The final place I took Rodan139 to on my low battery test flights was Don Williams. I do love Don Williams, but I hardly ever go out there. I should effort to make a couple of trips out there this summer. I feel like I should take a lot of PTO this summer. Like a lot of PTO. And some of that should be spent at Don Williams.
Next time Rodan139 takes to the skies it will be in Dysart, Iowa.
I need to start the day off by wishing Andree a happy birthday. Happy birthday Andree!
I hope your birthday is filled with joy, or at least as much joy as one can feel when they are in Houston, Texas.
Yesterday was the end of the college basketball season, which also means it is time to crown the winner for Year 18 of the Roundball Oracles.
The winner was Will Baier. Congratulations Will! Making it back to back championships for Baier brothers! It seems like almost everybody in the Baier family has won, except Jason. Hmmmm…
His name is now on the List of Immortals.
ROUNDBALL ORACLES CHAMPIONS
2023 – Will Baier
2022 – Ben Baier
2021 – Micky Augustin
2020 – Tournament Canceled
2019 – Becky Parmelee
2018 – Paul Golden
2017 – Paul Golden
2016 – Michelle Haupt
2015 – Derek Dohrman
2014 – Brandon Kahler
2013 – William McAlpine
2012 – Lowell Davis
2011 – Carrie Baier
2010 – Mark Wolfram
2009 – Mark Wolfram
2008 – Mark Wolfram
2007 – Tim Peterson
2006 – William McAlpine
2005 – William McAlpine
Also “congratulations” goes to “The Sara” winner… Ben Baier. It was a close one this year and came down to the tie-breaker. It was so close to going Shawn. Then he would have had a “The Sara” trophy and the actual The Sara living in his house. Maybe next year.
Ben Baier went from the penthouse to the outhouse in one year. Maybe next year he will be back in the penthouse and his brother will be in the outhouse. It will be interesting to watch.
THE SARA “WINNERS”
2023 – Ben Baier
2022 – Joey Randazzo
2021 – Rachel Gildersleeve
2020 – Tournament Canceled
2019 – Russell Kennerly
2018 – Robert Henning
2017 – Shannon Bardole
2016 – Laura Priest
2015 – Derrick Gorshe
2014 – Sara Lockner
Here are the final Roundball Oracles Standings:
1. Will Baier – 204
2. Toby Sebring – 200
3. Sarah Karber – 193
4. Tim Peterson – 189
5. Cathie Morton – 188
6. Elizabeth Nordeen- 185
7. Andy Sharp – 184
8. Russell Kennerly – 184
9. Linda Bennett – 183
10. Micky Augustin – 183
11. Carrie Baier – 180
12. Dawn Krause – 178
13. Corey Faust – 177
14. Jesse Howard – 176
15. Jason Baier – 173
16. Angie DeWaard – 171
17. Michelle Haupt – 170
18. Carla Stensland – 170
19. Jackson Faust – 168
20. Frank Meiners – 157
21. Lowell Davis – 155
22. Andree Jauhari – 154
23. Christopher D. Bennett – 154
24. Robert Henning – 154
25. Nader Parsaei – 147
26. Logan Kahler – 145
27. Rachel Gildersleeve – 145
28. Joey Randazzo – 144
29. Olivia Baier – 141
30. Jordan Toot – 141
31. JJ Baier – 141
32. Brandon Kahler – 136
33. Becky Parmelee – 131
34. Derek Dohrman – 122
35. Sara Lockner – 112
36. Shawn Lockner – 111
37. Ben Baier – 111
Congrats to everybody that did better than me this year. And there were a lot of them. Cherish the feeling, cause it won’t happen again. Okay, it probably will.
A few weeks back I took Rodan139 out for a couple test flights. The second of those flights was a spin above the Pilot Mound State Forest. Here are a few pictures from that flight:
Next week I will share the pictures from the final flight I took on the battery test flight day.
