Category Archives: Boone FUMC

Billy, Boone FUMC, Calendar, Dad, Holidays, J.T., Laura, Lists, Nate, Railroad, Shorty, Slice of Life, Still Life, Tim

Westhaven Christmas

December 25, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett 7 Comments

I hope everybody had a wonderful Christmas. This little picture is my way of saying Merry Christmas to all of you:

Merry Christmas!

I would like to share a Christmas Devotional with you:

Merry Christmas
By Rev. Ronald Carlson Jr.
Dean of the Cabinet and District Superintendent of Riverview Park District
“Everyone who heard it was amazed at what the shepherds told them.”
– Luke 2:18 (CEB)
In those days Caesar Augustus declared that everyone throughout the empire should be enrolled in the tax lists. 2 This first enrollment occurred when Quirinius governed Syria. 3 Everyone went to their own cities to be enrolled. 4 Since Joseph belonged to David’s house and family line, he went up from the city of Nazareth in Galilee to David’s city, called Bethlehem, in Judea. 5 He went to be enrolled together with Mary, who was promised to him in marriage and who was pregnant. 6 While they were there, the time came for Mary to have her baby. 7 She gave birth to her firstborn child, a son, wrapped him snugly, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the guestroom. 8 Nearby shepherds were living in the fields, guarding their sheep at night. 9 The Lord’s angel stood before them, the Lord’s glory shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 The angel said, “Don’t be afraid! Look! I bring good news to you—wonderful, joyous news for all people. 11 Your savior is born today in David’s city. He is Christ the Lord. 12 This is a sign for you: you will find a newborn baby wrapped snugly and lying in a manger.” 13 Suddenly a great assembly of the heavenly forces was with the angel praising God. They said, 14 “Glory to God in heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors.” 15 When the angels returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go right now to Bethlehem and see what’s happened. Let’s confirm what the Lord has revealed to us.” 16 They went quickly and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. 17 When they saw this, they reported what they had been told about this child. 18 Everyone who heard it was amazed at what the shepherds told them. 19 Mary committed these things to memory and considered them carefully. 20 The shepherds returned home, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. Everything happened just as they had been told. Luke 2:1-20 (CEB)
Luke says it all… perfectly.

Let us pray.

O almighty God, by the birth of your holy child Jesus, you gave us a great light to dawn on our darkness. Grant that in his light we may see light. Bestow on us that most excellent Christmas gift of love to all people, so that the likeness of your Son may be formed in us, and that we may have the ever brightening hope of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen (The Book of Worship 1965, ALT.)

On certain holidays, I like to share some power rankings. I’m not going to go in depth on this as I originally intended. When I made some plans for this, I didn’t realize a new season of JACK RYAN and EMILY IN PARIS were both being released this weekend!

But without further adieu, here is my Christmas Movie Power Rankings.

CHRISTMAS MOVIE POWER RANKINGS
10. Meet John Doe (1941)
9. The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
8. Gremlins (1984)
7. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)
6. Die Hard (1988)
5. Elf (2003)
4. A Christmas Story (1983)
3. Scrooged (1988)
2. Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
1. It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)

Please respect my decision. There will be no interviews at this time. Maybe next Christmas I will go in depth on this list.

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Time to reveal the June image for the 2023 Photography 139 Calendar:

June

This image was my submission for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme SLICE OF LIFE. That theme is named in honor of my Dad’s postcard company. This image is my interpretation of his style of postcard designs. However, you can look at this and know it wasn’t that hard for me to put this together in Photoshop, but try to think of how hard a similar design would have been to make in a darkroom.

You might have noticed that usually the June image in the Photography 139 Calendar is Black & White. That is because I affiliate my Dad mostly with black & white photography because he had a black & white darkroom in our house at 415 Greene. The 38th anniversary of his death was on Friday. He was born in June and that is why this homage is the June picture for the 2023 Photography 139 Calendar.

There are no technical details for this image since it is a composite image.

Tomorrow I will unveil the July image for the 2023 Photography 139 Calendar.

