I don’t think a person should go into too much detail about how you create your ABSTRACT images, but I think these alternate ABSTRACT images aren’t too hard to figure out.
I hope some of you enjoyed making your own ABSTRACT images last week.
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This is your reminder that this week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is BLACK AND WHITE:
This is by my favorite theme as my first love in photography is BLACK AND WHITE.
Happy photo harvesting!
This is amongst the most important works I’ve ever done on this website. For Lent, I was going to attempt to rely as heavily as possible on fish for my protein. However, part of the way through Lent, the pandemic hit and my diet became a lot less discretionary. However, since I was doing way more cooking for myself, I did start eating more fish for my lunch.
It is not an exaggeration to say that since I started working from home, I have used my oven more than the previous nine years that I have owned it. You are thinking that is hyperbole, but I normally go months without using my oven. Now I use it at least 4 times a week. Sometimes, it is daily.
After trying a different types of fish, I decided to rank ten of them as a public service.
I followed the baking instructions to the letter. Feel free to make fun of my cruddy cooking pans. I don’t take pride in my pots and pans. It is one of the great things about being me.
Without further adieu, I present:
10. SeaPak Budweiser Beer Battered Cod
SeaPak Budweiser Beer Battered Cod isn’t just not good. It is terrible. It doesn’t taste like “beer battered”. It tastes like you are holding a swig of beer in your mouth and then somebody has shoved a little bit of fish in your mouth.
I don’t have any more pictures of it, because I decided to do the Power Rankings after I tried it and it is so terrible (and also crazy expensive) that I couldn’t bring myself to buy it again, just to photograph it.
9. Van de Kamp’s Crunchy Fish Fillets
Van de Kamp’s Crunchy Fish Fillets are a marked improvement over SeaPak, but still not very good. Despite claiming to be crunchy, they were a touch soggy. Which is a common theme with Van de Kamp’s products.
8. Trident Pubhouse Battered Alaskan Cod
I picked this fish up because I wanted an even 10 fish in The Frozen Fish Power Rankings. I had high hopes for it because the fish lacked any form of uniformity. Looks like it was made by the hardworking indigenous people of wherever. Like the well-established champion breakfast pastry, Toast ‘Ems. However, they just aren’t good. I still have a bag of these in the freezer weeks later.
7. Hy-Vee Crunchy Fish Fillets
One thing I liked about the Hy-Vee Crunchy Fish Fillets is that they were inside a plastic bag, inside the cardboard box. I’m normally not a fan of excessive packaging, but that plastic bag allowed me to store leftover fish safer. Unlike Van de Kamp’s that when you open the box, those leftover fish are on their own. The Hy-Vee Crunchy Fish Fillets are the first one on the list that I would buy again. Although, I’ve seemed to discover that I’m just not that big of a fan of “Crunchy” fish.
6. Van de Kamp’s Beer Battered Fillets
Finally, a beer batter fish where the beer taste isn’t overwhelming. Still perhaps a little too strong, but manageable. A good frozen fish product here.
5. Gorton’s Crunchy Breaded Fish Fillet
As you will find, Gorton’s dominates the list. They are a good 45% more expensive than Van de Kamp’s, but they are worth the premium. Maybe it is because they use pollock and Van de Kamp’s isn’t all that forthcoming about what type of fish they use. Maybe it is the superior resealable bag packaging. Maybe it is because the Gorton’s fisherman definitely knows what you did last summer. Whatever it is, they are the best fish brand and Crunchy Breaded Fish is their worst offering.
4. Gorton’s Beer Battered Fish Fillet
As a general rule, frozen beer battered fish didn’t score great on this list. This is the highest ranking achieved by a beer battered fish. But of all the beer battered frozen fish, this was by far the best. The batter was on point and you can taste the lack of mincing. Nice job Gorton’s!
3. Van de Kamp’s Crispy Fish Fillet
This is by far Van de Kamp’s best offering. It also turns out I’m a bit of a sucker for crispy fish. Van de Kamp’s isn’t very forthcoming with what kind of fish they us, other than it is wild caught. But I can says that their crispy batter is solid.
2. Gorton’s Crispy Battered Fish Fillet
This is where Gorton’s really nailed it. It is really a coin flip between this and the top ranked fish on this list. Once again, pollock. Battered. Crispy. A little slice of fish heaven.
1. Gorton’s Potato Crunch Fish Fillet
Breaded. Not battered. Gorton’s isn’t real forthcoming about the type of fish. Don’t care. It is 100% whole fillet and 100% delicious. Trust me. Next time I see that Gorton’s is on sale, I will be packing my freezer!
