Category Archives: WPC

Alexis, Animals, Calendar, Candid Portrait, Drone, Iowa State, Kanoa, Mom, Nature, WPC - Reminder

A Photo Journal – Page 123

December 27, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

Today we will reveal the March and April images from the 2020 Photography 139 Calendar.

March image:

March

The March image was taken at the Harrier Marsh near Ogden. It was taken of the not best maintained gravel road that splits the marsh into two. It is taken from a drone. This image was taken on April 13, 2019.

Details

Camera: Hasselblad L1D-20C
Focal Length: 10.3mm
Aperture: f/7.1
Exposure: 1/800
ISO: 100
Altitude: 284.6 meters above Sea Level

April Image:

April

The April image is a yellow bird (that I have yet to identify) enjoying the cherry blossoms of one of my cherry trees. This image was taken on May 14, 2018.

Details

Camera: Sony ILCA-77M2
Focal Length: 400mm
Aperture: f/5.6
Exposure: 1/500
ISO: 320

Tomorrow we will reveal the images for May and June.

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Here it is, the end of THE PHOTO JOURNAL PROJECT. You didn’t think I’d ever get there, did you. Wherever I am when this publishes (probably in Tennessee is my guess), I will be drinking a steaming hot cup of coffee. Cause coffee is for closers. As of today, I am a closer!

Just kidding. Coffee is gross and I won’t be touching that trash. If there is any silver lining to be taken from man made climate change, it is that coffee is one of the first things that will stop growing. Bye-bye coffee. You won’t be missed.

Back to my Trevor Hoffman moment. This is the last page from THE PHOTO JOURNAL PROJECT:

Page 123 – Don’t take any more photographs -none- until you see something that emotionally moves you. Only then pick up your camera.

Phew! Thanks to everybody that will appear on one of the pages of the physical photo journal that sits on my coffee table:

DaeHee Yoon
Nora Yoon
Kyle Sharp and some random wrestler from Perry
Saydie Howard
Micky Augustin
Naima
Elainie Hernandez
Sabas Hernandez
Willy McAlpine
Logan Kahler
Brandon Kahler
Nader Parsaei
Ernie Redd
Russell Kennerly
Greg Wever
Jason Baier
Andree Jauhari
Shannon Bardole-Foley
Mike Vest
Jesse Howard
Joe Lynch
Johnathan Stensland
Autumn Sharp, Emily Bridges, Kassidy, and Myriah Sharp (I think)
Layla Gorshe
Kalista Howard
Taylan Howard
Tiffany Bloomquist
Doris Paris
Charlotte Bennett
Jay Janson
Anders Runestad
Alexis Stensland
Kanoa Baugher

If you wish to see all 105 pictures taken for THE PHOTO JOURNAL PROJECT, click on the link below:

THE PHOTO JOURNAL PROJECT

So, what is next? I hinted that I was going to tack a new photo project next year. There is a new project. In 2020 I’m going to tackle a book called “104 Things to Photograph”. There are 52 weeks in a year, there for I plan on taking 2 pictures a week.

The themes in this book are not nearly as ambitious as the themes in THE PHOTO JOURNAL PROJECT. Here is an example of some of the themes:

Jumping Rope
A Belly Laugh
Peeking
A Neon Sign
Siblings
What’s in your Pocket

I’m sure I’ll be calling on many of the people that appeared in THE PHOTO JOURNAL PROJECT and I’m sure I’ll be calling on many other people as well. Stay tuned.

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

CANDID PORTRAIT

A CANDID PORTRAIT is a picture of somebody that isn’t posing for a picture. They can know that you are taking their picture, but they aren’t posing for the picture.

Happy photo harvesting!

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

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:

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

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 candid Monday!

Black & White, Christianity, Macro, Nature, Photo Journal, Vest, WPC - Reminder

A Photo Journal – Page 66 & 67

December 20, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

It has been since September 20 that I published something from THE PHOTO JOURNAL PROJECT. For several months, I have been down to just a couple pages and I had the final page done, but I just couldn’t pull the trigger on that last page. Faced with my deadline of being done with this project by the end of the year, so I could pick up another project for 2020.

