Category Archives: Underwater

Andy, Becca, Becky, Bill, Carla, Cathie, Dawn, Elizabeth, Joe, Kio, Logan, Michelle, Micky, Monica, Steph, Tamara, Teresa, Underwater, Vest, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 340 – ABSTRACT

March 21, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett 3 Comments

I want to start today by giving congratulations to Rebecca Peterson. She has become the latest person to show extreme good taste, class, and sophistication by becoming the latest Photography 139 email subscriber! Thank you Rebecca!

If you want to become such a subscriber you can either fill out the form that can be found a couple of different places on this website, or you can just let me know and I will add you manually.

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A quick PSA. A reminder, if you will. The deadline to submit your pictures is 11 AM Central. I leave for lunch then and often don’t have access to my computer until I return. Sometimes if you submit after 11 AM but before 12:01 PM, you might get lucky and I will have time to get your submissions added to the “An Artist’s Notebook” entry, but usually I won’t.

Thanks!

The theme of ABSTRACT is tough one. It is very conceptual. I’m pleased that so many people gave it a shot.

As of 10:59 AM on Monday, March 21, this was the current list of ACTIVE streaks:

+ Jodie Cue – 1 week
+ Jesse Howard – 3 weeks
+ Suzie Brannen – 4 weeks
+ Dawn Krause – 4 weeks
+ Joe Duff – 8 weeks
+ Teresa Kahler – 8 weeks
+ Tamara Peterson – 8 weeks
+ Carla Stensland – 8 weeks
+ Michelle Haupt – 9 weeks
+ Micky Augustin – 10 weeks
+ Andy Sharp – 11 weeks
+ Bill Wentworth – 12 weeks
+ Cathie Raley – 16 weeks
+ Elizabeth Nordeen – 17 weeks
+ Shannon Bardole-Foley – 19 weeks
+ Kio Dettman – 22 weeks

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:

Andy Sharp – 12 weeks

Joe Duff – 9 weeks

Joe Duff

Carla Stensland – 9 weeks

Carla Stensland

Kio Dettman – 23 weeks

Kio Dettman

Michelle Haupt – 10 weeks

Shannon Bardole-Foley – 20 weeks

Stephanie Kim – 1 week

Tamara Peterson – 9 weeks

Becky Parmelee – 1 week

Bill Wentworth – 13 weeks

Christopher D. Bennett

Teresa Kahler – 9 weeks

Teresa Kahler

Dawn Krause – 5 weeks

Dawn Krause

Harrison Gorshe – 1 week

Micky Augustin – 11 weeks

Cathie Raley – 17 weeks

Elizabeth Nordeen – 18 weeks

Elizabeth Nordeen

Logan Kahler – 1 week

Logan Kahler

Mike Vest – 1 week

Monica Henning – 1 week

Monica Henning

29 submissions from 20 participants. That is a great week!

Congratulations to Michelle who joined the double digit streak club! WooHoo!

There were only 3 streaks snapped. Jodie couldn’t make it to two weeks. Jesse’s streak of 3 weeks is history. Suzie’s streak of 4 weeks is also now something that only exists in legends.

Stephanie submitted for the first time in a long time. I’m super excited to have her back. It might be a one time thing. I guess time will tell. But I don’t have any other friends that globetrot going to trendy art gallery openings. At least not yet.

Harrison Gorshe is a first time submitter and probably the youngest ever. Kid is like 2 years old. But he knows ABSTRACT when he sees it.

Here are the current top streaks:

1. Kio – 22 weeks
2. Shannon – 19 weeks
3. Elizabeth – 17 weeks
4. Cathie – 16 weeks
5. Bill – 12 weeks

I don’t know that Kio will ever give up that top spot, but if he slips up just once, there is a group on heels waiting to take it over.

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:

SHADOW

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

But what exactly is a SHADOW picture? A SHADOW picture is simply a picture where one of the major compositional elements of the image is a SHADOW. The SHADOW can be on the ground. It can be on a wall. It can be across somebody’s face. A silhouette picture is a SHADOW picture, for example. And of course, there are other types of less literal SHADOWs out there too.

While considering possible subjects for your SHADOW picture, meditate on the following quote:

Beware that you do not lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.
-Aesop

I look forward to seeing your interpretations!

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 our idea of SHADOW in this place that is definitely one of my cyber shadows next Monday.

Animals, Naima, Underwater

Raggle-Taggle

April 16, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

This morning’s post is a collection of some rando photos I took across a couple of days. A couple are of Naima, but most are taken in the Boone County Hospital Pond.

Feels like we are getting down to the nitty-gritty of the 2019 backlog. But there are still some big photo shoots left to curate out there.