Day 2 in Las Vegas for the CMC was a long one. I only had a chance to take pictures before I went to the Planet Hollywood conference rooms for what would end up being an almost 13 hour work day. I’m a little bit embarrassed to say that I was about halfway through Day 2 before I realized that there was a 2 hour time difference between Las Vegas and Iowa and not a one hour time difference.
I started the day by walking down to a nearby CVS to look for some Las Vegas stickers and postcards. Maybe some breakfast. I didn’t find any stickers but I bought some post cards and a package of Zingers for breakfast. That was about $3.00.
After walking around a little bit I went to Planet Hollywood. Once there I stared at the walls of the same conference room for pretty much forever. It didn’t help that the temperature in the room was approximately 120 degrees.
After we finally got done with the setup, Lowell and I ended up back at the Linq Promenade and had supper at In-n-Out. Supper cost about $15 and was much better than Bobby Flay’s burger from the night before. It was so packed inside we had to eat outside in the cold. It was cold pretty much every day in Las Vegas.
I think we might have went back and hung out with some other miners in the Heart Bar, which is the bar in the middle of the Planet Hollywood Casino floor. It was this bar that became my marker for figuring out how to get out of the casino and how to find the elevators to my room.
I started the day with an estimated $258 in the Per Diem Fund.
Breakfast: $3
Lunch: I’m not allowed to talk about it.
Supper: $15
Estimated Per Diem Fund Balance: $240
Here are some of the pictures I took that day:
Paris
Seriously so hot and such terrible carpet.
According to the highly inaccurate fitness app on my phone, I walked 14,843 steps for a total of 6.93 miles on Day 2.
More pictures from this trip still to come.
This is your reminder that this week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is COMPETITION:
COMPETITION! What a great theme for Year 10 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!
But what is a COMPETITION image? It is simply an image of beings engaged in some kind of contest. Or it can be a picture of something that is used in a COMPETITION. Like a bowling ball. Or it can be a picture of the result of a COMPETITION. Like a trophy. There are so many possibilities!
This isn’t the first time COMPETITION has been a theme for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE. Here are some examples of previous submissions:
Cathie Raley (Morton)
Logan Kahler
Andy Sharp
Christopher D. Bennett
Hope this provides some inspiration for some people.
Happy photo harvesting!
As I write this entry to “An Artist’s Notebook” this is the only time that I have taken Rodan139 out this year. It seems like every time I have a chance, the weather hasn’t cooperated. It has either been too cold or too windy. Or both. Seriously. The weather in the last several weeks has been awful. If it hasn’t been awful, I have been too busy. But don’t worry. I feel like Rodan139 is going to be taking to the sky soon enough.
These pictures were taken at the Harrier Marsh which is one of my favorite places to take Rodan139. It is just south of Ogden. During warmer days there is a large collection of birds that call this place home.
Once again, I will point out I need to get Rodan139 up in the sky soon.
I need to start today by wishing Carla a happy birthday. Happy birthday Carla!
I hope your birthday is as full of as much joy as you can handle!
I also need to wish Monica a happy birthday. Happy birthday Monica!
I also hope your birthday is as full of as much joy as you can handle!
A reminder that you have until Thursday at 11 AM (Central) to get your picks in for Year 18 of the Roundball Oracles. Click on the link below to join:
It costs nothing to participate. First Place gets a trophy. Last Place Adult that gives full effort also gets a trophy. Hope many of you participate!
I also hope your birthday is filled with as much joy and photography opportunities as you can handle!
It is time to share the final collection of images I took while harvesting the town signs of Clayton County. All of these were either taken at Pikes Peak State Park or in Marquette.
Marquette
The next time we hit the open road to look at auxiliary images for THE TOWN SIGN PROJECT, we will visit Wapello County.
SUNRISE, SUNSET! Everybody loves watching a good SUNRISE or SUNSET. But was it a popular theme? Was it the SUNRISE of many new streaks? Was it the SUNSET on many existing streaks? You will have to keep scrolling to find out.
