Category Archives: Christianity

Animals, Art, Billy, Birthdays, Black & White, Christianity, Dory, Formal Portrait, Iowa State, J.T., Logan, Nature, Railroad, Still Life, Street Photography, WPC - Alternate

150-600

October 21, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

Today is the birthday of the Miller Triplets. So I must wish them happy birthday!

Happy birthday Doris, Jimmy, and Billy!

This picture was taken at their 1st birthday party in 2019 so that makes them… 5! They are 5 years old?!? How did this happen!

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Back in February I purchased a new lens. It was a Sigma 150-600mm DG DN OS Sports Lens. At one point, I was going to write a long post on it with a collection of the first images I took with it. But here it is. Halfway through October and the lens is old news now, so real need to go into too much details about the specifications of the lens. But I still want to share some of the first images I took with it. I went down to the Kate Shelley High Bridge and went to Lake LaVerne and took a few pictures of Logan.

Here are those pictures:

On the day I went to Lake LaVerne I also hit up the Ames Library. I took pictures there for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme BOOKS. I didn’t use any of those images. Here is a collection of those:

I do love that lens. It is kind of a limited purpose lens, but I should find more of those limited purpose opportunities.

Animals, Candid Portrait, Christianity, Jesse, Nader, Road Trip, Still Life, Street Photography

Orange City Tulip Festival II

October 10, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

I’m currently out of drone pictures, so thought I would move up the next post on the Orange City Tulip Festival a couple of days early.

We start this collection off where the collection ended. We had just got our poffertjes and had sat down to eat the deliciousness!

These buckets of water are throughout the parade route. Little kids clean the road before the Orange Festival Royalty walk through. I hope to get pictures of that next year.

Fried Almond Patties are a game changer!

The world needs more conveyor belts.

Still a couple more collections of images from this trip left to share!

Animals, Art, Automobiles, Christianity, Music, Road Trip, Still Life, Street Photography

Scott County Aux. – Vol. 3

October 4, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

Time to share another collection of images from my trip to Scott County to harvest their town signs. Most of these pictures are also taken in Le Claire and this collection ends in Davenport. It includes a brief stop I made at Antique Archaeology. The store made famous by the show American Pickers. It is a cool store and definitely worth the trip, but I think the downtown area of Le Claire is also worth the trip as well.

The collection starts where Volume 2 ended. With a great blue heron on the banks of the Mississippi River.

Pleasant Valley

Davenport

This is actually in Illinois.

Back in Davenport.

Still plenty of pictures from this road trip left to share.

Alexis, Amy, Andy, Angie, Art, Bill, Black & White, Brandon, Carla, Cathie, Christianity, Dawn, Elainie, Elizabeth, Jesse, Joe Duff, Kim, Kio, Linda, Logan, Mary, Micky, Mindi, Monica, Nathanial, Sabas, Sara, Sarah Toot, Scottie D., Shannon, Sheri, Street Photography, Tamara, Tenderloining, Teresa, Vest, Willy, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 420 – ARCHITECTURE

October 2, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett 10 Comments

NOTES: 1 – SOME OF THE SUBMISSIONS ARE STARTING TO COME IN VERY SMALL. WATCH THE SIZE OF THE IMAGES YOU SEND IN. IDEALLY THEY SHOULD BE AT LEAST 1,000 PIXELS. SMALLER IMAGES MIGHT LOOK GOOD ON YOUR PHONE SCREEN, BUT DON’T LOOK GOOD ON A COMPUTER MONITOR. 2 – AT THE END OF THE MONTH I WILL BE OPEN TO SUGGESTIONS FOR NEXT YEAR’S THEMES. THE LAST MONDAY IN OCTOBER AND THE 1ST MONDAY IN NOVEMBER ARE WHEN SUGGESTIONS CAN BE MADE. THOSE SUGGESTIONS HAVE TO BE MADE IN THE COMMENTS SECTION OF THOSE POSTS. NOT VIA EMAIL, TEXT MESSAGE, TEAMS, PHONE CONVERSATION, SNAPCHAT. ONLY IN THE COMMENTS SECTIONS OF THOSE 2 POSTS. START THINKING OF THEMES YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE CONSIDERED FOR NEXT YEAR.