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Once again I am going to skip Formal Portrait Sunday. Instead I’m going to share some pictures from when I got together with some of Olivia’s family for Christmas at Westhaven a couple weeks ago. Not everybody could make it because of illness, but sometimes in life you have to be happy for who is there and not be sad about who isn’t there.

Here are a few pictures from the celebration:

Triplets man… So much energy!

Art, Boone FUMC, Carla, Christianity, Dad, Fisheye, Self-Portrait, Teresa, WPC - Alternate

‘Cause I Thought You’d Like Me More

December 18, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

I’m putting off Formal Portrait Sunday for at least another week. The people that were supposed to be featured today recently broke up, so I’m not sure if I should still post the pictures. I’ve decided just to think on it and we will see what happens next week. Or the week after that.

Instead, I’m going to publish a bunch of pictures from January I never published. Some are from an experiment with a fisheye lens. I’m still not particularly comfortable with my current fisheye lens. I need to really work with it more. Which means, for you, you might start seeing way more fisheye lens pictures. Get pumped.

The rest of the images are pictures that didn’t make the cut for various THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE themes. Like LOVE and TRIANGLE, for example.

I can’t believe that it is almost Christmas. I’ve done pretty much no decorating. Carla and I did the reading and lit the 4th Advent Candle in church today and it still doesn’t feel like Christmas to me. Maybe I’ll get there.

Animals, Art, Black & White, Boone FUMC, Dad, Iowa State, Nature, Photo of the Day, Politics, Railroad, Still Life

Fat Mum Slim – November 2022

December 4, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett Leave a comment

Taking a Formal Portrait Sunday off to share November’s Fat Mum Slim Photo A Day Challenge images. Only one month left for this challenge as I’m not going to continue it into 2023. I think I’ve kind of run my course with it.

Here are the November images:

November 1 – A Collection

November 2 – A Book Cover

November 3 – A Shop Front

November 4 – A For Sale Sign

November 5 – A Bridge

November 6 – A Fence

November 7 – I Didn’t Make This

November 8

November 9 – An Unmade Bed

November 10 – Power Lines

November 11 – An Arrow

November 12 – In My Pocket

November 13 – A Closed Sign

November 14 – A Flock of Birds

November 15 – Hand Shadow

November 16 – Running Water

November 17 – Wrinkles

November 18 – An Empty Table

November 19 – Rocks

November 20 – Afternoon Light

November 21 – Half Full

November 22 – Graffiti

November 23 – An Ugly Food

November 24

November 25 – A Spiderweb

November 26 – A Funny Shape

November 27 – A Splash

November 28 – Something Hidden

November 29 – A List

November 30 – A Family Member

Here is the list of the December themes:

December 1 – I Love This!
December 2 – I Bought This!
December 3 – Starts with T
December 4 – I Held This
December 5 – Something Red
December 6 – Peace
December 7 – tree
December 8 – Looking Up
December 9 – Small
December 10 – Out + About
December 11 – Free Choice
December 12 – Lights
December 13 – Something Green
December 14 – Decoration
December 15 – A Star
December 16 – Candy Cane
December 17 – A Hat
December 18 – I Made This!
December 19 – Joy Is…
December 20 – Begins with S
December 21 – On the Floor
December 22 – A Gift
December 23 – A Tradition
December 24 – Someone I Love
December 25 – My Day
December 26 – This is Delish!
December 27 – Colourful
December 28 – A Book
December 29 – Us
December 30 – How I Relax
December 31 – Best Part of 2022

Seems like a pretty good list. I think I’ve already done some good work this month!

Art, Basketball, Boone FUMC, Carla, Derrick, Football, Iowa State, Jason, Jesse, Nader, Naima, Self-Portrait, Self-Portrait Project, Teresa, WPC - Reminder

Selfie Project – November 2022

December 3, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett Leave a comment

I don’t know that November was a particularly active month for me. It is getting to the hardest part of the year to do this project. The sun isn’t up when I go to work. It is barely up when I get off work. That being said, I think I took a few decent picture in November for THE SELFIE PROJECT:

November 1

November 3

November 4

November 5

November 6

November 8

November 9

November 10

November 11

November 12

November 13

November 15

November 17

November 19

November 20

November 21

November 22

November 23

November 24

November 25

November 27

November 28

November 29

I don’t know that I’ll be that active in December either. But I’ll try.