As of 12:01 PM on Monday, March 6, this was the current list of ACTIVE streaks (ignore the numbers in parentheses):
1-Becky Parmelee – 1 week
2-Sara Lockner – 2 weeks
3-Mindi Terrell – 3 weeks (3)
4-Suzie Brannen – 7 weeks
5-Jesse Howard – 7 weeks
6-Monica Jennings – 7 weeks (3)
7-Nathanial Brown – 8 weeks (3)
8-Mike Vest – 8 weeks
9-Tamara Peterson – 18 weeks
10-Brandon Kahler – 28 weeks
11-Linda Bennett – 32 weeks
12-Sarah Toot – 33 weeks (3)
13-Angie DeWaard – 37 weeks
14-Dawn Krause – 41 weeks (2)
15-Kim Barker – 46 weeks
16-Joe Duff – 48 weeks
17-Logan Kahler – 49 weeks
18-Teresa Kahler – 59 weeks
19-Carla Stensland – 59 weeks
20-Micky Augustin – 61 weeks
21-Andy Sharp – 62 weeks
22-Bill Wentworth – 63 weeks
23-Cathie Morton – 67 weeks
24-Elizabeth Nordeen – 68 weeks (2)
25-Shannon Bardole-Foley – 70 weeks
26-Kio Dettman – 72 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 (Iowa)
Kio Dettman (Iowa)
Linda Bennett (Kansas) – 33 weeks
Linda Bennett (Kansas)
Linda Bennett (Kansas)
Sarah Toot (Pennsylvania) – 34 weeks
Tamara Peterson (Iowa) – 19 weeks
Bill Wentworth (Nebraska) – 64 weeks
Mindi Terrell (Iowa) – 3 weeks
Mindi Terrell (Iowa)
Mindi Terrell (Iowa)
Andy Sharp (Oklahoma) – 63 weeks
Suzie Brannen (Iowa) – 8 weeks
Suzie Brannen (Iowa)
Elizabeth Nordeen (Iowa) – 69 weeks
Christopher D. Bennett (Iowa)
Dawn Krause (Iowa) – 42 weeks
Angie DeWaard (Iowa) – 38 weeks
Monica Jennings (Iowa) – 8 weeks
Joe Duff (Texas) 49 weeks
Teresa Kahler (Iowa) – 60 weeks
Carla Stensland (Iowa) – 60 weeks
Brandon Kahler (Iowa) – 29 weeks
Kim Barker (Iowa) – 47 weeks
Cathie Morton (Somewhere over the Southeastern United States at 30,000 feet) – 68 weeks
Mike Vest (Iowa) – 9 weeks
Jesse Howard (Wisconsin) – 8 weeks
Nathanial Brown (Iowa) – 9 weeks
Logan Kahler (Iowa) – 50 weeks
Shannon Bardole-Foley (Iowa) – 71 weeks
Micky Augustin (Arizona) – 62 weeks
25 participants this week. 2 straight weeks participation rates have declined. I hate to say, but participation rates might be in a freefall!
The good news is that 25 participants is still a healthy number. AND we added a new state to the map this week via Micky!
There were submissions this week taken in the following locations:
+ Arizona
+ Iowa
+ Kansas
+ Nebraska
+ Oklahoma
+ Pennsylvania
+ Texas
Here is the current calendar year list for states:
+ Arizona
+ Arkansas
+ Florida
+ Georgia
+ Illinois
+ Iowa
+ Kansas
+ Minnesota
+ Nebraska
+ New Jersey
+ New York
+ Nevada
+ Missouri
+ Oklahoma
+ Pennsylvania
+ Texas
+ Wisconsin
17 states! That is pretty impressive!
The Outside of the United States map is now:
+ British Virgin Islands
+ Nassau Bahamas
I took my picture about 20 miles from my front door.
This week is spring break for a ton of people. There is potential the map could grow, but I don’t know that it will for certain. We’ll see.
There were no big time milestones this week. The bad news is that Becky couldn’t turn last week’s submission into a streak and Sara’s streak ends at 2.
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:
PURPLE! What a great them for Year 10 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!
