Most of the images that are located in the folder 11-29-07 were all taken at Iowa State:
Man! I miss being able to turn out the lights at work! Those were the days!
By adding these pictures to the SmugMug Gallery I was able to restore the following gallery:
Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve Bandshell Park in Ames.
ART is one of my favorite themes. I love seeing what kind of ART that people have in their lives. This was a solid week of submissions.
But you didn’t come here to listen to me talk all tommyrot about submissions. You came here to see the submissions:
Becky Parmelee
Becky Parmelee
Christopher D. Bennett
Cathie Raley
Logan Kahler
Kim Barker
Mike Vest
Sheri Farkhouri
Sheri Farkhouri
Tamara Peterson
Tamara Peterson
Carla Stensland
Carla Stensland
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:
MACRO! What a great theme! MACRO is legit one of my favorite themes, but what is MACRO. MACRO is just some east coast elite’s way of sayin’ close-up photography. With all their fancy book learnin’.
Okay, as somebody that has been falsely accused of being an elitist, I will say that there is a lot more accurate definition of MACRO that deals with the relationship of the size of the actual object to the size of that object when recorded on to a 135mm negative. That being said, to do that type of true MACRO photography, you need to drop a certain amount of coin on equipment.
As a man of the people, we can just say that MACRO means getting up in somebody or something’s grill and getting a shot.
As always, I look forward to seeing everybody’s interpretations. That includes you Bill, Dawn, and Micky. If Becky can make a comeback, you can make a comeback. We ALL can make a comeback!
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. 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
Nothing new to report. I’ll try to do better next week.
Want your own Photography 139 email subscription? Call, email, or text me and I’ll get you the hook up.
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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 close and personal Monday!
Now that I’ve been back to reality for 7 days, probably a good time to go over my vacation.
FRIDAY
Left work at 4 PM or so. Vacation starts.
Had FNSC with Willy. Ate at Colorado Grill.
After Colorado Grill. Started watching a new show, NARCOS.
SATURDAY
Breakfast at Legal Limit with Mom.
Photography for Amber and Steve’s Wedding.
SUNDAY
Went to the Lutheran Church in Gilbert with Jesse and Nader to celebrate Nader’s 30th year in the United States.
Ate lunch at the church with some of the people that helped Nader when he got to the country.
Went to Gene’s farm to admire his car collection.
Sent this picture to Russell of Youth Nazis harassing this old woman.
Sent this picture to Logan because he sent me a picture trying to make me jealous of his lunch.
A Studebaker with an El Camino back.
Naima getting her pills.
Went to the Boone & Scenic Valley Railroad and Shorty was there working it.
While this food stand looks awesome, the ice cream isn’t that great.
MONDAY
Loaded up Mom’s car and headed for Mount Rushmore.
Stopped in Sioux Falls for gas, human fuel, and Falls Park. It rained all the way to Sioux Falls.
Falls Park
Mom struggles with the selfie concept.
Confused by the bridge they built to seemingly just to wreck the view.
I wonder what this picture would look like with me in it.
Oh. Like that.
I give Falls Park the thumbs up. I’ll have to go back when I have more time at some point.
Stopped for gas again next to 1880 town.
Stopped at Wall Drug right before it closed.
Still don’t have the selfie thing down.
Free Water.
Pretty horrible restaurant across the street from Wall Drug.
I’d give Wall Drug the bird. Don’t waste your time. A bunch of touristy garbage with ridiculous hours.
Got to Rapid City and checked into a hotel with free WI-FI and continental breakfast.
TUESDAY
Got up in the morning and ate continental breakfast at the hotel. Had a lengthy conversation with two women from Arizona that came up there for the Buffalo Roundup.
Left for Mount Rushmore.
First view of Mount Rushmore
View from the parking lot.
One armed woman took this picture for us.
Getting better at the selfie game.
What Mount Rushmore was supposed to look like, but they had to stop because of WWII. Another thing we can blame on Hitler.
I give Mount Rushmore the thumbs up.
At the base of Mount Rushmore we ran into Brad Dighton. The cousin of a member of my church. He gave us several pro tips for the area. We weren’t able to get to all of them, but maybe next time.
One of his pro tips was take the Iron Mountain Road to Custer State Park.
