Category Archives: Night

Drone, Night, Pufferbilly Days, Still Life, WPC - Alternate, WPC - Reminder

If You Look to the Sky and Pray

August 6, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

I need to start this post by encouraging you (if you have a pet) to enter the Pufferbilly Days Pet Show. It is this Sunday at 11 AM. Registration begins at 10:45. It is located at Veterans Park (9th and Story). Awards are given to the dog that is the Best Beggar, does the Best Trick, and had the Best Tail Wag. For Misc. pets, prizes are given to the Most Unique, the Most Colorful, and the pet with the Most Appropriate Name. There is a prize given for Most Look-Alike and Best in Show. Also some awards for cats, I assume.

Here is a flyer that has the ratio way off.

The Pet Show is open to all ages of humans and pets. As you can tell, this isn’t a super serious competition. So grab Fido and come on down for some fun with your four-legged (or two legs if it is a bird) friend! Also, no poultry.

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I haven’t taken Rodan139 out hardly at all this year. In fact, probably less than 5 times. I need to start stretching its wings more than I have. But here is a tiny collection of the last 2 extremely brief flights that it went on. One was just to look at all the fireworks going off around town. The others are alternates for my THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme of PATHS.

I’m laying down my pick and taking about a week long sabbatical from the Computer Mine starting next week, so hopefully I’ll get Rodan139 out of the hangar at least once in that time frame.

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

TOY

TOY! What a great theme for Year 8 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!

But what is a TOY image? Simply put, a TOY image is a picture of something that you use for recreation. It isn’t used for work. It is used for play. However, what one person might consider a TOY, another person might consider a TOOL. What is considered a TOY might be more personal than one thinks at first glance.

Happy photo harvesting!

Animals, Black & White, Dawn, Formal Portrait, Jay, Macro, Night, Railroad

2010-09-06, 2010-09-11, and 2010-09-13

June 12, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

The folders 2010-09-06, 2010-09-11, and 2010-09-13 were all fairly small, so I decided to combine them into one post. Two of the folders include images that were taken for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE, which back then was known as the RANDOM WEEKLY PHOTO EXPERIMENT. The other pictures are of Dawn’s turtle that briefly lived in my backyard.

By adding these pictures to the Photography 139 Gallery, I was able to restore the following historic “An Artist’s Notebook” entries to their original glory:

RWPE #35 – VIEWPOINT

RWPE #36 – LIGHT PLACEMENT

FUN WITH LIGHT

PERSONAL PHOTO PROJECT OF THE WEEK #45

I’m not even sure what the next walk down memory lane will involve. I’d bet that will involve a block party and Iowa State football though.

Animals, Art, Becca, Black & White, Boone County Fair, Christianity, Contests, Dawn, Derrick, Flowers, Formal Portrait, Jen, Jesse, Jill, Laura, Logan, Michelle, Micky, Monica, Nature, Night, Photoshop, Pufferbilly Days, Russell, Scottie D., Shannon, Shorty, State Fair, Still Life, Willy

My (Sad) Photo Contest History – 2

June 3, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett 4 Comments

When we left off, I had just won 1st Place in Black and White and 3rd Place in Color at the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest, but had been completely rejected by the Iowa State Fair for the 4th year in a row.

Whatever I was selling, the judges were not buying. I was despondent, but not discouraged because I knew I had entered some great photos, but they were not what the judges were looking for that year.

2011 comes around. I decided to retire from the Boone County Fair Photo Contest and to start a new way of picking pictures for the Pufferbilly Days. I also had what was probably the peak of my photo contest career at the Iowa State Fair. I got all 4 pictures exhibited. This is extremely hard to do. Thousands of people enter the contest every year. Only 5 of us got all 4 pictures exhibited. You can do the math. It is a big deal.

These are the pictures that were exhibited:

2011 Iowa State Fair Photography Salon - I Recommend Pleasant

2nd Place Class 25

Honorable Mention Class 13

For the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest it was the second year of letting other people select my entrants. Dawn, Derrick, Jen, Scott, Russell, and Rebecca chose my entries. Dawn’s choice got 2nd Place in Black and White:

2011 Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest - Radiant Beams

2nd Place – Black and White

I was pretty excited for 2012. I thought I had cracked the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon Code, but there is no code. Some years the judge like you. Some years they don’t. In 2012, they like one of my pictures:

2012 Iowa State Fair Photography Salon - Truth Perception

That year, I decided to retire from the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest.