But what is a PURPLE image? Simply put, it is an image where the subject OR a major compositional element of the image is PURPLE. That is it! Couldn’t be simpler than falling off a log.
While considering your possible subjects for your PURPLE image meditate on the following quote and I have no doubt you will come up with a great image:
Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple.
-Regina Brett
I look forward to seeing your interpretation.
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 PURPLE in this place that is drenched in it next Monday.
I need to start today by wishing Nora a happy birthday, so happy birthday Nora!
I hope your birthday is filled with lots of candy and cake and ice cream! If not, I will buy you so much ice cream next time I see you.
Time to start sharing the real camera pictures from my work trip to Las Vegas. I took the backup camera to Vegas just cause I’m always leery of traveling on planes with the 1st string camera. Even though the bag never leaves my side. It is probably a mental block that I will never get over. We’ll see what happens next time I walk on a plane. In April.
I took enough pictures on Day 1 in Vegas to split them into to two posts. This is post 1.
Vegas Day 1 started in Boone. I got up and headed for the Des Moines International Airport a little after 9 AM for my 12:15 flight. I’m one of those people that gets to the airport early. Probably cause I don’t fly that much and probably because I get paid to be there early, sorta. That is how I interpret the travel rules.
I knew there was bad weather west of us and the potential that one of our flights could get cancelled. The good news is that they didn’t. The bad news is that a little after getting to the airport, I got the notification that the flight from Des Moines to Denver had been delayed. Which worked in my favor because the Des Moines International Airport is currently under construction right. They have taken away a bunch of the parking in the parking ramp to make room for employees to park. This meant I had to drive by the parking ramp and the Blue Lot and the Green Lot and the Red Lot and the Yellow Lot and the Indigo Lot and the Cyan Lot and the Polka Dot Lot and ended up all the way in the Gray Lot. A lot so far away from the airport terminal I think it might be in Norwalk. Possibly Cumming.
I took a 15 minute shuttle ride to the airport. It took me a minute but I finally located the Southwest check-in counter in the room with all the weird car rental places and checked my luggage. Two things here. First, I wasn’t crazy about flying Southwest. I haven’t flown Southwest since the last time I went to Vegas, which was almost 20 years ago. I haven’t heard good things about Southwest. They say the people on there are animals. But not in the millions of good ways that animals (in this scenario humans are not animals) are easily superior to humans. But in the bad ways where humans compare other humans to animals to make them seem lesser than. Second, I did buy new luggage for this trip. I don’t travel much in the manner that requires luggage, but the two trips I took in 2022 showed me that the luggage I have been using isn’t practical. Merely sentimental. I bought the new luggage off of Amazon because I had a Amazon gift from my computer mine anniversary. I can say, that while the walls of the luggage seem a little thin, so far I am digging the new luggage. I bought red luggage so they would be easy to spot in the baggage claim line and because they were $30 cheaper than more mundane colors. I don’t know why.
After getting through the security line without incident, I found my gate, grabbed a seat and discovered I was the first person there from the Computer Mine. I wasn’t there long before I got another notification that the flight had been delayed again. Now it was going to be over an hour late taking off. I took solace in the fact I had been reassured by the Southwest ticket lady that there were over 30 people transferring from our flight to the connecting flight in Denver to Las Vegas and there was no way that they would leave that many people behind.
While I was comforted by that information, one of the things that concerned me is that Southwest has no assigned seats. You have an assigned position to get into the plane and then once in there, it is every person for themself. I was worried that I would get there late for the connecting flight and lose any chance at getting a good seat. I’d end up in a middle seat. Nobody wants that. Not me. Not the person in the window seat. Not the person in the aisle seat. However, they hadn’t started boarding when we got to the connecting flight and I was able to grab a sweet spot in the emergency exit row!
If you don’t know, that means extra legroom! It is like 1st Class for those of us in steerage! Bingpot!
