Category Archives: Night

Andy, Becky, Elizabeth, Fisheye, Joe Duff, Kio, Micky, Night, Ruins, Shannon, Tamara, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 271 – NIGHT

November 23, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

Over the weekend I finalized the list for the next 52 themes. I will release the new list sometime in early December with a small explanation of how I arrived at the new list. Thanks again to Andy for being the only person to suggest theme ideas. A few of them were incorporated into the new set of themes. Until that day, continue to enjoy the Hall of Fame Theme List.

This was a theme I was worried about breaking the double digit streak, but I had double digit submissions before I even woke up on Monday morning! 60 straight weeks!! WooHoo!

But you didn’t come here to listen to me talk all tommyrot about participation rates. You came to see the submissions:

Andy Sharp

Elizabeth Nordeen

Micky Augustin

Kio Dettman

Shannon Bardole-Foley

Kio Dettman

Tamara Peterson

Joe Duff

Christopher D. Bennett

Becky Parmelee

Cathie Raley

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:

RUINS

RUINS! What a great theme! But what is a RUINS picture? A RUINS picture is simply a picture of something that is falling apart. Something that has been abandoned. Something that has seen better days.

Here is a look back at all the times in the past RUINS has been a WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme:

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 30 – RUINS

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 103 – RUINS

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 121 – RUINS

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 177 – RUINS

WPC – WEEK 211 – RUINS

I look forward to seeing your new interpretations!

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HOUSEKEEPING

A MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 RULES DIVISION

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.

Your submission needs to be emailed to bennett@photography139.com by 11 AM on the Monday of the challenge due date.

I now allow people to text me their submissions. In the past, I had made exceptions for a couple people that aren’t real computer savvy, even though it was an inconvenience for me and required at least 3 extra steps for me. I am now lifting that embargo because I have a streamline way of uploading photos. I’m not giving out my phone number, but if you have it, you can text me.

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

Nobody showed class, taste, and sophistication this week by signing up for a Photography 139 email subscription. I’ll try and do better next week.

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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 ruined Monday!

Animals, Black & White, Flowers, Nature, Night, Photoshop

2010-05-07

November 21, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

The pictures in the folder 2010-05-07 were all taken in Brookside Park. Some during the day. Some at night.

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 NO. 22

Walk in Park

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve my Mom’s retirement.

Art, Black & White, Boone FUMC, Christianity, Night, Politics, WPC - Alternate

Matthew 25:35

November 20, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

I need to start by announcing that my church is still having our free Thanksgiving Meal this year. This year it is a drive-thru meal. If that sounds like something that you could need or want, here is some information:

First United Methodist’s Annual

FREE THANKSGIVING MEAL

You are invited to a fee drive thru/carryout Thanksgiving meal at the Boone First United Methodist Church (703 Arden Street)! We will NOT be offering out usual dine in meal but are happy to send a home cooked meal with you! Meals will be available for pickup on Thursday, November 26 between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Enter Arden Street from 8th Street heading north to south. Please call the church office with the number of meals that you plan to pick up.

To contact the church, call 515-432-4660 and leave a message or email bnfumc@mchsi.com.

Also because of coronavirus, there is a shortage of volunteers. If it is something you might be interested in helping with, I can get you into contact with a guy. You have to be signed up to work before the day, because they are limiting the amount of people inside the church to as few as possible. There is also need for help on the days before.

If interested, like I said, I know a guy.

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Thought today would be a good day to share the ART pictures I took for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE, but didn’t share on Monday:

Why do I feel that the person that put this up, also snapped it to all their friends.

Most of these pictures were taken at the skate park at McHose Park.

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

NIGHT

A NIGHT picture doesn’t have to be outdoors. Any picture taken after the sun has gone down is a NIGHT picture.

Happy photo harvesting!

Art, Cathie, Elizabeth, Kim, Kio, Micky, Night, Shannon, Tamara, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 270 – ART

November 16, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

Yes! Yes! 59 times yes! ART was the 59th straight theme to illicit double digit submissions!

But you didn’t come to hear me talk all tommyrot about participation rates. You came to see the submissions:

Tamara Peterson

Christopher D. Bennett

Cathie Raley

Kim Barker

Elizabeth Nordeen

Micky Augustin

Kio Dettman

Shannon Bardole-Foley

NIGHT

NIGHT! What a great theme! Should be an easy one too, now that NIGHT comes at like 4:30 these days. Now, you don’t have to get out and take a picture of the NIGHT sky. Any picture that is taken after the sun goes down works. That could be a picture of you sitting on the couch watching your weekly Alfred Hitchcock movie. Oh, that is just me? You get the idea. This picture could be taken just as easily indoors as it could be taken outdoors.

I have this one circled as being the one that could potentially the one that breaks the double digit streak. But it is pretty easy really. Don’t overthink it.