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

ANIMAL

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

But what is an ANIMAL picture? Simply put it is a picture of an ANIMAL. It can be a wild ANIMAL or it can be a pet or it can be a stuffed ANIMAL or it can be a statue of an ANIMAL. It can be a dog or a bird or a squirrel or a fish or a lizard or a dog or a deer or a possum or a dog or a hamster or a rat or a dog or a bear or an alligator or a dog.

Happy photo harvesting!

Boone FUMC, Drone, Holidays, Panorama

Rodan139: Thanksgiving

November 30, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett Leave a comment

I was able to take Rodan139 on a flight during the Boone First United Methodist Church’s Community Thanksgiving. It was weird because as I took Rodan139 up, it kept getting foggier and foggier and foggier. The ceiling for the flight kept getting lower and lower. But after the flight, the fog disappeared pretty quick.

Here are some drone photos of the meal:

I need to take Rodan139 out more often than I have been. It is one of my goals for 2023. However, setting such a goal in the winter isn’t the easiest to accomplish. Drones are very susceptible to bad weather. Particularly the cold and the wind. But we will see how it goes.

Boone FUMC, Candid Portrait, Event, Holidays

Boone FUMC Community Thanksgiving – 2022

November 26, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett Leave a comment

Thursday was Boone First United Methodist Church’s annual Community Thanksgiving meal. We provide a free meal to anybody in the community that wants one. This year we served over 580 meals. We did both drive-thru and a sit down meal for the first time ever. In the past, it has been one of the other.

Here is a collection of photos from the day:

It was great to see so many former youth group kids there. Both those that are now adults and those that would be in a youth group if it still existed.

It was also great to see so many people I haven’t seen in a long time. Some since last Thanksgiving. Some since even before that.

Andy, Angie, Becky, Bill, Boone FUMC, Brandon, Carla, Cathie, Dawn, Elizabeth, Jesse, Joe Duff, Kim, Kio, Linda, Logan, Michelle, Micky, Monica, Pastor Sarah, Sara, Sarah Toot, Shannon, Suzie, Tamara, Teresa, Willy, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 375 – COMMUNICATION

November 21, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett Leave a comment

Just want to start out by saying that if you or somebody you know needs a place to get a Thanksgiving meal on Thanksgiving, my church is hosting a Thanksgiving meal. Here is the information:

Pass the word! A bird is the word. A turkey bird.

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COMMUNICATION? Is it always the same? Was it a popular theme? You will have to keep scrolling to find out!

As of 12:01 PM on Monday, November 14, this was the current list of ACTIVE streaks (ignore the numbers in parentheses):

1-Myriah Sharp – 1 week
2-Tamara Peterson – 2 weeks
3-Mary Green – 4 weeks (3)
4-Becky Parmelee – 4 weeks
5-Sabas Hernandez – 5 weeks
6-Sara Lockner – 8 weeks
7-Suzie Brannen – 12 weeks
8-Brandon Kahler – 13 weeks
9-Linda Bennett – 16 weeks (2)
10-Sarah Toot – 17 weeks
11-Monica Jennings – 18 weeks
12-Angie DeWaard – 21 weeks
13-Dawn Krause – 25 weeks (2)
14-Kim Barker – 31 weeks
15-Joe Duff – 33 weeks
16-Logan Kahler – 34 weeks
17-Teresa Kahler – 43 weeks
18-Carla Stensland – 43 weeks (3)
19-Michelle Haupt – 44 weeks
20-Micky Augustin – 45 weeks
21-Andy Sharp – 45 weeks
22-Bill Wentworth – 47 weeks
23-Cathie Morton – 51 weeks
24-Elizabeth Nordeen – 52 weeks
25-Shannon Bardole-Foley – 54 weeks
26-Kio Dettman – 55 weeks (2)

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:

