Category Archives: Candid Portrait

Art, Black & White, Candid Portrait, Derrick, Evie, Formal Portrait, Jay, Jen, Jonah, Jorge, Layla, Michelle, Movies, Naima, Nature, Photoshop, Railroad, State Fair, WPC - Reminder

Suds, Dickcissel, and Lensbaby Redux

June 5, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

Hey, I screwed up the schedule of posts and 2 posts accidentally posted at the same time yesterday. This one, that I took back down and re-posted and another one with daffodils. It is possible that you didn’t get the post about the daffodils yesterday. If that is the case, click on the link below:

My soul and pocketbook are glad to announce that I have finished THE CANVAS WALL PROJECT. 5 new canvases arrived on Monday and I was able to get them up that night. Here are the 5 final canvases:

Before the Swallow Dares – 2020

There is also an update on Naima and birthday wishes for Jorge in there.

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My soul and pocketbook are glad to announce that I have finished THE CANVAS WALL PROJECT. 5 new canvases arrived on Monday and I was able to get them up that night. Here are the 5 final canvases:

This is what the wall looks like:

Now, I realize that when there is furniture in place, not every picture is visible. That isn’t the important part. The important part is that they are there at all.

On to the next decorating project. Whatever that may be!
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I don’t consider pictures that were taken in the same calendar year in which we currently exist to be a backlog. However, if I did, this collection of images would be somewhat of a backlog. This clears out all images from January and February that had yet to be edited or curated.

Pictures from a trip to Dickcissel with Naima, some Lensbaby tests, and a picture of the Root Beer Symposium we had during movie night back in January.

We haven’t had Movie Night at The Union Street theater since February, so we haven’t been able to crown a root beer champion, but those pictures might give you the slightest indication of how messy my basement is right now. Although I would estimate that the big parts of the basement cleanup are about 30% done.

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

SIGNS

A SIGNS picture is just that, a picture of a SIGN or multiple SIGNS. Remember, there are more than one kind of SIGN(S).

Happy photo harvesting!

Birthdays, Candid Portrait, Flowers, Jesse, Jorge, Macro, Mom, Naima, Self-Portrait

Before the Swallow Dares – 2020

June 4, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

Today is Jorge’s birthday! Happy birthday Jorge!

I hope your birthday is as wonderful as you hoped it would be!

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Here is a quick update on Naima. Her surgery went well. The mass they removed from under her shoulder was even bigger than expected, but Dr. Stephanie said that everything went well. They don’t think it is cancerous, but they sent it away to get tested anyways.

She was very excited to leave the vet.

She was pretty sore.

Naima napped mostly when she got home. But then around 8 PM, the doorbell rang. My neighbor Stan had stopped by to check on Naima. Stan is the guy in the picture with Naima from my submission for FRIENDS for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE. She ran (as much as she could) out the front door to greet him and readily chomped down the snacks he had brought for her.

Then Naima refused to back inside the house. She begged for a car ride. She stood by her car door (the back driver’s side door) and refused to budge. This is the only door she will get in. So I opened the door and I helped her into the car.

We made a quick trip down to my Mom’s house. She is used to going down there several times a week. She went in and saw my Mom, Teresa, and Mocha. She drank all of Mocha’s water. Stood around for a bit. Then she was ready to go.

Naima will only go out the front door at my Mom’s house. So we went out the front door. I helped her down the steps. On her way to the car she sniffed out a ground squirrel and chased it up a rain spout.

For a minute or so she danced around the rain spout. Forgetting that she was sore and drugged up. Finally I had to pull her away, otherwise she surely would have knocked the rain spout off the house.

I brought her back home and she followed me around the yard as I watered the flowers. Then she came in and begged to go on a walk. I had to break her heart on this one. Maybe Thursday night she will be ready for a short walk. Maybe Friday night. We’ll see.

After that, she laid down and took it easy the rest of the night.

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Back in April I took a few pictures of my Mom’s daffodils. My daffodils didn’t bloom this year, but that is okay. Daffodils are not my favorite, but they are okay.

A long time ago, I decided to name pictures of certain flowers all the same name. Daffodils were going to be “Before the Swallow Dares”. I think I’m going to get back to that.

Alexis, Becca, Bethany, Billy, Birthdays, Candid Portrait, Carla, Dory, Elainie, Formal Portrait, Jason, Laura, Mom, Nate, Olympic Sports, Shorty, Teresa, Tim

2009-11-23

May 30, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

I need to start this post by wishing the happiest of birthdays to my bro Nate. Happy birthday Nate!

Truth is, I just hope Nate gets a good nap on his birthday!

