEL. It could be the result of TRAVEL. You could TRAVEL somewhere and then take a picture of something. You could take a picture of things that are involved in TRAVEL. You could take a picture of things that are involved in preparing for TRAVEL. The possibilities are endless.

Think about the following quote while you are contemplating your TRAVEL image:

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.
-Marcel Proust

Meditate on this quote and I have no doubt your submission will help others see the world with new eyes.

RULES

The picture has to be taken between 12:01 PM today and 11 AM next Monday. This isn’t a curate your photos project. This is a get your butt off the couch (unless you are taking your picture from the couch) and take pictures challenge.

You can send your images to either bennett@photography139.com OR you may text them to my Pixel 5.

That is all I got, so if the good Lord’s willin’ and the creek don’t rise, we will all be sharing our idea of TRAVEL in this place that only needs you to travel through cyberspace next Monday.

Animals, Black & White, Flowers, Macro, Self-Portrait

2010-08-06 & 2010-08-09

April 24, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

The folders 2010-08-06 & 2010-08-09 are pretty small, so I combined them into one post. Half of them are pictures of a hibiscus. The other half are pictures of butterflies. Then there is one random picture of my feet. On a personal note, I really miss those shoes. Actually I miss any shoes that were remotely comfortable. As we are hopefully starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel for this pandemic, I’m probably going to need to invest in some shoes and some clothes. Definitely clothes.

WEEK 31 - PATHS - 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:

PERSONAL PHOTO PROJECT OF THE WEEK #39

PERSONAL PHOTO PROJECT OF THE WEEK #40

RWPE #31 – PATHS

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve a flood and possibly more flowers and possibly an appearance by the Howards.

Basketball, Flowers, Macro

Lost in a Roman Wilderness of Pain

March 17, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

This is a reminder that at this point you have 48 hours to get your picks in for my NCAA Tournament Pool. Click on the link below to get started:

Roundball Oracles – Year 16

Good luck!

+++++++

This is the final collection of flower pictures from 2020. It is a good thing that flowers in 2021 should be coming sometime soon. There are many beginnings of flowers starting to show up in my yard. The daffodils have start to push their way through the dirt. Hopefully they will be budding and blooming in just a few short weeks.

This collection includes daisies, zinnias, dahlias, mums, and even a hollyhock and a marigold.

This just about concludes the 2020 non-portrait images that I have to share.