Here is a look back all the times in the past when NIGHT was a theme:

RWPE Y2 #30 – NIGHT

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 1: NIGHT

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 62 – NIGHT

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 149 – NIGHT

WPC – WEEK 253 – NIGHT

I look forward to seeing your new interpretations.

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HOUSEKEEPING

A MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 RULES DIVISION

Your submission needs to be emailed to bennett@photography139.com by 11 AM on the Monday of the challenge due date.

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

Nobody showed class, taste, and sophistication this week by signing up for a Photography 139 email subscription. I’ll try and do better next week.

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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 nocturnal Monday!

Animals, Boone FUMC, Commercial, Equipment, Fisheye, Flowers, Mom, Night, Shannon, Still Life, Youth Group

A Little Here, A Little There

October 27, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 3 Comments

This post is mostly a catch-all of cleaning up some image collections taken back in August, that were either going to part of bigger journal entries that I have abandoned or just a few rando pictures taken here and there that I just want to clean up and get out of the way.

The first little collection is pictures taken from church when they presented scholarships to Autumn, Summer, and Jentry:

Church went back to the building in October. They opened all the windows in the sanctuary to increase air circulation. It gets pretty cold in there. Makes me miss warm weather all the more.

The second collection of pictures is of the creamed honey I purchased from Honey Hollow, AKA Shannon and her husband’s business. I got the straight honey, raspberry, and mango. I was going to do a little review and endorsement deal on them, and I still might some day. But I think it is sufficient to say, that it is honey. It is delicious. It doesn’t crystallize because it is creamed.

At one point I was going to do an entry on a remote control I bought for the A7 II. I think it is sufficient to say that I bought a remote control and I use it now and again. Usually with long exposures.

Speaking of photo equipment entries I planned and never made. I bought an infrared filter to play with. I have since misplaced this filter. It is one of 3 things in my house that I’m currently keeping an eye out for.

Test shot.

There there were some night sky photo I took when playing with a new fisheye lens.

I need to do some night photography again before it gets too cold.

Then finally, just a couple rando photos:

Feels good to get these pictures out there. Real good.

Animals, Art, Black & White, Candid Portrait, Derrick, Flowers, Holidays, Night, Road Trip, Self-Portrait, Still Life, WPC - Alternate, WPC - Reminder

Back in Black and White

October 23, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

Here is another collection of alternates for last week’s BLACK AND WHITE theme for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE. Some were taken on my way back from Manhattan, Kansas. Some were taken around my house. Some were taken around my Mom’s house. Some were taken out by Don Williams.

I can’t wait for BLACK AND WHITE to be a theme in the next set of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE themes!

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

ANIMAL

An ANIMAL picture is any picture of an ANIMAL or something related to an ANIMAL.

Happy photo harvesting!

Animals, Equipment, Fisheye, Flowers, Formal Portrait, Jesse, Logan, Naima, Nature, Night, Self-Portrait, Still Life

Red Fish, Blue Fish

August 16, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

I meant to publish a post on this subject a week or so ago, but the derecho put those plans on hold. I’ve meant to be more proactive about writing about when I get new equipment, even equipment that is fairly small or seemingly inconsequential to most people. Hopefully this post starts just such a new era for “An Artist’s Notebook”.

The most recent thing I purchased was a fisheye lens for the mirrorless camera setup. Have a look:

Here are some specs for the lens:
FOCUS TYPE: Manual
CLOSEST FOCUSING DISTANCE: 7.9″
FOCAL LENGTH: 12mm
ANGLE OF VIEW: 180
MAXIMUM APERTURE: f/2.8
MINIMUM APERTURE: f/22

On a 35mm camera or a full frame sensor camera, a 50mm lens is the same as human sight. When you look through a viewfinder with a 50mm lens on the camera, what you see should be about the same as when you aren’t looking through the lens. Your angle of view won’t be the same, but objects should be about the same distance.

To illustrate how a fisheye lens, I took pictures of Jesse with a 50mm lens and with my new fisheye lens so you can see the difference between human sight and a fisheye lens.

50mm

Fisheye

50mm

Fisheye

50mm

Fisheye

50mm

Fisheye

I wanted to make this example to be more scientific, but I couldn’t find a football field in Boone with yardlines already painted that wasn’t being used. So these distances are mostly eyeballed, but they are pretty darn close.

Now that you know what it is and what it does, here are a few sample pictures I have taken:

The next piece of equipment I will talk about is a macro bellow I recently picked up. Then maybe a remote camera trigger. Then I need to purchase some stuff.

Nature, Night

Neowise

July 28, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

I did get out and took a few pictures of Neowise last week. Didn’t get anything special because I waited too late and then I didn’t have time to get all the way out to a spot with very little light pollution. I went out to the Harrier Marsh and that is a place that isn’t too bad for the light pollution.