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The pictures in the folder 2009-11-23 are from a trip I made with the family to Kansas City to watch Alexis compete in a cheerleading competition.

If you niece and nephew are going to compete in a sport, they can do worse than cheerleading. The routines last maybe a couple minutes. The you can leave. It isn’t a several hour commitment. Which is key, because I love my nieces and nephews dearly. But I care nothing about other people’s nieces and nephews. I don’t want to spend hours watching them compete, just to get to watch my niece and/or nephew compete. I want to watch my niece compete. Then I want to go get some tasty barbecue.

What I’m getting at is this, never, under any circumstances, agree to go to a gymnastics meet. There are multiple events and 10,000 kids. The worst part, they all use the same music for the floor exercise. Trust me, you don’t want to hear the same 30 second clip of some horrible song 10,000 times in one day. It will make you psychotic. Just saying…

One caveat though… cheerleading moms 100% live up to the stereotype.

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:

Be Aggressive

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve Jill and her foot.

Alexis, Candid Portrait, Carla, Jesse, Johnathan, Kanoa, Kupono, Weddings

The Baugher Wedding – One

May 22, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

I don’t even know how many work days from home it is now. I think it is 40. Who knows any more. But I did discover a new positive this week.

That the new positive. I like being able to use my lunch hour to mow. I’m not a big fan of mowing. I actually enjoy yard work, but I don’t enjoy mowing. I feel like I lose a whole night when I have to mow. But mowing during my lunch hour feels like a good use of time.

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Alexis got married last December in a very exclusive affair. I think there was maybe 10 of us there. I got invited to take pictures. Here are some of those pictures:

There is more to come from this wedding. I told you that there were a lot more Stenslands to come!

Candid Portrait, Formal Portrait, Jesse, Kalista, Kelly, Saydie, Taylan

The 2019 Howards – Subset Seis

May 21, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

This is it! The final collection of pictures from the 2010 Howard Family Photo Shoot! Included in this collection are some behind the scenes candid type photos, which you know are my favorite. Plus the infamous port-a-potty photos. I’ll include my theory on why Jesse wanted these pictures taken as well.

Okay. Up next are the infamous port-a-potty images. My theory on why Jesse makes Kyle and Jeremy pose for these images is because he is testing them. I think this is his way of saying, “How much do you love my daughter? Do you love her jam into a port-a-potty and have your picture taken with me much?”

If it is a test, they passed.

I’ll also add, this port-a-potty reeked. Absolutely reeked!

While it should be noted that Jeremy is pretty much locked into the Howard family for life now, there is still time for Kyle to jump ship. But instead, he jumped into a smelly port-a-potty with 2 other dudes.

This brings us to a small collection of candids. My favorites. It is like the tagline from that old MTV show, “The Real World”.

How about Taylan, getting through this photo shoot on crutches!

This last picture I will post with only the comment that Jeremy has already made his commitment.

I wonder what the pandemic will do to the 2020 Howard Family Photo Shoot. I do not know, but I do know that there will be a new Howard joining the family by then!

9 Emotions Project, Alexis, Andy, Baby Got Rack, Bethany, Bill, Black & White, Blogging, Boone County Fair, Boone FUMC, Candid Portrait, Dory, Elainie, Formal Portrait, Iowa State, Jesse, Johnathan, Jorge, Kalista, Kelly, Mission Trip, Naima, Railroad, Road Trip, Saydie, Scottie D., Self-Portrait, Self-Portrait Project, State Fair, Taylan, Willy, Youth Group

An Artist’s Notebook Post #3751

May 19, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

We have hit another milestone in the history of “An Artist’s Notebook”. Post #3751. I would normally make these statistical look back at the past type posts on even numbers, but I felt you guys were probably chomping at the bit to see the entries for RULE OF THIRDS.

This blog/online journal burst onto the world on August 9, 2006. Nearly 14 years later, it is somehow still around. That is success of some kind. At least it is perseverance.

As you know, I like meaningless statistics. That is what these posts are usually about. That and to take stock as to how I’m doing with my original mission to:

#1. Write in it.
#2. To be truthful as possible towards my true thoughts and feelings.
#3. Produce something that makes me worthy of having a pretentious sounding journal title like: “An Artist’s Notebook”.

I’m going to say that I continue to manage all 3. You probably wouldn’t know if I was being honest with you on my thoughts and feelings anyways. You’ll just have to take my work for it.

