Category Archives: Formal Portrait

Animals, Automobiles, Basketball, Candid Portrait, Commercial, Formal Portrait, Iowa State, Jeff Daniel, Monica, Night, Ruins, Schmidt, Self-Portrait, Shannon, Still Life, Yin

12December2008

April 6, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett 4 Comments

Sometime in late 2008 my organizational process of my photos went all FUBAR. The result is that it appears that I have actually lost several images from late 2008 and early 2009.

None of the lost pictures are of much consequence, but it is annoying nonetheless.

Part of this breakdown in the system was that it seems that rather than breaking images into folders by date, I just dumped a ton of pictures into the December folder.

Fortunately for you, I don’t usually take a ton of pictures in December. However, this still potentially might be one long journal entry.

There are pictures from Iowa State at night, Toys for Tots, an American Legion event in Roland, Iowa State basketball, Shannon dressed nice for once, a night with the Daniels, and crayfish that took home from a Chinese buffet.

Here we go:

Looking at those pictures something that struck me is that I had forgotten how badly Greg McDermott had destroyed Iowa State’s basketball program. Thank you Creighton for taking him off of our hands! It is a debt that can never be repaid!

All those pictures added to the Photography 139 Gallery enabled me to restore the following historic “An Artist’s Notebook” journal entries to their original glory:

Thelma and Louise

Boone Taxi Driver

Saturday Night

Toys for Tots

Burying the Lead

Muskrat Carcass

Beavers

Plus Five

Roland, Iowa

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve hanging around the ACTORS Studio.

Flat Earth Joe, Formal Portrait, Photo Journal, Photoshop, WPC - Reminder

A Photo Journal – Henry Carroll – Page 82

April 5, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

Last Saturday I continued on my goal to try to finish THE PHOTO JOURNAL PROJECT as Joe agreed to pose for Page 82.

Before you ask, yes, Joe legitimately think the world is flat. Not only does he believe that the world is flat, he is an evangelical for the theory. He spends hours upon hours posting on Facebook and YouTube about his belief that the earth is flat.

He sells flat earth shirts. He orders books about the earth being flat. He intended to go to the Flat Earth Convention last year. He plans on going this year. He says he can not date a girl that isn’t open to the earth being flat.

It isn’t a joke to Joe. It is a core, perhaps the core part of his identity.

Here is Page 82:

Page 82 – Show us the world is flat.

Now the original intent of “Show us the world is flat” was to get up high and look down on the earth and then compress the image by using a telephoto lens. I decided to go in a different direction.

My goal is still to knock at least one of these pictures out a week. I have yet to take one this week as I haven’t had the free time I expected yet, but these are some of the ones I’ve been thinking on:

PAGE 21 – Make something small look big.
PAGE 43 – Take a picture that only works in black & white.
Page 68 – Let a window do the talking.
Page 90 – Create ambiguity with a blend of natural and artificial light.

+++++++

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

TOOL

Remember that a TOOL photo is simply any photo involving a TOOL. Remember that there are multiple definitions of the world TOOL.

Happy photo harvesting!

Candid Portrait, Dad, Formal Portrait, Jay, Running, Sara, Willy

11-23-08 & 11-25-08

March 30, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

The grand majority of the pictures from this blog are from the folder 11-23-08, but there is one picture from the folder 11-25-08.

The pictures in the folder 11-23-08 are from when Sara, Jay, and I went to see Willy and his friend Kristy run in the Turkey Trot at Living History Farms.

The Turkey Trot is a cross country race ran in November when conditions are often quite cold and muddy and snowy or rainy.

I don’t think Willy has ran this race since then, which kind of disappoints me.

An observant person might be able to pick out Annie Buchmiller in these pictures:

The cribbage board was made by my Dad. To this day, I still don’t actually know how to play cribbage, however, by posting this picture back in the day, I got one of my favorite comments on a blog post:

Well, that’s a pretty cool design, but REAL cribbage only goes to 121 points… your board there goes to 133. Not a standard cribbage board but lots of points for originality!

Cheers,
Joe – Cribbaholics Unanimous: http://www.cribblog.blogspot.com

Thanks Joe! from Cribbaholics. I hope you are doing well to this day.

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:

The Turkey Trot

The Real Real

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will be a bit complicated, but it will involve a fundraiser at the Roland American Legion, some United Way Stuff, and hats.

Animals, Black & White, Equipment, Formal Portrait, Jesse, Naima, Nature

It Stands for the Sun

March 28, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

Yellow.

Yellow is the most recent filter from the super cheap filter set that I cracked out and tested. I still took mostly pictures of Naima, but I actually left my yard and went out to Dickcissel.

This, was perhaps, not the best plan. With all the space to roam, Naima is definitely harder to photograph at Dickcissel. Also, your shutter speeds often slow down when using filters, so a dog running all over the place isn’t the best subject. But I made do.

You might be wondering what a yellow filter does in black & white photography.

Here is an explanation from shuttermuse.com:

A Yellow filter absorbs all coloured light except yellow. It is the most-popular colored filter used with black and white film. Because a yellow filter absorbs blue, it provides significantly greater contrast between blue and yellow or white subjects. The classic example of the use of a yellow filter is when shooting black and white scenes which include portions of a cloud filled sky. Use of a yellow filter in this situation significantly darkens the blue portions of the sky, whilst allowing the clouds to remain bright and vibrant. This change in contrast gives the sky a vastly improved sense of depth and drama.

Here are some pictures from the yellow filter photo shoot:

Naima decided she needed to dig a giant hole while we were out there. Here are a couple pictures in color to help you appreciate the mess she made:

The next filter I will test will be the green filter.

