Tag Archives: featured

Art, Equipment, Railroad, Ruins, Still Life, WPC - Reminder

Wide Angling

May 14, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

This is a collection of some more of the first pictures I took with the Tamron wide angle lens. some are at the courthouse. Some around the high bridges. Some around the Kate Shelley Museum:

I do love that wide angle zoom lens!

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

LIGHT

A LIGHT image is pretty simple. It is merely a picture where LIGHT plays a major compositional element. A wise person might argue that any picture they take is a LIGHT picture because all photography really is, is the capturing of LIGHT. But warning, when you take a picture of LIGHT, don’t face your camera straight towards a bright LIGHT.. You will surely damage it. The camera. The LIGHT will be just fine.

Think about the following song lyric when you are contemplating your LIGHT image:

I saw the light, I saw the light
No more darkness, no more night
Now I’m so happy no sorrow in sight
Praise the Lord, I saw the light
-Hank Williams

Happy photo harvesting!

Alexis, Anela, Black & White, Carla, Elainie, Formal Portrait, Jason, Kanoa, Kupono, Mom, Sabas

The Stenslands 2020 – Beta

May 13, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

It has been over 2 months since I got back to this photo shoot with the Stenslands at the end of 2020. It was a real blessing to have gotten so many of these pictures taken with Mom. She originally was just tagging along and then she went home and changed clothes to be in some of the pictures.

There is still a lot more pictures from this photo session to sahre.

Art, Politics, Railroad, Road Trip, Ruins

Hardin County Auxiliary Images

May 12, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

Back in February I cruised around Hardin County harvesting town sign photos. This was a solo trip. These are some of the non-town sign pictures I took on the trip.

New Providence – This round gym was recently featured in a movie.

Gifford

Union

Whitten

Eldora

Steamboat Rock

Ackley

I really liked Hardin County. There is more than one thing there I would like to go back and photograph again in the future.

Art, Equipment, Lensbaby

Even More of that Velvet 85

May 11, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

This is the third and final batch of the first images I took with the Lensbaby Velvet 85. These (most of them) pictures were taken at the sculpture garden in downtown Des Moines.

I still might get into the technical details of the Lensbaby Velvet 85 some day, but today isn’t that day.

Art, Becky, Joe Duff, Kim, Kio, Linda, Micky, Shannon, Tamara, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 295 – FACE

May 10, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

There was a decent amount of submissions for FACE this week. Apparently lots of you know a FACE or two that you like.

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

Kim Barker

Kio Dettman

Linda Bennett

Tamara Peterson

Micky Augustin

Tamara Peterson

Becky Parmelee

Joe Duff

Christopher D. Bennett

Kio Dettman

Micky Augustin

Cathie Raley

Submitted by Andy Sharp by Caree Severson

Shannon Bardole-Foley

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:

LIGHT

LIGHT! Another great theme for Year 8 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE.

Think about the following song lyric when you are contemplating your LIGHT image:

I saw the light, I saw the light
No more darkness, no more night
Now I’m so happy no sorrow in sight
Praise the Lord, I saw the light
-Hank Williams

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.

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 LIGHT in this place that is a little bit more than scraps of LIGHT next Monday.

Animals, Art, Black & White, Flowers, Formal Portrait, Jesse, Kalista, Photoshop, Sara, Saydie, State Fair

2010-08-13, 2010-08-14, & 2010-08-16

May 8, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

There aren’t many images in the folders 2010-08-13 and 2010-08-14 so I decided to combine them with the folder 2010-08-16 that contains many pictures from a trip I took to the Iowa State Fair.

There are also pictures of Jesse and two of his progeny and of a moonflower.

WEEK 32 - SILHOUETTE - 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:

RWPE #32 – SILHOUETTE

State Fair Koan

PERSONAL PHOTO PROJECT OF THE WEEK #38

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

Art, Jay, Lensbaby, Naima, Nature

More of that Velvet 85

May 7, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

Here is another small collection of some of the first images I took with the Lensbaby Velvet 85 back in January:

I’m still going to go into some detail about what makes the Lensbaby Velvet 85 such a special unique lens at some point. Just not today.

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

FACE

A FACE image is pretty simple. It is merely a picture where a FACE is a major compositional element. Everybody has access to a FACE. Almost everybody either has a FACE or knows somebody that has a FACE. But not just humans have a FACE. Animals have a FACE. Clocks have a FACE. Even cliffs have a FACE.

Think about the following quote when you are contemplating your FACE image:

Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face.
-Victor Hugo

Happy photo harvesting!

Equipment, Macro, Naima, Nature, Still Life

Sigma 105mm f/2.8 DG DN Macro Art Lens

May 6, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

The third new lens I purchased at the beginning of the year was a Sigma 105mm f/2.8 DG DN Macro Art Lens. I had a 50mm macro lens, but I needed a longer macro lens.

Here are the first pictures I took with it:

I might go into some technical details about the lens at some point in the future, we’ll see.

Equipment, Naima

Tamron 17-28 f/2.8 Di III RXD Lens

May 5, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

At the moment of the publishing of this journal entry, my Covid vaccine will be fully marinated. It will have been two weeks since my second shot. While life won’t return to normal exactly, I look forward to at least, maybe eating in a restaurant, or maybe having a movie night without masks, when the rest of my Movie Night friends have their vaccines fully marinated. It feels pretty great!

After I purchased the Velvet 85 for my Christmas present to myself, I also decided to purchase a wide angle zoom lens in January. I ended up purchasing two more lenses actually, but the wide angle zoom lens was the first.

I purchased the Tamron 17-28 f/2.8 Di III RXD Lens. I’m not going to get into any technical details of the lens, I’m just going to share the first set of pictures I took with it.

I might into the technical aspects of this lens at some point. Just not quite yet.

Equipment, Lensbaby, Naima, Nature, Still Life

Lensbaby Velvet 85mm f/1.8

May 4, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett 3 Comments

I should point out that I messed up the coding in yesterday’s post. You should go to that post again to see the corrections in the code that allow you to see Kim’s and Shannon’s submissions.

My Christmas present to my self was a Lensbaby Velvet 85mm f/1.8 lens. I was going to do a whole thing on it, but I have owned if for going on 5 months now and I think it is just time to share the first few pictures I took with it.

Rather than going into any of those technical details, here is a description from the Lensbaby website:

A manual focus portrait lens from Lensbaby that’s dreamy and delicate — or tack sharp and subtly vintage at 85mm.

Create soulful portraits with our Velvet 85 art lens. Compose impressionistic masterpieces with a velvety glow at bright apertures, straight out of camera. Use darker apertures to bypass glow and make images with a crisp, film-like aesthetic.

Building on the strengths of our bestselling Velvet 56 lens, Velvet 85 combines lustrous skin tones with the added compression and buttery smooth bokeh found in the best 85mm portrait lenses. Use its macro capabilities to capture significant details with new life.

The Velvet 85 design features a solid heft and smooth, dampened manual focus.

Here are the first few pictures I took with it:

I actually have two other lenses I purchased around the same time. Those lenses are more practical, but I’ll discuss them at some point in the future.