Category Archives: Video

Dawn, Drone, Logan, Nature, Panorama, Video

Rodan139: Sleeping Angels II

May 24, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

When I was originally contacted by the Sleeping Angels to photograph their event, it was because they wanted pictures of them crossing the Mile Long Bridge. It was kind of touch and go with whether the weather was going to cooperate. You can’t fly a drone in rain and the forecast called for it to rain off and on all day. Fortunately, the predictions of rain were inaccurate. There were a few sprinkles off an on, but there was no rain when we got to the bridge.

The other weather concern was wind. A drone shouldn’t be flown under very windy conditions, unless you want it to come crashing to the ground and then you will find yourself buying a new drone. But fortunately there was only a light wind.

Logan and I set up and waited. Hoping they would arrive before the batteries were expired. Fortunately, they did.

Rodan139: Sleeping Angels - Mile Long Bridge

If you look closely, you can possibly pick out Dawn and Kevin who were on the ride. I can’t. But maybe you can.

Here is the video that Logan made from the video he took at the event:

He does good work. If you are reading this entry from an email subscription, the video won’t show up. You have to click one of the links in the email to go to the website to watch the video. It is definitely worth your time.

This is the last drone collection from the Sleeping Angels Fun Run, but there is one more collection of earthbound images left to share.

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!

Animals, Art, Black & White, Candid Portrait, Equipment, Jaxon, Naima, Self-Portrait, Underwater, Video, Youth Group

The New New

May 16, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

I have recently had a battle in my head and in my wallet. I knew I wanted to purchase a new camera that was something like an action cam, only so much more. It has the qualities of say a GoPro, but the image quality is vastly superior. The amount of control you have with the camera is like night and day.

The camera I’m talking about is the Sony RX0. I had it in my sights for several months. Then Sony went and released the Sony RX0 II. This put in something of a quandary. Three months ago, there was nothing wrong with the Sony RX0, but now there was a Sony RX0 II that was superior.

I had to make a decision. By the old and save a few bucks or pull the trigger on the new and lighten the wallet a bit.

Lucky for me, while I was wrestling with the decision, a bit of an unforeseen windfall landed in my lap and I decided to pull the trigger on the Sony RX0 II.

I’ve only had it since Tuesday, but I already love the little guy:

Happy birthday to me!

Here are a few of the first pictures I’ve taken with the RX0 II:

Here are some of the specifications of the camera:

Number of Pixels (Effective)Approx. 15.3 Megapixels
Lens Type ZEISS Tessar T Lens, 6 elements in 6 groups (6 aspheric elements)
F-Number (Maximum Aperture) F4.0
Focal Length 7.9mm
Focus Range (From the Front of the Lens)Approx. 0.66′ (20cm) to Infinity
Focus Area Wide (25 points [contrast-detection AF]), Center, Flexible Spot (S/M/L)Expanded Flexible Spot
ISO Sensitivity Auto (ISO125-12800, selectable with upper/lower limit)
125/160/200/250/320/400/500/640/800/1000/1250/1600/2000/2500/3200/4000/5000/6400/8000/10000/12800 (Extendable to ISO80/100)
White Balance Modes Auto, Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Incandescent
Fluor.: Warm White, Fluor.: Cool White, Fluor.: Day White, Fluor.: Daylight, Underwater Auto, C. Temp./Filter, Custom
Electronics Shutter 1/4″ – 1/32000
Continuous Shooting Speed Speed Priority Continuous Shooting: approx. 16fps, Continuous Shooting: approx. 3.5fps (Maximum) (With Max. Recording Pixels)
Waterproof Yes (IPX8 equivalent)
Dustproof Yes (IP6X equivalent)
Shockproo fYes (6.5′ (2.0m) (MIL-STD810G C1 Method516.7-Shock)
Crushproof Yes(200kgf/2000N/440lbf)

I made an unboxing video of it the RXO II for the YouTube Channel. It isn’t necessarily something I would recommend watching, unless you really like unboxing videos. It is in black & white, because I lazily didn’t check my camera settings before I started recording:

It isn’t the most watchable video in the world, but it allows me to practice my minimal video editing skills.