I finally knocked off this project on Thursday with the help of Vest. These pages call for a celebrity picture of sorts and for the longest time I was concentrating on Tiger Woods, but in the end I decided a person that was less a celebrity, but more of a historical figure.

I’m not going to reveal who this “celebrity” is supposed to be. I hope that people can deduce it from the images, although I know that they might not make sense and you might not be able to figure out what they represent. That is okay, if I can at least get people to think a little bit, that is all I ask.

Page 66 & 67 0 Make a sequence of four pictures inspired by the rise and fall of Britney Spears (or another celebrity).

If you think you know what I was trying to say, feel free to leave your guess in the Comments section of this here blog.

This leaves only one page left to reveal:

Page 123 – Don’t take any more photographs -none- until you see something that emotionally moves you. Only then pick up your camera.

That picture will be revealed next Friday, along with my new photo project.

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

LANDSCAPE

A LANDSCAPE image is a picture of an area of land. That is it. You can poke your head out your back door (assuming you live in a house) and take a LANDSCAPE picture.

Happy photo harvesting!

Animals, Black & White, Naima, Ruins, WPC - Alternate

A Jazz Standard

December 17, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

Today’s post features some pictures I took back in February. Some are pictures I took for the RUINS theme of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE in Colo. The majority of the pictures are of Naima playing around in the backyard of the Photography 139 Studio.

Some of these pictures clearly don’t follow the rules of composition and that is why I love them so.

Andy, Angie, Becky, Candid Portrait, Jen, Jesse, Kim, Michelle, Micky, Nature, Running, Tamara, Willy, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 222 – SPORTS/GAMES

December 16, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

Another healthy week of submissions. The 12th week in a row of double digit submissions!

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

Kim Barker

Christopher D. Bennett

Tamara Peterson

Micky Augustin

Andy Sharp

Michelle Haupt

Jen Ensley-Gorshe

Becky Parmelee

Angie DeWaard

Jesse Howard

LANDSCAPE

LANDSCAPE! What a great theme! But what is a LANDSCAPE photo? Here is a good definition I took from the Wiki:

Landscape photography shows spaces within the world, sometimes vast and unending, but other times microscopic. Landscape photographs typically capture the presence of nature but can also focus on man-made features or disturbances of landscapes.

You could also do a cityscape or a waterscape. Remember LANDSCAPE has more than one meaning.

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 landscaped Monday!

Basketball, Black & White, Derrick, Iowa State, Music, Still Life, WPC - Reminder

Not What I Appear to Be

December 13, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

Happy Friday the 13th! May your night be Jason Voorhees free! Or, if you want, have the proper amount of Jason Voorhees. I have to confess that while I was on vacation I got sucked down a rabbit hole of watching the special features on about all of the discs in THE FRIDAY THE 13TH boxed set. I didn’t know if I would ever watch the movies when I picked up the boxed set for like $3 in a Wal-Mart bargain bin about 3 years ago. Turns out, I’m a sucker for documentaries and commentary tracks on terrible movies. You probably could have guessed that though.

Today’s collection of pictures is from August. Back when MUSIC was the theme for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE. I visited Derrick at Rieman Music to take some photos. These are the ones I didn’t select:

If you have ANY music needs, you really should hop down to the Ames location of Rieman Music and talk to Derrick. The man knows everything there ever is to know about guitars.

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This is your reminder that this week’s WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is SPORTS/GAMES:

SPORTS/GAMES

A SPORTS/GAMES photo is any photo that involves anything that surrounds SPORTS/GAMES.

Happy photo harvesting!

Andy, Angie, Basketball, Carla, Dawn, Drone, Iowa State, Kim, Micky, Shannon, Tamara, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 221 – HIGH PERSPECTIVE

December 9, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

HIGH PERSPECTIVE proved to be a highly unpopular theme. That is the bad news. The good news is that by skin of its teeth, HIGH PERSPECTIVE had double digit submissions, to run the streak of double digit submission to eleven! Woot! Woot!

My best prognostication is that the streak will make it to fourteen, but that the 15th theme will be a soul crusher. It will be one of those weeks where we get like 3 submissions.