The flight into Vegas was a little rough because it was so windy. I didn’t get a snack or beverage service. That is how I determine if a flight was rough. By the time we got to the hotel, I was famished. The only sustenance I had knocked down was a bag of snack mix and 6 ounces of 7-Up on the flight from Des Moines to Denver.
We took a shuttle form the airport to Planet Hollywood, our home away from home for the next 5 days. Here is my review of Planet Hollywood:
It is kinda dirty. It is a little rundown. The big selling point is that it has what I would call a glorified mall. There is virtually no Hollywood artifacts or paraphernalia there. But for what we were there for, it worked great. The conference facilities and staff were great! And it is near places that are cool like the Bellagio, Paris, Caesar’s Palace, and The Flamingo.
After getting to my room, which had a breathtaking view of a parking garage, and organizing some stuff and claiming the bed nearest the breathtaking view (my roomie Tony didn’t come in until the next day so I got choice of beds) I connected with Lowell and we went to supper.
We walked down to Caesar’s Palace to look for a buffet, but we actually ended up in the Caesar’s Palace food court where we ate at Bobby’s Burgers. A restaurant that is connected to Bobby Flay. Who is some kind of chef of note, but he isn’t a raging douchebag like Gordon Ramsay, so you might not have heard of him. I’ve only heard of him because Faust used to be big into him back in the day.
I ordered a Bacon Crunchburger (Bacon, American Cheese, Potato Chips, Bobby’s Sauce – yeah not crazy about that name either), French Fries, and a Soft Drink. The price tag came to a little over $30.
THIRTY BUCKS!
I consider the Computer Mine to be generous with their per diems. I know it is set by the government, but I usually come back with a little extra coin jingling and jangling around in my pockets. This is mostly cause I don’t drink alcohol. In fact I was actually mostly off pop before this trip, but I fell of that wagon pretty dang hard in Vegas. I don’t think it is inaccurate to say I went on a regular Pepsi Cola Bender. We are almost 2 weeks out and I’m still weening myself back off the hard stuff.
The per diem I got for this trip was $288. The fact that I had just spent $30 for a food court burger caused me to take a step back. I expected this to be one of the cheapest meals I shoved in my face on this trip to Sin City. I wasn’t sure $288 was going to make it.
Dang!
After Day 1, I had an estimated $258 remaining in the per diem fund.
Maybe eating is overrated…
After the meal we walked around something I would describe as an open air mall that was between The Linq and The Flamingo. This is where I took the majority of the pictures I took on Day 1.
Here is the first collection:
There are few musicians I like lesson than Jimmy Buffett, but the man can market.
In-N-Out Burger was on Lowell and I’s list. It was the only thing that we crossed off our lists.
I wasn’t expecting there to be so many candy stores in Vegas.
Seeing the actual Vegas sign was on my list. This is the closest I came.
I do regret not going in here a little bit.
Not the Bellagio fountains.
This was so close to being my MUSIC photo for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE.
I have several more pictures to share from Day 1 that I’ll share at a future date. My best guess is March 17th, while I’m eating a Reuben from West Street Deli.
And nobody better give me any nonsense about letting the Reuben rest for a day and it somehow being better. Got it?
This is your reminder that this week’s theme for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE is SUNRISE, SUNSET:
What is a SUNRISE, SUNSET picture? It is a simply a picture of a SUNRISE or of a SUNSET. I’ve heard some grumbling this is a hard theme. The weather is bad. I go to bed at 6 shortly after eating my early bird special at the nursing home. I don’t like going outside. Whatever. Of course THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE is hard sometimes. That is what makes it great. If it was easy everybody would do it.
“Maybe you will just have to get creative.” He muttered while sipping on a cocktail made out of tequila, orange juice and grenadine. Unmixed. In a tall glass. Served on the rocks. Sometimes garnished with a cherry and orange slice.
If getting a little lit doesn’t inspire you, maybe these example submission from when SUNRISE, SUNSET was a theme in days past will:
Kim Barker – Week 43
Stephanie Kim – Week 43
Michelle Haupt – Week 43
Christopher D. Bennett – Week 43
Happy photo harvesting!