I’m going on a Birthday Road Trip on the morrow. I plan on using the RX0 II to do a vlog of the trip. I’m definitely not going to get in the habit of vlogging, but I wanted to test the RX0 II as a vlogging camera because some people say it is the greatest vlogging camera ever and some say it isn’t good for it at all.

One last thing, if you are a GAME OF THRONES fan, we will be watching the series finale at The Union Street Theater on Sunday night. You are invited! Jay might even be making cake. He also has a 20 year old surprise.

Animals, Bethany, Black & White, Drone, Equipment, Flat Earth Joe, Naima, Nature, Video

Naima Takes Dickcissel

May 8, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

Dipping into the backlog again. This post finishes off all of the backlog from May of 2018! WooHoo!

It once again draws on a consistent theme. Me taking pictures of Naima at Dickcissel Park.

You might be wondering why I took so many of these pictures last year. The reason is because I spent a considerable part of 2018 trying to get the perfect picture of Naima running at the camera. Ears in the air. Tongue sticking out of her mouth. Silly dog smile on her mug.

I also had an obsession with getting a picture of her in the water. From underwater. But that is a project that will continue into 2019, I do believe.

Here are some more Naima pictures:

Gotta keep hammering away at that backlog!

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Also, since the purchase of the drone, I’ve decided to start actually adding some content to my YouTube channel. In the past, the YouTube channel has only really existed so I could like other YouTube videos. Over it’s 10+ year existence, I’ve only uploaded like 30 videos.

That will hopefully change in the coming months. ‘

I recently put up my first “test” video. It was mostly a test of if I could figure out how to do it. I’m not particularly good at video editing and it shows in this video. What also shows is how terrible I am at sound recording.

I hope my video editing skills improve. We’ll see about the sound recording skills. Actually I have no choice but to improve on sound recording. You’ll see when you watch the video.

So below, checkout this YouTube video I made on DJI Mavic 2 Pro Quickshots with Bethany as the guinea pig:

If you don’t subscribe to my YouTube channel, please do because when I hit 100 subscribers, I can customize my channel’s URL. In the future, there will be more drone videos and I have plans for more videos revolving around the birthday present I’m giving to myself.

Also, a big shoutout to Joe who is helping me with video editing. The video is edited with an open source video editing program called OpenShot.

Drone, Nature, Video

Almost Divine

March 12, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett 4 Comments

Last Thursday, the weather was actually warm enough that I was able to take the drone (from now on referred to as Rodan139) out to the Jay Carlson Wildlife Area for a few trips across the sky.

Here are a few photos from the friendly skies:

In the few weeks that I have shared with Rodan139 I have also taken some video that is worth sharing. Have alook at a few of those videos below:

My next investment needs to be video editing software. As soon as I get my hands on that, I’ll be able to make some more interesting videos. Stay tuned!

I hope to spend some quality time with Rodan139 this Thursday or this weekend. It should be warm enough. Just have to hope for low winds and no rain.

Black & White, History, Iowa State, Ruins, Video

Throwback Boom!

March 7, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

As I have been trying to reorganize some old pictures, I do want to share another collection of images that pre-date the Photography 139 website.

These are pictures from before and after the Knapp and Storm dormitories were imploded in 2005.

Here are some pictures:

Here is a low quality video of the buildings coming down:

I don’t know that there are any other pre-Photography 139 photo collections, but you never know.

Alisa, Andy, Candid Portrait, Mission Trip, Pastor Sarah, Travel, Vacation, Video, Youth Group

Houston (Vidor) Mission Trip – Day 5

July 4, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett

This is my telling of my experience on the Boone First United Methodist Church Youth Group’s Mission Trip to Houston (Vidor). There were 18 people on the mission trip and all of them experienced the mission trip in a completely different way than I did.

Therefore, you should pull your tired bones out of bed on Sunday, July 8 and drag yourself to the basement of the Boone First United Methodist Church (703 Arden Street) between worship services (approximately 10 AM) and listen to the other 17 people give their testimony about the mission trip. I’ll probably run my yap as well. There will also be a video. Also, there will be refreshments.

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The third group from Bone First United Methodist Church was the Rattlesnakes. They had breakfast cleanup on Wednesday morning.

Here is my day in pictures:

Alan organizing stuff.

