Category Archives: Football

2010-11-08

August 21, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

The pictures in the folder 2010-11-08 are from the last time that Iowa State and Nebraska played each other in football. Nebraska, tired of being mediocre in the Big 12 and being pushed around by Texas off the field, left for the Big Ten. Their fans thought for sure that they would soon dominate a conference with weaker competition and no long have to be bossed around by Texas. Instead, Nebraska has gone from mediocre to awful and now they are bossed around by Ohio State. While I enjoy watching Nebraska suffer, I do miss playing Nebraska. I also miss playing Missouri and Colorado to a lesser degree. However, I do not miss Texas A&M at all. That school is a cult and the SEC is welcome to keep that freakshow all to themselves.

I don’t know that we’ll get to see Iowa State and Nebraska play football any time soon. The only way that would happen now is in a bowl game. Iowa State is now a top ten football program and Nebraska is struggling to get out of the cellar of the Big Ten West, the weakest division in Power 5 football.

If Nebraska somehow managed to squeak into a bowl game, it would be some garbage bowl that was nobody has heard of. While Iowa State will be playing in one of the most prestigious bowls in all the land.

I think this game might have marked the beginning of the end of the Paul Rhoads era. Iowa State lost 31-30. Iowa State scored a touchdown late in the game that would have tied it. But rather than going for one, Iowa State ran a fake PAT and while the receiver was wide open in the endzone for for the 2 point conversion, Iowa State’s holder threw a terrible pass and Nebraska escaped with a win.

That errant pass would cost Iowa State a bowl game. And Iowa State never had a winning record on Paul Rhoads after his first season.

Although his firing would lead to the hiring of Matt “Bullshit Programs Care About 6-6” Campbell. The rest has been history.

Here are some pictures from the game:

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:

End of an Era

RWPE #44 – HANDS

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve a flute, at the very least.

Art, Derrick, Evie, Football, Iowa State, Kalista, Music, Saydie, Taylan

2010-11-01

August 14, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

The majority of the pictures in the folder 2010-11-01 are from when the Iowa State Cyclones bested the Kansas Jayhawks on the gridiron. I believe that was like 7 Kansas football coaches ago. Back then there coach was a guy who used to coach at Buffalo. Their current coach is a guy who used to coach at Buffalo.

The last Kansas coach was fired because he “tried to sexualize the staff of student workers in the football program by, for instance, allegedly demanding that he wanted blondes with big breasts, and ‘pretty girls.’” So that’s fun.

There are also pictures of a few trick-or-treaters I got on Halloween in 2010:

WEEK 43 - SMOKE PHOTOGRAPHY - CHRISTOPHER D. BENNETT

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:

Cyclones vs. Jayhawks

RWE #43 – SMOKE PHOTOGRAPHY

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve more Iowa State football.

Derrick, Elainie, Evie, Football, Iowa State, Jason, Jen, Music, Panorama, Photoshop

2010-09-20, 2010-09-21, and 2010-09-27

June 26, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

There were large collections of images in the folders 2010-09-20, 2010-09-21, or 2010-09-27 so I combined them into one post. These include pictures of an Iowa State-Kansas State football game, pictures taken shortly after Evie was born, and pictures of Elainie playing football.

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 #37 – HOPE

RWPE #38 – FACE

Next Saturday’s post will involve a picture I really wish I remember why I took it. Plus pictures of Foster Q. Bunny.

9 Emotions Project, Alexis, Animals, Art, Baier, Black & White, Blogging, Carla, Cousin Amy, Derrick, Drone, Elainie, Elizabeth, Faust, Flowers, Football, Formal Portrait, History, Iowa State, Jay, Jen, Jesse, Joe Duff, Johnathan, Jorge, Logan, Macro, Michelle, Mom, Nature, Photoshop, Politics, Road Trip, Sara, Scottie D., Self-Portrait, Shannon, Taylan, Teresa, Vest, Willy

Post #4,000

January 19, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

August 9, 2006. That was the date where I first took keyboard in hand and began typing out the blog that I entitled “An Artist’s Notebook”. I entitled that first post “First Journal Entry”. The categories for that first post were “Blogging”, “Contests”, “Jay”, and “Sara”.

