Category Archives: Christianity

Animals, Art, Black & White, Calendar, Christianity, Flowers, Macro, Nature, Night, Photoshop, Road Trip, Ruins, State Fair, Willy

2019 Photography 139 Calendar

January 2, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett 3 Comments

Yes Virginia, there was a Photography 139 Calendar this year. However, I didn’t sell them this year. I just made a small run and gave them out to a very few small group of select people.

Here are the pictures from the 2019 Photography 139 Calendar:

The front cover is a picture of William McAlpine peering through the hole in a brick. It was taken in the backyard of the Photography 139 Studio. It was taken for the FRAMED theme of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE.

This photo was entered into the 2018 Iowa State Fair Photography Salon. It was accepted for display.

Willy is the first person to appear in a Photography 139 Calendar since the 2012 Calendar featured a final rendition of THE 9 EMOTIONS PROJECT that included images of AmyJunck-Wallendal, William McAlpine, Derrick Gorshe, Shannon Bardole, Jesse Howard, Jennifer Gorshe, Sara Junck, Jill Gorshe, and Jay Janson.

The January image was taken on a very foggy Christmas Eve morning. It was taken facing northeast from the road in upper Ledges State Park.

This image was entered in the 2018 Iowa State Fair Photography Salon. It was selected for display.

The February image of a red hibiscus was taken in the Photography 139 Flower Garden in 2017.

Unfortunately, the hibiscus did not survive the winter and did not return to the Photography 139 Flower Garden in 2018.

The March image is of a lily is located in the Photography 139 Flower Garden. It is located in a designated lily patch near the birdbath.

While this macro photo might appear to be one image, it is actually the product of a technique called focus stacking. This image is actually 7 images with different focus ranges stacked one on top of the other.

This photo was nominated for the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest, but it lost the popular vote and was not entered.

The April image was taken at The Grotto of the Redemption in West Bend, Iowa. It was taken on a road trip with my Office Buddy Joe Lynch. It was taken with the in-camera black & white HDR setting.

This image was taken for THE PHOTO JOURNAL PROJECT. The theme of the image was to go some place “touristy” and take a “non-touristy” picture.

The picture of Mary holding a crucified Jesus was selected for April to coincide with the celebration of Easter.

This image was entered in the Photoshop category of the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest. It won 1st Place.

The May image is of the sculputre Skallagrim by Peter Lundberg. Skallagrim is located in the Franconia Sculpture Park near Shafer, Minnesota.

I took this photo on a trip there with Bethany, Dae Hee, and Nora.

The image is HDR toned and is used as the base image for a Small World image.

The June image was taken on Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee. It was taken on the Liberty Bowl Road Trip I took with Russell Kennerly and Jesse Howard to watch the Iowa State Cyclones defeat the Memphis Tigers.

The image was originally taken in color and was transformed into black and white in post production.

The July image is of a hollyhock from the Photography 139 Studio Flowerbed. This pink hollyhock grew in the dedicated hollyhock patch along the north fenceline.

This macro image was taken while experimenting with a new set of extension tubes.

This image was nominated for the flower category for the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest, but was not entered.

The August image was taken in the midway of the Iowa State Fair. It was taken for THE PHOTO JOURNAL PROJECT. The theme of the picture was to take a picture of something that is “nondescript during the day.”

The image was taken when I was able to sneak away during a break in the action of Baby Got Rack’s competitive barbecue competition.

The image was HDR toned in post-production.

The September image was taken of a grasshopper at Big Creek State Park near Polk City, Iowa. The image was taken for THE PHOTO JOURNAL PROJECT. The theme for this image was to create a playlist and listen to it while taking pictures. The playlist I selected was the BABY DRIVER SOUNDTRACK. I was listening to the song “Bongolia” by Incredible Bongo Band when I took this image.

The October image of a ram lounging was taken in Badlands National Park in South Dakota. The image I was taken on the way home on a road trip I took with my Mom to Mount Rushmore.

This image was voted to be entered in the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest in the Nature Category.

The November image was taken at the Iowa State Fair in the Discovery Garden. It was originally taken in color and converted to black and white in post-production.

It was nominated for the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest in the Nature Category, but it was not entered.

The December image of an abandoned dump truck was taken in Boone, Iowa near the south terminus of Division Street.

The image was color processed through the Color Efex Pro 4 plugin during post production.

The image was nominated for the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest in the Hidden Treasures of Boone County category, but was not entered.

+++++++

There are a few calendars to handout, but for the most part delivery has finished. Almost on time this year.

Art, Baseball/Softball, Black & White, Christianity, Flowers, Jay, Movies, Road Trip, Willy

06-11-08

November 17, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett

The pictures from the folder 06-11-08 are from a road trip I took with Willy and Jay to Dyersville. The point of the road trip was to see The Field of Dreams. Jay actually suggested this road trip, even though he doesn’t like baseball. I agreed to go, even though I don’t like the movie FIELD OF DREAMS.

Also on the trip, we stopped at the Basilica of Dyersville. I’m not 100% sure of what Basilica is, but I believe it is a really fancy Catholic church where the Pope can hang out if he ever get kicked out of Rome.