Summer and Autumn.

Autumn balancing cups.

Summer cleaning dishes.

There was a bunch of donated furniture in the building where we were staying and a lot of it came from Iowa State University.

Finishing up dishes.

Cleaning up after lunch prep.

For the first time all week we could see some blue in the sky!

Hands in!

Megan and Mackenzie finishing up in the living room.

Cleaning up the ceiling rollers.

Anna and Ellie from Missouri packing up the tarps.

Jordan cleaning up the floors.

Tiffany getting paint out of Mackenzie’s hair.

Jordan and Anna finishing up the trim.

Jordan keeping his selfie game strong.

Really strong!

The Cowboys, without Ellie from Missouri!

With Ellie from Missouri. Can you find her?

Kolbe doing Megan Squats. Anna trying not to look impressed.

On our way out of the house that had been our work site all week, the daughter of the woman who owned the house stopped by. She started crying while she was thanking us for our help. Some of the kids cried. I held strong though. For the most part.

Next we went to house where we unloaded drywall.

2 trailers full!

Maci. The anchor of the drywall team!

Kolbe and Jordan

Drywall team!

Teamwork!

Allegedly Kolbe and Anna are Big Hosses. Either they don’t know what that means, or I don’t. Take your pick.

The Cowboys had dinner prep.

Mixing lemonade!

Look at all this pizza the Cowboys made!

Luckily Megan was trained in knife work back in Boone by Brad, one of FUMC’s master chefs.

Anna, showing leadership skills!

Sonic run!

Sonic!

The Ukeladies rocking worship!

Okay, this is bizarre. I drove all the way to Vidor, Texas to see that 2 of my cousins are chaperoning a church in Missouri. Kari and Wendy. We are like 3rd cousins or something. They knew me, but honestly I didn’t know them. I know them now though.

I’ve been telling you about how much Kolbe LOVES the song CONVOY. Below is video evidence

The group that does lunch prep has to do a creative way of introducing supper to the rest of the group. This is how The Cowboys introduce supper!

Not pictured:

Wednesday night we were told that we were no longer allowed to play secular music. Now, we weren’t the ones playing the music, it was the YouthWorks crew that was playing secular music. Normally YouthWorks plays Christian music, but this year I would describe the music as “Humble Narrator’s Junior High Mixtape”. Lots of AC/DC and Guns’n’Roses and Bon Jovi.

A member of the Baptist Church we were staying at came in and heard the music that they were playing. They were shocked, SHOCKED, that they were playing secular music in their building. And it was so hard too. That was the end of the secular music. Well, at least the end of secular music for the most part, but we’ll get to that.

I texted Pastor Sarah, about the secular music ban. She wrote back, that we were lucky the Baptists didn’t find out we were dancing in their building.

I texted to Alisa and she texted, back: “Were they playing Cardi B.?”

The Cultural Event for Wednesday night was going to the Baptist Church for Bible Study. The boy and girls were segregated into separate groups. The boys group listened to Part 3 on a 4 part series on “How to be a Real Man”.

Part 3 of being a “real man” is being romantic with your woman. The teacher used the example that how he is romantic with his wife is listening to her talk.

This was followed with a lesson how to use a compass.

I confess that it was incredibly boring and I began staring at the floor and counting the time until it was over. Then all of a sudden I heard an audible gasp across the room.

The compass guy had pulled a switchblade-lie knife out of his pocket. He was trying to show that the metal in the knife threw off the compass’ reading of true north. It was then that Andy pointed out to me that the compass guy was carrying a gun. Texas.

From what I gathered, the girls talked about “being nice”. Particularly in a blended family.

After worship and church time, the boys “serenaded” the girls with John Denver’s COUNTRY ROADS.

After that, I stayed up until 1 AM talking with Chris the Youth Pastor from the Missouri church and Donovan. It was 3 hours of conversation about the church and it was great perspective. It was perhaps the low key highlight of the trip for me.

I knew Thursday morning was going to come quick, but I’ve had later mission trip nights than this one. At least this one wasn’t spent in a hospital Emergency Room.