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This morning the Iowa Pork Producers Association released the finalists for this year’s Best Breaded Pork Tenderloin. There are 5 finalists and 3 of them are close to Boone!

Here are the Finalists:

+ Cliff’s Place – Manning (80 minutes)
+ Spillway Supper Club – Harpers Ferry (3 hours 35 minutes)
+ Stumpy’s Bar & Grill – Duncombe (45 minutes)
+ ToJo’s Bar & Grill – Jamaica (42 minutes)
+ The Roadhouse – Orange City (3 hours 11 miuntes)

A total of 774 restaurants were nominated this year.

Looks like it is time for me to get out on the open road again.

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ARCHITECTURE! Everybody lives or works in or near a building or structure that is a form of ARCHITECTURE. But were there structures around enough people to inspire them to take and submit a picture? You will have to keep scrolling to find out!

As of 12:01 PM on Monday, September 25, this was the current list of ACTIVE streaks (ignore the numbers in parentheses):

1-Corey Faust – 1 week
2-Sara Lockner – 1 week
3-Amy Peterson – 2 weeks (2)
4-Jen Ensley-Gorshe – 3 weeks
5-Susanna Funk – 4 weeks
6-Scott Degeneffe – 5 weeks (2)
7-Sabas Hernandez – 6 weeks
8-Willy McAlpine – 6 weeks
9-Mary Green – 8 weeks
10-Mike Vest – 12 weeks
11-Sheri Fakhouri – 15 weeks (2)
12-Monica Jennings – 16 weeks (2)
13-Logan Kahler – 16 weeks (2)
14-Nathanial Brown – 17 weeks (2)
15-Jesse Howard – 17 weeks
16-Tamara Peterson – 20 weeks
17-Alexis Stensland – 25 weeks (3)
18-Mindi Terrell – 32 weeks (3)
19-Brandon Kahler – 56 weeks
20-Linda Bennett – 61 weeks
21-Sarah Toot – 62 weeks (3)
22-Angie DeWaard – 66 weeks
23-Dawn Krause – 70 weeks (3)
24-Kim Barker – 76 weeks (2)
25-Joe Duff – 77 weeks
26-Teresa Kahler – 88 weeks (3)
27-Carla Stensland – 88 weeks (3)
28-Micky Augustin – 90 weeks
29-Andy Sharp – 91 weeks
30-Bill Wentworth – 92 weeks
31-Cathie Morton – 96 weeks (2)
32-Elizabeth Nordeen – 97 weeks (2)
33-Shannon Bardole-Foley – 99 weeks
34-Kio Dettman – 101 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 420 - ARCHITECTURE - ELAINIE HERNANDEZ

Elainie Hernandez (West Side Market – Cleveland, Ohio) – 1 week

Elainie Hernandez (West Side Market – Cleveland, Ohio)

Becky Parmelee (Bella Vista, Arkansas) – 1 week

Myriah Sharp (Maui, Hawaii) – 1 week

Myriah Sharp (Maui, Hawaii)

Sara Lockner (Windsor Heights, Iowa) – 2 weeks

Amy Peterson (Washington D.C.) – 3 weeks

Amy Peterson (Washington D.C.)

