Category Archives: 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!

Angie, Animals, Carla, Cathie, Contests, Kim, Macro, Nature, Photoshop, Shannon, Tamara, Vest, WPC - Submissions

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 146 – BLACK

July 2, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett

If you are having difficulty leaving a comment, just email/text me the numbers.

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

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 you are having difficulty leaving a comment, just email/text me the numbers.

As of this writing, there have been about 25 votes. Here are the currently leaders:

If future votes don’t change things, these will be the 5 photos that I enter in the Boone County Fair Photo Contest.

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It would seem that BLACK inspired a few people to crack out their cameras this weekend.

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

Carla Stensland

Kim Barker

Tamara Peterson

Christopher D. Bennett

Shannon Bardole-Foley

Cathie Raley

Mike Vest

Angie DeWaard

A solid week of submissions!

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:

HANDS!

HANDS! What a great theme! But what is a HANDS picture? A picture that features HANDS! That is it! But remember that there is more than one definition of the word HANDS.

I look forward to seeing your interpretation!

HOUSEKEEPING

A MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 RULES DIVISION

1. 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.

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

Nobody showed class, taste, and sophistication this week by signing up for a Photography 139 email subscription. I’ll try and do better next week.

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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 handsy Monday.

Black & White, Contests, Flowers, Macro, Michelle, Micky, Pastor Sarah

Nature’s Amen

June 28, 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:

BOONE COUNTY FAIR PHOTO CONTEST ENTRY SELECTION

You must have a Facebook account or a Google+ account to vote.

As of this writing, about 12 votes have been cast. Thank you Sarah Karber and Michelle Haupt and Micky Augustin for being the first.

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The Amen of nature is always a flower.
-Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Here is another collection of flowers from Donna Jones’ flower garden:

Don’t worry, there are plenty more flower pictures in the back log!

Animals, Art, Black & White, Flowers, Iowa State, Macro, Mom, Naima, Nature, Railroad, Road Trip, Ruins, Shorty, Travel, Willy

Boone County Fair Photo Contest Entry Selection Process

June 26, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett

It is time to select my photos for the Boone County Fair Photo Contest and you get to help select the pictures that go.

I have placed 50 images in a SmugMug Photo Gallery. I would like you to go to that Photo Gallery and vote for up to 5 images in the gallery. You can also rate the images on a 5 star scale.

I will enter the 5 pictures with the most votes. The tie-breaker will be image with the highest star rating.

You will vote for an image by leaving a comment on the image you want to vote for.

Once you are at the gallery, look for something that looks like this:

The one caveat is that you need to have either a Facebook or a Google+ account to leave a comment.

Click on the link below to go to the gallery to vote:

BOONE COUNTY FAIR PHOTO CONTEST ENTRY SELECTION

The deadline to vote is next Tuesday at midnight.

Here are the nominees:

Thanks for helping pick the Boone County Fair Photo Contest Entries!

Animals, Black & White, Flowers, Macro

Happiness Shared

June 19, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

Happiness held is the seed; happiness shared is the flower.
-John Harrigan

Another look at more of Donna’s flowers. This is more like a quick peek. Maybe even a very quick peek.

Some coneflowers involved in this small collection:

There are plenty more of Donna Jones’ flower waiting to be unleashed on the world.

Animals, Black & White, Flowers, Macro, Photoshop, Russell, Work

A Blossoming Soul

June 12, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett

Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature.
-Gerard De Nerval

Last time we took a look at the flowerbeds of Donna Jones, I said that I felt that I had taken a step away from flower photography back in 2017. Russell, who hates flower pictures the way some people hate cats or reality television texted me to call poppycock on such a statement. He would go on to ask how many flower photos I took last year.

It is just a very rough estimated, but I bet it was only 2,000. Definitely no more than 2,000. Possibly as low as 1,500.

He wanted to know how many I normally take. I can only estimate that number, but I bet it is closer to 5,000.

I think Russell appreciated the downturn, but I feel he still thinks that 1 flower picture is one too many.