Andy, Flat Earth Joe, Jaxon, Mission Trip, Music, Travel, Vacation, Video, Youth Group

Houston (Vidor) Mission Trip – Day 4

July 3, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett 3 Comments

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The Heat Waves had breakfast prep on Tuesday morning. I believe they served burnt waffles. #wafflelife

Here is my day in pictures:

The Heat Waves thinking, “Waffles, so much better burnt.”

Emily doing lunch prep.

Emily learning how to slam lettuce.

All Heat Waves on deck!

Jentry making sure everything is in the right place.

Andy and Kyle organizing the lunch meat.

Don’t tell the Baptists, but we were dancing in their building.

Some of these kids have moves!

Hands in!

Mosher Painting Service!

Also sent this picture of Kolbe rocking NASA swag to Flat Earth Joe. He did not respond.

Clean up.

Megan!

Anna!

Maci cleaning up the floor.

Tiffany!

Kolbe painting the living room ceiling.

I believe this is called mean mugging. I don’t know. I’m old.

Paint central.

Vidor started to flood, so they called us back to the church for safety. We were actually working in a town called Rose Acres. So we had a long drive back in the flooded streets.

But luckily, when we got back to the church they found us a new job! Filling sandbags!

We emptied the church’s sandpile.

A kid from another church estimated we filled “like 20 sandbags!” The actual number was closer to 1,000.

When we were done sandbagging, we loaded 3 trailers full of sandbags.

When they were loaded, the Baptist Minister wanted us to load our kids up into the trucks and put the sandbags into place. We told him that we were not putting our kids in flood water. He was not a happy camper.

The next day we talked to a guy that went with them to put the sandbags in place. He told us that there were water moccasins in the water with them.

A bonus of the sandbagging was the ground was filled with angry ants that came out of the ground and lit quite a few of us up!

You were in store for a world of hurt if you got on top of that dirt mound.

But at least after the sandbagging, we got to hit the showers!

The Cowboys had dinner cleanup. I wouldn’t be talking out of turn if I told you that they rocked it!

MacKenzie – Master dish stacker!

That night, the Ukeladies helped lead the worship service.

This is what happens when you destroy your only pair of shoes sandbagging!

Hailey!

Some version of volleyball!

The cultural activity on Tuesday night was supposed to be a free night. Do whatever you want. We were going to try to go down to the Gulf, even though it was about an hour away. However, since Vidor started to flood, we weren’t able to go more than a couple of blocks away. So our cultural event was going to Baskin Robbins and Whataburger.

If you want to see what I mean by how The Cowboys rocked the dish situation, watch the videos below:

These videos suffer from Vertical Video Syndrome because they were originally posted to Instagram Stories. That is also why they are regrettably short in length.

However, that rocking would not come without a cost. That cost I will cover in tomorrow’s post on Day 5.

Not Pictured: I got to meet up with Joe Duff on Tuesday for about 5 minutes. He came to the place where we were staying, but then had to get home because of the flooding. I was hoping he would make it back for the Community Dinner on Thursday, but he has a little baby to look after, so there is that.

Andy, Angie, Animals, Becky, Boone FUMC, Cathie, Event, Flat Earth Joe, Jesse, Kim, Linda, Michelle, Micky, Shannon, Tamara, Video, Work, WPC - Submissions

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 142 – RELIGION

June 4, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

Before I get into the participation and the tommyrot and the PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE quoting, I want to point out the historical significance of today. Today is the 2 year anniversary of The Great Turtle Race Robbery of 2016!

If you don’t know about The Great Turtle Race Robbery of 2016, let me give you the short, short, short version.

During the football season, me and few fellow computer miners engage in a spirited bit of gambling. The winner each week gets to claim a red solo cup filled with change. Well, maybe not exactly filled, but there is some change in it.

At the end of the season, the person with the most red cups is proclaimed The Witch and they get the travelling trophy. A Franklin Broomworks Children’s Broom.(Incidentally, I agree with Franklin Broomworks and their hardcore child labor policies.) In the event of a tie, the title of Witch gets conferred in a tie-breaking competition that is determined by the people that are not involved in the tie.

In 2016, the tie-breaker was a turtle race.

