Category Archives: Religion

Alexis, Andy, Angie, Animals, Becky, Birthdays, Black & White, Brandon, Carla, Christianity, Dad, Elainie, Elizabeth, Ernie, Jason, Jodie Cue, Johnathan, Kim, Macro, Mom, Shannon, Tamara, Teresa, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 257 – MACRO

August 17, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

I need to start today by wishing my eldest sister Teresa a happy birthday. Happy birthday Teresa!

I hope your birthday is as amazing as you want it to be!

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Can you believe it? 46 straight weeks of double digit submissions! I thought for sure the derecho would maybe put a hitch in THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE’S giddy up this week. But it was barely even a bump in the road for most of you. The rest of you, I’m going to assume you still don’t have power and your roof is lying in your neighbor’s field.

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

Andy Sharp

Becky Parmelee

Angie DeWaard

Carla Stensland

Jodie Cue

Christopher D. Bennett

Jodie Cue

Shannon Bardole-Foley

Tamara Peterson

Kim Barker

Elizabeth Nordeen

Logan Kahler

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! But what is a RELIGION photo? A RELIGION photo is a photo of anything that deals with the practice of a RELIGION. From a picture of a holy book or a place of worship or a worship service or a symbol of RELIGION.

I look forward to your interpretations!

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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 religious Monday!

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.

Basketball, Black & White, Christianity, Formal Portrait, History, Holidays, Iowa State, Mom, Sara, Still Life

2010-01-19 & 2010-01-25

July 4, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

Happy 4th of July everybody! This holiday celebratory picture is a bit different.

This historical marker commemorates the crew of a U.S. Army Air Force B-24 Bomber that were killed when their plane crashed in Boone County during a training flight during WWII.

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The pictures in the folders 2010-01-19 & 2010-01-25 are from a couple different PERSONAL PHOTO PROJECT(s). One is of a Sara through the window in my entry way. The other is a picture of some family Bibles. There is also a picture from the 3rd ever WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE. The theme was PEOPLE.

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:

RWPE #3 – PEOPLE
Personal Photo Project of the Week No. 5
Personal Photo Project of the Week No. 6

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve Willy and some flowers.

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!

Andy, Animals, Art, Black & White, Derrick, Elainie, Flowers, Iowa State, Macro, Mission Trip, Naima, Photoshop, Politics, Sabas, Saydie, Shannon, Youth Group

#63

May 28, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

I only have one image to share today. It might not seem like much of an image at first glance. It is just a wet gazania. But this is a focus stacked image. It took 63 pictures just to combine all of them into this one image.

I repeat, it isn’t that I took 63 images and this is the one I like the best, I took 63 images and combined them into one image.

I’m sure I’ll be doing more focus stacking in the future. The photo rail makes it way easier to focus stack. In addition to making it way easier to do super macro.

Now I have yet to do a super-macro photo stacked image, but that is coming. Very soon.

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Thought I would reveal the latest collection of images that have been added to the CANVAS WALL PROJECT.

12X16

12X8

8X10

There is one more order of canvases that are their way to my front stoop. Once those are up, the CANVAS WALL PROJECT will be finished!

At that time, I’ll publish a picture of it.

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.

Alisa, Christianity, Equipment, Flowers, Macro, Still Life

Singleness

May 7, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

Photography 139 subscriber and all around swell person Alisa Baker was recently featured on the podcast “The Upside Down Kingdom”. I encourage you to give it a listen, because she has some real interesting things to say:

If you got this blog in an email, you will have to go to the website to listen to the podcast.

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I recently purchased a photo rail to help me do some super-macro photography. What is a 4 way macro focusing rail slider. Can’t picture that in your head. Well it looks something like this:

The rail system really aids in doing some precision focusing with a super macro lens I purchased a couple years ago, but has very limited functionality and is very user unfriendly.

But with the rail, I was able to make these images on my first round of experimentation:

Since it might be hard to figure out what the subjects of these pictures are they are sidewalk chalk, cherry blossoms, and a dandelion.

These pictures are not cropped. This is the full resolution of the original images. This new toy should be lots of fun!

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!