Category Archives: Macro

Flowers, Jesse, Macro, Nader, Road Trip, Street Photography

The Joke

August 3, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

You’re feeling nervous, aren’t you, boy?
With your quiet voice and impeccable style
Don’t ever let them steal your joy
And your gentle ways
To keep ’em from running wild

They can kick dirt in your face
Dress you down, and tell you that your place
Is in the middle, when they hate the way you shine

I see you tugging on your shirt
Trying to hide inside of it
And hide how much it hurts

Let ’em laugh while they can
Let ’em spin, let ’em scatter in the wind
I have been to the movies, I’ve seen how it ends
And the joke’s on them
-Brandi Carlile

Thursdays are for flowers! This flowertography collection consists of tulip pictures I took on a trip I took to Orange City with Jesse and Nader.

I’m not sure what next Thursday’s flowertography will be, maybe more tulips or maybe pictures from my yard. We will have to wait and see!

Flowers, Macro

Every Time I Hear That Song

July 27, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

A love song was playing on the radio
It made me kind of sad because it made me think of you
And I wonder how you’re doing but I wish I didn’t care
Because I gave you all I had and got the worst of you

Didn’t it break your heart
When you watched my smile fading
Did it ever cross your mind
That one day the tables would be turned
They told me the best revenge
Would be a life well lived
And the strongest one that holds
Would be the hardest one to earn

When I woke up in the morning I was choking on some words
There were things unsaid between us
There were things you never told
Now that’s twice you broke my heart now
The first was way back when
And to know you’re still unhappy
Only makes it break again

By the way, I forgive you
After all, maybe I should thank you
For giving me what I’ve found
‘Cause without you around
I’ve been doing just fine
Except for any time I hear that song
Oh, any time I hear that song
-Brandi Carlile

Thursdays are for flowers! Time to once again share some tulip pictures from my trip to Pella.

I still have about 170 pictures from Pella to curate, edit, and share. But I think next week I will share a collection of pictures of flowers from my yard.

Flowers, Lensbaby, Macro

Heroes and Songs

July 20, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

Some rights and some wrongs
Some heroes and songs
Are much better left unsung
Between fiction and fact
Illusion and pact
Where we’ve been into what we’ve become
Although we have changed
We’re never estranged
And there’s nothing I’d trade from before

I’ll never ally
Although this is goodbye
To the magical mystery tour
Keep the tears that I cried
In my youth and my pride
And my sorrow like never before

I’ve got thank you’s and smiles
And affection for miles
And I always will look unto you
You held open the door
For who I’m sent here for
To come in and make my dreams come true

Although it was sad
And it hurt ’cause it had to
There’s nothing I’d change from before

I love you my friend
My dear means to an end
But you’re not in my dreams anymore
-Brandi Carlile

Sometimes Brandi Carlile’s lyrics really hit hard in a special place. This is one of those songs.

AND… it is only a month and one day until I go to Omaha to see Brandi Carlile in concert! WooHoo! I promise I won’t talk about it constantly. But if you have HBO or MAX, you should check out her concert movie that she recorded in Laurel Canyon that you can currently stream.

But while Thursdays are for great song lyrics, it is also about flowers. Thought I would visit the collection of tulip pictures I took when I visited Pella a week before their tulip festival. Many of these pictures were taken with a Lensbaby lens. Lensbaby is my favorite line of art lenses. I would explain that more, but I recently added another Lensbaby lens into the arsenal. One I have coveted for quite some time. So I will cover Lensbaby in depth when I do an equipment post on the new sweetness.

Here are some tulip pictures from Pella:

I still have over 200 tulip pictures from Pella to curate, edit, and post. So next week will probably feature more tulip pictures from Pella.