The last time we looked at these stats in Post #3500 on October 4, 2019 these were the 10 most popular categories on “An Artist’s Notebook”:

10. Photography – 311 Posts
9. Teresa – 312 Posts
8. Carla – 314 Posts
7. Shannon -351 Posts
6. Black & White – 390 Posts
5. Weekly Photo Challenge – 394 Posts
4. Jesse – 404 Posts
3. Animals – 477 Posts
2. Portrait – 516 Posts
1. Flowers – 537 Posts

Here are the current “standings”:

#10 Miller Triplet 1st Birthday Party – 13751 Views

#9 Family Happenings – 14222 Views

#8 Iowa State Cyclones Football – 2019 – 15711 Views

#7Naima– 16108 Views

#6 Taylan Howard -2020– 21320 Views

#5 Autumn Sharp – 2020– 21852 Views

#4 Weekly Photo Challenge – Year 6– 29218 Views

#3 Selfie Project – 2019 – 40726 Views

#2 9 Emotions Project – 43867 Views

#1 Weekly Photo Challenge – Year 7 – 48433 Views

These are the 10 Most Popular Images (by Views):

10. 973 Views

9. 1056 Views

8. 1063 Views

7.1082 Views

6. 1116 Views

5. 1141 Views

4. 1635 Views

3. 1261 Views

1283 Views

1. 2283 Views

I’m surprised that THE 9 EMOTIONS PROJECT is still so popular, since I haven’t touched it in over a year. But I do hope to get back to it. In fact, I have purchased a few things to make it possible to get back to THE 9 EMOTIONS PROJECT while safely physically distancing. So if you are interesting in being a victim… err… a subject. You know where to find me.

Candid Portrait, Formal Portrait, Scottie D.

A & P #3

May 13, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

This is the final collection of images from my annual photo shoot with Scottie D.’s progeny. It feels like it was a little shorter than normal because it was freezing out there. The actual temperature, plus a pretty stiff breeze. The longer we were out there, the colder it got. Or maybe that is just the hypothermia talking.

The last collection:

With the conclusion of the curation of this collection of pictures, all that is left in the backlog are senior pictures, Howard, and Stenslands. Many, many, many Stenslands!

Becca, Bethany, Billy, Candid Portrait, Dory, Event, Formal Portrait, J.T., Jonah, Laura, Nate, Nora, WPC - Reminder

Baby Triforce 1st Birthday Party – Gamma

May 8, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

The third and final collection of pictures from the Miller Triplets birthday party. I know, I’m sad about it too. Who knows when I’ll be able to get adorable triplet pictures again. Hold on to these times my friends.

It could be a long time before I see any of these people again, so I guess Laura’s Snapchat stories and Becca and Bethany’s Instagram posts will have to be enough for now.

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

EMOTIONS

An EMOTIONS pictures is pretty simple. It is just a picture of somebody or something showing an EMOTION(S) or even a picture of something that stirs EMOTIONS in you would also work.

I get the notion that this might not be as popular of a theme. I’ve had zero submissions to this point. The last couple of weeks I have had a handful of submissions by now.

Get on it!

And.

Happy photo harvesting!

Candid Portrait, Scottie D.

A & P #2

May 7, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

Once again, I feel like sharing a few photos from my annual photo shoot with Austin, Porter, and Scottie D.

This year it involved the skate park out at McHose Park and remote control cars.

Here is another collection of images:

Just a reminder, if you are thinking about getting into marijuana, carts are better than buds. I have no clue if that is true, but somebody thought it was a message the skate world at McHose Park need to know about it.

One more collection of these images still to come!

Alexis, Andy, Birthdays, Black & White, Candid Portrait, Carla, Elainie, Formal Portrait, Jesse, Johnathan, Kalista, Kanoa, Kelly, Kupono, Sabas, Saydie, Taylan

Elainie Homecoming Ch. 2

May 6, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

I need to start this post by announcing that the Sharp family is making laundry detergent like crazy and donating it to area food banks like IMPACT and the Toreador Pantry.

However, they need more laundry detergent jugs, so they have set up a garbage can at the end of their driveway where people can donate jugs for them to fill. No jug is too small or too big.

You can find the donation dropoff spot at the end of their driveway.

The live at 1005 South Division Street in Boone. Basically keep going south on Division Street until you can’t go any farther. There will be some photos of their work shared at a later point.

Thanks to anybody that donates!

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Happy birthday to Kelly! She doesn’t subscribe to this blog, so she will never see this, but happy birthday anyways:

I hope it is a great birthday!

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Time for another collection of Stensland pictures I took when Elainie came home last fall:

A reminder that I love the candid pictures that I take between the posed pictures so much more than I do the posed pictures. But that is maybe just me.

So much more coming from Elainie’s homecoming.