WEEK 375 - COMMUNICATION - ANGIE DEWAARD

Angie DeWaard – 22 weeks

Kim Barker – 32 weeks

Andy Sharp – 46 weeks

Andy Sharp

Elizabeth Nordeen – 53 weeks

Elizabeth Nordeen

Kio Dettman – 56 weeks

Kio Dettman

Linda Bennett – 18 weeks

Sarah Karber – 1 week

Michelle Haupt – 45 weeks

Bill Wentworth – 48 weeks

Tamara Peterson – 3 weeks

Joe Duff – 34 weeks

Christopher D. Bennett

Dawn Krause – 26 weeks

Dawn Krause

Logan Kahler – 35 weeks

Logan Kahler

Micky Augustin – 46 weeks

Teresa Kahler – 44 weeks

Teresa Kahler

Monica Jennings – 19 weeks

Cathie Morton – 52 weeks

Carla Stensland – 44 weeks

Carla Stensland

Sara Lockner – 9 weeks

Becky Parmelee – 5 weeks

Sarah Toot – 18 weeks

Shannon Bardole-Foley – 55 weeks

Willy McAlpine – 1 week

Brandon Kahler – 14 weeks

Suzie Brannen – 13 weeks

Jesse Howard – 1 week

27 participants! That is a pretty good week!

This week, there were submissions (assumptions on my part mostly) from Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Arkansas, and Texas.

My picture was taking about 1 mile from my front door.

So far this year, I’ve received submissions from these state:

It is completely unchanged in the last month. Although I did get two submissions that wouldn’t go on this map. One from Puerto Rico and one from the Bahamas (if I remember correctly). We will check back in on this map in a month.

There were 3 Sara(h)s that submitted this week. That is over 10% of the participants! I need to meet more Sara(h)s!

Cathie reached a big milestone. She joins Kio, Shannon, and Elizabeth with streaks of 1 year or greater! Awesome job Cathie! Can Bill join that club in 4 weeks???

It wasn’t all good news though. Myriah’s streak snapped at 1. Mary’s steak snapped at 4 and Sabas’ streak snapped at 5. The humanity!

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:

IN THE AIR

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

But what is an IN THE AIR image? Simply put, an IN THE AIR image is a picture where the subject of your picture is untethered from the earth. So a flag, that is technically IN THE AIR, but it is still tethered to a flagpole, which is tethered to the earth. (Yeah technically everything is tethered to the earth via gravity, but take it easy Isaac.) This picture can be as simple as throwing something up in the air (or have somebody else do it) and taking a picture of it. An exercise that produces interesting pictures is throw something to somebody and take a picture of them trying to catch it. The portraits you can get this way are often intriguing and are a different way to see somebody.

While considering possible subjects for your IN THE AIR image, meditate on the following quote:

Well, I remember, I remember don’t worry
How could I ever forget?
It’s the first time, the last time we ever met
But I know the reason why you keep this silence up
No, you don’t fool me
The hurt doesn’t show, but the pain still grows
It’s no stranger to you and me

And I can feel it coming in the air tonight, oh, lord
-Phil Collins

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 IN THE AIR in this place that is filled with lots of hot air next Monday.

Boone FUMC, Evie, Jen, Layla, State Fair, Street Photography, WPC - Reminder

Iowa State Fair – Irish Dancing

November 18, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett Leave a comment

Probably well past time I start sharing pictures from my trips to the Iowa State Fair. I went to the Iowa State Fair 3 times this year. The first time I went was on the first day of the Fair with Jen, Evie, and Layla for Evie’s dance performance with her Irish Dancing Group.

The first collection of pictures I’m going to share are from their performance:

As you surely noticed, Evie did lose a shoe during one her performances, but she mustered on like a champ. Layla got stung by a bee or wasp while watching the performance, so she earned a merit badge too.

Plenty more pictures from that trip to the Iowa State Fair left to share!

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This is your reminder that this week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE them is COMMUNICATION:

COMMUNICATION

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

But what is a COMMUNICATION photo? A COMMUNICATION photo is simply a photo where the subject or a major compositional element shows a form of COMMUNICATION. The theme reveal picture is of a sign that is COMMUNICATIONing that there are rules to using this parking lot. It is for church parking and no overnight parking is allowed. While signs are great at COMMUNICATIONing, there are all sorts of COMMUNICATION. The phone. A letter. A postcard. Talking. Just talking to somebody.

