Category Archives: Ruins

Art, Black & White, Christianity, History, Railroad, Road Trip, Ruins

Dickinson and Emmet Aux – Vol. 1

August 31, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett

A few months back I made a trip up to and through Dickinson and Emmet County to harvest their town signs. I had already harvested a good chunk of Dickinson County earlier. I really need to do a better photo experience in the Okoboji area cause on this trip I didn’t explore much. I got to see a little bit more of the area when I went camping with Carla and Jason several weeks later. I’ll share those pictures at a later date.

Here is the first collection of auxiliary images from that trip. Some of these are taken in Clay County:

Peterson

Terril – Happy Timers? How do you not have a smiley face on your yellow building?!?!?

West Okoboji

Arnolds Park

Okoboji

Spirit Lake

Orleans

Superior

Are you wondering about the “Ghost Train”? It is located between Spirit Lake and Superior and was once part of the Spirit of the Lakes dinner train. Those cars are trapped there as the tracks have been removed on both sides, so even if somebody wanted to move them, they are stuck.

This is from a WHO story in 2014:

The Iowa Northwestern Dinner Train started in 2003 on a track which had been abandoned by Union Pacific. The line served meals and gave rides out of the Spirit Lake area. It didn’t last long, operations stopped about nine years ago. Since that time, its passenger cars and kitchen dinning car have been parked on a rail siding near Superior, Iowa.

Vandals have broken windows and dismantled seats. Many things used in the operation of the Dinner Train were left behind, including an electric food warmer, coffee dispensers, plates and Christmas decorations.

Most of the article is about how awesome the Boone and Scenic Valley Railroad Dinner Train is. I actually have never rode that train. I need to get on that.

There is one more collection of images from this trip to share.

Art, Christianity, Road Trip, Ruins

Black Hawk County Aux – Vol.2

August 27, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett

This is the second and final collection of images from my time spent in Black Hawk County. On this trip I spent no time in Waterloo and next to no time in Cedar Falls because of time constraints and I frankly don’t spend much time in larger towns on these trips. But mostly cause of time constraints. However, the major thing I missed, that I wanted to see, was there is a dairy near Hudson that has kangaroos. Kangaroos! Yeah, let is soak in. Kangaroos! I will get there some day.

Here is the second collection of auxiliary images:

La Porte City

Worst. Store. Ever. – Actually they had some really cool stuff. See the next picture.

I love a fine sausage… but they weren’t open.

Marshalltown

I need to go back and see this with plants in it.

Zeno’s – If you know, you know. If you don’t. Now you do.

Van Gogh’s Marshalltown days are not talked about enough.

The next county that we will hit up for some auxiliary images is Dickinson and Emmet.

Andy, Angie, Bill, Black & White, Brandon, Carla, Cathie, Dawn, Elizabeth, Jen, Jesse, Joe Duff, Kim, Kio, Linda, Logan, Mary, Michelle, Micky, Monica, Ruins, Sabas, Sarah Toot, Shannon, Tamara, Teresa, Tim, Willy, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 362 – WEEKENDS

August 22, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett 20 Comments

To clarify some information about Sunday’s post. The part about the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon. Even though the book does say two people got all 4 of their entries in, in fact NOBODY got all 4 submissions accepted for display. That is the first time I can ever remember that happening. They had some tough judges.

The time I spent yesterday at the Photography Salon was pretty joyful.

I think that WEEKENDS is going to end up being a more popular theme than FAMILY. Seems people like their WEEKENDS more than they like their FAMILY. Very strange. But you’ll have to keep scrolling to find out if the data matches the theory.