All of these tunnels point back to Mount Rushmore. You can’t tell in the picture, but trust me.
I give the Iron Mountain Road the thumbs up.
Custer State Park is a great example of white privilege. I have no clue why a park is named after Custer. His 2 claims to fame are graduating last in his class at West Point and then getting his buttocks handed to him at the Battle of Little Big Horn.
Custer Park (like the man) was more hype than pay off. We were told we would see hundreds of buffalo. We saw one. That being said, the feral donkeys and the prairie dogs made up for the lack of buffaloes.
I give Custer Park a thumbs up, but it didn’t live up to the hype.
After we left Custer, we went to Needles Highway.
Still working on the selfie game.
We’re starting to get there.
Needles Highway is a road about the width of McHose Park road, but with a 400 foot drop to your death on one side. It is amazing!
I give Needles Highway a big thumbs up!
After that we went to Hill City to eat lunch/dinner at a place recommended to us by Brad Dighton. That place was closed, so instead we dined at the Hill City Cafe.
We bought fudge there.
Hill City Cafe wasn’t terrible, but it certainly was not great. Thumb sideways.
After that, we went to the Crazy Horse Memorial.
Almost there!
We might’ve regressed on our selfie game.
I’d give Crazy Horse another big thumbs up! My only complaint is that all the information seems to be on the family carving the memorial and hardly anything on Crazy Horse himself. You know, the guy that ripped Custer’s buttocks off and handed them back to him. He took out Custer’s brothers while he was ate it. Crazy Horse was an OG.
Pro Tip: Pay for the $4 bus ride.
After leaving Crazy Horse, went back to Mount Rushmore for the lighting ceremony.
Paid and extra dollar for the Thomas Jefferson ice cream.
The lighting ceremony kind of drags on for awhile, but the part where they bring veterans on stage and take the flag down is powerful. While waiting (forever) for them to light up the mountain we became single serving friends with Lance Young. A former Iowa State wide receiver that played in the Dan MacCarney era.
After the lighting we went back to Rapid City and crashed.
WEDNESDAY
Got up in the morning and hit the continental breakfast. Hard. Going home day. No time for single serving friends. Ate and hit the road.
Stopped at Badlands National Park.
Still working on it.
I think we have it. At least we’re in striking distance.
Taken by a woman who was friendly, but strangely afraid of falling down the side to her death. She has no future as a Photography 139 Assistant!
“I’ll take one to the side and one of you in the middle.”
Not afraid of the edge. Pimp.
Badlands. 2 big thumbs up. They just need to work on their rattlesnake game.
Next stop on the way home was to see the Dignity Sculpture. It looks like the Big Jesus in Sioux City, only less creepy. I don’t have a picture with the cell phone, but when I unleash the camera pictures, there is one there.
The next stop was Mitchell. I was going to avoid the Corn Palace but it just lined up with when we needed gas and human fuel.
SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER in corn. Well, I can’t hate that.
Mic Drop! I think we finally nailed it!
Last time I went to the Corn Palace, I gave it the bird. I’m going to upgrade it to just a thumbs down. It is worth seeing, if you don’t waste time going inside.
We stopped at a place called The Hungry Dog for lunch.
The Hungry Dog was by far the best eating experience of the trip. 6 out of 5 Stars!!! It only seats about 5 people on the inside and after the only employee took our order, made our food, and delivered it; she locked the door and told us she’d be right back. She had to go pick up her kids from school.
I loved every second of my experience!
The last stop of the evening was in Jefferson for gas and human fuel.
1424.3 miles in 3 days.
Then home for sleep.
THURSDAY
Did not much in the day. Hung up a bunch of pictures in my bedroom. Cleaned out the guest bedroom now that Alexis has moved out.
Picked Derrick up for the Iowa State game.
Well almost everything about that game sucked, except the company.
FRIDAY
I can’t remember next to anything that happened on Friday.
I visited Scottie D. to get a yard sign. He is running for City Council for Ward 5.
Also had FNSC with Willy. Think it was at Jimmy’s Barbecue.
SATURDAY
Don’t remember much about Saturday either.
Went uptown during YesterBoone to complete another page of the Photo Journal Project.
Went out to McHose Park and with Jesse’s assistance completed yet another page of the Photo Journal Project.