Scott Degeneffe (Boone County, Iowa) – 6 weeks

Scott Degeneffe (Boone County, Iowa)

Sabas Hernandez (Cleveland, Ohio) – 7 weeks

Willy McAlpine (Spain) – 7 weeks

Mary Green (Edgewood, Iowa) – 9 weeks

Mary Green (Edgewood, Iowa)

Mike Vest (Madrid, Iowa) – 13 weeks

Sheri Fakhouri (Elite Eye – Ankeny, Iowa) – 16 weeks

Monica Jennings (Ogden, Iowa) – 17 weeks

Logan Kahler (Boone, Iowa) – 17 weeks

Nathanial Brown (Boone, Iowa) – 18 weeks

Jesse Howard (Boone, Iowa) – 18 weeks

Tamara Peterson (Iowa) – 21 weeks

Alexis Stensland (Des Moines, Iowa) – 26 weeks

Mindi Terrell (Des Moines, Iowa) – 33 weeks

Mindi Terrell (Des Moines, Iowa)

Brandon Kahler (Ames, Iowa) – 57 weeks

Linda Bennett (Kansas) – 62 weeks

Linda Bennett (Kansas)

Sarah Toot (Pennsylvania) – 63 weeks

Angie DeWaard (Ames, Iowa) – 67 weeks

Dawn Krause (Barcelona, Spain) – 71 weeks

Dawn Krause (Barcelona, Spain)

Kim Barker (Austin, Texas) – 77 weeks

Kim Barker (Ms. Congeniality Stage – San Antonio, Texas)

Joe Duff (League City, Texas) – 78 weeks

Joe Duff (League City, Texas)

Teresa Kahler (Linwood Cemetery – Boone, Iowa) – 89 weeks

Teresa Kahler (Iowa State Fairgrounds – Des Moines, Iowa)

Carla Stensland (Eldora, Iowa) – 89 weeks

Carla Stensland (Pine Lake – Eldora, Iowa)

Carla Stensland (Ames, Iowa)

Micky Augustin (Iowa) – 91 weeks

Andy Sharp (UNI Dome – Cedar Falls, Iowa) – 92 weeks

Bill Wentworth (Omaha, Nebraska) – 93 weeks

Cathie Morton (Iowa) – 97 weeks

Elizabeth Nordeen (Iowa State University – Ames, Iowa) – 98 weeks

Elizabeth Nordeen (Iowa State University – Ames, Iowa)

Shannon Bardole-Foley (Mackinac Island, Michigan) – 100 weeks

Kio Dettman (Boone, Iowa) – 102 weeks

Kio Dettman (Boone, Iowa)

Christopher D. Bennett (Des Moines, Iowa) – 524 weeks

34 submissions! That is a pretty great week. Could have been 35 if TJ Maxx has more inspiring buildings or 36 if Funk could have found a building in the mountains. But I digress.

There were submissions this week taken in the following places:

+ Arkansas
+ Hawaii
+ Iowa
+ Kansas
+ Michigan
+ Nebraska
+ Pennsylvania
+ Spain
+ Texas

Thanks to Myriah’s trip to Hawaii, we get to add Hawaii to the list!

Here is the current calendar year list for states:

+ Arizona
+ Arkansas
+ California
+ Colorado
+ Florida
+ Georgia
+ Hawaii
+ Idaho
+ Illinois
+ Iowa
+ Kansas
+ Kentucky
+ Louisiana
+ Maryland
+ Michigan
+ Minnesota
+ Missouri
+ Montana
+ Nebraska
+ New Hampshire
+ New Jersey
+ New York
+ Nevada
+ North Carolina
+ North Dakota
+ Ohio
+ Oklahoma
+ Oregon
+ Pennsylvania
+ South Carolina
+ South Dakota
+ Tennessee
+ Texas
+ Utah
+ Vermont
+ Washington
+ Washington D.C.
+ Wisconsin
+ Wyoming

38 states and 1 district! That is pretty impressive! Over 75% of the way there!

he Outside of the United States map is currently:

+ Alto del Perdon – Spain
+ British Virgin Islands
+ Mexico (General)
+ Isla Mujeres, Mexico
+ Riviera Maya, Mexico
+ Nassau Bahamas
+ Ontario, Canada
+ Vallunareju Norte – Peru
+ Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
+ Puenta de la Reina, Spain
+ St. John pied de port, France
+ Vienna, Austria
+ Munich, Germany
+ Rome, Italy
+ Cannes, France
+ Koper, Slovenia

There were some pretty big milestones reached this week! Shannon became the 2nd member ever of the Triple Digit Club! WooHoo! Joe reached the Year and a Half Club! WooHoo! Finally Alexis reached the Half Year Club! WooHoo!