Time once again to share some auxiliary images from my road trip to Clayton County to harvest their town signs several months back. Clayton County is a beautiful county and I would like to visit again this year. We will have to see how my life goes. But I think I can swing it!
Best View in the World!
Garnavillo
Furniture and Undertaking
Clayton
Pikes Peak State Park
Bridal Veil Falls was a bit of a disappointment.
Pikes Peak Park has such an incredible overlook of the Mississippi River. Even when it is lousy with other people. I’d love to go back there and use Rodan139 to get a few pictures. When the place isn’t lousy with people, of course!
Still one more collection of pictures from this trip left to share!
STORE! Everybody goes to them. Maybe not as much as they did before the pandemic, but you still have to go to them, unless you get everything delivered. Which I don’t think any of you do. I don’t have any friends that are that rich. Or do I?
But many people make it to a STORE to take a picture? You will have to keep scrolling to find out.
As of 12:01 PM on Monday, February 27, this was the current list of ACTIVE streaks (ignore the numbers in parentheses):
1-Jen Ensley-Gorshe – 1 week
2-Mary Green – 1 week
3-Sara Lockner – 1 week
4-Sarah Karber – 2 weeks
5-Mindi Terrell – 2 weeks (2)
6-Willy McAlpine – 3 weeks
7-Suzie Brannen – 6 weeks
8-Jesse Howard – 6 weeks
9-Monica Jennings – 6 weeks (2)
10-Nathanial Brown – 7 weeks (2)
11-Mike Vest – 7 weeks
12-Tamara Peterson – 17 weeks
13-Brandon Kahler – 27 weeks
14-Linda Bennett – 31 weeks
15-Sarah Toot – 32 weeks (3)
16-Angie DeWaard – 36 weeks
17-Dawn Krause – 40 weeks
18-Kim Barker – 45 weeks (2)
19-Joe Duff – 47 weeks
20-Logan Kahler – 4 8weeks
21-Teresa Kahler – 58 weeks
22-Carla Stensland – 58 weeks (3)
23-Micky Augustin – 60 weeks
24-Andy Sharp – 61 weeks
25-Bill Wentworth – 62 weeks
26-Cathie Morton – 66 weeks
27-Elizabeth Nordeen – 67 weeks (2)
28-Shannon Bardole-Foley – 69 weeks
29-Kio Dettman – 71 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:
Sara Lockner (Iowa) – 2 weeks
Mindi Terrell (Iowa) – 3 weeks
Mindi Terrell (Iowa)
Mindi Terrell (Iowa)
Suzie Brannen (Iowa) – 7 weeks
Jesse Howard (Iowa) – 7 weeks
Monica Jennings (Iowa) – 7 weeks
Monica Jennings (Iowa)
Monica Jennings (Iowa)
Nathanial Brown (Iowa) – 8 weeks
Nathanial Brown (Iowa)
Nathanial Brown (Iowa)
Mike Vest (Iowa) – 8 weeks
Tamara Peterson (Iowa) – 18 weeks
Brandon Kahler (Iowa) – 28 weeks
Linda Bennett (Iowa) – 32 weeks
Sarah Toot (New York) – 33 weeks
Sarah Toot (New Jersey)
Sarah Toot (Pennsylvania)
Angie DeWaard (Iowa) – 37 weeks
Dawn Krause (Iowa) – 41 weeks
Dawn Krause (Iowa)
Kim Barker (Iowa) – 46 weeks
Joe Duff (Texas) – 48 weeks
Joe Duff (Texas)
Logan Kahler (Iowa) – 49 weeks
Teresa Kahler (Iowa) – 59 weeks
Carla Stensland (Iowa) – 59 weeks
Micky Augustin (Iowa) – 61 weeks
Andy Sharp (Illinois) – 62 weeks
Bill Wentworth (Nebraska) – 63 weeks
Cathie Morton (Nassau Bahamas) – 67 weeks
Elizabeth Nordeen (Iowa) – 68 weeks
Elizabeth Nordeen (Iowa)
Shannon Bardole-Foley (Iowa) – 70 weeks
Kio Dettman (Iowa) – 72 weeks
Kio Dettman (Iowa)
Christopher D. Bennett (Iowa) – 494 weeks
27 participants this week. That is a great week. A slight dip from the last couple of weeks. Maybe there aren’t as many slaves to consumerism out there as I had thought. Which is a good thing… we’ll count it as a good thing.