The 4 people tied for first place were Joe (AKA Flat Earth Joe), Michelle, Cathie, and Humble Narrator. Before our traditional year end banquet at Zeno’s in Marshalltown we congregated at the Colo Outpost of AMOutdoors. What happened next is something conspiracy theorists have been discussing for 2 years now.

But don’t take my word for it, roll this conspiracy’s Zapruder film.

NOTE: If you are an email subscriber to “An Artist’s Notebook and are in the Outlook list, you will have to go to the website to view this atrocity. If you are in the regular distribution list, you already had to come to the website, so this message isn’t for you:

As you can see, the Red Turtle (MY TURTLE), clearly wins this race! Yet inexplicably, the Orange loser turtle is somehow declared the winner. Rigged! I can only speculate at what level the Russians were involved.

That being said, if you are into hunting and fishing, you could do worse than checking out Micky’s hunting and fishing website by clicking on the link below:

AMOUTDOORS

Just don’t trust the guy to run a turtle race. He is as crooked as dog’s hind leg. Depending on the dog, crookeder.

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Participation rates!

Tommyrot!

Here are the submissions for RELIGION:

Becky Parmelee

Kim Barker

Christopher D. Bennett

Shannon Bardole

Andy Sharp

Tamara Peterson

Andy Sharp

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:

WORK!

WORK! What a great theme! But what is WORK photography? WORK photography would be a photo of somebody doing their job, at their job, the tools for their job. But WORK doesn’t just happen at a job. WORK can also be done for fun. Like gardening. Or landscaping. Or mowing. Wait, mowing isn’t fun, but it still counts as WORK. Along with doing dishes and dusting.

As always, I look forward to seeing your interpretations!

HOUSEKEEPING

A MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 RULES DIVISION

1. 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.

2. Your submission needs to be emailed to bennett@photography139.com by 11 AM on the Monday of the challenge due date. 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.

A MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 COMMENTARY DIVISION

In recent weeks, 3 people have earned their very own Photography 139 avatars by leaving comments on “An Artist’s Notebook” entries.

Welcome to the Photography 139 commentary world:

Joe Duff
Linda Bennett
Tamara Peterson

Do you want your very own Photography 139 like giants in the blog post commentary industry like:

Angie DeWaard
Andy Sharp
Jesse Howard

All you have to do is leave a comment on an “An Artist’s Notebook” entry and I will gladly create you your very own Photography 139 avatar!

A MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 POST NOTIFICATION

I’m currently using a post notification plugin called MailPoet. I’m not 100% satisfied with it, but it will stay status quo until I get back from my mission trip to Houston at the end of June. At that time, I will (hopefully) have the free time to play with a couple of different plug-ins.

If you use Outlook to view the post notification emails, let me know and I’ll switch you over to the Outlook subscription group.

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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 labored Monday!

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Oh wait, that isn’t all I have for today. If you are out and about from 4-7 today, I will be hanging out with the Boone Area Humane Society taking pictures for their booth and mascot at Ericson Public Library’s Summer Reading Kickoff.

If you don’t want to come see me, come to see Hope:

Just to make it clear, I will not be in the dog costume. I am about a foot too tall for the costume.

Basketball, Derrick, Football, Holidays, Jay, Jesse, Michelle, Mom, Nader, Photoshop, Road Trip, Russell, Scottie D., Self-Portrait, Self-Portrait Project, Shannon, Tenderloining, Teresa, Video, Willy

The Selfie Project – Denouement

January 5, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett

It is over! The Selfie Project is over! But we should have a couple last looks at all that was “accomplished”!

Here are my favorite pictures from December:

December 2

December 4

December 6

December 7

December 9

December 11

December 12

December 13

December 16

December 17

December 18

December 20

December 21

December 22

December 23

December 24

December 28

December 29

December 30

January 1

Here is a photomosaic of the December 31 selfie:

This photomosaic consists of 3000 tiles. 1 images is used a maximum of 10 times. If you would like to see the image at full resolution, click on the link below to download:

FULL RESOLUTION PHOTO MOSAIC

I also made a video featuring all 367 images. You can watch it below:

Of course, if you subscribe to this blog via email or RSS Feed, you will have to physically go to this blog entry to view the video!

It was a good project and while at least Michelle is sad to see it go, it is time to put it to bed. Maybe I’ll bring it back in 2019.