Flowers, Jesse, Macro, Nader, Road Trip

The Stranger At My Door

July 13, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

I have seen the fire watcher’s daughter
Watching fires burn from smoke to black
There’s nothing she won’t burn
From Styrofoam to urns, to someone else’s ashes in a sack

You can scorch the metal, you can even melt the glass
You can pass the time here, fire lives into the past
An all-consuming flame, that refines and new begins
It’ll take your family heirlooms, but it can take your darkest sins

We exercise the demons of the things we used to know
The gnashing of the teeth become the remnants of our homes
We think we’re moving on from materials we long
To forget we ever sold our souls to own

There’s a chilling absolution that we’re given from our birth
A powerful delusion and a plague upon the earth
But nothing scares me more
Than the stranger at my door
Who I fail to give shelter, time, and worth

Yeah, the good ol’ bedtime story’s give you nightmares ’til you die
And the ones that love to tell it, hide the mischief in their eyes
Condemn their sons to Hades
And Gehenna is full of guys alive and well (well)
But there ain’t no hell for a fire watcher’s daughter
-Brandi Carlile

Thursdays are for flowers! This Thursday, I’m going to share a collection of tulip pictures I took in Orange City when Jesse, Nader, and I travelled up there for their Tulip Festival. I took well over 500 pictures of tulips this year and that happened despite the fact that I don’t have any tulips in my years. Maybe next year though.

There would probably would have taken more tulip pictures than that, but Orange City doesn’t have anywhere near as many tulips as Pella. Which isn’t to say I didn’t thoroughly enjoy their Tulip Festival. But I did think there would be more tulips. They do crush Pella on the windmill front, but Thursdays aren’t for windmills! They are for flowers!

I think next Thursday I will share more tulip pictures from Pella. There is still so many to share!

Animals, Flowers, Macro

Hiding My Heart

July 6, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

This is how the story went
I met someone by accident
That blew me away, that blew me away

It was in the darkest of my days
When you took my sorrow and you took my pain
Buried them away, you buried them away

You dropped me off at the train station
And put a kiss on top of my head
You watched me wave
You watched me wave
Then you went on home to your skyscrapers
And neon lights and waiting papers
That you call home
You call it home

woke up feeling heavy hearted
I’m going back to where I started
The morning rain
The morning rain
And although I wish that you were here
But that same old road that brought me here
Is calling me home
Is calling me home

And yeah, I wish I could lay down beside you
When the day is done
And wake up to your face against the morning sun
But like everything I’ve ever known
You’ll disappear one day
So I’ll spend my whole life hiding my heart away
And I could spend my whole life hiding my heart away
-Brandi Carlile

Thursdays are for flowers! This Thursday’s flowertography collection features pictures taken in my yard.

I love my yard so much. If I only had less weeds, I would put my flower collection up against, well… I think it is pretty great anyways.

Animals, Art, Boone FUMC, Flowers, Macro, Nature, Still Life, Street Photography, WPC - Alternate, Youth Group

But I Don’t Think That’s True

July 1, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

Another chance to clean up the backlog. These pictures were taken in October of last year but never really fit into any “An Artist’s Notebook” entries. Some were alternate images for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE. Some, I just took when I was out and about.

Always feels good to get a bit of backlog out of the system.

Flowers, Lensbaby, Macro

Alibi

June 29, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

I done some bad, bad things
The kind you don’t bring up at confession
Somewhere in my life, woah
I took the wrong direction
I swear on my soul
I didn’t wanna hurt no one
But I got no way to justify
The things I done

I swear some people in this world
They got no moral compass
I know the wicked ones
I feel them walk among us
The hangman begs for mercy
Only when his time has come
Because he got no way to rectify the things he done

If you’re good at telling lies
You could be my alibi
And I won’t have to atone for my sins
If you’re good at telling lies
You could be my alibi
And I won’t take the fall for where I’ve been
-Brandi Carlile

Thursdays are for flowers! And this Thursday I’m sharing more pictures of tulips I took in Pella.

Still so many pictures from Pella to share. No joke, this is the 5th collection of Tulip pictures from Pella that I’ve shared and there are still nearly 300 pictures that I haven’t even looked at. That being said, next Thursday I’ll probably share a collection of flower pictures I took in my own yard.

Baseball/Softball, Carla, Cathie, Elizabeth, Flowers, Kim, Lowell, Macro, Micky, Sara, Shannon, Street Photography, Travel, WPC - Reminder

The Windy City: Day 2C

June 16, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

This final collection of images from Day 2 in Chicago start as I was doing a walkabout of Wrigley Field. When I was a kid I really loved baseball, but as an adult that love has really waned. I hate to say it, but baseball is boring and it takes WAY too long. Plus things like analytics have really ruined the game. However, I have to applaud Major League Baseball. The changes they have made to speed up the game are fantastic. It was late in the game before I knew it. It was much more enjoyable than the game I went to last year in Miami. Not just because it was in a much better stadium or involved a team that I despise.

