Category Archives: Night

Vacation Day 1 – The Birds

April 28, 2010 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

“I have never known birds of different species to flock together. The very concept is unimaginable. Why, if that happened, we wouldn’t stand a chance! How could we possibly hope to fight them? ”
– The Birds

I spent a good portion of my first day of vacation working on a couple of different photo projects, but I also had time to head over to Teresa’s house to take pictures of the nest that a robin has built on the wreath on her front door.

Part of my day took me to Ledges where I startled a turkey vulture. I got this shot of it flying away.

I also photographed the two nests that are in my backyard and the nest that is on my neighbor’s house near my driveway.

Grackle Nest

Pigeon Nest

Robin Nest

Later in the day I went to Pella with my Mom. After a brief rainy stop in their town square to photograph their tulips we went to Des Moines for supper.

We ate at Smitty’s Tenderloin Shop. Their tenderloin was a little bit disappointing. It didn’t quite live up to the hype, but it was still pretty good.

When I get to Vacation Day 5, what I’m about to write will sound hypocritical, but hopefully your memory won’t last that long.

The people that were sitting in the booth next to ours were extremely snotty to the waittress. They also spent sometime mocking the fact that the restaurant was featured in Gourmet magazine.

They were the type of annoying customer that caused us to leave a larger than ordinary tip because I got the sense that the snotty people were going to stiff the waittress.

After supper we met up with Sara and hit up Snookie’s for the first time this year.

It was a pretty wonderful Day 1 of vacation.

Black & White, Candid Portrait, Formal Portrait, Night, Sara

Lone Wolf Extras

April 7, 2010 Christopher D. Bennett 5 Comments

Here are a few extra, bonus images from the Lone Wolf photo shoot with Sara.

Sara was full of creative ideas on this night and she helped improvise when I realized that I had left a key part of my tripod at home, making the tripod essentially useless and making the image I wanted to capture impossible.

Oh well, there will be other nights at Gray’s Lake. After all, The Summer of Fun will be kicking off very soon. Perhaps as early as May 8!

Black & White, Iowa State, Night, WPC - Alternate

Soothing Photo Shoot

February 2, 2010 Christopher D. Bennett

These pictures were never in the running for RWPE #2 – Soothing, but I took them at the same time and keep forgetting to post them.

I love fog.

Calendar, Flowers, Night

November

January 12, 2010 Christopher D. Bennett

The Eternal Seductiveness of Life

Because the calendar is a landscape medium, this picture actually appears in the calendar in landscape form with not much of the allium showing but the flower. It was originally taken in portrait orientation.

Calendar, Formal Portrait, Night, Sara

October

January 11, 2010 Christopher D. Bennett

This picture of Sara is still untitled. For the story behind this image, click on the link below:

Sore Feet

Black & White, Brandon, Flowers, Formal Portrait, Jay, Night, Pufferbilly Days, Sara

Think I’ll Go Eat Worms

September 16, 2009 Christopher D. Bennett

Here is a look at the pictures that the committee had to choose from, but received no love.

2009 - Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest Nominee

“Nobody likes me, everybody hates me,

Guess I’ll go eat worms,

Long, thin, slimy ones; Short, fat, juicy ones,

Itsy, bitsy, fuzzy wuzzy worms.

Down goes the first one, down goes the second one,

Oh how they wiggle and squirm.

Up comes the first one, up comes the second one,

Oh how they wiggle and squirm.

Nobody loves me, everybody hates me,

Think I’ll go and eat worms,

Long ones, short ones, fat ones, thin ones,
See how they wriggle and squirm

I bite off the heads, and suck out the juice,
And throw the skins away,
Nobody knows how fat I grow,
On worms three times a day
Ohh… nobody loves me.”

Great song, isn’t it? I’m kind of partial to this version:

Nobody likes me, everybody hates me,
I’m goin’ down to the garden to eat worms,
Long thin slimy ones, short fat fuzzy ones,
Ooey gooey, ooey gooey worms.

Long thin slimy ones slip down easily,
Short fat fuzzy ones don’t,
Short fat fuzzy ones stick to your teeth,
And the juice goes slurpin’ down your throat

Becky, Black & White, Contests, Flowers, Night, Pufferbilly Days

Becky Perkovich

September 15, 2009 Christopher D. Bennett

Becky made the final selection.