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

Christopher D. Bennett

Andy Sharp

Carla Stensland

Angie DeWaard

Tamara Peterson

Shannon Bardole-Foley

Kim Barker

Dawn Krause

Micky Augustin

SPORTS/GAMES

SPORTS/GAMES! What a great theme! But what is a SPORTS/GAMES image? A SPORTS/GAMES image is any image of a SPORT or a GAME. It doesn’t even have to involve a GAME or SPORT in progress. A picture of a basketball would work. A picture of a fantasy football trophy would work.

Of course SPORTS/GAMES have multiple meaning, so feel free to not be too literal if you don’t want to be.

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 sporty Monday!

Black & White, Candid Portrait, Drone, Scottie D., WPC - Reminder

But the Law Never Will

December 6, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

Here it is! The last batch of pictures of Melissa and Scottie D.’s children from the 2018 backlog! I think there are only 2 folders left in the 2018 backlog, but it might be less. I might just do a special Sunday “An Artist’s Notebook” entry just to be done with the 2018 backlog so I can begin in earnest hacking away at 2019.

Here is the final collection of Austin and Porter pictures:

A few of these pictures Scottie D. had made into canvas prints and he gave them to Melissa for Christmas. A truly wonderful husband!

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This is your reminder that this week’s theme for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE is HIGH PERSPECTIVE.

HIGH PERSPECTIVE

A HIGH PERSPECTIVE picture is a picture where your perspective comes from higher than your subject. It can be as simple as looking down on your subject OR you could just get up into a building or tree or whatever and get a perspective that is higher than ground level.

Happy photo harvesting!

Andy, Angie, Animals, Becky, Billy, Cathie, Christianity, Dawn, Dory, Elizabeth, Equipment, Formal Portrait, J.T., Jen, Jesse, Jim, Kim, Laura, Michelle, Micky, Monica, Naima, Nate, Road Trip, Self-Portrait, Shannon, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 220 – COLORFUL

December 2, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

Before we get into the meat of today’s post, I just want to throw out a quick prayer request out there. On Friday when I was ringing the bell for the Salvation Army, a woman that I don’t know handed the money directly to me and asked me to pray for her. She has a job interview on Monday (today) and she really needs that job. It is possible at this hour that she has already had the interview and the decisions have already been made*, but if you are the praying type, throw up a quick prayer for this woman.

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COLORFUL really inspired a wide group of people in many different directions. We’ve reached a double digit streak for weeks with double digit submissions!

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

Andy Sharp

Kim Barker

Andy Sharp

Kim Barker

Monica Henning

Kim Barker

Monica Henning

Andy Sharp

Dawn Krause

Jesse Howard

Elizabeth Nordeen

Becky Parmelee

Cathie Raley

Micky Augustin

Christopher D. Bennett

Shannon Bardole-Foley

Monica Henning

Michelle Haupt

Tamara Peterson

Jen Ensley-Gorshe

Angie Dewaard

HIGH PERSPECTIVE

HIGH PERSPECTIVE! What a great theme! But what is a HIGH PERSPECTIVE image. Think of it like this 97% of the images taken in this world, in a study I just made up to back up my point, are taken from exactly the eye level of the person taking the picture. A HIGH PERSPECTIVE picture challenges you to do one of two things. Find a way to get higher up than normal ground level and take a picture. Climb a ladder. Go on a roof. Take your company helicopter for a spin. Or, you could simple look down and be higher than your subject.

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 high Monday!

*This isn’t my understanding of the way prayer works, but using for illustrative purposes.

Animals, Boone FUMC, Naima, Still Life, WPC - Reminder

Naima + Snow

November 29, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

Happy day to celebrate America’s addiction to soul-crushing consumerism! I will barely be leaving my house other than to ring the bell for the Salvation Army (4-5 at Hy-Vee if you are interested in dropping in and saying hi), do a little photography, and go watch Ashley Joens and the gang crush some hapless fools. So go punch another person in the face to save 5% on 2015’s television model for me.

Hitting up the 2018 backlog with a collection of Naima pictures. These pictures of Naima frolicking in the snow, which she is know to do. Big fan of snow, that dog. Extreme cold, not so much. Snow, definitely.