A word about tartar sauce.
I tried to use the same tartar sauce for every fish that I tried. I am a big fan of the Hy-Vee tartar sauce. It is reminiscent of Long John Silver’s tartar sauce. I was going to use the Bennett Family Tartar Sauce recipe, but that involves the Bennett Family pickle relish. It is delicious, however, you wouldn’t be able to duplicate it at your homestead. So I decided to go with the Hy-Vee brand tartar sauce.
Only a funny thing happened…
I wasn’t paying attention and when I bought tartar sauce and I accidentally picked up Kraft. I didn’t think it would be a big deal, but turns out it was a big deal. Kraft Tartar Sauce is wretched. It requires spitting it in a garbage can and then scrubbing your tongue down with boiling water.
I quickly changed to Hy-Vee Tartar Sauce. I haven’t looked back.
I think I might do a power ranking of frozen sausage pizzas next.
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A reminder that this week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is ABSTRACT:
Remember an ABSTRACT picture is a picture that breaks the subject down into shapes and colors. It does not look like the subject.
The easiest way to do this is to take an out of focus picture of a subject.
You can also take a picture of an existing piece of ABSTRACT art.
Happy photo harvesting!
Another week of working from home almost in the books. I don’t even know how long it has been now. I don’t that much has changed. I still listen to 96.1 in the morning. In the afternoons, there isn’t really anything designated any more. I’ve been listening to podcasts I suppose. But not exclusively.
One positive or one thing I’ll miss when I get called back to working in the office is this: I’ll missing sitting under my cherry trees with Naima and eating my lunch. Listening to the birds. Feeling a warm breeze. It is very peaceful, but also makes it hard to go back to work when my lunch is over.
I have been working on the basement, but the project has become more ambitious than expected. There will be pictures when it is done, but it is several weeks out, at least. I’d guess I’m about 35-40% done.
Logan helped me big time last Saturday with the interior of the project. The Citywide Cleanup was also a big help. Lots of stuff hit the curb and are now on the ash heap of history. Although I’m still finding plenty of stuff that needs to hit the dusty trail. Andy helped me get rid of some of that too.
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I took several YELLOW pictures for this week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE. I’d like to share the one’s that didn’t make the cut for Monday’s reveal at this point:
I always have fun playing with the “creative” settings on my camera.
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This is your reminder that this week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is ROAD TRIP:
A ROAD TRIP is any photo that involves a ROAD TRIP. Doesn’t have to be a large ROAD TRIP. The reveal photo was taken when I went on a ROAD TRIP to get gas. A ROAD TRIP photo doesn’t even have to be taken on a ROAD TRIP. It can be taken showing planning for a ROAD TRIP or preparing for a ROAD TRIP.
Happy photo harvesting!
I will write more in depth about my experience at the Boone Black Lives Matter event on Monday. I stayed about 15-20 feet away from it with a mask on because of my deep virus concerns, but I was still able to get a fair amount of pictures.
My short version of the story is that it was a great event. There were a couple of right wing agitators there, but nothing came of them.
Here is my first collection of pictures from the event.
My best guess is that there were about 250 people there, but I’m really bad at making such estimates. However, the Boone New Republican article had a similar estimate.
I saw quite a few people I know, especially from my church, including Pastor Dave and his wife Shari. Kio, of course. Anna Olson, of course. Plus a few people who recognized me, but I didn’t recognize. The face mask thing does make it hard for people to recognize one another, but it is necessary, of course.
There are a couple more collections to come.
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A reminder that YELLOW is this week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme:
A YELLOW picture is any picture where the subject is YELLOW or YELLOW is a major compositional element of the picture. I’ve already received a bunch of submissions, so I doubt I’ll have to send out any reminders on Monday morning.
Happy photo harvesting!
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:
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:
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!
The tree-shrub-bush that is right in front of my front door recently was the home to a robin’s nest. I managed to take a few pictures of the transformation from eggs, to nestling to a fledgling that hangs out in my cherry tree in the backyard.
The picture from egg to fledgling are about three weeks apart. Nature is amazing!
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This is your reminder that FRIENDS is this week’s theme for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE:
Hopefully you can find some FRIENDS to photograph. Not the easiest theme, but furry friends count too.
Happy photo harvesting!
