Happy Saturday.  I don’t normally blog on Saturday as it is a day I like to sleep in.  But I woke up this morning at 4:00 a.m. and couldn’t sleep so I decided to go for an early morning walk.  Good time of the day for me anyway as it is the time my mind is the clearest and most focused.  From there on it is a down hill slide.  🙂

So I got back to the house and since I had some endorphins working for me I felt I had two options.  I could clean my office or write a blog post.  You can readily see which job got done.

This image is of a wonderful young family I had the good fortune to be able to shoot yesterday after work.  They were fun to work with and it’s obvious these kids love their Dad.  The conditions couldn’t have been much worse.  Too early for the soft light and very windy.  I did use a small light stand but was always worried that it would blow over.  I could have used an assistant to hold a diffuser.  That would have saved a dozen shots that were not keepers.  But having lamented about all that I still was lucky enough to come away with a half-dozen keepers.

Scott Kelby says that if you can end up with a hand full or even one good shot you can feel good about the shoot.  I think they will be pleased with what I have.  Anyway I wanted to share this image with you.  It was a fun experience working with them.  I’d like do to a lot more of that now.

Thanks for spending a bit of your Saturday looking at the blog.  Hope you have a wonderful weekend and be careful.

Happy Friday.  Another chapter in life has arrived for me.  Yesterday I received my hearing aids from the Clinic.  For some like me it is another crack in the persona of who you think you are.  I have resisted for several years and know that I have missed a lot of conversations, agreed to some things I didn’t even know that I had agreed to and frustrated a number of friends and acquaintances.  I’ve also been on the receiving end of jokes,  pranks, and teasing by others.  In the final decision process I did it mainly for the people I serve and care about.

Jeanne, in all the thousands of times she has had to repeat herself never once showed one slight hint of frustration with me.  She would simply repeat what she said with a smile on her face.  But then that is the special gift that Jeanne is.  I remember the frustration I had with my Father who also had a hearing loss and would ask for a repeat of almost everything.  Lesson learned = age is the stalker of us all and with it comes the loss of certain functions.  Most of us will experience hearing degradation as we get older and then will be faced with the decision I was.

In my work people share very confidential information with me and I’m honored that they do.  But when they do that it is normal to lower their voice.  In those instances I could see their lips moving but could only hear the 10,000 chirping crickets in my ears from the tinnitus and then would have to say “I can’t hear you.”  For the last several years I have gone to an ear specialist who has been matter of fact and not very empathic about my tinnitus and hearing loss.  I hadn’t been to him in over 5 years and this time he put his hand on my shoulder and informed me that he too now had tinnitus.  He said that it is a part of aging as well as from a series of loud noises.

So yesterday I head things I have not heard in years.  I actually had to tell a couple of people they didn’t have to talk so loud.  🙂  I have to go back for an adjustment this morning because there are some things I don’t want to hear but for the most part I am committed to making them a part of my life.

Hope you enjoy your Friday and have something good happen to you.  Thanks for stopping by and be careful.

Yesterday was a day that made me wish I was a full-time photographer.  I won’t go into details, suffice it to say it was not a fun day.  For those of you who regularly follow this blog you will hopefully remember that I have a 365 project that I’ve been working on just 4 days short of a full year.  I intend to make a very long and tedious post on the last day about the love/hate relationship I have developed for the 365 project.  I will pontificate on said subject this coming Sunday the 30th of June, which by the way is the 365th photograph for the 365 project.

Having said all that I, early in the beginning of the project, looked for future subjects that I could photograph, in case I got desperate for an image.  I reasoned that if I had a few of them lined up and were I to experience a creative block I could always take an image of them and that would keep the project going through the creativity drought.

The image above was one of my first safe guards.  I reasoned early on that this was the perfect image to fall back on if I needed it.  You have no idea how many times I stopped the car at this location to shoot this image only to say to myself I can find something else to shoot.  I don’t want to waste this ace in the hole now.

So last night after driving a total of 78 miles in search mental tranquility and of a worthy subject to photograph for the 361st image I found nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  I attributed it to my work frustration and perhaps that indeed was the cause of my blockage.  Anyway last night desperate for an image I finally cashed my ace in the hole.  The first image is after a fair amount of Photoshopping and the second image is as it came out of the camera.

I probably could have spent a lot more time on the first image but what point would that serve.  It would be a complete deception and that is not what my photography is about.

So only 4 more days on my project and I can put it to bed.  I will write about it with mixed emotions because it has evoked some pretty strong emotions in me.  I was told by many friends not to start a project like this and they may have been right.  That discussion is for Sunday.

Enjoy your day.  Thanks for stopping by and be careful.

A short post today with only one image as I am as usual running very late.  We had tornado warnings yesterday in Maquoketa and everyone in our building had to go to the basement for shelter during the dangerous period.  Guess what went with me.  That’s right, my beloved photography equipment.  I don’t want to go through the enormous hassle of trying to replace all that equipment.  Much easier to just carry it down the stairs.  🙂

I like this image of the Blue Heron just about to land.  They stick their long legs straight out behind them as they fly and then on landing approach they drop them down.  Reminds me of the Concord.

I have picked up a couple of photo shoots over the last couple of days.  I think I will enjoy them as they are both environmental family shoots.   More on that later.

Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your wet Tuesday and be careful.

