Time to hit up that 2016 backlog again.
Back in July of 2016 I went out to the Junck farm to do a family portrait shoot for the Juncks. It was so long ago that Maven wasn’t even in the picture yet. She’s definitely in the picture now though!
Here is the balance of the Junck photos:
For those of you that have missed Saydie Sundays are in luck. Saydie will return next Sunday!
REMINDER
It is once again time for me (and by me, I mean you guys) to pick out my photos to enter in the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest. Once again, I am going to leave it up to a popular vote.
The Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest allows you to enter up to 6 photos.
There are 4 Categories:
1. Nature
2. Photojournalism
3. Photoshop Enhanced
4. Hidden Treasures of Boone County.
I have selected 60 images for you to consider. To simplify things, I have split the 60 photos into 6 sets of 10. If you wish to exercise your enfranchisement, clicking on the link below will take you to Poll #1. Vote for one of those pictures and then move onto the next poll, until you have voted in all six polls.
The winner of EACH poll will be entered into the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest.
Click on the link below to start voting:
Voting will end at midnight, August 8.
As of this writing, if the polls closed, there would need to be a run-off election in the categories of Photoshop and Photojournalism.
The other 4 entries would be:
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Hitting that 2016 backlog again. Just a few more Sundays and I’ll have all of the 2016 backlog knocked out. Definitely before 2019!
Here we check in on a portrait session I did with the Juncks. You can tell that it is old because there is no Maven!
You think working with toddlers is hard work… try getting David Junck to look at the camera!!
There is one more collection of pictures from this photo shoot on the way. Don’t worry, there is plenty more of Gretchen being adorable coming your way!
Here it is. The final collection of photos from everybody’s favorite Boone High Graduate, Saydie Howard!
I’m not going to quote any canned advice. Saydie is a wise person. She will make good decisions and have a successful life. I have no doubt.
Here are the remaining Saydie pictures:
While this might be the end of Saydie’s Senior Pictures, don’t be disheartened. There very well may be more Saydie pictures in the coming Sundays. Saydie Sundays might not be over!
Here is your reminder that you should get up on your FEET and take your WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE PHOTO, the theme this week is FEET:
A reminder that a FEET picture is any photo that involves FEET!
Happy photo harvesting!
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A few weeks back I got together with Shannon for supper. We dined at Downtown Deli and I regaled her with stories about the mission trip. After dinner, we went out and tried to tackle another page from THE PHOTO JOURNAL PROJECT. We started on one page, but in the end, we ended up on Page 115:
Longtime fans of mine know that I’m about creating something surreal. This exercise was right up my alley!
We took a few other pictures and while only one can be adhered into the physical copy of THE PHOTO JOURNAL, I should share a few of the others that were under consideration:
Next time we check in with THE PHOTO JOURNAL PROJECT, we will check in with Page 96.
I was involved in 2 contests at the Boone County Fair this year. Now that the fair is in the past and I’ve had adequate time for reflection, I think it is a good time to share the results from the contests I entered.
First, the Open Class Photography Contest. You may recall that I had people vote to decide what pictures I entered. These are the five that were voted in and what they received:
Blue Ribbon
Blue Ribbon
Purple Ribbon
Red Ribbon
Purple is the best. Red is the second worst, I guess. You can also get a white ribbon. I figured the reflection picture would resonate well with the Boone County Fair “judges”, because there is no obvious photographic technique. The subject is debatable. It doesn’t follow any rules for composition. To some degree, it is hard to tell what is in focus. It is a terrible photo contest photo. But it is a cool looking photo. You could print that up (perhaps on metal) and put that on your wall.
I reiterate, that I don’t enter photo contest to win ribbons. I just like to have pictures be seen. Whatever prize comes or doesn’t come, so be it.
I will run a similar program to pick out the pictures to be entered in the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest. It will be slightly different because people struggled to figure out how to use the website, so I will try to make it as not tech savvy as I can. None of these pictures, nor the pictures from the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon will be eligible to be in the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest.