Here are some pictures from the road trip:

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

Field of Dreams

St. Francis Xavier Basilica

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve a trip to the Iowa State Fair!

Animals, Art, Christianity, Ernie, Flowers, Still Life, Teresa, Travel, Vacation

08-03-08

October 27, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett

The pictures in the folder 08-03-08 is from the third day of my vacation in Kentucky with Teresa.

On that day, we went to a Southern Baptist Church service. We spent 3 hours at the church service, before we snuck out the back. I’m not sure how much long it went on. There were some positives about the church service. The music was amazing. The people were friendly. The story of the church was fascinating. It was started by a former prisoner. When he got out of prison he started the church with a mission of helping other convicts of surviving outside of prison and not falling back into the actions that got them in prison the first time.

The negative was it was the only time I’ve heard hate preached from a pulpit. At least hate on a certain group of people. The weird part of it was the pastor wasn’t even talking about the group of people he hated. He just threw a couple of bombs at them for no apparent reason. It was kind of sad.

After the 3+ hour church service, we also went to the lake and watch birds. Then we went to Ernie’s pond and fed his catfish.

Here are some pictures from the day:

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

KENTUCKY – DAY 3

Next week’s walk down memory lane will involve driving home from Kentucky and a look at some Abraham Lincoln history!

Art, Christianity, Road Trip, Teresa, Travel, Vacation

08-01-08

October 13, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett

The pictures in the folder 08-01-08 are from a trip I made to Kentucky with Teresa to visit Ernie.

On the way down we stopped in Metropolis. Visited an illegal immigrant friend of mine. He’s a good chap. Maybe you’ve heard of him:

I highly endorse going to Metropolis. It is pretty cool!

By adding these images to The Photography 139 Gallery I was able to restore the following historic “An Artist’s Notebook” blog to its original glory:

The South – Day 1

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will continue to revolve around this 2008 trip to Kentucky.

Animals, Black & White, Christianity, Event, Flowers, Macro, Photoshop, Railroad

Focus Stack II

August 8, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

There are only a few hours left to cast your vote for what pictures I will be entering in the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest. If the poll ended this second, this would be the results:

2018 Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest Nominee

This photo would win. It has a 2 vote lead.

This photo….

Is tied with this photo. So tomorrow there would be an emergency runoff election.

This photo would win. It has a 4 vote lead.

This photo would win. It has a one vote lead.

This photo…

Would be tied with this photo. Tomorrow there would be an emergency runoff election.

This photo would win. It has a 2 vote lead.

There still is about 7 hours to vote, if you haven’t voted yet.

+++++++

Once again, I’ve been messing around a little bit with focus stacking. Here are 2 images I created with the technique:

I think I’ll continuing playing with these technique more in the future.

Animals, Automobiles, Black & White, Christianity, Contests, Flowers, Formal Portrait, Gretchen, Railroad, Sara, Shawn Lockner

The Juncks – Vol. 1

August 5, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

REMINDER

It is once again time for me (and by me, I mean you guys) to pick out my photos to enter in the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest. Once again, I am going to leave it up to a popular vote.

The Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest allows you to enter up to 6 photos.

There are 4 Categories:

1. Nature
2. Photojournalism
3. Photoshop Enhanced
4. Hidden Treasures of Boone County.

I have selected 60 images for you to consider. To simplify things, I have split the 60 photos into 6 sets of 10. If you wish to exercise your enfranchisement, clicking on the link below will take you to Poll #1. Vote for one of those pictures and then move onto the next poll, until you have voted in all six polls.

The winner of EACH poll will be entered into the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest.

Click on the link below to start voting:

Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest Nominees

Voting will end at midnight, August 8.

As of this writing, if the polls closed, there would need to be a run-off election in the categories of Photoshop and Photojournalism.

The other 4 entries would be:

+++++++

Hitting that 2016 backlog again. Just a few more Sundays and I’ll have all of the 2016 backlog knocked out. Definitely before 2019!

Here we check in on a portrait session I did with the Juncks. You can tell that it is old because there is no Maven!

You think working with toddlers is hard work… try getting David Junck to look at the camera!!

There is one more collection of pictures from this photo shoot on the way. Don’t worry, there is plenty more of Gretchen being adorable coming your way!

Animals, Christianity, Contests, Event, Flowers, Macro, Nature, Photoshop, Politics, Railroad, State Fair, WPC - Reminder

Flowers, Always and Always

August 3, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett

REMINDER

It is once again time for me (and by me, I mean you guys) to pick out my photos to enter in the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest. Once again, I am going to leave it up to a popular vote.

The Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest allows you to enter up to 6 photos.

There are 4 Categories:

1. Nature
2. Photojournalism
3. Photoshop Enhanced
4. Hidden Treasures of Boone County.

The winner of EACH poll will be entered into the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest.

Click on the link below to start voting:

Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest Nominees

Voting will end at midnight, August 8.

As of this writing, if there are no votes between now and the end of the voting, these will be the Entries:

+++++++

A friendly reminder that this week’s WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is TREE:

TREE

A TREE picture is any picture that involves a TREE or a TREE byproduct.