But we continue during my walkabout:

The right field scoreboard.

Right field.

The iconic manual scoreboard.

Lowell. The usher in our section was livid that I took this picture. I thought she was going to kick me out of the stadium.

She is on the right.

Left field.

Every other usher in this stadium was cool. Except ours.

I think there was a chance I could have snuck in here, but I didn’t press it.

Would be cool… someday.

Good Sport Section… something that doesn’t exist at the Boone National Little League Park.

Sorry, I really dug the left field area.

Big screen outside of Wrigley.

Not a bad seat in the… okay lots of bad seats at Wrigley.

This is unique, but probably necessary because so many seats with obstructed views.

This girl. Think about the thing you love most in the world. Think about how much you love your children or your dog or your car. This lady loves the song “Y.M.C.A” more than you love your children. She worked the entire section during the song. Then shortly after it was over she started dry humping Kyle Schwarber’s leg until he was ready to leave. I think she is a national treasure.

The Cubs let me down and let the Dodgers beat them. I guess it doesn’t matter since the Padres SUCK!!!

Wrigleyville.

This made me think of Carla.

I love stoned Mr. Peanut!

Reminds me of Miami Beach.

We didn’t eat here, which I’m considering somewhat of a miss. But our Uber driver did pick us up here.

We took an Uber back to the hotel. I think we mostly crashed. It was our last day without the rest of the miners around. Tomorrow was potentially a very busy day.

+++++++

NOTE: I’M THINKING OF DOING AWAY WITH THIS FRIDAY REMINDER. LET ME KNOW IF YOU STRONGLY OBJECT TO IT. IF THERE ARE NO OBJECTIONS, I WILL END THESE AT THE END OF THE MONTH.

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

FLOWER

FLOWER! What a great theme for Year 10 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!

But what is a FLOWER picture? Come on! You aren’t new here. You know about Thursdays! A flower picture is simply a picture of a FLOWER. Live, dead, painting, sculpture. Doesn’t matter. Time to get your flowertography on! Or as Micky might say, your flower porn on!

This is not the first time that FLOWER has been a theme for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE. Have a look at some past submissions for inspiration:

Carla Stensland – Week 45

Micky Augustin – Week 95

Cathie Raley – Week 118

Elizabeth Nordeen – Week 205

Kim Barker – Week 259

Shannon Bardole-Foley – Week 316

Sara Lockner – Week 351

Christopher D. Bennett – Week – 95

Happy photo harvesting!

Flowers, Macro

Blood Muscle Skin & Bone

June 15, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

You’re still alive inside somewhere
Or are you just remains?
You’re blood, muscle, skin and bone
So people cause you pain
But when the skies are crashing down
And when my days are dark and grey
When my fires are burning low
When the life inside me fades

There’s a place I call my home
Where the sun falls down on me
The light fills in the shadows there
And peace of mind is free
But far below that place
A tear forms in my eye
The shadows have no foe there
And darkness multiplies

I know that I can count on you
Because you never let me lie
You bring the truth back to me now
You bring me back to life
I need somebody strong
For when I’m feeling weak
With an open heart that can listen
For when my soul’s too tired to speak
-Brandi Carlile

Thursdays are for flowers. And these flowers pictures were taken in my yard.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, flowertography season is the best season!

Alexis, Angie, Bill, Black & White, Brandon, Carla, Cathie, Dad, Dawn, Drone, Elainie, Elizabeth, Flowers, Jesse, Kim, Kio, Linda, Macro, Micky, Mindi, Monica, Nathanial, Sara, Sarah Toot, Slice of Life, Suzie, Tamara, Teresa, Willy, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 404 – SLICE OF LIFE

June 12, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett 3 Comments

SLICE OF LIFE. As you know, this is a very special theme for me. My Dad would have turned 80 years old yesterday. My hope was that his photography legacy would inspire many people to submit this week. Did it? You’ll have to keep scrolling to find out.