That is my rule, not theirs. I never enter a photo in more than one photo contest. I will be bagging these photos up and be putting them in the Photo Contest trunk in the next couple of days. The trunk is running low on space, so I will be needing to upgrade or get another trunk in the near future.
Look for your chance to vote at the beginning of August.
The other contest I entered during the Boone County Fair was the Farm Bureau Cookoff. Technically Scottie D.’s name is the name on the entry, but this was a Baby Got Rack entry. Although, let us face it. Scott is the talent of Baby Got Rack.
There was a bit of confusion with the contest as the rules had changed quite a bit from previous years and also, were not well written. At our team meeting on the Thursday before the competition, there was much discussion about not even entering the contest.
According to the new rules, set up was at 1 PM and judging was at 4 PM. That is not enough time to smoke a piece of meat. It takes a minimum of 1 hour to get the fire going and the air circulation to where you want it. Then the quickest meat to smoke is pork loin. It needs to smoke for 2 hours. 1 hour 45 minutes at the least. Then it needs to rest for at least half an hour, otherwise all the juices will be lost when you cut into it.
There just isn’t time!
We thought about just showing up and winging it. We had once made a Chili Cheese Dog Pizza on a whim. It was delectable. It was delicious. We have never made it since.
On Friday, Scott talked to the people running the contest and they told him that we were allowed to show up and set up at 8 AM. That is enough time to do a rack of ribs right.
The other major change was the limitation of only being able to enter 2 categories.
At the Thursday meeting we must have went around in circles for hours about what 2 categories to enter. When the 1 PM rule disappeared, the answer became clear:
+Combination
+Pork
Here are a few pictures from Baby Got Rack’s day at the Boone County Fair:
Photo Cred: Dawn Krause
We took 1st Place in Combination.
We took 2nd Place in Pork.
That means that we will be going to the Iowa State Fair to compete on Tuesday, August 14th. If you are at the Fair that day, I would encourage you to come by and root us on. Judging will be at 10 AM.
After that, your next chance to try Baby Got Rack Barbecue will be at Pufferbilly Days. After that, you will have to wait until my birthday. Incidentally, the theme of my 2019 birthday party is going to be cargo shorts. It was going to be cargo shorts and jorts, but I have been told that jorts are considered stylish now. I don’t believe it, but I can’t take the risk!
It is Sunday. It is 8 PM. It is time to check in with everybody’s favorite high school graduate… SAYDIE!!!
Here is some more free advice for Saydie on how to live her life:
“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all—in which case, you fail by default.”
—J.K. Rowling
This is the second to last collection of photos from Saydie’s Senior Pictures Photo Shoot:
For those of you that have become addicted to Saydie pictures and are worried that you don’t know what to do when they end next Sunday, don’t worry. You’ll find the strength to carry on!
Welcome to a bonus “An Artist’s Notebook” blog. A couple things before we get into the meat of this blog.
#1. Today Baby Got Rack will be competing at the Boone County Fair’s barbecue competition. They changed the rules from previous years. We are only allowed to enter to categories. We will be entering the Pork category with a tasty pork loin. We will also be entering the Specialty category with nachos. I believe the awards are announced around 4. Since you will already be there to watch the pig races, you might as well stop by Baby Got Rack’s area. There might be free samples.
#2. You can also duck into the Community Building to see the photos I entered in the photography contest. I think those usually go on display around 12 pm or so.
#3. Tomorrow night is The Union Street Movie Club’s monthly movie night. This month will be a triple feature. The B movie will be CHOSEN SURVIVORS. The feature will be AMERICAN MOVIE. Then we will conclude with the bonus of watching COVEN. Due to showing 3 movies, the projector will roll right at 6 PM. Don’t be late! We will be having pizza to celebrate Jay’s birth and Jay will be bringing a cake to celebrate America’s birth. It is going to get a little crazy.
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Later today I will be releasing a blog that will include pictures from the first time The Tenderloin Appreciation Society sat in judgment upon somebody’s tenderloin offering. Because of that, I can’t sit any longer on when I made a solo trip down to Winterset to evaluate a tenderloin.