But it wasn’t all good news. Faust couldn’t build on his submission from last week. Jen’s streak went up in flames at 3. Funk’s streak tumbled back down the mountain after 4 weeks. 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:

RELIGION

RELIGION! What a great theme for Year 10 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!!

RELIGION! I bet a few people groaned when they saw this was the theme. That is okay. You didn’t think a website that is grounded in Christianity would go a year without the RELIGION theme did you? Where do you think the name Photography 139 comes from? I’m not forcing you to go to church to take this picture. A RELIGION picture could be as easy as taking a picture of a house of worship. Doesn’t have to be a church. There are a ton of RELIGIONs in the world and a ton of them are probably practiced near you. Within 20 minutes of where I live in central Iowa there are synagogues, mosques, and even a mandir. But it doesn’t have to be of a building. Or even a worship service. It can be a picture of a book or a song or a symbol. There are religious symbols all over, if you take a second to look. There are so many possibilities!

While considering possible subjects for your submission, meditate on the following quote and I have no doubt you will come up with a great image:

Science gives man knowledge which is power, religion gives man wisdom which is control.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.

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. There is a limit of 3 submissions per participant. To be considered the photographer, you have to be the one that takes the picture. Don’t be stealing the work of other artists. You can submit pictures for other photographers that took pictures with your camera or phone, but give credit where credit is due.

You can send your images to either bennett@photography139.com OR you may text them to my Pixel 5.

That is it. Thems the rules!

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 RELIGION in this place that is was built on a foundation of Christianity next Monday.

Black & White, Christianity, Fisheye, Flowers, Naima, Nature, Railroad, Self-Portrait, Still Life, Street Photography, WPC - Alternate

But God, You Couldn’t Have Cared Less

September 26, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

I told you that BLACK & WHITE was my favorite theme and I wasn’t joking. I took a ton of BLACK & WHITE pictures for last week’s theme and every day (well almost every day) this week I’m going to share another collection of alternates. This first collection consists of the pictures that I took on Monday and Tuesday.

There is a rule in digital photography that you should never take pictures in black & white. You should take them in color and convert the images to black & white with editing software. The reason for this is because you can always take color away from a digital image, but you can’t add color back to it, if it was never there. (I mean, that is close enough to the truth. If you really wanted to you could make an attempt to add color to a black & white image, but it would probably come out looking like an outtake from THE INFENRAL CAULDRON.

Any Georges Méliès fans in the house? No? I’ll move on.

But I decided to ignore the rules and took all my pictures in “High Contrast Monochrome”. Cause you know how I feel about rules.

Rules are for fools.
Rules are for tools.
Rules are for ghouls.
Rules are for pools.

But rules for photography? Well, mostly they are guidelines that can and should be broken. From time to time.

I had big plans to get out there everyday and take plenty of beautiful, dare I say, tasty High Contrast Monochrome images. But right out of the bat, my Monday went south on me. There was a virtual mine collapse at the Computer Mine and I ended up working from 7 AM to nearly 11 PM. I only got a few pictures taken here and there while I was able to take a few breaks.

So most of the Monday images are just testing camera settings, playing with my old friend the fisheye and testing a point and shoot that I would need to use later in the week.

Here are the Monday images:

I swear that when I saw this image on the small screen I thought there was a reflection of Naima staring back at me from the lid of my grill. I mean it is an uncanny likeness.

This is actually “Rich Monochrome”. Basically a HDR black & white image. A setting, that has its uses, but I don’t love it.

My desk. Been thinking about building my own desk lately.

Test shot with the point & shoot

Tuesday I also wasn’t as active as I originally thought I might be. I actually got out of work on time, but I think Monday sucked my will to live out of me. I had a pretty lazy Tuesday. But I did get out of the house for a little bit to take Naima on a car ride and to take my neighbor’s cans to the can redemption center. I took a bit of street photography while I was out and about.