This is the first paragraph I posted:

So here is the first journal entry. I felt like having as pretentious sounding name as possible for my journal. I have a few goals about this journal. My main goal is just to actually write in it. My second goal is to be as truthful as possible towards my true thoughts and feelings. I have another journal on another website, but it is really just a collection of sarcastic statements and cheap jabs at open faced sandwiches. This journal is meant to be about what my achievements and failures are in the world of art. What projects I am working on and what I have accomplished and what I have failed to accomplish. What I am photographing and what I am thinking about entering in photo contests. What I am thinking about. It might not always make sense. It might just be things I need to write down because they strike me as poignant or inspirational. This is in a small way an online “idea box”.

Then it goes on to talk about how I attended the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon Reception with Sara to see what two pictures had been accepted for display that year. Then I would go on to talk about how Jay had talked me into entering the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest.

The last line of the entry was simply:

I don’t want to mail it in.

While I was actually referencing the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest, it is my hope that I also didn’t choose to “mail it in” as it pertains to “An Artist’s Notebook”.

It has been 5,276 days since that first post. 5,276 days to reach this day and the 4,000th post in this blog, or “online journal” like I sometimes call it when I don’t like calling it a blog. It is hard to believe I have made it this far, for this long.

It hasn’t been necessarily smooth sailing the whole time. My website has been through a couple different servers. I have been through a couple different hosts for the blog part of the website. I have been through 4 (I think) different image hosting options in those 5,275 days. That jumping around for image hosting solutions did cause the problem that images from my posts from the first few years of this website’s existence have had to be “restored” slowly over time. So far I have semi-successfully restored all the entries though June of 2010. Which means, I still have a full year’s worth of entries left to restore. Somewhere in 2011, was when I fully made the move to my current SmugMug image hosting solution. I have unfortunately lost a few images, probably forever, mostly old phone pictures, but those old posts are as complete as they will ever be.

When I hit these milestones, I like to publish a lot of fairly meaningless stats. This one will be no different. So, here are the “An Artist’s Notebook” categories that I have used the most often:

Top 10 An Artist’s Notebook Categories

#1. Black & White – 698 Entries

#2. Flowers – 693 Entries

#3. Animals – 620 Entries

#4. Jesse – 495 Entries

#5. Portrait – 472 Entries

#6. Shannon – 421 Entries

#7. Carla – 391 Entries

#8. WPC – Submissions – 381 Entries

#9. Teresa – 364 Entries

#10. Mom – 363 Entries

Top Ten An Artist’s Notebook People Categories

#1. Jesse – 495 Entries

#2. Shannon – 421 Entries

#3. Carla – 391 Entries

#4. Teresa – 364 Entries

#5. Mom – 363 Entries

#6. Jay – 320 Entries

#7. Derrick – 295 Entries

#8. Willy – 268 Entries

#9. Vest – 258 Entries

#10. Jen – 254 Entries

Top Ten Non-People An Artist’s Notebook Categories

#1. Black & White – 698 Entries

#2. Flowers – 693 Entries

#3. Animals – 620 Entries

#4. Portrait – 472 Entries

#5. WPC – Submissions – 381 Entries

#6. Nature – 349 Entries

#7. Macro – 332 Entries

#8. Photoshop – 327 Entries

#9. Road Trip – 326 Entries

#10. Art – 314 Entries

People often ask what is the best way to improve their Photography 139 Category Score. The easiest way is to submit pictures to THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE. But posing for and assisting me with photo project or photo adventures is also a very good way.

What people have a shot at cracking the Top Ten by the time we hit Post #5,000? Kim, Sara, Logan, and Micky all have a shot. But 1,000 posts is a long ways away. So anybody has a shot!

