Hitting up the 2018 backlog. Here is a collection of pictures I took on May 5 on a trip to Dickcissel Park with Naima:
There are plenty of other pictures of Naima in the 2018 backlog. Plenty more!
One of the goals of 2019 is to bring back the SELFIE PROJECT. So far I am 8 for 8, including Day 0.
I’ll share what I consider the best of the SELFIE PROJECT monthly. I’ll share the pictures daily on Instagram.
Here are the first 8 pictures.
I haven’t decided yet if I will include other people in the SELFIE PROJECT or if all the pictures will be just me flying solo. I guess we’ll see.
Last week Jesse and I hopped in a rental car and headed to San Antonio to watch the Iowa State Cyclones play against the Washington State Cougars and the worst refereeing crew from the Big Ten in the Alamo Bowl.
While the game didn’t turn out the way that we had hoped, it was still an amazing trip full of precious moments. Even though, we willfully drove by the Precious Moments Museum and did not stop.
Here are some pictures from the trip I took with my trusty Pixel 2:
I will have more commentary on these photos in upcoming posts.
Yes Virginia, there was a Photography 139 Calendar this year. However, I didn’t sell them this year. I just made a small run and gave them out to a very few small group of select people.
Here are the pictures from the 2019 Photography 139 Calendar:
The front cover is a picture of William McAlpine peering through the hole in a brick. It was taken in the backyard of the Photography 139 Studio. It was taken for the FRAMED theme of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE.
This photo was entered into the 2018 Iowa State Fair Photography Salon. It was accepted for display.
Willy is the first person to appear in a Photography 139 Calendar since the 2012 Calendar featured a final rendition of THE 9 EMOTIONS PROJECT that included images of AmyJunck-Wallendal, William McAlpine, Derrick Gorshe, Shannon Bardole, Jesse Howard, Jennifer Gorshe, Sara Junck, Jill Gorshe, and Jay Janson.
This image was entered in the 2018 Iowa State Fair Photography Salon. It was selected for display.
Unfortunately, the hibiscus did not survive the winter and did not return to the Photography 139 Flower Garden in 2018.
While this macro photo might appear to be one image, it is actually the product of a technique called focus stacking. This image is actually 7 images with different focus ranges stacked one on top of the other.
This photo was nominated for the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest, but it lost the popular vote and was not entered.
This image was taken for THE PHOTO JOURNAL PROJECT. The theme of the image was to go some place “touristy” and take a “non-touristy” picture.
The picture of Mary holding a crucified Jesus was selected for April to coincide with the celebration of Easter.
This image was entered in the Photoshop category of the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest. It won 1st Place.
I took this photo on a trip there with Bethany, Dae Hee, and Nora.
The image is HDR toned and is used as the base image for a Small World image.
The image was originally taken in color and was transformed into black and white in post production.
This macro image was taken while experimenting with a new set of extension tubes.
This image was nominated for the flower category for the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest, but was not entered.
The image was taken when I was able to sneak away during a break in the action of Baby Got Rack’s competitive barbecue competition.
The image was HDR toned in post-production.
This image was voted to be entered in the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest in the Nature Category.
It was nominated for the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest in the Nature Category, but it was not entered.
The image was color processed through the Color Efex Pro 4 plugin during post production.
The image was nominated for the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest in the Hidden Treasures of Boone County category, but was not entered.
+++++++
There are a few calendars to handout, but for the most part delivery has finished. Almost on time this year.
Happy New Year to people who celebrate such things.
I like to look at some meaningless statistics every 250 posts and I also look at fairly meaningless year end statistics.
Just so happens that I get to combine them today!!
Here is both a year in review and a celebration that I have made it to 3252 blog posts. I was on the Alamo Bowl Road Trip visiting submarines, cults, and reality television stars when post #3250 came around, so I hope you can excuse the tardiness.
The first thing I want to look at are the most popular CATEGORIES in the history of “An Artist’s Notebook”.
Top 10 Journal Entry Categories
1. Portrait – 527
2. Weekly Photo Challenge – 504
3. Flowers – 497
4. Animals – 405
5. Jesse – 361
6. Photography – 355
7. Shannon – 320
8. Teresa – 296
9. Black & White – 291
10. Carla – 280
Top 10 People Categories
1. Jesse – 361
2. Shannon – 320
3. Teresa – 296
4. Carla – 280
5. Jay – 279
6. Mom – 277
7. Derrick – 256
8. Willy – 227
9. Vest – 221
10. Jen – 209
Top 10 Not-People Categories
1. Portrait – 527
2. Weekly Photo Challenge – 504
3. Flowers – 497
4. Animals – 405
5. Photography – 355
6. Black & White – 291
7. Road Trip – 262
8. Personal Photo Project – 261
9. Life – 234
10. Nature – 215
“Photography” and “Life” are general categories that I have been working on eliminating as I go back and restore historical “An Artist’s Notebook” entries to their original glory. Hopefully they will have both dropped off the Top 10 Lists by journal entry #3500.
