Category Archives: Boone FUMC

Art, Black & White, Boone FUMC, Christianity, Night, Politics, WPC - Alternate

Matthew 25:35

November 20, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett Leave a comment

I need to start by announcing that my church is still having our free Thanksgiving Meal this year. This year it is a drive-thru meal. If that sounds like something that you could need or want, here is some information:

First United Methodist’s Annual

FREE THANKSGIVING MEAL

You are invited to a fee drive thru/carryout Thanksgiving meal at the Boone First United Methodist Church (703 Arden Street)! We will NOT be offering out usual dine in meal but are happy to send a home cooked meal with you! Meals will be available for pickup on Thursday, November 26 between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Enter Arden Street from 8th Street heading north to south. Please call the church office with the number of meals that you plan to pick up.

To contact the church, call 515-432-4660 and leave a message or email bnfumc@mchsi.com.

Also because of coronavirus, there is a shortage of volunteers. If it is something you might be interested in helping with, I can get you into contact with a guy. You have to be signed up to work before the day, because they are limiting the amount of people inside the church to as few as possible. There is also need for help on the days before.

If interested, like I said, I know a guy.

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Thought today would be a good day to share the ART pictures I took for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE, but didn’t share on Monday:

Why do I feel that the person that put this up, also snapped it to all their friends.

Most of these pictures were taken at the skate park at McHose Park.

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

NIGHT

A NIGHT picture doesn’t have to be outdoors. Any picture taken after the sun has gone down is a NIGHT picture.

Happy photo harvesting!

Animals, Boone FUMC, Commercial, Equipment, Fisheye, Flowers, Mom, Night, Shannon, Still Life, Youth Group

A Little Here, A Little There

October 27, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 3 Comments

This post is mostly a catch-all of cleaning up some image collections taken back in August, that were either going to part of bigger journal entries that I have abandoned or just a few rando pictures taken here and there that I just want to clean up and get out of the way.

The first little collection is pictures taken from church when they presented scholarships to Autumn, Summer, and Jentry:

Church went back to the building in October. They opened all the windows in the sanctuary to increase air circulation. It gets pretty cold in there. Makes me miss warm weather all the more.

The second collection of pictures is of the creamed honey I purchased from Honey Hollow, AKA Shannon and her husband’s business. I got the straight honey, raspberry, and mango. I was going to do a little review and endorsement deal on them, and I still might some day. But I think it is sufficient to say, that it is honey. It is delicious. It doesn’t crystallize because it is creamed.

At one point I was going to do an entry on a remote control I bought for the A7 II. I think it is sufficient to say that I bought a remote control and I use it now and again. Usually with long exposures.

Speaking of photo equipment entries I planned and never made. I bought an infrared filter to play with. I have since misplaced this filter. It is one of 3 things in my house that I’m currently keeping an eye out for.

Test shot.

There there were some night sky photo I took when playing with a new fisheye lens.

I need to do some night photography again before it gets too cold.

Then finally, just a couple rando photos:

Feels good to get these pictures out there. Real good.

Art, Black & White, Boone FUMC, Event, Sara

2010-03-15

August 15, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

There are two types of pictures in the folder 2010-03-15. One if from the 2010 Methodist Men State Convention that my church hosted. The other is from my trip to the Des Moines sculpture garden with Sara. One of the pictures from that sculpture garden trick still might be my favorite picture I have ever taken. That is hard to choose, but it is definitely up there. Maybe someday I will make a Top Ten list of my favorite images.

By adding these pictures to the Photography 139 Gallery, I was able to restore the following historic “An Artist’s Notebook” entries to their original glory:

PERSONAL PHOTO PROJECT OF THE WEEK NO. 13

Meth Men Saturday

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve ACTORS.

Andy, Boone FUMC, Mom

Pandemic Church

July 19, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

On July 12 our church started having church services again. We are doing it in as responsible as a manner as I can concoct. It is outside at Herman Park. Masks are required. Free masks are handed out. There is only one bulletin per month. Social distancing is enforced. People are encouraged to bring their own chairs. People can sit in their cars and listen to the service on a low power radio transmission.

Here are some pictures from the first two services:

Our worship service is at 9 AM at Herman Park. All are welcome.

I was glad to see that so much of the artwork of the youth has been incorporated into the worship service. It makes the park feel more like the home I know our church to be.

Boone FUMC, Candid Portrait, Event, Kio

Biscuits & Gravy

June 10, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

All the way back in early March, the Methodist Men held their annual Biscuits and Gravy Breakfast. This wasn’t the last time that we had a worship service at Boone First United Methodist Church, but had to be pretty close to the last. Maybe one more or two more worship services at most. Everything is such a blur.

