Here is another collection of images from my trip to New York City with Jesse back in 2011. These pictures were all taken around the Statue of Liberty.
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:
Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will still involve New York City.
Last Saturday, when Teresa and I were out harvesting town signs, I was hoping to finally hit the first destination on The Tenderloin Trail 2.0. Wood Iron Grille is one of the stops. So I planned for us to eat lunch there, when we hit the Oskaloosa area. Unfortunately, and this is on me, they don’t open until 4 PM on Saturdays.
Instead we dined at a quaint little downtown restaurant called Tasos Steakhouse. While I didn’t get to hit the Tenderloin Trail, your humble narrator did do some tenderloining.
Here are some cruddy cell phone pictures:
You’ve seen the pictures now, but how do I break down the experience? Well it goes a little something like this:
+ Good bun.
+ Toasted bun.
+ The fried cheese curds were exquisite.
+ Service was friendly.
+ Got food recommendations from some locals.
+ Didn’t nail the meat to bun ratio, but pretty close.
+ Served Pepsi products.
+ Standard has lettuce and tomatoes.
+ Red onions. I mean not the end of the world, but definitely not my tenderloin onion of choice.
+ A little on the bland side.
+ Too thin, not quite, but dangerously close the pork fritter territory.
+ Fries were a disappointment.
I don’t have any tenderloins currently planned, but I’m sure it is only a matter of time before the universe puts one in my path again.
This is your reminder that this week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is BLUE:
BLUE! What a great theme for Year 8 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!
But what is BLUE photo? A BLUE photo is simply a picture where the color BLUE is a major compositional element of your image.
Happy photo harvesting!
Yesterday I completed another successful month of THE SELFIE PROJECT. November really seemed to fly by, with the holiday and other commitments. I think there are some good pictures in here and somethings that I forgot even happened in November.
Here are some of my favorites:
November 2
November 3
November 4
November 6
November 7
November 9
November 11
November 12
November 14
November 17
November 20
November 21
November 23
November 24
November 25
November 26
November 27
November 29
November 30
I do like to share some of my favorite alternates, since there can only be ONE selfie a day. Here are those favorites:
Hopefully December is a good month too!
A few weeks back after the semi-annual Howard Family Photo Shoot, I tooled around Bremer County harvesting their town signs. Here are some facts about Bremer County:
+ The population is 24,998 making it the 26th most populous county in Iowa. Below Benton County and above Washington County.
+ The largest town and county seat is Waverly.
+ Named after Fredrika Bremer, a Swedish feminist writer.
+ Home of Wartburg College.
+ Major highways are US-63, US-218, IA-3, IA-27, IA-93, and IA-188.
+ Adjacent counties are Chickasaw, Fayette, Floyd, Black Hawk, Buchanan, and Butler.
+ Is currently at its peak population. Previous high was 24,820 in 1980.
Bremer County has a fair looking courthouse:
The Bremer County Freedom Rock is located in Readlyn, Iowa:
With Bremer County conquered, this is the updated Photography 139 Conquest Map:
47 counties completed. 47.5% of the Cyclone State conquered!
Here are the town signs of Bremer County:
Sumner, Iowa (Partially in Fayette County)
Welcome to Sumner
Population: 2,030 (+2)
Denver, Iowa
Welcome to DENVER
The Mile Wide City
Population: 1,919 (+139)
Tripoli, Iowa
TRIPOLI WELCOMES YOU
Population: 1,191 (-122)
Janesville, Iowa (Partially in Black Hawk County)
EST. 1849
JANESVILLE
WELCOME
The Oldest City in Bremer and Black Hawk County
Population: 1,034 (+104)
Readlyn, Iowa
READLYN
“857 friendly PEOPLE”
& one old GRUMP
WELCOME TO READLYN
Population: 845 (+37)
Plainfield, Iowa
PLAINFIELD
THE HEART OF A RURAL COMMUNITY
Population: 393 (-43)
Frederika, Iowa
Welcome to Frederika
Est. 1896
Gem of the Wapsie
Population: 204 (+21)
Horton, Iowa (Unincorporated)
HORTON
Est. 1856
Maxfield, Iowa – Ghost Town
“Welcome to Maxfield”
I actually don’t think there is a bad town sign in Bremer County. Even the corporate art types like Sumner manage to be interesting. So I’m not awarding a worst town sign in Bremer County award.