Misplaced Plant

Becky also had other pictures that she liked. They are below with the reason she liked them.

“Fire Pit – Everyone can relate to this photo.”

“Fireworks Fallout – This photo is original”

“Color Daisies – This photo feels hopeful.”

“Story St Fire – There may be lots of these photos there (like trains) but it’s relatable.”

The weirdest thing is that I don’t even think that there was a single train photo there this year.

“Interesting.”

“Yes. Provocative.”

Black & White, Boone FUMC, Contests, Formal Portrait, Logan, Mom, Night, Pufferbilly Days

Charlotte Bennett (Mom)

September 15, 2009 Christopher D. Bennett

My mom doesn’t own a computer or even know how to use one, so I had to bring her over to the Honest Abe office to have her look over the pictures for her to pick one.

“Pardon and Sanctify Me”

I actually thought that she would pick this one. It is a picture of the cross on the top of our church. It actually looks much nicer than that now as it has been recently painted during the tuckpointing process. It is prettier now, but perhaps not as photogenic.

There were a couple of other images that she also considered.

The truth is that she doesn’t like the picture of Logan’s eye at all, but she thought it was artistic. I don’t think any of my weirder images got much love, but at least this one got mentioned.

Animals, Black & White, Contests, Flowers, Jill, Night, Pufferbilly Days

Jill Gorshe

September 15, 2009 Christopher D. Bennett

I was pleasantly surprised by Jill’s choice. Since I had decided to have all people of the female persuasion pick the photos this year, I thought a frog picture would get very little love.

But Jill came through for the frog.

“It’ll Do Fine”

I actually struggled with the naming of this picture. Even now, I think that I’m going to rename it to “So Many Other Ordinary Things”. I’ll have to meditate upon it further.

There was a point when I wanted to name this picture after the prince from The Frog King or Iron Heinrich, but as I looked into the story a little bit deeper, I found that the Frog King doesn’t have a name. But perhaps even more importantly is that I don’t think that the princess really deserves the Frog-King. At least not as the story was originally written.

In the original story, the princess doesn’t break the spell with a kiss. She throws the frog against the wall in disgust.

“Now, thou wilt be quiet, odious frog.” The princess says and throws the frog against the wall. This turns the frog back into a prince. For some reason he still wanted her?!?!?!?

He should have stood up and told her to bugger off. There are other fish in the sea. Some of those fish probably aren’t spoiled little brats that try to go back on their deal. He did get her stupid golden ball for her out of the well. He should have known how small and petty she was then. It is just a stupid golden ball. No need to offer up your clothes, pearls or jewels, princess.

But I digress…

Jill of course had other pictures she liked, before deciding on the frog.

If Jill can pick a frog, I have hopes that one of the guys will pick a flower picture in 2010.

Art, Black & White, Cousin Amy, Event, Formal Portrait, Night, Sara

Raise a Glass

July 27, 2009 Christopher D. Bennett

I went to a fundraiser for the American Diabetes Association on Friday night with Sara and Amy. It was an interesting evening. The basic point of the night was wine tasting and art for sale.

I don’t drink, so I mostly looked at art.

However, there was one point where I was sitting at a table waiting for Amy and Sara to comeback with food. It was then that I meant one classy dame.

Three people approached the table. A dude, a lady I will call Ms. Manners and the Classy Dame.

Ms. Manners said, “Can we sit at this table?”

I replied, “Yes.”

Classy Dame answered, “You don’t have to ask him if we can sit at this table. This is our table. We were here first. I marked this table. I peed all around it.”

I replied, “How lovely.”

Here are some pictures from Sara from the night.

Amy and I

Sara and I

I am by no stretch of the imagination a fan of Grant Wood, but I am a fan of wooden cutouts that you stick your head through.

Sara and Amy

This particular piece of artwork really stood out to me. This is not a particularly good picture of it, but that is most likely for the best. The artist had made mosaic type pictures out of old magazines. All of the pictures were like the one to the left. A nice picture of people or of flowers or something. But then I came upon this picture. A picture of a catfight that included a depiction of both sets of mammaries and the “V” of one of the combatants. Nicely played artist. Nicely played.

It was certainly a memorable night.