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

I was on the way back to my office in Maquoketa from visiting our bank in Cascade when I spotted these canoes by the river.  The vibrant colors really caught my eye.  So like any self-respecting photographer I made a U-turn in the middle of the road and went back.

I was standing there taking some  images and didn’t notice this Gentleman walking up behind me.  I turned around and he was right there.  He thought I was there to take pictures of the accident scene from a couple of days earlier.

When I told him what I was doing he told me that this is actually his advertising board sign.  He said he used to have a sign there that didn’t get much notice but one day he put these colorful canoes by the river and people started coming by.

He said that today (Saturday) is the first day he will be open for the season.  He didn’t expect much business because it was going to be kind of chilly but he hoped next weekend would be better.  Very nice man and I enjoyed chatting with him.

Nikon D700 | Nikon 70 - 200 mm lens | ISO 200 1/500 sec @ f9

I didn’t find anything worthy of taking a picture yesterday so I’ll show you a couple more images from the Duck Pond.  I told you that my friend Adreas would identify these ducks.  He says they are Lesser Scaups, a very common duck in this area.  Andreas loves Nature and has a project of capturing images of as many species as he can.

Nikon D700 | Nikon 70 - 200 mm lens | ISO 200 1/500 sec @ f9

Finally for today a shot of a pair of Geese surveying the land.  I liked the way they framed up with water at the top of the image and bottom of the image with them and the land in the middle.

I don’t know how an image critic would rate it but I like it so that’s really all that matters. 🙂  Anyway hope to get out some this weekend.  I have to put some finishing touches on the web site I’ve been working on.    If you want to see the web site you can click here. Have a great weekend.  Thanks for stopping by and be careful.

Well let me start of by saying that I don’t particularly like any of the images I’m showing you today.  They were all done in HDR and once I got them into Lightroom 3 I realized that I had forgotten one important step in the HDR process.  Of course the last HDR I did was in December so that’s a long time for my little mind to remember something.

Above is the HDR image of the Star Brewery.  I had taken a picture of this entryway  back on October 10, 2010.  I had hand-held my camera and shot at a pretty low shutter speed.  I’ll let you decide for yourself which one is better.

This is the non HDR image that was taken without a tripod or flash.  Actually as I look at it there is a fair amount of detail that shows up in this one that is not as good in the HDR image.  I don’t know, like I said I don’t like any of the images I’m posting today.

This one of the display cases in the entryway at the Brewery.  It has a lot of interesting information about the brewery and about beer in general.

Finally this is the last image I took in the entryway.  I just didn’t have my camera set up properly and didn’t take enough time to double-check everything.  Very disappointing because I had thought about doing this shoot at the Brewery ever since last October.

Sorry for the crappy images.  I spent a lot of time processing these guys but they just are not what I was expecting.  The good news is that I will try again. 🙂

Have a great Friday and weekend.  Thanks for stopping by and as always be careful.