Best in Show is very obvious. But if towns like Plainfield and Denver and Frederika weren’t in the same county as Readlyn they could very easily win Best in Show.
There is only one town with an alternate town sign:
Readlyn – Alternate
Best in Show – Adams County
Best in Show – Audubon County
Best in Show – Benton County
Best in Show – Boone County
Best in Show – Bremer County
Best in Show – Butler County
Best in Show – Calhoun County
Best in Show – Carroll County
Best in Show – Cass County
Best in Show – Cerro Gordo County
Best in Show – Clarke County
Best in Show – Crawford County
Best in Show – Dallas County
Best in Show – Franklin County
Best in Show – Fremont County
Best in Show – Greene County
Best in Show – Grundy County
Best in Show – Guthrie County
Best in Show – Hamilton County
Best in Show – Hancock County
Best in Show – Hardin County
Best in Show – Humboldt County
Best in Show – Ida County
Best in Show – Jasper County
Best in Show – Lucas County
Best in Show – Madison County
Best in Show – Marion County
Best in Show – Marshall County
Best in Show – Mills County
Best in Show – Monona County
Best in Show – Montgomery County
Best in Show – Page County
Best in Show – Pocahontas County
Best in Show – Polk County
Best in Show – Poweshiek County
Best in Show – Ringgold County
Best in Show – Sac County
Best in Show – Shelby County
Best in Show – Story County
Best in Show – Tama County
Best in Show – Taylor County
Best in Show – Union County
Best in Show – Warren County
Best in Show – Webster County
Best in Show – Worth County
Best in Show – Wright County
The next time we hit the open road for THE TOWN SIGN PROJECT we will end up in Kossuth County.
NATURE photography turned out to be in the NATURE of several people.
But you didn’t come here to listen to me talk all tommyrot about participation rates. You came to see the submissions:
Kim Barker
Teresa Kahler
Elizabeth Nordeen
Tamara Peterson
Michelle Haupt
Christopher D. Bennett
Shannon Bardole-Foley
Micky Augustin
Micky Augustin
Teresa Kahler
Carla Stensland
Cathie Raley
Monica Henning
Kio Dettman
Kio Dettman
Kio Dettman
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:
BLUE! What a great theme for Year 8 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!
But what is BLUE photo? A BLUE photo is simply a picture where the color BLUE is a major compositional element of your image.
Think on the following quote while considering your BLUE possibilities:
Artists can color the sky red because they know it’s blue. Those of us who aren’t artists must color things the way they really are or people might think we’re stupid.
-Jules Feiffer
I look forward to seeing your BLUE interpretations.
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.
You can send your images to either bennett@photography139.com OR you may text them to my Pixel 5.
That is all I got, so if the good Lord’s willin’ and the creek don’t rise, we will all be sharing our idea of NATURE in this place that I turn to when I’m feeling blue next Monday.
Once again, this year my church hosted a free Thanksgiving meal for the community. Once again, due to the pandemic it was carryout only. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day:
You can look at all the images by clicking on the link below. They haven’t been edited or curated:
Hopefully next year we will be able to have people dine-in for Thanksgiving again.
Here is another collection of images from my trip to New York City with Jesse back in 2011. Most of these pictures are taken around Ellis Island, but some are taken where all the white collar criminals hang out. It was scary hanging out in such a bad neighborhood, but we got in and out without anybody getting us involved in shorting stocks.
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:
Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will also involve New York City.
I guess I should start by wishing everybody a Black Friday. Not one of my favorite days. A tribute to consumerism. Or as my boy Tyler Durden might say:
Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need, and the things you own, end up owning you.
But if you went out there and punched another human being in the face so you could save 10 cents on whatever. Good on you mate. I’m sure that thing that will be clogging up the landfill in 6 months was totally worth it.
Here is a collection of pictures I took in my yard back in May.
That mean I have actually edited every picture I took in the month of May now. WooHoo!
This is your reminder that this week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is NATURE:
NATURE! What a great theme for Year 8 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!
But what is a NATURE picture? A NATURE picture is simply a picture of something that wasn’t made by humans. Rivers, trees, ponds, wild plants, and wild animals are all examples of possible subjects.
Happy photo harvesting!
I guess I should start by saying Happy Thanksgiving. I’m not going to count my blessings like I usually do on this entry this year. At least not today.
Here is another collection of pictures I took of flowers from my Mom’s yard. These pictures were taken on June 24, 2021.
There are still more flower pictures to come.