But what are the Ten Most Popular Photo Galleries in Photography 139 history? Unfortunately, I can’t answer that question. I can only process stats up to 365 days ago. However, I can tell you the Ten Most Popular Photo Galleries of the last 365 Days are.

Click on the image to peruse that gallery.

Top Ten Most Popular Photography 139 Galleries (by view) of the Last 365 Days

WEEK 209 - ARCHITECTURE - CHRISTOPHER D. BENNETT

#1. WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – YEAR 7 – 57697 Views

#2. Christopher D. Bennett – 41080 Views

#3. 9 Emotions Project – 36972 Views

#4. Taylan Howard – 2020 – 34075 Views

#5. Daisies – 26800 Views

#6. Drone – 24659 Views

#7. Weekly Photo Challenge – HOF – 24603 Views

#8. Family Happenings – 18,231 Views

#9. Alexis Pregnancy Photo Shoot – 2020 – 17057 Views

#10. Black Lives Matter – Boone – 2020 – 16160 Views

The Ten Most Popular Photography 139 Images of the Last 365 Days (by Views)

#1. 7254 Views

#2. 3153 Views

#3. 2460 Views (Photo by Logan Kahler)

#4. 2228 Views

#5. 2127 Views

#6. 2111 Views

#7. 1971 Views

#8. 1916 Views

#9. 1891 Views

#10. 1830 Views

Now the secret to the popularity of some of these images is that they are cover photos for albums, but shhhh… don’t tell anybody!

Another category of meaningless statistics, I’d like to share is what have been the most popular posts since the inception of “An Artist’s Notebook”. Although it might not be the most accurate way to judge such things, the only statistic I can use to judge this is “Comments” left on each post. That doesn’t mean emails or text messages or comments I received in person. These are comments that were left in the Comments section of each post.

Most Popular An Artist’s Notebook Entries (by Comments)

#1. The People’s Choice Round Two – 24 Comments

#2. Weekly Photo Challenge – Week 9 – Food – 22 Comments

#2. Weekly Photo Challenge – Week 43 – Sunrise/Sunset – 22 Comments

#4. Town Sign Project: Hamilton County – 21 Comments

#4. Town Sign Project: Dallas County – 21 Comments

#6. Postcard Recreation Project: Some Churches – 20 Comments

#6. Rodan139: Swede Valley Lutheran Church – 20 Comments

#8. Will History Blame Me… – 19 Comments

#9. Yo, Ya Just Get in that, You Get in that Head Space, Ya Know – 15 Comments

#9. You Can Call it a Comeback – 15 Comments

#9. Wild Goose Chase – 15 Comments

#9. Sorry Not Sorry – 15 Comments

One thing to note is that each “An Artist’s Notebook” entry has its Comments section close 30 days after being posted. Some of those still have a chance to grow, but most have been locked into place forever.

The last statistic I want to share before closing out Post #4,000 is kind of a loyalty score. To even be considered for this list, you first have to have a Photography 139 Email Subscription. The following is a statistic based on “loyalty” for lack of a better term to that service.

Top Five Most Loyal Photography 139 Subscribers

1. Michelle Haupt – 99%
2. Joe Duff – 97%
3. Shannon Bardole-Foley – 94%
4. Sara Lockner – 90%
5. Corey Faust – 89%

Thanks to everybody that has supported this adventure for 14 years, 5 months, and now 10 days!

Flowers, Football, Iowa State, Nader, Willy

2010-04-19

October 10, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

The grand majority of pictures from the folder 2010-04-19 are from the Iowa State’s Spring Game in 2010. There is also one picture that was used for Week 15 of Year 1 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE. The theme was LONG EXPOSURE.

Looking through these pictures really made me miss the Spring Game. It was pointless. You learned nothing. It was frequently boring. But you got to be at Jack Trice Stadium with thousands of your closest friends!

WEEK 15 - LONG EXPOSURE - CHRISTOPHER D. BENNETT

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. 17

RWPE #15 – LONG EXPOSURE

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve birds, mail, and flowers.