As of 12:01 PM on Monday, August 15, this was the current list of ACTIVE streaks (ignore the numbers in parentheses):

+ Brooklyn Erb – 1 week
+ Brandon Kahler – 1 week
+ Linda Bennett – 3 weeks
+ Sarah Toot – 4 weeks
+ Sabas Hernandez – 6 weeks
+ Monica Jennings – 6 weeks
+ Mary Green – 8 weeks
+ Angie DeWaard – 9 weeks
+ Dawn Krause – 13 weeks
+ Kim Barker – 19 weeks
+ Joe Duff – 20 weeks
+ Logan Kahler – 22 weeks (3)
+ Teresa Kahler – 30 weeks (3)
+ Tamara Peterson – 30 weeks
+ Carla Stensland – 30 weeks
+ Michelle Haupt – 31 weeks
+ Micky Augustin – 32 weeks
+ Andy Sharp – 33 weeks
+ Bill Wentworth – 34 weeks
+ Cathie Morton – 38 weeks
+ Elizabeth Nordeen – 39 weeks
+ Shannon Bardole-Foley – 41 weeks
+ Kio Dettman – 44 weeks (3)

But you didn’t come here to listen to me talk all tommyrot about participation rates or streaks. You came to see the submissions and what streaks continued and what streaks flamed out:

Kim Barker – 20 weeks

Teresa Kahler – 31 weeks

Teresa Kahler

Angie DeWaard – 10 weeks

Andy Sharp – 34 weeks

Elizabeth Nordeen – 40 weeks

Elizabeth Nordeen

Bill Wentworth – 35 weeks

Christopher D. Bennett

Kio Dettman – 45 weeks

Kio Dettman

Linda Bennett – 4 weeks

Linda Bennett

Mary Green – 9 weeks

Michelle Haupt – 32 weeks

Sarah Toot – 5 weeks

Sarah Toot

Tim Tim Cuculic – 1 week

Tamara Peterson – 31 weeks

Tamara Peterson

Dawn Krause – 14 weeks

Sabas Hernandez – 7 weeks

Willy McAlpine – 1 week

Joe Duff – 21 weeks

Jen Ensley-Gorshe – 1 week

Micky Augustin – 33 weeks

Cathie Morton – 39 weeks

Logan Kahler – 23 weeks

Logan Kahler

Brandon Kahler – 2 weeks

Sara Lockner – 1 week

Carla Stensland – 31 weeks

Carla Stensland

Monica Jennings – 7 weeks

Jesse Howard – 1 week

Shannon Bardole-Foley – 42 weeks

28 participants! That is a great week! I guess people really do like their weekends more than they like their families!

On the list of new participants was first time ever participant Tim! I’m hoping this is just the start of big things for Tim.

Angie joined the double digit streak club. Congrats Angie!

This is just a guess, but I believe the submissions spanned from Pennsylvania to Indiana to Illinois to Nebraska to Texas to California and I assume many of these pictures were taken in Iowa. My picture was taken in Illinois.

However, it wasn’t all fun and games and travel. Brooklyn Erb could not extender her streak to 2 weeks. I blame Andy.

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:

CIRCLE

CIRCLE! What a great theme for Year 9 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE.

But what is a CIRCLE image? It is simply a picture where a major compositional element of the picture is a CIRCLE. 360 degrees of fury! There are CIRCLE(s) literally everywhere! Once you starting looking for them, it is hard to not see them everywhere.

While thinking about possible subjects for your CIRCLE image, meditate on the following quote for inspiration:

The nature of God is a circle of which the center is everywhere and the circumference is nowhere.
-Empedocles

I look forward to seeing your interpretation!

RULES

The picture has to be taken between 12:01 PM today and 11 AM next Monday. This isn’t a curate your photos project. This is a get your butt off the couch (unless you are taking your picture from the couch) and take pictures challenge.

You can send your images to either bennett@photography139.com OR you may text them to my Pixel 5.

That is all I got, so if the good Lord’s willin’ and the creek don’t rise, we will all be sharing your idea of CIRCLE in this place that is my circle of trust next Monday.

Art, Black & White, Christianity, Road Trip, Ruins

Plymouth and Sioux County Aux – Vol. 4

August 9, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

Time for another collection of images from my road trip through Plymouth and Sioux County to harvest their town sign. Most of these auxiliary images were taken in Le Mars. Le Mars has an incredible collection of murals to go with being the Ice Cream Capital of the World.

There is still one more collection of images from this road trip left to share.

Art, Christianity, Road Trip, Ruins

Plymouth and Sioux County Aux – Vol. 1

July 27, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett

Here is another reminder that Friday is the deadline to turn in your entries for the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest.

Here are the rules:

The foam board rule is important, as the heat in the display window is pretty intense. Pictures tend to melt in the heat if they don’t have a good backing.