Below, enjoy some of Russell’s pain:

At the Computer Mine we have a photo bar next to the kitchen. Once a year they changed out the photos to display the work of employees. I always submit one photo because I personally feel that the photo bar should represent as many employees as possible. I’m considering submitting one of the grasshopper photos for my submission.

If any of you out there are the anti-Russell, don’t worry. There are plenty more flower pictures just waiting to bloom. This year might be a flower photo boom. Well probably not a boom, but have I mentioned that my hollyhocks are back!!

I’m excited too!

Black & White, Flowers, Macro, Photoshop

Earth’s Laughter

June 5, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett

The earth laughs in flowers.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

The great thing about flowers is that we can all agree that earth truly does laugh in flowers even if we can’t agree on whether or not the earth is flat or a globe or even pear shaped.

Last year, I think I got away from flower photos a little bit. I’m not entirely sure why other than maybe it was because I might have felt that I was starting to become self-referential with my flower photography.

Nah. That probably isn’t it.

I do know that I have yet to take hardly any flower pictures this year either. That doesn’t mean I didn’t take any flower pictures last year. In fact, I was commission by a relative of mine (a cousin somewhere on my Mom’s side) to photograph her extensive flower garden. So I did, but I never shared the photos.

So here is just the beginning of a ton of flower pictures from Donna Jones’ flower garden. This collection consists of petunias and lilies. If you don’t know which is which don’t be afraid to ask, for my way of mocking you will be very gentle.

There are plenty more of Donna’s flowers in the on-deck circle taking their practice swings. Checking out to make sure they have the proper amount of pine tar on their bats. Stretching their bat swinging muscles. You’ll get to see if they have what it takes to go yard very soon.

Art, Baier, Black & White, Blogging, Flowers, History, Macro, Road Trip

05-10-08 – A Tale of Gypsum Junk

June 2, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett

The pictures in today’s collection come from the folder 05-10-08.

These pictures came from a road trip to Fort Dodge I went on with Jason Baier. A road trip that ended with us coming face to face with a gypsum penis. What is more, that was the ultimate goal of the road trip.

This journey started when I was reading a magazine on the greatest hoaxes in history. One of the hoaxes was the Cardiff Giant. I’m not going to go into an incredible amount of detail, but what is important to know is that the gypsum that made up the Cardiff Giant came from Fort Dodge. It was purchased in Fort Dodge. Loaded on a train in Boone. Shipped to Chicago. Carved in Chicago. Then buried and dug up in a farm near Cardiff, New York.

The original Cardiff Giant is in a museum in Cooperstown, New York. A replica is in Fort Dodge. A pale and pathetic copy is housed at Living History Farms. The Living History Farms Giant is more modest than the original Giant. He covers his gypsum junk with his hands. The Fort Dodge Giant and the original just leaves it out there, blowing in the wind.

Some of the pictures below have never been made public before because Baier and I very flagrantly broke some museum rules. I hesitate to publish these photos because he is now a big time white collar criminal with infinite PTO and numerous minions. I would hate for our youthful indiscretions come back to haunt a man of his stature. However, I’ve done no research to back this up, I think the statue of limitations on our museum crimes has passed. I think he will be safe.

Here are some pictures of our trip to Fort Dodge to meet the Cardiff Giant and his gypsum junk:

I learned the hard way that not all people consider glorious pictures of gypsum junk to be appropriate. Back when I was using Photobucket to store my blog images, pictures of The Cardiff Giant that showed him in his full glory were flagged and then taken down. I can feel only pity for people that can’t appreciate great art.

I replaced the images that showed images with his anatomy with pictures like this:

Yeah. Lame.

What isn’t lame is that by adding these pictures to the Photography 139 Photo Gallery I was able to restore the following historical “An Artist’s Notebook” posts to their original glory:

LESSONS LEARNED IN A GIANT’S TOWN

TOO HOT FOR PHOTOBUCKET

There are more pictures from the Cardiff Giant Road Trip that I didn’t share here. You can see them by clicking on the link below:

THE CARDIFF GIANT ROAD TRIP

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve Little White Lye Soap… I know… but this time action photos… and Mother’s Day.