Here are a few images that I got:

I ordered a new fisheye lens for the A72. It should arrive this week. Might have to take it out this weekend and take some more astrophotography pictures. Might have to hit up a spot near Dana, Iowa that Jay keeps pushing. Or I might sit on my couch and watch television. It really is a push.

Animals, Art, Night, Politics, Still Life, WPC - Alternate, WPC - Reminder

My Mind was Full of Razors

July 24, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

Last Friday night I prowled around Boone for a little bit taking NIGHT pictures for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE. Many of them, just couldn’t make the cut for Monday. But they seem to be ready for the world now.

I really don’t do enough NIGHT photography these days.

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This is your reminder that this week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is ANIMAL.

ANIMAL

An ANIMAL photo is any picture of an ANIMAL or ANIMAL byproduct.

Happy photo harvesting!

Alisa, Anders, Birthdays, Drone, Jorge, Movies, Night, Panorama

Space Jockey

July 22, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

I need to start today’s post by wishing Alisa a happy birthday. Happy birthday Alisa!

I hope your birthday is as amazing as you want it to be!

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My friend Anders is a very talented writer and an incredible film researcher. However, the reason why we are such friends in that often our tastes in cinema so closely aligns.

We are both big fans of science fiction. While his tastes run more towards STAR TREK and STAR WARS and mine run more towards dudes in rubber suits, it is really our love for the absolute dregs of the cinema that really bonds us.

We both have a deep affection for MANOS: THE HANDS OF FATE and THE SWARM and NIGHT OF THE LEPUS and PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE. However, the one film that really brings us together is the Phil Tucker joint ROBOT MONSTER.

It is my absolute favorite terrible movie and I’m pretty sure it Anders’ favorite as well. After all, he did write the definitive book on the movie.

Picture of me reading Anders’ book while dressed as The Master from MANOS: THE HANDS OF FATE, while Jorge mows my lawn dressed as Torgo from MANOS: THE HANDS OF FATE. Basically a typical Saturday for me.

You can purchase our copy here:

I Cannot, Yet I Must

To say that I’ve spent hours on the internet reading up on how to create my own Robot Monster costume would be an understatement. But I’m not here to talk about the greatness of ROBOT MONSTER. I’m here to talk about a different Phil Tucker joint, SPACE JOCKEY.

Anders and I first read about the movie SPACE JOCKEY in the book “The Golden Turkey Awards”. In that book, Phil Tucker is interviewed about ROBOT MONSTER, but he ends the interview by saying that ROBOT MONSTER is a masterpiece compared to another one of his movies SPACE JOCKEY. A movie he described as “a real piece of sh!t”.

Sadly, SPACE JOCKEY has been lost to the sands of time. Very little is known about it, other than a few articles in an Alaskan newspaper.

However, when Anders published the definitive work on ROBOT MONSTER he became somewhat of a celebrity in the old timey science fiction world. It was because of this fact that well, I just let Anders tell it:

It is my privilege and my pleasure to make a huge announcement.

The script for Phil Tucker’s lost film Space Jockey has been discovered, thanks to a copy of it kept by an original cast member. The film remains lost to the best of my knowledge, but Tucker’s script for his lost film has surfaced.

In September 2019, I was contacted by Tok Thompson, professor of Anthropology and Communication at the University of Southern California. Tok’s mother Donnis Stark Thompson, recently departed, had lived a full and fascinating life that included an early stint as an actress. And when Phil Tucker shot the lost film in Fairbanks, Alaska during the late summer of 1953, she was part of the cast. Years later among his mother’s belongings, Tok’s family discovered her copy of the Space Jockey script. Contacting film journalist Phil Hall, Tok was advised to contact me about the script because of my Phil Tucker book I Cannot, Yet I Must.

Thanks to Tok graciously sharing the script, I’ve been able to read it and, thanks to the copyright research of Elias Savada, it’s been confirmed that Tucker’s script was never copyrighted or renewed. As the script is public domain, I am pleased to say that it will be published in the year 2021. Also, there are hopes of performing it in some manner.

As this project is in development and ongoing, I’ll have more to post as the year keeps rolling on, with a publication date to be narrowed down and announced later. I hope that everyone out there who is a fan of Robot Monster, Phil Tucker’s movies, and cult cinema in general is as excited about this project as I am, and I look forward to you being able to experience this lost original script by Phil Tucker.

Stay tuned!

Anders sent me the script last summer. I read it immediately and have been dying to talk about it since then! I finally can!

I want to put together my own table reading of SPACE JOCKEY. Who has Zoom? Who wants a part?

Source: https://runestadwrites.com/2020/07/19/phil-tuckers-space-jockey-a-lost-script-found/

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Around the 4th of July, it was crazy around my neighborhood with the fireworks. I took the drone up and took some video. I’m not great at editing video, so you’ll probably never get to see that, but here are some photos I took:

A few of the pictures at the end are from the last couple of nights. I need to let Rodan139 spread its wings more often.