Here are Tuesday’s images:

Still so very, very, very, many black & white pictures to share with you guys!

Art, Baseball/Softball, Christianity, History, Railroad, Road Trip, Street Photography

Scott County Aux. – Vol. 1

September 13, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

Time to start sharing the auxiliary images from my trip to Scott County to harvest their town signs. Scott County was the second to last county I went to for THE TOWN SIGN PROJECT. It was a county I knew would be challenging cause of the Quad Cities, but it didn’t turn out to be so rough.

Here is the first collection, the first few pictures were taken on the way to Scott County:

Tipton

New Liberty

Dixon

Donahue

Princeton

Buffalo Bill Cody Homestead

Still so many picture left to share from this trip!

Baseball/Softball, Christianity, History, Movies, Road Trip, Still Life

Dubuque County Aux. – Vol. 4

September 6, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

Time for the final collection of auxiliary images I took while harvesting the town signs of Dubuque County.

The first few images in the collection are from the New Melleray Abbey. It is a monastery of Trappist Monks that supports themselves by making coffins. Yes. Coffins.

Here is some information about them from their website (newmelleray.org):

New Melleray is a community of Roman Catholic monks. We belong to the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance, commonly known as Trappists. Disciples of Jesus Christ, we join countless men and women who throughout fifteen hundred years have discovered the Rule of Saint Benedict to offer a challenging and effective way of living the Gospel. Our communal way of monastic life in the Cistercian tradition serves our desire to be wholly oriented to the experience of the living God.

Located southwest of Dubuque, Iowa, New Melleray was founded in 1849 by monks of our Order from Mount Melleray Abbey, Ireland. Like all monasteries, New Melleray Abbey is a school of charity. The monastery is a place where we learn to love God, to love ourselves, and to love each other. Together with its fertile farmland and rugged woodlands our monastery provides us with solitude and precious silence.

Through our guest house and other forms of monastic hospitality, we are happy to offer to our brothers and sisters who follow other paths, a place where they may find acceptance, peace, and prayer. Click on “Visit Us” for various ways to share in our way of life as a long-term guest living within the community.

With Trappist Caskets we support ourselves and supply employment to local men and women by making and selling simple wooden caskets and burial urns of exceptional quality.

I do want to go back and check it out when I have more time, so if you are interested in such a road trip, let me know. I don’t think I’ll get many takers on that one.

Here are the pictures:

New Melleray Abbey

Field of Dreams

A hot dog stuck in her throat…

They were serious. They had a guard watching people.

Seriously? They can’t bury those power lines?

That is the corn guard. In the background is the lights of the Major League stadium where the Cubs and Reds played and the White Sox and Yankees the year before that.

The corn guard actually did try to rustle me out of the corn.

This might make me a bad Iowan, but I actually don’t love the movie FIELD OF DREAMS. That being said, the field from the movie still being around is pretty sweet and it is definitely worth a visit. Bring a ball and a glove and “play catch”. Only psychos “have a catch”.

Would you believe that there are only 2 counties worth of auxiliary images left to share? Well, believe it because it is true. Next up is Scott County.

Art, Christianity, History, Railroad, Road Trip, Street Photography

Dubuque County Aux. – Vol. 3

August 30, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

Time once again to share some auxiliary images I took while harvesting the town signs of Dubuque County. Last time we left off I was sharing pictures from the Fenelon Place Elevator. Here is some more information on the “world’s shortest and steepest railway” (https://www.fenelonplaceelevator.com/):

Fenelon Place Elevator Company
512 Fenelon Place
Dubuque, Iowa 52001

Historic cable car. Also known as the Fourth Street Elevator, this funicular railway has been called “the world’s steepest, shortest scenic railway.” 296 feet in length, elevating passengers 189 feed from Fourth Street up to Fenelon Place. Magnificent view of downtown Dubuque business district, the Mississippi River and three states. Buses should go to the bottom of the bluff. Please use 4th and Bluff Streets for GPS. Narrow streets with parking on both sides at the top of the bluff. Open 8 AM to 10 PM daily April 1 though November 30. Closed Thanksgiving. We do not accept debit or credit cards.