If you are wondering how to become a Top 10 person on this list. The easiest way is to submit to the Weekly Photo Challenge. After that, the best way is to volunteer to model and photo assist for photography projects. Then after that, I would suggest going on road trips with me or attending Iowa State athletic events with me or going on road trips to Iowa State athletic events with me.
The people that are right outside of the Top 10 are:: Sara, Kim, Dawn, Becky, and Nader.
If you are looking for a goal for 2019, you could do worse than trying to crack the Photography 139 Top Ten People Category List. You obviously could do way, way, way, way, way, way, way better too.
Now we will turn out eye towards 2018.
Top 10 Most Popular Photography 139 Galleries of 2018 by Views
1. 9 EMOTIONS PROJECT – 48,722
2. WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE YEAR 5 – 37,614
3. WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE YEAR 5 – ALTERNATES – 33,622
4. 2008 – JANUARY – JUNE – 26,032
5. SELFIE PROJECT – 2017 – 23,141
6. HOUSTON MISSION TRIP – 2018 – 22,046
7. SOUTH DAKOTA TRIP – 2017 – 21,868
8. BOONE COUNTY FAIR CONTEST NOMINEES – 2018 – 17,211
9. SAYDIE HOWARD – CLASS OF 2017 – 14,808
10. IOWA STATE CYCLONES FOOTBALL – 2018
The 10 Most Popular Photography 139 Images by Views
On the Instagram, these were my 9 Most Popular Photos based on Likes:
My theme for my 2018 Instagram posts was Black & White. My theme for 2019 will be HDR Toning. Also, I will be bringing back THE SELFIE PROJECT to Instagram in 2019.
You can follow me on Instagram here:
I entered 3 photo contests with the following results:
Purple Ribbon – Boone County Fair
Blue Ribbon – Boone County Fair
Blue Ribbon – Boone County Fair
Blue Ribbon – Boone County Fair
Selected for Display – Iowa State Fair
Not Selected for Display – Iowa State Fair
Selected for Display – Iowa State Fair
Not Selected for Display – Iowa State Fair
1st Place Photoshop – Pufferbilly Days
1st Place Photojournalism – Pufferbilly Days
3rd Place Hidden Treasures of Boone County – Pufferbilly Days
Last note:
My goal for 2019 is the same as it was in 2018:
I’m gonna step my game up and get what is coming to me.
Good luck in 2019 everybody!
One of the photo projects I worked on in early 2018 was grabbing miscellaneous pictures for the Boone First United Methodist Church Directory.
The person in charge of putting the directory together wanted some pictures of the Bell Choir and some pictures of Doug sermonizing. That is why these pictures below exist:
After church I went to the Sharp farm. I believe to take a picture of an unpictured outhouse.
As 2019 comes barreling down upon us like a runaway freight train with a faulty dead man’s switch, I realize I probably have quite a bit of 2018 back log to get through.
Back in March I went out to Ledges to watch Willy finish the Ledges leg of the Iowa Trail Run.
One thing I can remember about that morning is that it was EXTREMELY cold. It wasn’t a lot of fun waiting for him getting to the finish line.
Here are a few pictures:
The guy in the second picture won Willy’s race. I can’t remember where Willy placed, but I think it was in the Top 5.
Willy snuck up on me. I wan’t expecting him to wear such subdued colors, so I unfortunately didn’t get a picture of him crossing the finish line.
I was hoping that Willy would run the whole series, because some of the races had some amazing shirts. But pleads fell on deaf ears and I was unable to live my running life vicariously through Willy.
A couple Sundays back the Boone First United Methodist Church had our annual Christmas Pageant.
Before the Christmas Pageant was a Soup Supper that was a fundraiser for the Youth Group’s Mission Trip to Rapid City next June.
Here are some pictures from the night:
Worried you didn’t get a chance to help support the Rapid City Mission Trip? Don’t worry. There are at least 2 more fundraisers for you to support.
Stay tuned for more information.