Happy Friday.  I had a stomach bug yesterday so instead of eating I took the D800 and the 80 – 400 mm lens out for a spin.  I went down by the duck pond but nothing was moving around that area.  So I drove over to the marsh on the other side of the highway.  I didn’t find any wildlife but I did find some pretty flowers.

I would not normally shoot flowers with the 80-400 but as the old adage goes you shoot with what you got.  I eventually did find a pair of geese but they were not interested in showing me their front side so I didn’t capture many images of them.  They kept their backs to me the entire time I was there.  🙂

The first image was shot at the Hurstville Kilns and the next two were at the marsh across the highway.  The last image in this post was also shot at the Hurstville Kilns.  I wish now I would have gotten closer to the red flowers but my lunch hour was about over and I thought I should get back.

These flower shots won’t win any awards but I had fun shooting and processing them.  I’m pleased with them so I hope you enjoyed looking at them.  Have a wonderful Friday.  Thanks for checking on the blog and be careful.

I had a very interesting day yesterday.  I attended a meeting that was very different from what I am used to and it allowed me the opportunity to see another side of the organization I work for.  Since I am in the people business it is good for me to see the world that some of our staff work in so I can have a better understanding of the challenges they face.  I learned a lot yesterday.

As a side benefit of the meeting I was also able to take a tour of the Cinnamon Ridge Dairy Farm.  Click here to watch a 7 minute video  about  (there is a 17 second delay before the video runs) Cinnamon Ridge Dairy Farm and then you can finish reading about my experience.  The video was made before the new dairy automation system was installed so that is what I’m going to describe for you in this post.

The two images I was able to take yesterday are pretty bad.  I had to shoot through dirty windows and the second image was taken at an angle so there is a lot of background clutter in the image.  I apologize for the lack of quality, but the images will help you understand the description I talking about.  John Maxwell is the driving force behind Cinnamon Ridge Dairy Farm and in the brief time I spent with him it was easy to discern that he is a remarkable man with a clear vision of what needs to be done.  He is also a man of principle and has a soft heart.  I was impressed.

Since the video was made John converted his dairy operation to complete automation and robotics.  The cows live in a controlled environment that is regulated by computers and robotics.  They have little human intervention and usually that is only if they are sick or in need of some type of help.  Otherwise everything is maintained by the system.  The climate, sanitation, food, water, and of course milking is all done by the computers.

In the first image you see the main area where the cows live.  The far wall has a continuous supply of roughage mixed with nutrients and proteins that cows can eat anytime they desire.  There is always fresh water available to them as well as a mechanical scratching (message) robot anytime they want it.  I watched several cows getting a face rub or a back message and they certainly seemed to enjoy it.

You can also see in the first image large stalls with powdery sand.  Those are for the cows to relax in while they are producing milk.  Since cows are creatures of habit, at the (normally) proper time the cow will make its way to the milking stall to receive a tasty helping of “robotics pellets” while she is being milked.  The computer will allow the cow to be milked 4 times in a 24 hour period.  While I was there a few cows (new to the heard) would enter the chamber to get more of the tasty robotic pellets and the computer would not feed them because they were not ready to be milked.  The door opens in front and closes in back and then a mild buzz is given the cow after several seconds if she doesn’t leave on her own.

The milking process is completely automated.  The robot will wash the teats, automatically hook up the milking cups and milk the cow while she eats her robotics.  Once the milking is done the robot sprays the teats with a treatment and the cow then goes back into the community to create more milk.  this process continues 24/7.

Robots take care of the waste material on a continuous basis so the cows never have to walk through it.  The fly control is accomplished with fly predators (which I do not understand.)

At the end of the lane as you leave the farm is a little store that sells all the fresh products the farm produces.  It is all on the honor system and John said that over the years there may be a couple of dollars shortage but they are just as likely to have a few dollars over as well.  He has a strong belief in the character of people.

I could write for hours about my experience yesterday and the farm but as usual I’m out of time.  Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

I came across this beautiful flower yesterday and thought I’d like to capture an image of it.  There was a light breeze so the flower was constantly moving.  I tried it with my normal lens but didn’t get satisfactory results so I used the Nikon 105 mm macro f2.8 lens and I liked the results much better.  To take a “perfect” shot would have required setting up the tripod and using a gobo to block the wind.  That’s way too much work for me.

Anyway I think these two images are a good example of the depth of field issues that come from using a macro lens with a low f-stop.  The first image I chose to have the pestles in focus and in the second image I went for the leaves to be in focus.  Basically the same camera position, same f-stop just a different focus point.  My personal preference is the second image.  🙂

I’m running late for an early meeting so a short post.  Hope you enjoy your day.  Thanks for stopping by and be careful.

Good Day and Happy Tuesday.  Two completely unrelated wildlife images for you today.  They have nothing to do with each other or anything else for that matter.  They were just sitting there on my hard drive and I liked they way they looked.  🙂

After our Father’s Day brunch we walked down to the marina and there were two ducks swimming around.  The male duck continued swimming but this female decided she wanted some flowers so she flew up, landed in this planter and proceeded to snuggle herself in.  I had never seen anything like that so it was worthy of an image.

I continue to be fascinated by the Red Winged Black Bird and their aggressive nature.  I was lucky enough to catch this close up of one as he flew back from a fight with a sparrow.  I don’t know if I’m seeing them all the time because I’m paying attention to them or if there are just so many of them, but I see them everywhere.  I’m not saying I admire their aggressive behavior but I do admire their courage.  It is said that a brave man dies only once but a coward dies a thousand deaths.

Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your day and be careful.