After that, we went to a Gender Reveal Party for one of the members of the Youth Group. It’s a Girl!!
Headed up to Jay’s for Chili Lab. Both Jay and Wily made great chilis and we enjoyed a viewing of KONG ISLAND.
SUNDAY
Got up and went to church at Boone First United Methodist Church.
Then lunch with the family.
Meeting for the Council to Elect Degeneffe.
Then I went to the Freedom Flight Send-off to see Jesse’s Dad.
Monica’s mom made a bouquet that they took with them to place on the tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Then I went home. Sat on my couch and soaked up the last few hours of vacation, before being back at the grind on Monday.
I’ve been back to work one week. Already fantasizing about the next time I dip my toes into the PTO pool.
The pictures in the folder 10-31-07 display both a terrifying display of brute strength and a terrifying display of Halloween costumes.
By dusting off these pictures and adding them to the current Smugmug Photo Gallery, I was able to restore the following blog posts:
I have now restored all of the October 2007 blog posts to close to their original glory. Now I can’t tell you why I’ve felt motivated to restore decade old blog posts, because I know that nobody is checking them out, but I can tell you that I’ve learned a lot about who I used to be. I used to be somebody that put up photos within minutes after taking them. The current me has photos that he took close to a year ago that he still needs to look at. I probably need to find some middle ground on that.
Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve more Iowa State Football and some surprising tailgaters!
One of the benefits of THE SELFIE PROJECT is that I can look back at a month and feel less worthless. Hey, I actually did go out and do stuff and see people in month X. I’m a winner!
Speaking of winners, these are the photos I consider winners from the month of August:
August 5, 2017
August 6, 2017
August 7, 2017
August 10, 2017
August 11, 2017
August 12, 2017
August 13, 2017
August 15, 2017
August 16, 2017
August 19, 2017
August 20, 2017
August 21, 2017
August 22, 2017
August 24, 2017
August 26, 2017
August 27, 2017
August 29, 2017
August 30, 2017
August 31, 2017
Remember that THE SELFIE PROJECT photos are posted on Instagram on the daily. If you don’t know, Instagram is that little sliver of social media that doesn’t suck… much. There are a few lazy slackjaws out there that post memes, but other than that, it is just pictures. Any way you can follow me at the account below:
Now I need to make sure that my September is almost as great as my August!
Now that the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon is officially over, I can reveal what picture was accepted for display and what 3 pictures were given the shaft.
In case you didn’t know, the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon is one of the hardest photo competitions in the world. They only accept about 20% of the photos entered. Now you know.
The following pictures did not fare so well. The judges looked them square in the eye and said, “Get out of here kid. You have no future!”
The next photo contest on the docket is the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest. Those pictures have been selected by my hearty crew of volunteers and their order has been placed. You can check out those entries on the corner of 8th and Story in downtown Boone starting Thursday, September 7.
Here is a bonus picture:
Sara sent me a picture of she and Cousin Amy finding my picture at the Photography Salon!
Some pictures of the most beautiful campus in the world in the folder called 10-19-07:
Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane might involve more Iowa State football!
There were only a handful of pictures of note in the folder 10-12-07:
Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve Iowa State football and some surprising tailgate photos!
Looks like I was playing with a new flash with many of the photos from the folder 09-13-07:
Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will consist of pictures from one of the annual beatdowns Iowa State puts on Iowa.
Thought I’d share another one of my favorite photos from my trip to Manhattan to visit Nate and Laura.
This water tower is on top of Manhattan Hill. I think Manhattan Hill is one of my favorite places in Manhattan. Although on this recent trip I was introduced to Top of the World. I’ll definitely be checking that out during the day on my next trip to Wildcat Land.
PARTICULARS
CAMERA: Sony ILCA-77M2
ISO: 200
FOCAL LENGTH: 18mm
APERTURE: f/5.6
EXPOSURE: 10 seconds
DATE: 05/27/2017 – 22:31
NO GPS DATA COLLECTED
PHOTO ASSISTANTS: Nate and Laura deserve credit for introducing me to this sweet spot.
PHOTO EDITING SOUNDTRACK: “Speak Like a Child” by Herbie Hancock from KEN BURNS JAZZ
FAVORITE LYRIC: It is an instrumental silly!