The good news is that there were 3 new states added to the map this week! New York (Sarah Toot), New Jersey (Sarah Toot again), and Illinois (Andy). That means that all the states that surround Iowa have had a submission taken in them except for South Dakota. But I’m sure we’ll get there. I see you South Dakota.
Also, Cathie added our 2nd submission taken from outside the United States with Nassau Bahamas.
There were submission this week taken in the following locations:
+ Arkansas
+ Illinois
+ Iowa
+ New Jersey
+ New York
+ Nebraska
+ Pennsylvania
+ Texas
+ Nassau Bahamas
Here is the current calendar year list for states:
+ Arkansas
+ Florida
+ Georgia
+ Illinois
+ Iowa
+ Kansas
+ Minnesota
+ Nebraska
+ New Jersey
+ New York
+ Nevada
+ Missouri
+ Oklahoma
+ Pennsylvania
+ Texas
+ Wisconsin
16 states! That is pretty impressive!
The Outside of the United States map is now:
+ British Virgin Islands
+ Nassau Bahamas
I took my picture about 2.5 miles from my front door. I know. Big time traveler this guy!
I think this map might grow again next week. A little birdie tells me that a certain regular contributor is going to Arizona this week and maybe Mexico, if they have the guts.
There were no big time milestones this week. Unfortunately there was a bit of a blood bath on the streaks front though. Jen and Mary couldn’t extend their submission last week into a streak. Sarah Karber’s streak went down in flames after 2 weeks. Willy’s 3 week is now as existent as his desire to show up for work.
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:
SUNRISE, SUNSET! What a great theme for year 10 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE.
It has been a few years since I’ve used SUNRISE, SUNSET for a theme. I was told it wasn’t a fair theme because people with children could not do it. I don’t know I bought it, but I don’t know. Maybe it is true. Either way, I put the theme on the sidelines.
I brought it back this year because it is the Special Theme Class for the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon. Rather than writing up my own description, I thought I should just lift it straight from the Iowa State Fair.
“The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world’s joy.”
– Henry Ward BeecherNext year’s theme is a bright one that our world literally revolves around. The Sun is something that we as photographers like to photograph quite often, because it offers a multitude of creativity. In fact, we call the sunset the golden hours because of opportunities it presents to capture the perfect photograph.
Your assignment, however, is to not just shoot the sun, but to shoot it in a way that we have never seen before. While the sun must be the main subject, it shouldn’t be the only subject of your photograph. Ask yourself, what is making the Sun so interesting in the moment? What can you do to photograph the Sun to tell a story of what is happening in that moment?
This assignment will also give you the opportunity to play with shadows and light and all the many colors that the sunrises or sunsets can provide. Look for the dramatic contrasts that can occur when the Sun is providing the light for your photographs.
I’ll just add a couple more things.
#1. Putting objects between you and the sunset can make or break a SUNRISE, SUNSET picture. Choose wisely.
#2. A SUNRISE, SUNSET picture doesn’t have to be of the sun. Maybe for the Iowa State Fair, but not for our purposes. You can also turn around take a picture that is lit by a SUNRISE or SUNSET. A reflection of a SUNRISE or SUNSET can make a fantastic picture.
I look forward to seeing your interpretation.
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 SUNRISE, SUNSET in this place that is still in its sunrise phase next Monday.
Time once again to share a collection of images from my road trip through Clayton County to harvest their town signs.
Most of these are taken in Guttenberg, which is beautiful little river town. I’d love to spend more time there at some point in the future and really give it a good photographing!
Guttenberg
Still so many pictures to share from this road trip!
