Upde Designs

Yesterday we met our good friends Steve and Becki in Galena for a photo shoot, shopping, and lunch.  Mostly I was the one doing the photo shoot and the lunch.  I left the shopping up to everyone else.

We try to get together once a quarter at a different place to do a photo outing.  As we were winding up our stroll through Galena I asked my friend Becki how many images she had taken and she said one.  🙂  I shot 126.

There is a lot to shoot on the streets of Galena.  Just the architecture alone is a whole memory card full of interesting images.  Additionally there are all the colorful displays in the store windows and on the sidewalk in front of some of the shops.

One lady who was working in one of the stores asked me what my favorite thing to shoot was.  I had to think a moment because I love all kinds of photography.   I guess my very favorite (and yet I find it the hardest) is people.

For example the streets of Galena are filled with lots of interesting looking people yet I am hesitant to capture their environmental image because I do not want to be intrusive.  Jay Maisel, arguably one of the best and most famous street photographers in the world, has made a wonderful living just taking candid “intrusive” shots of people on streets around the world.

He says, “I’m not out to ruin anyone’s day, but I am out to create art.”

I’ve taken two of his on-line lessons but still cannot summon up the intestinal fortitude to pursue that type of photography.  Perhaps someday.

We had a wonderful lunch at Benjamin’s Restaurant.  If you have not eaten there and find yourself in Galena at mealtime I can highly recommend it.  I had the gourmet ham sandwich with 4 kinds of cheese on Texas toast.  A real artery clogger but WOW it was amazingly good with home fries.

We decided to drive out to the airport to see if the Romney rally was still in progress.  By the line of cars coming the other way we figured it was over.  We pulled in any way to see if we could get an image of the Romney plane and I got several of the takeoff.

That’s it for today.  Enjoy your Sunday.  I have several more shots from Galena to share with you tomorrow if you have interest.  Thanks for stopping by and be careful.