Black & White, Flowers, Logan, Macro, Mom, Naima, Taylan, Underwater, Youth Group

Piebald

April 1, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

Another post hitting up the 2019 backlog. This post is a collection of a few different photo outings, but perhaps none of them had enough pictures to have their own post.

Some pictures are flowers from my Grandma’s house. Then there are some pictures from the Youth Group Pool Party. Plus, there are also pictures from the dog pool party, where Naima gave her worst performance yet.

Naima hates the dog pool party held at McHose Park every year. I thought that as she has grown to love going into the pond at Dickcissel Park, she would begin to enjoy the dog pool party more. The opposite has occurred. She hates it more and more every year. Last year, she literally last maybe 5 minutes. Then she turned and walked out of the pool and back to the car.

It happened to be the same time that my Mom was showing up to watch the dogs. She took Naima home in my car and I stayed to talk to Logan while he took pictures for the newspaper.

The Youth Group Pool Party is the kickoff of the Youth Group year. If you look closely, you can see that Taylan is one of the lifeguards.

Animals, Birthdays, Black & White, Equipment, Logan, Macro, Mom, Naima, Nature, Pufferbilly Days, Scottie D., Self-Portrait, Still Life, Underwater, Work, WPC - Reminder

I Don’t Know Why You’re Mean to Me

March 20, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 6 Comments

I took Thursday and Friday off this week to watch basketball. Obviously there is no basketball right now. There is no basketball for at least a month and there is no NCAA Tournament this year at all. I wasn’t sure if I was going to still take these two days off. I waffled for a few days and then I ultimately decided that I needed a few days off.

I understand that can sound tone deaf. To need a few days off, when there are many people that aren’t able to work right now. People who suddenly are finding themselves unemployed. I am blessed that for at least now, the Computer Mine is still open for business. I am also blessed that starting a couple days ago, the Computer Mine opened up the option to work from home for some employees. They started by opening it up to workers that are in high risk groups and workers that are around people that are in high risk groups. I fit into that second category.

I wasn’t sure I was going to work from home or continue to work from the office, but after listening to a few co-workers regurgitated Fox propaganda talking points, I knew that I no longer trusted my co-workers to make smart decisions for their health, for the health of the people the come into contact with, and the health of the people that they come into contact with.

Starting on Monday, I’m going to start working from home. Because of this, I spent Thursday building a computer to use as my work from home computer from some computer parts I have laying around. I didn’t want to complicate my main home computer. So that is what passes for ENTERTAINMENT for me yesterday.

I also added a web camera to my work-from-home-computer so I could have video calls with my co-workers:

It isn’t the best web camera in the world. In fact, it is the web camera I bought a few years back so I could set up a modest photo booth at my birthday party:

But it will get the job done as far as video chatting goes. Because the one thing that I’m definitely going to miss as I work from home for at least a couple of weeks is some of my fellow miners. Most of them have opted to work from home, but I think Joe, Micky, Elizabeth, and Ron and a few others still seem to be committed to showing up to the mine. I’m going to miss you guys

Working from home does mean that I’ll have more time on my hands. I won’t have the 20 minute or so one way commute every day. My one hour lunch break will also be spent at home. Plus with not going pretty much anywhere at night, I will definitely have added time to work on my photography backlog. You guys might have to endure some days of TWO “An Artist’s Notebook” entries! Oh the humanity!

Hopefully the webcam will help with the social isolation. Hopefully my dog adjusts to having me around all the time!

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Since I mentioned birthday parties, I might as well mention that while I have been planning to have a birthday party this year, it is definitely off. Which is sad because Scottie D. and I had a tremendous menu planned. Baby Got Rack was going to cater the heck out of that party! You’ll just have to imagine what it would have been like.

What you don’t have to imagine what it is like, was what the invitations were going to look like. My nephew Logan took some of the photos that were going to be used for the invitations, that were going to look like they came from a political candidate. Here are a couple of the pictures that won’t get used:

That last picture wasn’t getting used for sure, I just like it. Maybe 2021 will be a better year to bring the party back!

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Last week I took more than one picture for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE, so here is a good chance to share the once that didn’t have what it takes to make the big show on Monday:

The pictures of Naima were taken with a new Lensbaby lens I bought for my new camera. I will probably going into some boring detail about it at some point in the future.

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

ENTERTAINMENT

I have no clue what participation will look like this week. However, I can assure you that even if you are taking social distancing to self-quarantine, this theme and every theme in the WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE is a theme that can be accomplished within the confines of your house or your yard.

Happy photo harvesting!