Here are a few pictures from the event:

I have to admit that we are starting to get pretty low on Methodist Men for a wide variety of reasons. We might have to start making some women honorary members just to have enough people!

Boone FUMC, Formal Portrait, Logan, Video

Senior Sunday – Garrett – Volume 3

May 31, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

On our Sunday worship service (on KWBG) we honored our graduating seniors with a video that is a compilation of the the seniors discussing their future and their favorite aspects of Boone First United Methodist Church.

I acted as something of a clearinghouse for the video. I collected all the videos, but I outsourced its creation to Logan, because I’m not great at video editing. Every time I have to edit a video I have to spend hours re-learning the video editing program. Logan was able to do the video in probably minutes, compared to the hours it would’ve taken me.

Here is the video:

We have a great class of seniors this year!

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This is the final collection of senior pictures we took with Garrett. There might not be that many Senior Sundays left, but still several I’m sure:

It was lots of fun getting to know Garrett and his friends and getting a glimpse into the cycling subculture!

9 Emotions Project, Alexis, Andy, Baby Got Rack, Bethany, Bill, Black & White, Blogging, Boone County Fair, Boone FUMC, Candid Portrait, Dory, Elainie, Formal Portrait, Iowa State, Jesse, Johnathan, Jorge, Kalista, Kelly, Mission Trip, Naima, Railroad, Road Trip, Saydie, Scottie D., Self-Portrait, Self-Portrait Project, State Fair, Taylan, Willy, Youth Group

An Artist’s Notebook Post #3751

May 19, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

We have hit another milestone in the history of “An Artist’s Notebook”. Post #3751. I would normally make these statistical look back at the past type posts on even numbers, but I felt you guys were probably chomping at the bit to see the entries for RULE OF THIRDS.

This blog/online journal burst onto the world on August 9, 2006. Nearly 14 years later, it is somehow still around. That is success of some kind. At least it is perseverance.

As you know, I like meaningless statistics. That is what these posts are usually about. That and to take stock as to how I’m doing with my original mission to:

#1. Write in it.
#2. To be truthful as possible towards my true thoughts and feelings.
#3. Produce something that makes me worthy of having a pretentious sounding journal title like: “An Artist’s Notebook”.

I’m going to say that I continue to manage all 3. You probably wouldn’t know if I was being honest with you on my thoughts and feelings anyways. You’ll just have to take my work for it.

The last time we looked at these stats in Post #3500 on October 4, 2019 these were the 10 most popular categories on “An Artist’s Notebook”:

10. Photography – 311 Posts
9. Teresa – 312 Posts
8. Carla – 314 Posts
7. Shannon -351 Posts
6. Black & White – 390 Posts
5. Weekly Photo Challenge – 394 Posts
4. Jesse – 404 Posts
3. Animals – 477 Posts
2. Portrait – 516 Posts
1. Flowers – 537 Posts

Here are the current “standings”:

#10 Miller Triplet 1st Birthday Party – 13751 Views

#9 Family Happenings – 14222 Views

#8 Iowa State Cyclones Football – 2019 – 15711 Views

#7Naima– 16108 Views

#6 Taylan Howard -2020– 21320 Views

#5 Autumn Sharp – 2020– 21852 Views

#4 Weekly Photo Challenge – Year 6– 29218 Views

#3 Selfie Project – 2019 – 40726 Views

#2 9 Emotions Project – 43867 Views

#1 Weekly Photo Challenge – Year 7 – 48433 Views

These are the 10 Most Popular Images (by Views):

10. 973 Views

9. 1056 Views

8. 1063 Views

7.1082 Views

6. 1116 Views

5. 1141 Views

4. 1635 Views

3. 1261 Views

1283 Views

1. 2283 Views

I’m surprised that THE 9 EMOTIONS PROJECT is still so popular, since I haven’t touched it in over a year. But I do hope to get back to it. In fact, I have purchased a few things to make it possible to get back to THE 9 EMOTIONS PROJECT while safely physically distancing. So if you are interesting in being a victim… err… a subject. You know where to find me.

Boone FUMC, Candid Portrait, Scottie D.

A & P #1

April 29, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

Tonight would have been the last youth group of the year. Late last week I had to officially cancel the mission trip because the organization we go with cancelled all mission trips before July 12. We would’ve had an opportunity to reschedule, but none of the potential dates really worked for us.

In honor of what could’ve been, below I’ve posted our church service from Sunday. I wrote part of the service. That part of the video starts around the 7:50 mark:

Of course, if you are subscribing to this blog via email, you will have to go to the website to watch the video.