As of 12:01 PM on Monday, June 5, this was the current list of ACTIVE streaks (ignore the numbers in parentheses):

1-Suzie Brannen – 1 week
2-Nathanial Brown – 1 week
3-Jen Ensley-Gorshe – 1 week
4-Layla Gorshe – 1 week
5-Jesse Howard – 1 week (2)
6-Becky Parmelee – 1 week
7-Susanna Funk – 2 weeks (2)
8-Willy McAlpine – 2 weeks
9-Scott Degeneffe – 3 weeks (2)
10-Sara Lockner – 3 weeks
11-Tamara Peterson – 4 weeks
12-Mike Vest – 6 weeks
13-Alexis Baugher – 9 weeks (3)
14-Mindi Terrell – 16 weeks (3)
15-Brandon Kahler – 41 weeks
16-Linda Bennett – 45 weeks
17-Sarah Toot – 46 weeks
18-Angie DeWaard – 50 weeks (2)
19-Dawn Krause – 54 weeks (2)
20-Kim Barker – 60 weeks (2
21-Joe Duff – 61 weeks
22-Teresa Kahler – 72 weeks (2)
23-Carla Stensland – 72 weeks (3)
24-Micky Augustin – 74 weeks
25-Andy Sharp – 75 weeks (3)
26-Bill Wentworth – 76 weeks
27-Cathie Morton – 80 weeks
28-Elizabeth Nordeen – 81 weeks
29-Shannon Bardole-Foley – 83 weeks
30-Kio Dettman – 85 weeks (2)

But you didn’t come here to listen to me talk all tommyrot about participation rates or streaks. You came to see the submissions and what streaks continued and what streaks flamed out:

Kio Dettman (Moingona, Iowa) – 86 weeks
Kate Shelley Museum, Moingona, Iowa. ( Note: In need of refunding, repair and renovation. )

Cathie Morton (Cumming, Iowa) – 81 weeks

Cathie Morton (North of Cumming, Iowa)

Monica Jennings – Front (Monicaville, Iowa) – 1 week

Monica Jennings – Back (This is not my address, so if you go looking for me, this won’t help)

Monica Jennings (Des Moines, Iowa)

Shannon Bardole-Foley (Rural Warren County, Iowa) – 84 weeks
This is the queen mating yard at Honey Hollow.

Tamara Peterson (Iowa) – 5 weeks
Nothing better than fresh popped popcorn from the popcorn stand on a June afternoon.

Bill Wentworth (Ashland, Nebraska) – 77 weeks
Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum
Ashland, NE

Angie DeWaard (Portland, Oregon) – 51 weeks

Joe Duff (Texas) – 62 weeks
Second only to the Manhattan Project, the US Synthetic Rubber Program was critical to the success of the Allies in WWII.

Joe Duff (Texas)
Images from the historic files of a chemical plant in Houston, Texas

Micky Augustin (Iowa) – 75 weeks

Kim Barker (Iowa) – 61 weeks

Andy Sharp (Albert Lea, Minnesota) – 76 weeks

Elizabeth Nordeen (Ames, Iowa) – 82 weeks

Elizabeth Nordeen (Ames, Iowa)

Suzie Brannen (Iowa) – 2 weeks

Suzie Brannen (Iowa)

Dawn Krause (Wall Drug, South Dakota) – 55 weeks
Animated T-Rex at Wall Drug, SD

Dawn Krause (Badlands, South Dakota)
Badlands National Park

Mindi Terrell (Iowa) – 17 weeks

Mindi Terrell (Urbandale, Iowa)

Mindi Terrell (Adair, Iowa)

Jesse Howard (Boone, Iowa) – 2 weeks
The murals of Boone County remain mostly untouched and give us a glance of what life was like in yesteryear!

Willy McAlpine (South Dakota) – 3 weeks
Pit Stop

Sara Lockner (Johnston, Iowa) – 4 weeks

Sara Lockner (Johnston, Iowa)

Nathanial Brown (Mexico) – 2 weeks

Mike Vest (Noel, Missouri) – 7 weeks

Sabas Hernandez (Chicago, Illinois) – 1 week

Sarah Toot (Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania) – 47 weeks
The Sherman Theater first debuted on January 7th, 1929; exposing the Stroudsburg area to newfound cultural beginnings on opening night with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.