Good luck!

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A few months back I cruised around Plymouth and Sioux County harvesting their town signs. I took a large collection of auxiliary images on this trip as I found many fascinating things. These pictures might not be in chronological order because I didn’t have the times of my two cameras synced yet. Poor planning on my part.

Most of these pictures were taken in either Orange City or Remsen. I loved Orange City and it is on my list to visit next year during or near their tulip festival. There are a ton more pictures from this trip to share.

Art, Automobiles, Baseball/Softball, History, Road Trip, Ruins

Osceola County Aux – Vol. 3

July 16, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett

Time for the final collection of auxiliary images I took while harvesting the town signs of Osceola County. This trip was cut short in Lyon County while harvesting their town signs due to inclement weather. So many of the signs in this collection were taken in Lyon County and a few were taken in Clay County. I believe this is also the trip where I hit a pheasant. People think I hate cats. They are worthless, yes, but I don’t hate them. Pheasants, I hate. They are probably, truly, the only animal in the world I actually hate. Unless you count the failed species known as humans. But I even like some humans. Pheasants, don’t like a single one.

Little Rock

Rock Rapids

George

Ashton

Melvin – I’ve stared at the mural for a bit. I can’t figure it out.

Dickens

Gillet Grove

I love the murals in Rock Rapids. I would rank it as a Top 3 town in Iowa for murals. It is up there with Creston and Le Mars, I haven’t shared the Le Mars murals yet. I went back through Rock Rapids at a later date and photographed their murals again.

In fact, the next time we hit the open road to share some auxiliary images, we will share images from Clay and Lyon County.

Art, Black & White, Contests, Ruins, State Fair, WPC - Reminder

Osceola County Aux – Vol. 2

July 15, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

It is that time of year where a card comes in the mail that tells you how you did in the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon. My card came last Saturday and I did manage to sneak one picture past the judges to be displayed.

Here is what the card looks like:

I don’t know which of the four got in and no, I’m not sharing what four pictures I entered at this time. That will happen when the Fair is over. I will find out which one got in when I go to the Fair on the first day of the Fair.

I say this every year, but I really procrastinated this year on the Fair. Next year I will start this process earlier and have better thought through entries. Or not. It seems to go better when I don’t think about it so much. If you do go to the Iowa State Fair and look for my picture, you can ask the volunteer to tell you where it is, so you don’t have to look around for hours and never find it.

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Time for another collection of auxiliary images from my trip to Osceola County to harvest their town signs.

Sibley

Hawkeye Point

Little Rock

There is still one more collection of images to share from this road trip.

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

WORK

WORK! What a great theme for Year 9 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!

But what is a WORK image? A WORK picture is simply a picture of somebody doing WORK or tools that are used to do WORK or a place where WORK is done. Remember not everybody has to WORK as hard as I do. Some people have slacker jobs where they get to frolic on a mezzanine or play with trains all day. Try not to think how hard I have it at the Computer Mine and maybe think on the physics definition of WORK. The measure of energy transfer that occurs when an object is moved over a distance by an external force.

WARNING: If you are taking a picture at your place of employment, consider what things in your picture your employer would not want the rest of the world to see. You won’t get in trouble with me, but you might with one of your eight bosses.

Happy photo harvesting!

Art, Christianity, Road Trip, Ruins, Still Life

Cherokee and O’Brien County Aux – Vol. 3

July 9, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett

Back in February I cruised around Cherokee and O’Brien County harvesting their town signs. Here is the final collection of auxiliary images from that trip.

Granville

Paullina

Calumet

Sutherland

Primghar – Look closely and you will see how Primghar got its name.

Sheldon

Sanborn

Hartley

The next time we look at some aux, it will be from Osceola County. Some from Lyon County too. It was a trip I stopped short on because I ran into a hail storm.

Art, History, Railroad, Road Trip, Ruins

Cherokee and O’Brien County Aux – Vol. 1

June 29, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett

Back in February I cruised around Cherokee County and O’Brien County harvesting their town signs. This is the first collection of auxiliary images from that trip. Although a good portion of the pictures from this collection were actually taken in Woodbury County.