Despite our governor deciding to “have a peeing section in the swimming pool”, the Bishop for our conference has decided not to open up churches until June 1. We will keep having our church services on KWBG and on the social medias.

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Scottie D. and I went out to McHose Park to do the annual Porter and Austin photo shoot. Here is a set of the pictures I like.

More pictures of them Degeneffe boys still to come!

Alexis, Black & White, Boone FUMC, Elainie, Formal Portrait, Johnathan, Sabas, Work

Elainie Homecoming Ch. 1

April 24, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

25 days working from home down. No clue how many are left, but I’m guessing it at least 2 more weeks. This week with my extra stay at home time, I mopped my floors. All of them. Not counting the basement. We don’t talk about the basement! I also cleaned all my blinds. Which was scarier that I thought it would be. But as it turns out, only the bathroom blinds were that scary. The kitchen blinds a little bit. I hope to do a wardrobe downsizing soon. Hopefully this weekend. We’ll see. Maybe, I’ll even start working on the basement. Maybe get a little more yard work done.

My work listening schedule didn’t change much. Streamed Life 107.1 FM from 7-9 in the morning. I had what I’m gong to consider a God Moment on Wednesday morning. I know that listening to a Christian radio station might always be a God Moment, but there is one in particular. After the Coronacat post on Tuesday night, I got my normal heat from “cat people”.

Then on Wednesday morning, Taylor and Jen (the morning hosts on Life 107.1) were interviewing the lead singer of Casting Crowns. He is was well studied theologian. For what may have seemed like no reason, he announced that “cats don’t have souls”. Then he went on to praise golden retrievers. Sorry, Alisa, them’s the facts.

I went to Amazon and immediately ordered “Thrive”, “Until the Whole World Hears”, “The Very Next Thing” and “Only Jesus”.(They will arrive promptly on May 15) I’m not a new Casting Crowns fan. “Nobody” is a flat out banger that I sometimes listen to on a loop.

Of course, this will be used to support the false narrative that I hate cats. Not true. I just report facts.

It is like Harry Truman said:

“I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell.”

Then from 9 to 2 I listen to the Master Playlist. This week I made it all the way to track #1002 – “I Don’t Want to Be” by Gavin DeGraw. Probably a good song for quarantine living:

“I don’t want to be anything
Other than what I’ve been trying to be lately
All I have to do is of me and I have peace of mind
I’m tired of looking around rooms wondering what I gotta do
Or who I’m supposed to be
I don’t want to be anything other than me”

I didn’t eliminate any songs from the Master Playlist this week.

From 2-4 I still listen to Murph & Andy. Although this week I sprinkled in a podcast breaking down Iowa State’s 2020 football roster.

I don’t know if I’ve discovered any more positives with the work from home life. I recently purchased two air purifiers. I’m not sure it has kept the dust homes as much as I wanted, but I can definitely tell the air is cleaner because I could tell that Naima was really starting to get ripe. She got a bath on Wednesday night. She wasn’t a fan, but she is crazy soft right now.

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Pastor Dave reached out to me on Wednesday and wanted me to write up (or make a video) of how I’ve seen God working recently. I’m not sure how he is going to use it, but I think he will using during our church service on Sunday. Which you can hear live on KWBG at 9 AM. We still aren’t having worship services in person, obviously.

You can also stream KWBG from their website.

I went the written route because if I started making a video, it would take forever. Absolutely forever. I get too deep into those things.

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Time to start curating a collection of pictures that I’m just going to lump under the category of Elainie Homecoming. These were taken back in September when Elainie was home from San Diego. Some are family portrait type pictures. Some are more like Elainie-Sabas engagement photos.

Here is the first collection:

There is a ton more photos from Elainie’s homecoming on the way. A veritable ton!

Boone FUMC, Event, Formal Portrait, Jaxon, Kio

Band Festival

March 4, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

The last two years my church has manned the food stand at the Municipal Band Festival. The first year it was pretty successful, but maybe slightly unethical. Last year, it wasn’t very successful from a financial standpoint, but people that worked it had a good time.

Here are some pictures from last year:

I imagine we won’t have a hand in it this year for a wide variety of reasons. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the food stand replaced by a couple food trucks. But what do I know.

First United Methodist’s Annual

FREE THANKSGIVING MEAL

10. 973 Views

9. 1056 Views

8. 1063 Views

7.1082 Views

6. 1116 Views

5. 1141 Views

4. 1635 Views

3. 1261 Views

1283 Views

1. 2283 Views

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