And from the history section of their website:

In 1882, Dubuque was an hour and a half town – at noon everything shut down for an hour and a half when everyone went home to dinner.

Mr. J. K. Graves, a former mayor, former State Senator, also promoter of mines and a banker lived on top of the bluffs and worked at the bottom. Unfortunately, he had to spend half an hour driving his horse and buggy round the bluff to get to the top and another half an hour to return downtown, even though his bank was only two and a half blocks away.

Mr. Graves liked to take half an hour for his dinner, then a half an hour nap, but this was im-possible because of the long buggy ride.

As a traveler he had seen incline railways in Europe and decided that a cable car would solve his problem. He petitioned the city for the right to build. The franchise was granted on June 5, 1882.

John Bell, a local engineer, was hired to design and to build a one-car cable modeled after those in the Alps.

The original cable car, which was built for Mr. Graves’ private use, had a plain wood building, that housed a coal-fired steam engine boiler and winch. A wooden Swiss-style car was hauled up and down on two rails by a hemp rope.

Mr. Graves’ cable car operated for the first time on July 25, 1882. After that, he had his gardener let him down in the morning, bring him up at noon, down after dinner and nap, and up again at the end of the work day. Before long, the neighbors began meeting him at the elevator asking for rides.

On July 19, 1884, the elevator burned when the fire that was banked in the stove for the night was blown alive. After Mr. Graves rebuilt the elevator, he remembered how his neighbors showed up when he used the cable car and he decided to open it to the public. He charged five cents a ride.

The elevator burned again in 1893. Because there was a recession Mr. Graves could not afford to rebuild the cable car. The neighbors had come to depend on the elevator to get them to work, to church, to school, and to the market.

Ten neighbors banded together and formed the Fenelon Place Elevator co. Mr. Graves gave them the franchise for the right of way for the track. This group traveled to the 1893 Colombian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois, to look for new ideas. They brought back a streetcar motor to run the elevator, the turnstile, and steel cable for the cars. They had remembered that each time the elevator house burned, the fire also burned through the hemp rope that held the car and sent it crashing down the hill destroying it and the little house at the bottom. Then they in-stalled three rails with a fourth bypass in the middle to allow for the operation of two (funicular) counterbalanced cars.

By 1912, C. B. Trewin, who had built a house next door in 1897, became the sole stockholder. It was natural for him to buy up the stock from the original ten stockholders as they either passed away or moved away.

Mr. Trewin added garages to the north and south sides of the operator’s house in 1916. He also added a second floor apartment which the neighborhood men used for a meeting room where they could smoke and play cards without the wives interfering.

The auxiliary images:

Fenelon Place Elevator

Peosta

New Melleray Abbey

There is only one collection in this post of the many amazing murals in Dubuque. I actually did a little more research into the murals of Dubuque and they are a lot more extensive than I thought. I will definitely be going back to Dubuque at some point to photograph as many of them as possible!

There is still one more collection of images from Dubuque County left to share!

Art, Christianity, Road Trip, Street Photography

Dubuque County Aux. – Vol. 1

August 16, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

Time to start sharing the auxiliary images I took while harvesting the town signs of Dubuque County. Dubuque County includes Dubuque, which is one of my favorite towns in Iowa. Most of the pictures in this collection were taken in Dubuque.

Worthington

Fillmore

Graf

Dubuque

Still plenty more pictures from this road trip to share!

Art, Christianity, Flowers, Road Trip, Ruins, Street Photography

Des Moines & Louisa County Aux. – Vol. 4

August 2, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

Time for the 4th collection of images from my road trip to harvest the town signs of Des Moines & Louisa County. Most of these pictures are taken in Burlington and a good chunk of them concentrate on a road that is… well it is very crooked.

Still one last collection of images from this trip left to share!