Let me start by saying thanks to everybody that wished me a happy birthday on Monday via text or phone call or Instagram messenger or card in the mail or via haircut or Teams. I’m sure some people even wished me a happy birthday on Facebook. I guess I’ll find out if I ever go on Facebook again.
Even thanks to the people who wished me Happy birthday on the wrong day.
It was a unique birthday. I know that numerous people have celebrated a pandemic birthday this year and many of you will celebrate one in the future. Mine wasn’t necessarily all that bad.
To start with, I took my birthday off. I know I couldn’t do all that much, but I just didn’t want to sit in my office all day. Staring at the walls. The same 4 walls.
I got lucky that on Sunday the new SSD arrived for my work from home computer. I was able to upgrade my work from home computer with the SSD, plus more RAM, and a better processor. I was able to get that work done on Sunday, so I didn’t even step foot in my office all day on Monday.
I slept all the way until 7:30. I got up and ate a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios and watched THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA on Amazon Prime. It wasn’t exactly the movie that I was expecting. It had a weird ending.
Then I took Naima for a car ride. We stopped at the Jay Carlson Wildlife Area and the Harrier Marsh. She got a good run in at both locations.
Then I went home and had a quick lunch. I had decided to go for a short road trip. I knew I couldn’t travel very far, but I wouldn’t to do something I would enjoy. I decided to make a trip to Rolfe, Iowa to see the greatest piece of art ever constructed my the hands of man.
I took several pictures, have a look:
Since I was on kind of a time crunch, I didn’t harvest many signs for THE TOWN SIGN PROJECT, but I did get three bagged:
Callender
Gowrie
When I got back home, I loaded Naima up in the car again and we went over to my Mom’s for my birthday dinner. We had homemade pizza made with the “family sauce recipe”. It doesn’t really belong to the family, but came from a family friend.
On the pizza was sausage, mushrooms, onions, green peppers, and sauerkraut. Delicious!
My Mom also made me a birthday cake. My favorite kind of cake, Mayonnaise Cake! Delicious!
After dinner, we watched the remake of OVERBOARD. I’m not really quite sure how that happened, but maybe I was feeling some 80s nostalgia. Actually, I know I’ve been feeling some 80s nostalgia lately. I recently watched the entire series TEEN WOLF. Entirely based on my fondness for the original TEEN WOLF and my fascination with the absurdity of TEEN WOLF TOO.
After the movie I went back home and finished my day off responding to some text messages before calling it a night.
Pandemic birthday could have been worse, and parts of it were pretty great!
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This is your reminder that this week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is SELF-PORTRAIT:
A SELF-PORTRAIT image is simply a picture of yourself. Or a picture of somebody taking a picture of themselves.
Don’t forget that Monday is Memorial Day. While the banks take holidays, Photography 139 never takes a day off. The grind is real! Plan on getting your submissions in accordingly.
Happy photo harvesting!
I need to start this post by pointing out that today is a very important day. Today is Stephanie’s birthday! Happy birthday Stephanie!
I hope your birthday is safe and amazing!
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I’m going to be away from computers for much of today, so I won’t be able to reveal the RULE OF THIRDS submissions until some point tomorrow. However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t start working on this week’s theme right away:
A SELF-PORTRAIT picture is quite simply, a picture of yourself. Almost, but not quite as easy as RULE OF THIRDS.
I look forward to seeing your interpretations!
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I also recently added to THE CANVAS WALL PROJECT. I eight new 16×20 images to the wall. I’m almost done with the project. I have basically the bottom row to finish. Most of those pictures have been ordered too and should arrive sometime this week.
However, these are the eight 16×20 images that were most recently added to the wall:
After I get the pictures that should arrive on Wednesday in place, I believe I will only need 4 more pictures to finish this project off. But it could be more. I could also be less. But my initial calculations indicate 4 more.
But I’ve been wrong before. Don’t want to be wrong any more.
Time for yet another collection of images from the 2019 Howard Family Photo Shoot. With this collection I am now over half-done curating the photos from this collection. The final collection will actually be a small one. Very small depending on what I do with the port-a-potty pictures that Jesse made us take.
Still more Howards to come!
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This is your reminder that this week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is RULE OF THIRDS:
Think of RULE OF THIRDS like this:
The image is broken into 9 equal boxes. Place the subject of your image on one of the corners of the center box. NOT inside the middle box.
The subject could also go along one of the the 4 lines that go through the inside of the image. BUT not in the center of any of the middle boxes.
The reveal picture should be very helpful.
Happy photo harvesting!
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:
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!
