Category Archives: Panorama

Christianity, Drone, Flowers, Panorama, WPC - Alternate, WPC - Reminder

It’s Hard for Me to Weep When I’m Strong

August 28, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

When I went out in the middle of nowhere Boone County to fly the drone around an old country church to take my RELIGION picture for last week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE. I took several photos. Some of the church. Some of the little park across the road. Some of the windswept fields of the nearby farms.

Here are some of the pictures I took on the drone flight:

It's Hard for me to Weep When I'm Strong

Hopefully I can get Rodan139 out this weekend too.

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

FLOWER

A FLOWER picture is any picture that involves a FLOWER.

Happy photo harvesting!

Carla, Cathie, Drone, Flowers, Jodie Cue, Kio, Macro, Panorama, Tamara, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 258 – RELIGION

August 24, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

47 STRAIGHT WEEKS! 47 straight weeks of double digit submissions! This week even includes the first, the second, and the third ever submission by local legend Kio Dettman! Glad to have you onboard Kio. Hopefully is just the beginning of great things!

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

Jodie Cue

Christopher D. Bennett

Jodie Cue

Kio Dettman

Jodie Cue

Kio Dettman

Tamara Peterson

Cathie Raley

Carla Stensland

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:

FLOWER

FLOWER! What a great theme! But what is a FLOWER picture? A FLOWER picture is simply a picture of a FLOWER or anything that is used in the raising of a FLOWER.

I look forward to seeing your 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 flowery Monday!

Drone, Nature, Panorama, Ruins

Derecho Gamma

August 18, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

On Saturday morning before breakfast I took the drone out to take some pictures of the “Stop Eminent Domain Abuse” semi trailer and the Luther grain bins. It was very peaceful and quiet. I might have to make this a Saturday morning tradition. Gets me off the couch and more active on Saturday mornings. Plus early morning is a good time to take the drone out There aren’t many people. The lighting is usually okay and there isn’t usually much wind. I might have to go out to the High Trestle Trail Bridge this Saturday. Depending on how late of a Friday night I have.

Probably one more post with derecho damage in the future, but we will see. Some of this damage isn’t going away any time soon.

Animals, Black & White, Drone, Nature, Panorama, WPC - Alternate, WPC - Reminder

So Many Stories of Where I’ve Been

August 7, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

I took plenty of NATURE photos that just weren’t ready for the world on Monday. They needed a little bit more time in the oven. These pictures were taken at Summerset State Park, Harrier Marsh, Neal Smith Wildlife Refuge, and Honey Hollow.

I haven’t even thought about this week’s theme yet…

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

TRANSPORTATION

A TRANSPORTATION photo is any photo that involves the TRANSPORTATION of people or goods. A car. A train. A boat. Your feet. A road. A bridge. You get the idea.

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.

Drone, Formal Portrait, Panorama

Senior Sunday – Autumn – Volume 5

June 28, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

The second to last Senior Sunday. This is the final collection of photos from Autumn’s photo shoot. These pictures were separated from the rest because they were either taken with the RXOII or Rodan139.

If you want to go back and look at all the Autumn photos, click on the link below:

Autumn

One last Senior Sunday!

Drone, Panorama, Photoshop

Falling Green Screen

May 27, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

I have been asked how I did my SELF-PORTRAIT for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE. Well, here is a quick run down.

For starters, I laid a green screen down on my driveway. Then I took Rodan139 357 meters above sea level and set the camera to take time lapse pictures every 10 seconds.

Then I tried a few poses:

But I ultimately decided on this pose:

Since I had Rodan139 out, I went ahead and took a couple pictures of the nearby water tower:

Then I took Rodan139 up to 397 meters above sea level and took a picture straight down:

Next I opened up both images in Photoshop. I cropped the picture of me, so it was only me and the green screen:

After cropping the images, I went to the select menu and chose “Color Range”. Then using the eyedropper tool, I held the SHIFT key while clicking and dragging around all the green area that I need ed to remove:

Then from the SELECT menu, I chose INVERSE.
Then, while holding the SHIFT key, I chose SELECT AND MASK.

From that menu I played with the SMOOTHNESS slider to make the edges of the selection smoother.

When I was satisfied, I selected OK.

Then from the SELECT menu, I chose INVERSE. Then I pushed BACKSPACE to remove the green screen:

Then I copied the selection over to the new background image.

Then finally, I blurred the new background slightly, to make the image look more realistic. This was the final result:

WEEK 245 - SELF-PORTRAIT - CHRISTOPHER D. BENNETT

That is it, easy peasy!

Drone, Nature, Panorama

Rodan139 – Ledges

February 27, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

On Sunday I took Rodan139 out for its first flight of 2020. It was a pretty quick trip. Mostly just up and down. Rodan139 hadn’t taken to the skies since December and I just wanted to knock the cobwebs off.

Plus I had a limited amount of time between when church concluded and when I had to leave to get to Hilton to watch the Ashley Joens and the gang take on the Red Raiders.

Here are a few of the pictures I took:

Hopefully we get some warm weather again when I have more time and I can take to the skies again, soon.

Andy, Becky, Black & White, Candid Portrait, Carla, Cathie, Drone, Iowa State, Jesse, Kim, Micky, Mom, Monica, Nature, Panorama, Shannon, Tamara, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 223 – LANDSCAPE

December 23, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

13!! Lucky number 13! 13 straight weeks of double digit submissions. With the holiday season, it might be rough getting to 14 straight weeks and I will be in Kentucky next Monday. However, that doesn’t change the deadline. So plan accordingly, this week is a very easy theme!

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

Andy Sharp

Becky Parmelee

Jesse Howard

Jon DeWaard

Monica Henning

Cathie Raley

Carla Stensland

Shannon Bardole-Foley

Tamara Peterson

Christopher D. Bennett

Micky Augustin

Kim Barker

CANDID PORTRAIT

CANDID PORTRAIT! What a great theme! But what is a CANDID PORTRAIT? A CANDID PORTRAIT is a picture of somebody where they aren’t posing for the picture. Now, they can know that you are taking their picture, but they can’t stop what they are doing and pose for the picture. A perfect Christmas theme where there will be lots of family gatherings of people doing CANDID PORTRAIT type things.

I look forward to seeing your 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 candid Monday!

Animals, Naima, Nature, Panorama, Photoshop

Subtly Dissolves

October 9, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

Hitting up the 2018 backlog again. This is a collection of photos I took while I was playing with the panorama setting on the trusty old 77ii.

Most of them were taken out a Dickcissel Park. This was a trip with Naima that involved her running off some pheasants. I was proud of her, because I have a spot in my heart for almost all of God’s creatures. I don’t even kill stink bugs. But I do hate pheasants and have a reputation for not liking cats.

Naima has been sad hat we haven’t made that many trips out to Dickcissel this year, but every time we go out there, she comes home with an ear affliction. But I better get out there a few times before the weather makes it impossible.