I had been trying for months to get Scottie D. to commit to go down to Winterset to the Northside Cafe to evaluate their tenderloin. It placed second to the Webster City tenderloin in Iowa Pork Producers Tenderloin Contest in 2017. Only, I couldn’t get Scottie D. to commit. It was almost as if his love for the tenderloin was waning. I became concerned.
Back in May I took my birthday off from work. Nobody was around, so I decided to make a solo trip down to Winterset for lunch, even though I don’t actually like lunching alone.
Here are some pictures from the experience:
Lightly toasted bun.
Chomp. Chomp.
A flattering angle.
Last couple of bites.
My biggest complaint by far would be the service. I arrived at the restaurant a hair before noon and it took at least five minutes before I got seated. Even though I was the only person waiting to be seated.
Then after I ordered it took well over an hour before I got my food. They had forgot to make it.
My waitress, who was very nice and friendly. Stopped by at about the 65 minute mark of waiting and said, “You haven’t got your food yet, have you?”
That would be a negatory, Ghost Rider.
She apologized profusely and I got my food about 15 minutes later.
They were kind enough to give me my meal for free. So it wasn’t all bad.
The Northside Cafe serves a good, but not great tenderloin. I would gladly eat it again, but I would not pursue it. It does not belong in the Tenderloin Pantheon with Nick’s or Cole’s or The Country House. However, it certainly isn’t a garbage tenderloin like The Lucky Pig or Gramma’s Kitchen or Thunderhead Sports Bar & Grill.
The Northside Cafe is a cool historic restaurant though. I would definitely like to eat there again at some point. They acknowledged their mistake with the poor service and they made amends.
About a month after I went to The Northside Cafe, Scottie D. emerged from his hiatus and we supped at Roosters in Boone. That review will be published in about 2 weeks, give or take.
An announcement!
Today is the beginning of the Boone County Fair. On Saturday, Baby Got Rack will be competing in the Barbecue Competition. You should come out an support us. I think we will be there pretty much all day. I think judging is at 4 PM.
See you there!
You can also check out the photos I entered in the Boone County Fair Photography Contest.
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Jay, Willy, and I hopped in the car and went on a road trip to Maquoketa Caves State Park. At this point, I’ve published every ancillary photo from the trip, but not the pictures from the actual Caves State Park.
I begin that process now.
It was a brutally hot and humid day. Spending time in caves was very refreshing. However, the day had the worst photographic conditions you can imagine. The lighting was brutal.
I soldiered on though.
Here is the first batch of pictures from Maquoketa Caves State Park:
Photo Cred: Jay Janson
Photo Cred: Jay Janson
More pictures from this epic adventure coming your way soon!
I knew that HUMOR was going to be a hard theme. As I write this, it would seem that many people struggled to find HUMOR in their everyday lives. I would have some commentary on that, but I’ll spare you at this time.
As I am writing this, I am sitting at home recovering from an epic performance of HAMILTON at the Civic Center and waiting for the cable guy to show up and lower my bill by $30, allegedly.
Therefore, it is possible that I will be without internet while he is upgrading my internet. If more pictures come in after I write this, I will post them at some point. Probably Friday.
But you didn’t come here to listen to me talk all tommyrot about the cable guy. You came to see the submissions:
Becky Parmelee
Christopher D. Bennett
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:
NIGHT! What a great theme! But what is a NIGHT photograph? A night photograph is any photo that is taken at NIGHT. You don’t necessarily need a tripod and long exposure, but that wouldn’t hurt.
As always, I look forward to seeing your interpretations!
A MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 RULES DIVISION
1. 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.
2. 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 nightly Monday.
Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there.
-Will Rogers
It is Sunday. It is 8 PM. It is time to check in with everybody’s favorite 2017 high school graduate… SAYDIE!!!
I don’t have much more to add at this point, I think I’ll just get straight to the pictures:
We’ll be wrapping up this collection about the time Saydie takes off for Northern Iowa, University of.