Aaron, Angie, Carla, Elizabeth, Michelle, Micky, Monica, Shannon, Tamara, Underwater, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 235 – WATER

March 16, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

I was worried that the global pandemic might squash participation this week with WATER. It would have been a minor price to pay for people hunkering down and being safe. Although, there are few better activities when social distancing than a little photography.

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

Angie DeWaard

Aaron Barnett

Tamara Peterson

Shannon Bardole-Foley

Micky Augustin

Christopher D. Bennett

Elizabeth Nordeen

Monica Henning

Michelle Haupt

Carla Stensland

ENTERTAINMENT

ENTERTAINMENT! What a great theme! Now, I understand, that some might think that ENTERTAINMENT might be a difficult theme when pretty much every concert and sporting event is being cancelled. With the CDC recommending that events with more than 50 people should be cancelled or postponed for the next 8 weeks. But ENTERTAINMENT doesn’t have to be on a grand scale. Many of us will be finding ways to ENTERTAIN(MENT) ourselves in the coming weeks. You hobby is ENTERTAINMENT. Playing games is ENTERTAINMENT. For some sick, sad people, cleaning is ENTERTAINMENT. Photograph the way that your are having ENTERTAINMENT while you are being safe and being cautious.

I look forward to your interpretations! I have a feeling I will find ENTERTAINMENT in them!

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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 entertaining Monday!

Black & White, Jason, Naima, Nature, Photoshop, Self-Portrait, Underwater

70% Playing with Stuff

February 6, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

Today’s entry is a collection of random May images from last year. Some are from a trip to Dickcissel with Naima. One is a horrible green screen experiment. There is a picture of Jason from when we put my mom’s ceiling back together.

Last year my Mom’s ceiling fell on her in the middle of the night. Not the whole thing, but a good chunk of it. It definitely isn’t the way one wants to be woken up.

The weird thing is that there were no cracks in it beforehand. It just broke one night. Probably due to how close she lives to the Life Flight landing pad at the Boone County Hospital.

One big step closer to having the 2019 backlog cleared up.

Andy, Animals, Becky, Carla, Cathie, Dawn, Elizabeth, Jesse, Kim, Logan, Michelle, Micky, Shannon, Tamara, Underwater, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 217 – ORANGE

November 11, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

I would be remiss if I didn’t start out this post to saying Happy Veteran’s Day. I don’t have a photo to back up these sentiment, so instead, let me remind you that veterans often struggle greatly when they leave the military.

The suicide rate for veterans of 35 per 100,000. The suicide rate for homeless veterans is 81 per 100,000. Veterans make up approximately 9 percent of all homeless adults.

Thanks to our veterans! They bear more scars than the ones that we can easily see.

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ORANGE once again proved to be a popular theme. For the 7th straight week, the WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE brought in 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:

Jesse Howard

Dawn Krause

Andy Sharp

Elizabeth Nordeen

Cathie Raley

Micky Augustin

Christopher D. Bennett

Shannon Bardole-Foley

Tamara Peterson

Michelle Haupt

Logan Kahler

Kim Barker

Becky Parmeleee

Carla Stensland

PURPLE!

PURPLE! What a great theme! But what is a PURPLE picture? A PURPLE picture isn’t all that much different than an ORANGE picture. Only instead of ORANGE, it should incorporate the color PURPLE. This one might be a bit trickier as PURPLE isn’t as prevalent in nature as much as ORANGE is this time of year, but I have no doubt, that you will be able to find PURPLE somewhere in your life.

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 purple Monday!

Animals, Art, Black & White, Candid Portrait, Equipment, Jaxon, Naima, Self-Portrait, Underwater, Video, Youth Group

The New New

May 16, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

I have recently had a battle in my head and in my wallet. I knew I wanted to purchase a new camera that was something like an action cam, only so much more. It has the qualities of say a GoPro, but the image quality is vastly superior. The amount of control you have with the camera is like night and day.

The camera I’m talking about is the Sony RX0. I had it in my sights for several months. Then Sony went and released the Sony RX0 II. This put in something of a quandary. Three months ago, there was nothing wrong with the Sony RX0, but now there was a Sony RX0 II that was superior.

I had to make a decision. By the old and save a few bucks or pull the trigger on the new and lighten the wallet a bit.

Lucky for me, while I was wrestling with the decision, a bit of an unforeseen windfall landed in my lap and I decided to pull the trigger on the Sony RX0 II.

I’ve only had it since Tuesday, but I already love the little guy:

Happy birthday to me!