Drone, Football, Naima, Panorama, WPC - Reminder

Rodan139: Goeppinger Field

September 18, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

Last Friday Andy wanted me to come to the Boone High football game and take a few photos. I wasn’t really ready to be in a crowd that large yet. Then, he suggested I bring the drone out and take a couple of photos. Now strictly speaking, that isn’t 100% legal for a couple of reasons. However, I considered doing that because drone laws make very little sense and I’ve already taken quite a few “illegal” flights.

However, it rained pretty much all day Friday and then poured Friday night. The drone is many things, but waterproof definitely isn’t on the list. In fact, you aren’t really supposed to fly it where it can get wet at all.

I spent Friday glued to my couch watching COBRA KAI. It was the wise decision at the time.

I intended to get up early Saturday morning and go out to the High Trestle Trail Bridge to take a flight, but that never really happened. However, I did take a quick flight over Goeppinger Field to take some photos. Nobody is playing obviously, but it was a good scout flight.

If you look closely at the panoramas, you can see Jesse’s garage and Scottie D.’s house. Other stuff too.

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

WATER

A reminder that a WATER photo is any photo where WATER is a major element of the composition.

Happy photo harvesting!

Derrick, Football, Iowa State, Jen

2009-11-14

May 16, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

The pictures in the folder 2009-11-14 are from the last home Iowa State football game from 2009. It was a victory over Colorado that made the Cyclones bowl eligible.

It was shocking that Iowa State had a successful season that year because it was Paul Rhoads’ first season and the two years under Gene Chizik were an unmitigated disaster. At least that was the perception at the time.

I don’t want to say that I think Chizik was a good coach, but in retrospect, he was upgrading the talent pool at Iowa State. He didn’t stick around to benefit from the upgraded talent. Rhoads did benefit, but he wasn’t a very good recruiter and his tenure eventually ended somewhat chaotically.

It was a good first season. They would go on to beat a mid-major team, the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the Insight Bowl.

Colorado shortly left the Big 12 shortly thereafter in what would turn out to be a big mistake for them. I don’t miss Colorado in the Big 12 that much, but I would welcome them back.

I miss Nebraska the most. Missouri would be second. Colorado third. Texas A&M not all. Good riddance to what is more of a cult than a school. The SEC is more than welcome to that freakshow.

I do want to make it clear. I do not support expansion of the Big 12. 10 is the perfect number for a conference. You play everybody in football and everybody in basketball twice. However, if Nebraska or Colorado wanted to come crawling back I would take them back. Then promptly kick out Baylor. Then either TCU or West Virginia.

West Virginia would be better served being in a conference based in the east. But I also hate being in a conference with private schools. Mostly because they are not subject to the same open records laws that public schools are. That is how Baylor got away with massive cover-ups of their football team’s scores of sexual assaults.

That is also why whenever somebody brings up BYU joining the Big 12, it is a very hard “NO!” from this guy.

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:

Last 2 Home Games

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve a family photo shoot and joke glasse.

Animals, Becky, Football, Iowa State

2009-11-09

May 9, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

The pictures in the folder called 2009-11-09 are from the Iowa State-Oklahoma State football game and pictures of Becky with her rabbit and pooch.

I can’t remember who won the Iowa State-Oklahoma State game, but everybody wins when you get a bunny together with a great dane.

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve more Iowa State football!

Animals, Billy, Black & White, Candid Portrait, Dory, Flat Earth Joe, Football, J.T., Jorge, Self-Portrait, Vest, Work

Stochastic

May 6, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

This is the last collection of random pictures from 2019. Everything else that is left in the 2019 backlog belongs to a collection of pictures. Such as family portraits or senior pictures or a wedding.

Enjoy:

I can almost see the light at the end of the 2019 backlog. But there is still a ton of photos to go. WooHoo!

Andy, Black & White, Football, Jesse, Music, Still Life, Taylan, Work

ADM vs. Boone

May 1, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

30 days working from home in the book. Although for the first time, I had to go into the mine to do something that couldn’t be done from home. I can’t put into words how much I hate Apple products. The fire of a thousands suns. That is the heat of my hatred for Apple products.