Then shortly after that, I decided to retire from Photo Contests altogether.

But in 2017, the itch came back. I decided to put on a Washington Wizards Jersey and come out of retirement. Hard. I decided to enter all 3 contests again. I got all Blue Ribbons at the Boone County Fair:

I got one picture selected for display at the Iowa State Fair:

2017 Iowa State Fair Photography Salon - Little Apple

I had the following people select my entries for the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest: Jim Robbins (yeah that is a long story), Micky, Michelle, Amber, Laura, and Dawn. However, none of the pictures earned a ribbon.

In 2018, my Boone County Fair entries were determined by popular vote:

Red

Purple

Blue

I had two pictures selected for display at the Iowa State Fair:

2018 Iowa State Fair Photography Salon - Peep

My Pufferbilly Days entries were also selected by popular vote that year:

2018 Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest - INRI

1st Place Photoshop

1st Place Photojournalism

3rd Place Hidden Treasures of Boone County

2019 would also be a successful year. I moved to having individuals select my Boone County Fair entrants. Shannon, Michelle, and Logan selected my entries.

Purple

Blue

Red

Blue

Purple

I had one picture selected for exhibition at the Iowa State Fair and it earned a ribbon:

2019 Iowa State Fair Photography Salon Entry - Green Little Vaulter

Honorable Mention Class 18

My Pufferbilly Day entries were once again selected by popular vote:

2019 Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest - Hocks

1st Place Nature

1st Place Photoshop

In 2020 the pandemic hit and all photo contests were cancelled. Which was sad and I think it was avoidable because in a digital age, I think they could have found a way. For example the Iowa State Fair still held its Fine Arts competition.

Which brings us to 2021. I’m currently working on my next embarrassing failure at the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon. However, I am not going to enter the Boone County Fair this year. There is a reason for this decision. A very good reason. However, I’m not going to share the reason until it becomes official or it falls through. Things seem to fall through quite often these days. No decision has been made on Pufferbilly Days yet, but Pufferbilly Days has been moved to early August this year. I’m not crazy about the decision, but I’ll give it a chance.

If you want to peruse all 153 Photo Contest entrants in this long weird journey, click on the link below:

Photo Contests

You can see them all from the out of focus to the award winners. The good, the bad, and the moldy jam equivalent.

Animals, Cousin Amy, Derrick, Event, Jen, Jesse, Mom, Monica, Nader, Night, Railroad, Sara

2010-08-25, 2010-08-26, 2010-08-29, and 2010-08-30

May 22, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

There weren’t many pictures in the folders 2010-08-25, 2010-08-26, and 2010-08-30 so I combined them with the folder 2010-08-29. Most of the pictures are from a baby shower Sara and I (she really did all the work) for Jen and Derrick when Jen was preggers with Evie. There are also a few full moon images in the other folders.

By adding these pictures to the Photography 139 Gallery, I was able to restore the following historic “An Artist’s Notebook” entries to their original glory:

PERSONAL PHOTO PROJECT OF THE WEEK #37E

PERSONAL PHOTO PROJECT OF THE WEEK #44

RWPE #34 – FOOD

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve a turtle and Shannon. Possibly together.

Mom, Nature, Night, WPC - Reminder

The Christmas Star

April 16, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

I don’t know if you remember this by now, but back in December Saturn and Jupiter were really close to each other in the sky, creating the phenomenon known as The Christmas Star. I went out in the country south and west of Ogden with my Mom to take a look at it and take a few pictures.

I was never really in love with how the pictures turned out, but you can have a look:

These are the last of the 2020 images to share that aren’t related to portraits. I’ll get to sharing those portraits again soon.

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

SHADOWS

A SHADOWS picture is pretty simple. It is a picture that includes a SHADOW(S) as part of the composition.

Happy photo harvesting!

Animals, Flowers, Macro, Nature, Night

2010-07-15 & 2010-07-18

March 13, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett 5 Comments

There are a couple of different types of pictures in the folders 2010-07-15 and 2010-07-18. Some are flower pictures and others are my attempts to take pictures of lightning.

Have a look:

By adding these pictures to the Photography 139 Gallery, I was able to restore the following historic “An Artist’s Notebook” entry to their original glory:

PERSONAL PHOTO PROJECT OF THE WEEK #35

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve the remains of burnt out building in downtown Boone.