Happy photo harvesting!

+++++++

I must have flowers, always and always.
-Claude Monet

Monet is one of my favorite painters and his work is definitely an influence on my photography. There was a point that I could argue that my most popular photo was named after Monet’s personal garden. I called the photo “My Giverny”.

I respect Monet’s love of flowers. I like to have a wide variety of flowers in my yard. Of course, I always have to visit the Discovery Garden at the Iowa State Fair.

These are the balance of pictures from my trip to the Discovery Garden at the Iowa State Fair last year:

I have more State Fair pictures to share at some point in the future. The near future.

Andy, Art, Black & White, Blogging, Boone FUMC, Christianity, Photoshop, Still Life, Work, WPC - Alternate, WPC - Reminder, Youth Group

You Still Wonder Why I Existed, I Exist in a World That’s Real Different!

June 8, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

I need to start this post with yet another apology. On Monday, when I posted the submissions for RELIGION and THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE I did not post a second picture submitted by Andy.

This was not an error of carelessness like in some past weeks. I legitimately didn’t know that it was a submission.

You see, he sent me a picture of Hawkeye propaganda. I didn’t realize that it was a submission for RELIGION. I thought he was committing a hate crime and I nearly called the police.

However, I remember that in some societies, being a Hawkeye fan is considered a mental illness. With the way this society stigmatizes mental illness, I thought I better just pretend like nothing happened. Back away from the propaganda and nobody gets hurt.

But the ordeal wasn’t over. You see before Andy sent me the picture of his boat, he implied that I might not publish his submission. I let him know that I will publish ANY submission that doesn’t get me in trouble with the law.

He then sent me a picture of his boat with the following explanation:

I feel closest to God in my boat on water at sunrise or sunset…

I can relate to this sentiment. I don’t fish (much), although I did catch a fish worthy of a Master Angler Big Fish award once, but didn’t turn it in due to my modesty. I also often feel closest to God when I am in nature.

I texted back:

I was worried it was going to be some Hawkeye garbage.

He then sent me the picture of Hawkeye propaganda with the commentary that they go together. I didn’t put together that the pictures went together. I thought that the propaganda was on the boat, because it is.

I have since rectified the situation. If you click on the link below, you can see Andy’s submitted Hawkeye propaganda:

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 142 – RELIGION

Now that bit of unpleasantness is behind us, I need to remind you that this week’s WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is:

WORK!

A WORK picture is anything that involves WORK. A person WORKing. The tools somebody uses when they are WORKing. The results of WORKing. If you don’t know what WORK is, ask an immigrant. They get the job done. We all know that Peter Piper claimed he picked them, he just underpaid Pablo.

The world wasn’t ready for the following RELIGION pictures on Monday. Not sure the world is ready now, but I can’t hold them back any longer:

You’re welcome world!

Christianity, Photoshop, WPC - Reminder

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE REMINDER – RELIGION

June 1, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett

It is reminder time!

Don’t forget that this week’s WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is RELIGION!

You should also remember photos should be submitted by 11 AM CST to bennett@photography139.com.

What is a RELIGION photo? Here is an example below:

RELIGION

A RELIGION photo will show either a religious activity, a religious building, a religious book, a religious piece of art… The possibilities go on and on and on.

Happy photo harvesting!

Animals, Art, Black & White, Blogging, Candid Portrait, Christianity, Jesse, Music, Road Trip, Self-Portrait, Street Photography

05-09-08: The Big Jesus Road Trip

May 26, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett 4 Comments

The photos from today’s blog come from the folder 05-09-08.

These pictures were taken during what historians have called THE BIG JESUS ROAD TRIP. It is hard to believe that 10 years have passed since THE BIG JESUS ROAD TRIP, but they have.

Jesse and I embarked on THE BIG JESUS ROAD TRIP with a destination in mind (Big Jesus) and a few stops in mind to make along the way. We wanted to see the place where “The Music Died”. We wanted to see the World’s Largest Cheeto. We wanted to stop at Bob’s Drive-Inn and try a Bob’s Dog. Anything else we experienced on the trip was gravy. Delicious gravy. The type you put in a gravy pitcher during Thanksgiving.

Mmmmmm…. gravy!

The World’s Largest Cheeto did not disappoint. Neither did Big Jesus or the Bob’s Dog. The Pocahontas statue… yeah. That is one ugly statue.

Sometime this year I hope to make a trip to see the world’s largest popcorn ball. Who is game?

By adding THE BIG JESUS ROAD TRIP photos to the Photography 139 Photo Gallery, I was able to restore the following historical “An Artist’s Notebook” post to its original glory:

THE BIG JESUS

There are more pictures from THE BIG JESUS ROAD TRIP that I didn’t share in this blog post. If you want to take a gander at those, click on the link below:

THE BIG JESUS ROAD TRIP PHOTO GALLERY

Next Saturday’s trip down memory lane will involve a trip to visit the Cardiff Giant and his giant phallus. Jason Baier will be joining us!