There were only 5 people working in the physical mine when I went there. So I actually got to physically see Kim for the first time since March. I also got to physically see Vest because… let me reiterate how much I hate Apple products.

If you are running a business, buy an adult computer.

I’m not sure if I garnered any more positives from working from home this week. But good things did happen. Baier dropped off an order of 60 chicken wings from Buffalo Wild Wings. Took me some time to get through all of those, but I’m not even mad about it. Although it did set back the timeline for a project I’ve been working on, but that is okay. The fishies of the sea are thankful.

I still haven’t started on the basement. For those asking. Instead, I’ve done a bit of yardwork. Maybe I’ll start on the basement this weekend.

I’ve reached track # 1210 “Freak on a Leash” by Korn. Korn is a band I don’t listen to much any more. Not really at all. Was never a big Korn fan, but they were a part of my listening milieu at one point of my life.

“Freak on a Leash” probably isn’t the best song to ingest during physical distancing. Better than drinking bleach or injecting Lysol, but a sample of the lyrics:

“Sometimes I cannot take this place
Sometimes it’s my life I can’t taste
Sometimes I cannot feel my face
You’ll never see me fall from grace”

I did eliminate several songs from the Master Playlist this week though. All of them because the sound quality on them were really low:

#800 “Ironic” by James Corden and Alanis Morissette
#1052 “Tennessee” by Arrested Development
#1053 “Intergalactic” by Beastie Boys
#1054 “So What’Cha Want” by Beastie Boys
#1055 “Sabotage” by Beastie Boys
#1062 “Mama Said Knock You Out” by LL Cool J
#1101 “If I Were A Boy” by BC Jean

Hope to get to the end of the Master Playlist soon so I can start adding music to it.

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As I have been a cleaning fool, I’ve looked for more and more ways to get Naima’s fur under control. Not the fur on her body, but the fur she leaves everywhere. I have purchased 2 air purifiers. I’m thinking of breaking down and buying a full-sized vacuum cleaner. I haven’t yet, but one thing I did recently breakdown and purchase is the Furzapper.

Furzapper is a product that you throw in your washer and dryer and it zaps the fur on your clothing. It was relatively cheap, so I pulled the trigger and thought I would give it a try.

Wow! Looks great! But do they work? Boy do they!

I started with some gym pants that are by far in the worst shape.

I followed the directions:

In fact, I washed and dried the pants twice. Once alone, and this was the result:

Does that look worse? Cause it look worse to me. So I figured that maybe there were some missing instructions. So here is the complete list of “secret instruction” I discovered.

Step #1: Wash and dry alone.
Step #2: Wash and dry with other clothes.
Step #3: Drive real fast and hold them out the window.

Step #4: Pick off the really big pieces of fur.
Step #5: Run a lint roller over it for 15 minutes.
Step #6: Hang outside on a windy day.
Step #7: Run a lint roller over it again.
Step #8: Drive real fast and hold them out the car window.
Step #9: Wash and dry alone.

After those 9 easy steps, this is the result:

Not perfect, but I can wear them again. In fact, probably wearing them as you read these word!

So if anybody tells you that Furzapper is the worst 15 bucks they ever spent, just tell them about the secret directions that I have uncovered. That is all it takes to make Furzapper appear to work like a champ!

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Last fall Andy requested that I come to photograph Kyle playing in a Boone High football game. It was the first time I have attended a Boone High Football game since Brandon graduated.

Boone has a super young team and I don’t remember the score, but their opponent, ADM dominated the entire game. I think Boone was lucky to get off the field because I think something like 8 Boone players left the game with injuries. Including a kid that had to be taken off the field in an ambulance in the last minutes of the game.

Here are some picture from the night. Kyle is #30. You will also recognize some photos of Autumn and Taylan:

It was quite the experience, but a tough environment to photograph. At least from the stands. It was so packed in there, could barely move in any direction.

I’m sure, if there is high school football this year, I’ll be at a game again this year.