Sarah Toot (Buttzville, New Jersey)
Hot Dog Johnny: New Jersey
SINCE 1944
Hot Dog Johnny’s – With the Pequest River flowing in the background, Hot Dog Johnny’s is a landmark to anyone having traveled Route 46 through Buttzville, New Jersey.

Brandon Kahler (Iowa) – 42 weeks
I’d send a postcard with dp on it

Elainie Hernandez (Chicago, Illinois) – 1 week
National Museum of the American Sailor in Great Lakes, IL

Logan Kahler (Ames, Iowa) – 1 week

Alexis Baugher (Swaledale, Iowa) – 10 weeks

Alexis Baugher (Nevada, Iowa)

Linda Toot (Boone, Iowa) – 46 weeks
🌷Since 1983🌷
Van Hemert’s Dutch Oven Bakery
605 Story Street. Boone, Iowa

Linda Bennett (Iowa)
This is a print produced by the owner of the Slice of Life postcard company. It was sent to me in 1983. Perhaps not one to use on a post card to encourage visitors to come to a particular spot but I’ve always liked it.

Teresa Kahler (Boone, Iowa) – 73 weeks

Teresa Kahler (Boone, Iowa)

Carla Stensland (Ames, Iowa) – 73 weeks

Carla Stensland (Ledges State Park, Boone County, Iowa)

Carla Stensland (Iowa)

Christopher D. Bennett (Boone County, Iowa)

30 participants! That is a great week. I think the 4th in a row where we’ve broken 30. In this theme that is an homage to my Dad’s photography, there were submission from one of his nieces, his sister (and last living sibling), 4 of 5 grandchildren, one grandson-in-law and all 3 of his children. (I know. I know. You don’t need to bring it up Elizabeth. )

I think that is a great legacy.

There were submissions this week taken in the following places:

+ Illinois
+ Iowa
+ Nebraska
+ Mexico
+ Minnesota
+ Missouri
+ New Jersey
+ Oregon
+ Pennsylvania
+ South Dakota
+ Texas

Here is the current calendar year list for states:

+ Arizona
+ Arkansas
+ California
+ Colorado
+ Florida
+ Georgia
+ Illinois
+ Iowa
+ Kansas
+ Nebraska
+ New Jersey
+ New York
+ Nevada
+ Michigan
+ Minnesota
+ Missouri
+ North Dakota
+ Ohio
+ Oklahoma
+ Oregon
+ Pennsylvania
+ South Dakota
+ Texas
+ Utah
+ Washington
+ Washington D.C.
+ Wisconsin
+ Wyoming

27 states and 1 district! That is pretty impressive! Over halfway there!

The Outside of the United States map is currently:

+ British Virgin Islands
+ Mexico
+ Nassau Bahamas
+ Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

I travelled about 70 miles or so to take the images for my composite, but never left Boone County. I continue not to contribute to expanding the map.

The big accomplishment this week was Alexis hitting the double digit club! WooHoo!

Also, Elainie submitted for the 1st time ever! WooHoo!

But there was a veritable bloodbath of streaks snapped. Jen, Layla, and Becky couldn’t build on last week’s submissions. Funk’s streak is gone at 2. Scott’s streak is over at 3.

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:

FLOWER

FLOWER! What a great theme for Year 10 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!

While considering possible flower subjects for your submission, meditate on the following quote, and I have no doubt you will make a great flowertography image!

“There are always flowers for those who want to see them.”
— Henri Matisse

I look forward to seeing your interpretation.

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. There is a limit of 3 submissions per participant. To be considered the photographer, you have to be the one that takes the picture. Don’t be stealing the work of other artists. You can submit pictures for other photographers that took pictures with your camera or phone, but give credit where credit is due.

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

That is it. Thems the rules!

That is all I got, so if the good Lord’s willin’ and the creek don’t rise, we will all be sharing your idea of FLOWER in this place that has a rose for a favicon next Monday.