Here are a few of the first pictures I’ve taken with the RX0 II:

Here are some of the specifications of the camera:

Number of Pixels (Effective)Approx. 15.3 Megapixels
Lens Type ZEISS Tessar T Lens, 6 elements in 6 groups (6 aspheric elements)
F-Number (Maximum Aperture) F4.0
Focal Length 7.9mm
Focus Range (From the Front of the Lens)Approx. 0.66′ (20cm) to Infinity
Focus Area Wide (25 points [contrast-detection AF]), Center, Flexible Spot (S/M/L)Expanded Flexible Spot
ISO Sensitivity Auto (ISO125-12800, selectable with upper/lower limit)
125/160/200/250/320/400/500/640/800/1000/1250/1600/2000/2500/3200/4000/5000/6400/8000/10000/12800 (Extendable to ISO80/100)
White Balance Modes Auto, Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Incandescent
Fluor.: Warm White, Fluor.: Cool White, Fluor.: Day White, Fluor.: Daylight, Underwater Auto, C. Temp./Filter, Custom
Electronics Shutter 1/4″ – 1/32000
Continuous Shooting Speed Speed Priority Continuous Shooting: approx. 16fps, Continuous Shooting: approx. 3.5fps (Maximum) (With Max. Recording Pixels)
Waterproof Yes (IPX8 equivalent)
Dustproof Yes (IP6X equivalent)
Shockproo fYes (6.5′ (2.0m) (MIL-STD810G C1 Method516.7-Shock)
Crushproof Yes(200kgf/2000N/440lbf)

I made an unboxing video of it the RXO II for the YouTube Channel. It isn’t necessarily something I would recommend watching, unless you really like unboxing videos. It is in black & white, because I lazily didn’t check my camera settings before I started recording:

It isn’t the most watchable video in the world, but it allows me to practice my minimal video editing skills.

I’m going on a Birthday Road Trip on the morrow. I plan on using the RX0 II to do a vlog of the trip. I’m definitely not going to get in the habit of vlogging, but I wanted to test the RX0 II as a vlogging camera because some people say it is the greatest vlogging camera ever and some say it isn’t good for it at all.

One last thing, if you are a GAME OF THRONES fan, we will be watching the series finale at The Union Street Theater on Sunday night. You are invited! Jay might even be making cake. He also has a 20 year old surprise.

Animals, Naima, Nature, Underwater

Naima Underwater Test

November 14, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

Naima likes to walk in water. Naima doesn’t swim, unless forced. She doesn’t enjoy it. But she loves tromping around in water.

I decided to try to grab a picture of her tromping around in water, from underwater.

It didn’t work out that well because the place we go so she can run around off her leash, has a muddy bottom. But here are some pictures from the test. This was back in May at Dickcissel Park.

You can actually see Naima in this picture.

The water around here has gotten pretty cold, so underwater photography is probably done for 2018. However, I have plans for purchasing a camera for next year that is going to be for underwater photography and slow motion photography. It is low on the priority list:

~~1. Pay off car.~~
2. Bank fraud refund.
3. New rear brakes.
4. Big 12 Championship Game Trip ????
5. Remaining Self-Directed Training Budget – $355.20
6. 2019 Calendars ????
7. Iowa State Bowl Trip ????
8. Subscribe to Des Moines Register
9. Hope to not get screwed over by the GOP Tax Scam.
10. DJI Mavic Pro 2
11. Sony RX0
12. Sony Alpah a7II

Although 11 and 12 can be switched around, depending on whether or not I come across a deal. And obviously, there are lots of question marks on the big board. But this is how I plan on blowing tons of money in the near to nearish future.

Animals, Black & White, Contests, Jesse, Kalista, Kelly, Nature, Photoshop, Portrait, Saydie, State Fair, Taylan, Underwater, Willy

The Howards: 2016 – Chapter 1

August 19, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett 4 Comments

By the time this gets published, I’ll probably be making the trudge up Expo Hill towards the Cultural Building to pick up my photos from the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon.

If you didn’t get a chance to duck into the Cultural Building to check out my photos, that is fine. That is dandy. Here are the 4 pictures I entered. 2 were accepted for display. 2 were not.

Not selected for display.

Selected for display.

2 pictures for display was a solid showing. You never know what the judges will like. I was surprised that Willy’s eye was selected for display. I thought of the 4, it had the worst chance to make it. I guess you never know.

A few statistics from the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon:

1018 Photographers Entered
3201 Photographs Entered
Photographers from 20 other states entered
863 Adults Entered
466 of adults who entered have at least one photograph on display
27% of the photos entered were exhibited

I should start planning for next year, but that hasn’t really been my style, yet.

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Starting on the 3rd to last photo shoot from 2016 to have the 2016 backlog cleared up.

This collection is from the Howard Family Photo Shoot: