Nikon D700 | Nikon 24 - 70 mm lens | ISO 200 1/500 sec @f4.0

Torque Fest is in Maquoketa this day (Saturday) and there are suppose to be several hundred vehicles on display. My friend Steve Kent and I went down to the fair grounds on our lunch hour to check out all the neat cars.

If you like the sound of the old muscle cars and the loud throaty rumble of big engines then you’ll enjoy this.  There are cars (and people) of all descriptions on display and occasionally driving around. There are of course the ubiquitous vendors selling everything to do with vehicles, motorcycles, and various parts.

Nikon D700 | Nikon 24 - 70 mm lens | ISO 200 1/500 sec @f4.0

I’m not a huge fan of this type of event but I must admit I saw a lot of mouth-watering vehicles that I’d like  to drive.  Did I mention there are motorcycles?  Well there are including an old Harley Davidson Police three-wheeler that looks like it has seen a lot of duty, complete with the traffic ticket holder on the handlebars.

Nikon D700 | Nikon 24 - 70 mm lens | ISO 400 1/20 sec @f2.8

The event costs $5 per person and parking is free.  You might have to walk a ways because they are expecting 8,000 or more people (depending on the weather.)  If you like vintage cars, souped up hot rods, motorcycles and just weird stuff then you should drive the 30 miles to Maquoketa and head for the fair grounds.  I don’t think you will be disappointed.

Well that’s it for today.  Thank you for stopping by.  I hope you have an enjoyable weekend and be careful.  By the way my little girl turns 26 today 🙂

Nikon D300S | Nikon 18 - 200 mm lens | ISO 200 1/60 sec @f6.3

Today I had hoped for some newer images but the weather just is not cooperating.  So a couple more images from Easter Sunday.  Above is an image I made of Angie and Josh.  Grandma had purchased this super soft bear (before he was born) for Josh and just remembered to give it to him.    To tell the truth I think he is way more interested in his thumb than the bear.  Plus you always have your thumb with you. 🙂

Nikon D300S | Nikon 18 - 200 mm lens | ISO 200 1/400 sec @f6.3

Finally this image of Ben and Angie walking on the River Walk.  I was looking out over the river and wasn’t keeping up with the group but I liked the composure of this image so I took a series of them walking away.

I processed it first in color and it was okay but it felt like a black and white image to me and I like it better this way.  Short post again today as I’m (wait for it) late as usual.

Thanks for stopping by.  Be careful.

Nikon D300S | Nikon 18 - 200 mm lens | ISO 3200 1/60 sec @3f3.5

Some more of Easter Sunday.  Jeanne sings in the Family Choir at St. Luke’s.  This is a beautiful old church with wonderful colors and I did a series of HDR images of it several months ago.  You can see those if you are interested on my photography website by clicking the upde.net link on the right side of this blog.

I didn’t have a tripod with me and this is not the lens to shoot in low light because it only stops down to f3.5.  I bumped the ISO up to the camera’s maximum of 3200 (which in all honesty was a little too high.)  I had a fair amount of noise in the image so once I removed that it made the image a little soft.  I was experimenting and on the little LCD screen it looked okay.

Nikon D300S | Nikon 18 - 200 mm lens | ISO 1/60 sec @f6.5

Finally (because as usual I’m running late) an image of Jeanne holding Joshua.  I have posted pictures of everyone else holding Josh with the exception of Jeanne and Ben.   I will post more tomorrow because the weather doesn’t look like it is going to cooperate today either for shooting images.

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a great day and be careful.

Nikon D300S | Nikon 18 - 200 mm lens | ISO 200 1/800 sec @f6.3

Today I thought I would show you the images from the River Walk we took after our brunch at the Star Brewery.   This is not a particularly good image but I made it because it was the only vessel we saw on the river while we were there.  The current was very fast and there was a lot of debris in the water.  In fact we all remarked how we didn’t expect to see any activity on the river.

Nikon D300S | Nikon 18 - 200 mm lens | ISO 200 1/1000 sec @f6.3

For those of you who have been to the River Walk in the last few years will recognize this Gazebo, which is at the beginning of the River Walk by the Welcome Center.

It was amazing to see it actually under water.  The last time I was at the river a couple of weeks ago I would not have believed the water would get that high.

Nikon D300S | Nikon 18 - 200 mm lens | ISO 200 1/800 sec @f6.3

This a wide-angle view of the Julian Dubuque Bridge.  You can get a perspective of just how much water is now in the Mighty Mississippi.

Nikon D300S | Nikon 18 - 200 mm lens | ISO 200 1/600 sec @f6.3

Finally as we were walking to the end of the River Walk I was going to take a picture of the kids looking at the River.  Angie of course being brought up with a camera pointed at her all the time gave me a great pose.  Ben is learning 🙂

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you have a great day and be careful.

Nikon D300S | Nikon 18 - 200 mm lens | SB 800 SL | ISO 200 1/60 sec @f6.3

Wonderful Easter this year.  Mark came back for Easter.  He had to work late at Montage so he didn’t get home until 3:00 am.  But he was up for early service and we enjoyed the morning service.  Jeanne sang in the “Family Choir.”

After the service we drove down to the Lock & Dam to see what the river was doing.  It is the first time I have ever seen the water above the flood gates.  After that we met Angie, Ben, and Joshua at the Star Restaurant for a magnificent brunch.

Nikon D300S | Nikon 18 - 200 mm lens | SB 800 SL | ISO 200 1/60 sec @f6.3

Way too much food.  OMG I’m not sure I will ever eat again.  Okay well I am sure that I will but as of yesterday No!  After brunch we took a walk on the River Walk and was amazed to see how high the river actually was.  I’ll show those images tomorrow.

Nikon D300S | Nikon 18 - 200 mm lens | SB 800 SL | ISO 200 1/60 sec @ f6.3

Ben’s parents, Art and Paula Roling graciously invited us to dinner at their beautiful new home.  Art and Paula are the consummate hosts.  Their home is specious and wonderfully appointed.  The meal was exquisite and the conversation stimulating and thoughtful.  In short it was an absolutely perfect ending to a wonderful day.

One of the most enjoyable Easters I can remember.  The most wonderful day of the year of course as a Christian we celebrate our Savior’s triumph over death and the forgiveness of our sins.

Thanks for stopping by.  More images of the river tomorrow and (maybe) some more images of Joshua.  Be careful

First let me apologize for the quality (lack thereof) of these images.  I was on my way to one of our banks when I saw this tree out in the field.  There was a large bird sitting at the top of the tree, which as I went by the tree I determined was an Eagle.

I pulled off to the side of the road and carefully backed up as close as I thought I could get to the tree without spooking the Eagle.  The only camera I had set up was the D700 with a 70 – 200 mm lens.  Not exactly the lens needed to shoot Eagle images.  So I grabbed the camera and got off three shots when my friend the Eagle decided to take to wing.

Without so much of a pardon me, off he flew as far away from me as he could get.  So instead of some great shots of an Eagle I got junk.  But it’s my junk and it’s all I have to post today so this is as good as it gets for today.

Thank you for stopping by.  I will have better images for you next week.  Happy Easter and be careful.

Nikon D300S | Nikon 18 - 200 mm | SB 800 Flash | ISO 200 1/60 sec @ f4.5

Good Day.  I’ve been in Des Moines since Monday attending the Iowa Bankers Human Resource Conference.  I try to make this at least every other year and this was the time for me to attend.  I sincerely enjoy learning new things and in the HR field things are changing so rapidly it is difficult to know who is on first.

Nikon D300S | Nikon 18 - 200 mm | SB 800 Flash | ISO 200 1/60 sec @ f4.5

The images today will finish up my Sunday shoot at Angie and Ben’s home.  I was hoping to take some pictures around the Des Moines area to get a different perspective but the weather was so lousy it took all desire to get out and shoot away.  It rained all day Monday and Tuesday here.

Nikon D300S | Nikon 18 - 200 mm | SB 800 Flash | ISO 200 1/60 sec @ f4.5

So I’m looking forward to getting home late this afternoon.  I talked to some folks from western Iowa yesterday and they said they almost turned around on the way in because of the snow.  The main conference didn’t start until Tuesday but there was an insurance and employee benefit program on Monday that I attended.

So I hope you have a happy hump day.  Stay warm, spring is really just around the corner.  I remember one April 30^th Angie had some friends on a sleep over to celebrate her birthday and it snowed 6 – 8 inches that Friday night.  I had played 3 – 4 games of golf already that year so it was very depressing to not be able to play that Saturday morning and be home with a house full of young energetic school girls. 🙂  I think I stayed in my man cave the whole day.

Thanks for stopping by.  Be careful.

Nikon D300S | Nikon 18 - 200 mm lens | ISO 200 1/250 sec @ f5.6

Happy Monday.   I’ve been having some Cable issues again.  Yesterday our speed dropped from a constant 12.0 Mbps (since the new equipment was installed) to 1.01 Mbps.   As you may know, at 1.01 Mbps the speed is as slow as the old dial up.  After calling the Cable Company it will be the weekend before they can get anyone here. 😦

Late yesterday afternoon we stopped by Angie and Ben’s for a quick visit with them and Josh.  The flower above is in the front yard of their house.  I didn’t have the proper macro lens to take a good close up but I was pleased with the shot.

Nikon D300S | Nikon 18 - 200 mm lens | Nikon SB 800 |ISO 200 1/60sec @ f5.6

When we arrived at their home Ben was at the Hospital and Josh has just got up from a nap so he was still a little disoriented.  It took him a little while to warm up to us again but he did and I had the pleasure of giving him his afternoon bottle.

We only stayed about 45 minutes as we just wanted to say hi and grab a couple of images of the young man and then let them enjoy their personal time.

Nikon D300S | Nikon 18 - 200 mm lens | Nikon SB 800 |ISO 200 1/60sec @ f5.6

As we made it halfway up their street we met Ben returning from the Hospital.  We were sorry that we missed him.  I said to Jeanne (which she did not appreciate by the way) “Now that’s a sight you want to see as you’re coming home from work, your in-laws leaving.”   I thought it was funny, she did not.

I hope you have a great and productive week.  Thanks for stopping by and be careful.

Nikon D300S | Nikon 18 - 200 mm lens | ISO 200 1/1600 sec @ f4.5

Not so much thoughts as just some images of the week that didn’t make the first cut.  Not that I didn’t like them.  It was just that there were other images I wanted to work with and present first.

I saw this pond on the South side of the road on the way back to the office from Cedar Rapids.  Just the way the pond fit into the lay of the land really intrigued me so I did my usual U-turn and headed back.  What also made this scene special was there were some horses just to the right of the pond as you see it here.

Nikon D300S | Nikon 18 - 200 mm lens | ISO 200 1/1600 sec @ f4.5

As I change perspective and shot the pond from different angles so I could incorporate the horses it really made a nice farm scene.   I didn’t seen anything unusual in my view finder so I took about 8 – 10 images of the pond in the fore ground with the horses (which were actually pretty close by the pond.)

The problem was when I was processing the images and did a close inspection of the horses that I noticed they have really been neglected.  One of them had what looked like sever sores on his face, their coats were mangled and tangled.  They just looked like they hadn’t been taken care of for months.  So I deleted all the horse pictures so I would have to look at them.  Very sad.

Nikon D300S | Nikon 18 - 200 mm lens | ISO 200 1/2500 sec @ f4.5

Finally this little shed, which is located on the same property as the barn.  I was walking back to the car after making 70 images of the barn and saw this little guy with this tree behind it against the brilliant blue sky and snapped this one image.  I really liked it so it made the post. 🙂

Enjoy your weekend.  Stay warm and dry and be careful.  Oh and thanks for stopping by.

Nikon D300S | Nikon 18 - 200 mm lens | ISO 200 1/400 sec @f4.5

Good Day and Happy Friday.  Today I continue with the images I made of the old barn on highway 64 West of Wyoming, Iowa.  I decided, because of the age of the structure and the deterioration of the wood, that these images would lend themselves to a black and white rendering.

Concerning the above image, I wonder when that hinge decided to give up and let go, letting the bottom part of the door fall to the ground.  One day it was holding its own and the next day not.  Was it a strong wind that blew it open and shut repeatedly, which weakened the nails holding the hinge until it could no longer maintain its grip?

Nikon D300S | Nikon 18 - 200 mm lens | ISO 200 1/400 sec @f4.5

This old guy (not withstanding a major wind storm) will probably keep on standing for years to come.  As I was walking around the barn (which is totally abandoned now) I thought about  how similar this structure is to our own lives.

It must have been a prideful day when the owner of this barn saw the last swipe of paint go on the side of the barn.  How useful and beneficial this barn must have been at one time.

Nikon D300S | Nikon 18 - 200 mm lens | ISO 200 1/400 sec @f4.5

Now it has reached the end of its useful period.  It does not fall, not yet anyway.  It still musters some pride and stands tall although with a slight list to the port side.

Its main door lies in pieces on the ground and many of its lesser doors are broken and unhinged.  There are volunteer trees growing around and through the old building.  Its useful period has passed.  I didn’t see anything inside the structure not even some old machinery.    Tear it down?  I’ve heard people say that there are too many memories involved with a particular building to just destroy an old building they own, perhaps that is why this old guy is still standing.

I’m feeling old. Anyway that’s it for today.  Hope you have a great weekend. Thanks for stopping by and be careful.