Happy photo harvesting!

Art, Bill, Boone FUMC, Brandon, Derrick, Evie, Flat Earth Joe, Football, Iowa State, Jay, Jesse, Jorge, K.J., Kio, Nader, Naima, Self-Portrait, Self-Portrait Project, Teresa

Selfie Project – September 2022

October 1, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett

I knew September was not going to be as busy as August, but looking at these pictures it is hard not to wonder if I ever left my house. Being sick for about 4 or 5 days didn’t help, but really… I’ll try to do better in October.

Here are some of my favorite selfies from THE SELFIE PROJECT in October:

September 1

September 2

September 3

September 4

September 5

September 7

September 8

September 9

September 10

September 11

September 13

September 14

September 15

September 17

September 18

September 19

September 23

September 24

September 25

September 28

September 29

While there can only be one picture to represent every day, thought I would share some of my favorite alternates from September.

SELFIE PROJECT - ALTERNATE - SEPTEMBER 2022

I will try to be more active again in October, but I make no promises. Maybe the slacker lifestyle agrees with me?

Alexis, Andy, Baseball/Softball, Bill, Boone FUMC, Dawn, Elizabeth, Evie, History, Kanoa, Kio, Linda, Nature, Photo of the Day, Politics, Pufferbilly Days, Sarah Toot, Self-Portrait, State Fair, Still Life, Street Photography, Tamara, Tim

FAT MUM SLIM – AUGUST 2022

September 7, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett

Another month done in the Fat Mum Slim Photo A Day Challenge. Think there is some good work in there this week. Having so much going on in August certainly helped. We’ll see how September goes.

Here are the August images:

August 1 – I AM…

August 2 – I LOVE THIS COLOUR

August 3 – I WALKED HERE…

August 4 – I LIKE TO…

August 5 – I LIKE THIS TIME OF DAY…

August 6 – I LOVE…

August 7 – I MADE THIS…

August 8 – I WORK HERE…

August 9 – I HELD THIS…

August 10 – I WROTE THIS…

August 11 – I SAW…

August 12 – I LIKE TO DRINK…

August 13 – I STOOD HERE…

August 14 – I DO THIS ON SUNDAYS…

August 15 – I ONCE…

August 16 – I NEVER…

August 17 – I WENT TO…

August 18 – I READ THIS…

August 19 – I DID THIS GOOD THING…

August 20 – I LOVE THIS VIEW…

August 21 – I DON’T LIKE TO…

August 22 – ON MONDAYS I…

August 23 – I SAT HERE…

August 24 – I LIKE TO EAT…

August 25 – I HAVE TO…

August 26 – I WORE THIS…

August 27 – ON WEEKENDS I…

August 28 – I WATCHED THIS…

August 29 – I CAN…

August 30 – I CAN’T…

August 31 – I BELIEVE…

Remember you can follow these as they drop on the daily on my dedicated FatMumSlim Instagram account @FMSBENNETT.

Here are the prompts for September:

September 1: Something I Saw
September 2: Plastic
September 3: Paper
September 4: Somewhere I Went
September 5: Hobby
September 6: Green + Blue
September 7: Before Bed
September 8: An Emotion
September 9: Opposites
September 10: I Can Hear…
September 11: Paint
September 12: Symmetry
September 13: Tasty
September 14: Odd One Out
September 15: A Food Shop
September 16: 12:34
September 17: Lucky
September 18: Car Park
September 19: What’s on TV
September 20: Texture
September 21: Nature
September 22: Tree Trunk
September 23: Crunchy
September 24: I Can Smell…
September 25: Laneway
September 26: The Moon
September 27: Open Door
September 28: My Culture
September 29: Not My Style
September 30: Sentimental

Should be a good month. I think there are some good prompts in there. The woman who runs this challenge is Australian. There must be some Australian things in here cause I have no clue what a “Car Park” or a “Laneway” is, but I’ll find out.

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RULES

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