Angie, Black & White, Evie, Formal Portrait, Jodie Cue, Kim, Micky, Steph, Still Life, WPC - Submissions

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 183 – FORMAL PORTRAIT

March 18, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

I believe that the submissions for FORMAL PORTRAIT are amongst the most solid collection of submissions we’ve had in a long time for the WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!

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

Kim Barker

Jodie Cue

Stephanie Kim

Christopher D. Bennett

Angie DeWaard

Micky Augustin

Tamara Peterson

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:

STILL LIFE

STILL LIFE! What a great theme! But what is a STILL LIFE image? Here is as good of a definition as I have ever Googled:

A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or man-made (drinking glasses, books, vases, jewelry, coins, pipes, etc.).

Seems pretty simple and straightforward. I look forward to seeing your interpretations!

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. 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.

+++++++

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 still Monday.

Art, Candid Portrait, Christianity, Derrick, Formal Portrait, Nature, Road Trip, Shannon

11-09-08 & 11-10-08

March 16, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

The folders 11-09-08 and 11-10-08 contain a wide variety of pictures. They range from a trip to Ottumwa to trips of a book downsizing to pictures of Shannon after she had her hair cut for Locks of Love.

I had forgot that I poorly decided that the best place to takes pictures for her after picture was on an abandoned train bridge that goes over Squaw Creek. This unfortunately lead to a tragic incident where some of the hair was lost. It was a stupid idea and this tragedy might be why the bridge was ultimately torn down a few years later. Which is kind of sad, because I like things that have been abandoned.

Here are some pictures to look at:

The books photo is when I was preparing to buy a house and I decided to downsize my book collection. I should probably do that again.

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

The Future of Boone

The Shannon After

Lunchtography

Words, Words, Words

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve Iowa State football.

Animals, Black & White, Formal Portrait, Kio, Naima, Photoshop, WPC - Reminder

The Driving Force

March 15, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

I feel it has been too long since I have had a post devoted to Naima. This is an error that I will correct today.

These pictures come from an October trip to Dickcissel Park.

Naima does enjoy getting in the water at Dickcissel, but she will only go as deep as her paws touch the ground.

Enjoy these pictures of Naima:

I’ll try not to go so long without a day of Naima pictures in the future!

+++++++

Just a reminder that the theme for this week’s WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE is FORMAL PORTRAIT:

FORMAL PORTRAIT

A FORMAL PORTRAIT doesn’t have to be in a studio with a bunch of fancy lights. For our purposes, a FORMAL PORTRAIT is a portrait of somebody when they know they you are taking their picture and they are posing for the picture.

Happy photo harvesting!

Art, Black & White, Boone FUMC, Candid Portrait, Formal Portrait, Jaxon, Jodie Cue, Music, Still Life

Boone FUMC Church Directory: Chapter 5

March 14, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

I think this is the final collection of pictures I took for the Boone First United Methodist Church Directory.

I think these pictures were taken on Graduation Sunday. However, that isn’t the reason for the red balloons. I just can’t remember the reason for the red balloons. Might have been the church’s birthday. That seems vaguely familiar.

I know at least a couple of these ended up in the Directory:

This process gave me some ideas for the next Directory. I might have to take a more active role in crafting it.

Andy, Formal Portrait, Kim, Kio, Michelle, Still Life, Tamara

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 182 – 8

March 11, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

I didn’t send out any reminders this week for the WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE. Only the diehards participated in this week’s theme of 8.

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

Tamara Peterson

Michelle Haupt

Andy Sharp

Kim Barker

Christopher D. Bennett

FORMAL PORTRAIT

FORMAL PORTRAIT! What a great theme! But what is a FORMAL PORTRAIT. It isn’t a portrait where the subject is dressed formally. A FORMAL PORTRAIT is simply a portrait where the subject knows that they are being photographed and they are posing for the picture.

I look forward to seeing your interpretations!

HOUSEKEEPING

A MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 RULES DIVISION

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.

+++++++

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 formal Monday.

Candid Portrait, Formal Portrait, Holidays, House, Jay, Jesse, Night, Olympic Sports, Scottie D., Shannon, Still Life, Willy

11-01-08

March 9, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett 5 Comments

The images from the folder 11-1-08 are all over the place. They include pictures of Jesse and I exploring the disc golf course in McHose Park to pictures of Shannon before she made a donation to Locks of Love to pictures of my Hoosier before it got fixed up to pictures Halloween in 2008.

I’m not a frolfer, but I do think that McHose Park has a badass disc golf course. The first 9 holes are nothing special, but the back 9 is a man’s golf course. When I say man’s golf course, what I really mean is that it isn’t for the faint of heart. It is for people that aren’t afraid to get lost in the woods and never heard from again.

The Hoosier pictures were taken from before Shannon’s dad came to pick it up. It was in storage and he did a wonderful job making it presentable again and he did it in plenty of time before I found a house to call home. Which was quite the feat, even though I did take my own sweet time with my house hunt.

The pictures of Shannon before she cut off her hair were taken in Brookside Park. This was Shannon’s 3rd donation to Locks of Love. In that collection of pictures is one of my favorite pictures of Shannon and I believe it is safe to say that I have taken lots of pictures of Shannon.

Finally, the 2008 Halloween pictures includes a picture of Willy in what was definitely the best Halloween costume he has ever had.

Have a look:

The stick figure pumpkin is the best pumpkin I have ever carved. Jay hated it. I’m not bitter about that, otherwise I wouldn’t be bringing it up over 10 years later.

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:

McHose Park Mystery

All Hallow’s Eve

Before

Another Before

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve another trip to Ottumwa and what Shannon looked like after she cut off her 12 or so inches of hair.