Animals, Candid Portrait, Flowers, Macro, Nature, Night, Sara

2010-06-29, 2010-06-30, & 2010-07-01

February 20, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

The folders 2010-06-29, 2010-06-30, & 2010-07-01 Center Street Bridge are fairly small, so I combined them all into one fair sized post. Most of them are pictures of flowers, but a few are pictures I took with Sara at or near the Center Street Bridge in Des Moines.

By adding these pictures to the Photography 139 Gallery, I was able to restore the following historic “An Artist’s Notebook” entries to their original glory:

PERSONAL PHOTO PROJECT OF THE WEEK #34

THE INCIDENTAL GARDENER FILES

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve skydiving again. This time, maybe Shannon gets to jump out of a plane.

Bill, Black & White, Candid Portrait, Flowers, Jay, Jesse, Macro, Night, Willy

2010-06-28

February 13, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

There is a very diverse collection of photos in the folder 2010-06-28. Most are from Shannon’s first attempt to skydive. That idea got shot down (not literally) because it was deemed to windy to do such a thing safely. There are also pictures of a reunion when Bill came to town to visit. Then of course, there are plenty of flower pictures in here. But, perhaps my favorite picture in the folder is picture of a couple barns lit by the light of a full moon. I’ve been saying this for a long time, but I need to get back to taking some full moon photographs. This is the reason why I put the dates of full moons and new moons on the 2021 Photography 139 Calendar.

By adding these pictures to the Photography 139 Gallery, I was able to restore the following historic “An Artist’s Notebook” entries to their original glory:

PERSONAL PHOTO PROJECT OF THE WEEK #33

Unaffiliated Triad

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will definitely involve flowers.

Art, Black & White, Candid Portrait, Flowers, Macro, Nature, Night, Railroad

2010-06-05 Part 2

January 9, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

There were a literal ton of images in the folder 2010-06-05. Nearly 700. So adding the pictures that belonged in the gallery to the gallery, was no small feat. Now, don’t worry, I’m not going to post all of those images. It would be well over 100.

That being said, a ton of pictures from State Center and an abandoned railroad bridge that used to be in the heart of downtown Ames are still coming your way. This one might get long. Buckle up Dorothy:

That old train bridge has since been torn down. I believe it was the railroad tracks that ran a commuter train “The Dinkey” between downtown Ames and the Iowa State Campus. I used to like to visit that bridge on my lunch breaks or sometimes after work. It is sad that is gone.

By adding these pictures to the Photography 139 Gallery, I was able to restore the following historic “An Artist’s Notebook” entries to their original glory:

RWPE #22 – PAINTING WITH LIGHT

Flame On

Adumbrate

PERSONAL PHOTO PROJECT OF THE WEEK NO. 26 ALPHA

PERSONAL PHOTO PROJECT OF THE WEEK NO. 26 BETA

PERSONAL PHOTO PROJECT OF THE WEEK NO. 26 GAMMA

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve a trip to Ledges.

Black & White, Calendar, Candid Portrait, Derrick, Music, Naima, Night, Photoshop, Sara, Still Life

2010-05-30

December 19, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

As I’ve started to distribute the Photography 139 2021 Calendars, it is time to start revealing the pictures that made the cut:

Front Cover

The front cover image is an HDR image of Naima wading into the pond at Dickcissel Park while the sun goes down in the west. It was taken on November 2, 2018. It is the oldest picture in next year’s calendar.

Details
CAMERA: SONY ILCA-77M2
LENS: DT 18-135MM F3.4-5.6 SAM
FOCAL LENGTH: 18MM (27MM IN 35MM)
APERTURE: f/4.5
ISO: 100
FIELD OF VIEW: 67.4 degrees
LATITUDE: 42.03875
LONGITUDE: -93.81687

I will reveal one calendar image every day, for the rest of 2020.

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The pictures from the folder 2010-05-30 are from a series of pictures I took at both Rieman Music and on a bridge over 235 in Des Moines. Derrick was an assistant for the pictures at Rieman Music. Sara was an assistant for the pictures of 235.

By adding these pictures to the Photography 139 Gallery, I was able to restore the following historic “An Artist’s Notebook” entries to their original glory:

Euphony

RWPE #21 – HARMONY

PERSONAL PHOTO PROJECT OF THE WEEK NO. 25

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will probably involve flowers.