Happy Tuesday.  Looks like another nice day in the 70s.  I was looking back on my 365 project from last year and the temperature was in the 100 degree range for several days.  In fact I took a picture of the bank thermometer registering 102 degrees.  I really enjoy these cooler temperatures. 

I stopped at the Duck Pond on the way home last night to check on the Cygnets.  I was a little concerned because on my way to work I caught a glimpse of them and I could only see one.  The water at the Duck Pond is dropping again, which means they are soon going to be easy prey to predators.  My guess is the parents can do a pretty good job of protecting them.  The image above is a cropped shot just to get a better view of the children.  I tried to take the South end of the North bound swan out of the image but for some reason I couldn’t make it look right so after spending 15 minutes on it I decided to go with what I had.  🙂

I’m not sure if the Mother or Father was leading the parade but all of a sudden the lead swan stopped to grab something from the bottom and the little Cygnet crashed into her rear end.  There was a lot of confusion and then they finally got untangled and back in line.  I’ll keep you updated on their progress through the season.  Hope they make it. 

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

Happy Monday.  Hope you had an enjoyable weekend.  Yesterday Jeanne and I went to the River Walk.  We always see some interesting things there and there is always something to capture an image of.  We particularly wanted to see the old ships, Nïna and Pinta.  I could only get so close to them and then you had to pay.  Jeanne and I took a tour of the Nïna several years ago with the kids.  That was back in the days of film and I have many images of that tour.  So I wasn’t interested in the tour again.  Besides from where I would have to pay to shoot I would have been shooting directly into the setting sun.

So we hoofed it around the River Center and shot them from the other side.  Lots of clutter but I did manage to get some shots of the two tall ships.  While we were on that side of the harbor we discovered a train wheel bone yard.

Lots of discarded train wheels and axles for one reason or another.  Many of them had “bad” painted on the axle or wheel, still others were lined up just sitting in the sun gathering more rust.  Anyway they caught my eye and they looked interesting.  We spent several minutes looking at the collection of wheels.

We arrived at the river in time to see the Twilight pull in and dock.  There was a band playing at the gazebo.  Sue Hattel a friend of ours was playing her clarinet with the band.  I wanted to capture some images of them playing but they were in the shade of the gazebo and I would have had to make a bunch of adjustments to the camera so I opted for lazy and just enjoyed the music for a time.

I have some more shots I’ll show as the week unfolds.  Tech Specs ~ [ Nikon D4 | Nikon 80  – 400 AF-S ED VR Lens | ISO 100 1/160 sec @ f8 ] Enjoy your Monday.  Thanks for stopping by and be careful where you step.

Fun day yesterday as Angie brought the kids over for us to watch while she did a run.  We had a good time playing toys for awhile and then Joshua decided he wanted to go downstairs.  We do not have a big house but there is an extra room downstairs that we have no need for so we turned it into a playroom for our kids.  Most of their toys, forts, doll houses, etc. were kept in that room and they could play down there for hours.  It is now Josh’s favorite room.

He enjoys coloring and painting and Jeanne has some paints and brushes for him to paint with.  We couldn’t find the brushes at first so we colored and drew with (washable) markers.  I was able to find a brush, finally and he was delighted to be able to paint.

We bought Fisher Priced toys for our kids.  They were well made, safe, colorful, and reasonably priced.  They have stood the test of time.  None of them take batteries, and they do not have lights or sounds but they are fun to play with and they let your imagination run wild.  So after Josh was finished painting we got out the “little peoples” and played with them for a long time.  I can see his imagination growing.  After we were through playing he said to me, “We have to put these away now.”  Sure enough he went around the room and filled the three boxes with all the toys he’d been playing with.  My kids never did that.  🙂

So it was fun morning with our grand kids.  Gabby was smiling in her car seat when Angie stopped over.  I peeked in on her and she started to frown.  I pulled away and Angie moved in and the frown was gone.  I picked her up and it only took about 3 minutes before the tears started flowing.  We apparently have not bonded yet.  😦

Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your day, it looks like a great one weather wise.  Be careful.

I knew the war birds are supposed to be at the Dubuque airport tonight but I took a chance last night and stopped by the airport to see if by chance there were some early arrivals.   There were 6 or more of them sitting on the tarmac.  Two of them had their engines running so I hung around a while to see if they were going to do any formation flying.

When this twin-engine plane took off on the runway adjacent to the observation area I thought I might be in luck.  It was a beautiful evening with blue sky and lots of clouds.  The temperature was a reasonable 66 degrees it was perfect.

I was pretty happy to see two of the T28s heading for the runway but to my dismay they went all the way over to the far runway that runs North and South.  That is really too far away for a decent shot even with my 500 mm lens.  So they took off heading North and my hopes for a fly by quickly faded as they continued North until they were out of sight.  I was starting to pack up when two more of the planes started up.

They also took off North and did a big circle but simply came back and landed on the same runway.  I waited another 20 minutes but it was obvious there would be no more flights this evening.  So I did get a couple of shots of the war birds all be they some distance from me.

I have to do training in Cedar Rapids this evening so I won’t have a chance to check out the airport until Friday.  Hope you have a great day.  Thanks for stopping by and be careful (i.e. watch your step.)

On the way home last night I was looking for something to shoot.  Everything I see gives me the feeling, “I’ve been there done that.”   Jeanne and I are going on vacation one of these days and perhaps some new scenery will awaken my photography vision.  Actually I have a vision of fine art that I have wanted to shoot for over a year.

I have this image in my head that I want to recreate and I have found the perfect location.  Now all I need is a subject.  I know what I am looking for in a model and have even identified a couple of people who would fit the scene.  But trying to get someone to pose for that scene has proven to be the challenge.  The interesting thing is that the image I have in my head isn’t a shot of a person’s face.  In fact it is more of a mood than of a person but the person is critical to the success of the shot.

I’ll keep trying to find that person who will pose for an hour or so while I create the shot in my vision.   Most people (myself included) do not want their picture taken.  They are generally not happy about something with their looks.  We all have something minor or major we wold change about ourselves if we could.  That’s what Photoshop is all about.  🙂

I’ve looked at various photography websites for the last few weeks for inspiration.  Some amateur sites and many professional sites.  What I find is there are three basic categories that I’m drawn to.  Portraits and by that I don’t mean just head shots but images of people in environmental settings.  Landscapes of exotic places and composite images.  The composite images take great imagination and a lot of work but they are breath-taking to behold.  I kind of struggle with the imagination part.   I can look at a composite and WOW, yeah I could do that but to think it up on my own is a completely different thing.

So with all this inspiration what did I find to shoot yesterday but an abandoned farm wagon in a field of mowed hay.  By the time I got it processed I didn’t like it.  I just happened to shoot this image of my car from where I finished shooting the wagon so that’s what you get today.  😦

Thanks for stopping by.  I’m working on getting something of value for you to view when you make the click so hang with me.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Happy Monday.  I hope you had a great weekend.  I believe all weekends are good.  Some are just better than others.  Yesterday I decided to take a drive out to the Dubuque Regional Airport to see if any of the war birds were in town.  This is the time of year when they base in Dubuque to practice their formation flying in preparation for the big air show next week at Oshkosh.

So I got my camera and lens set up for what I anticipated would be proper configuration for the cloudy sky and then I decided to take my iPad along so I would have some entertainment while waiting for the planes.  As I was walking out of the house into the garage, I turned to shut the door behind me, (something I have done almost every day for the last 21 years.)

Today however my foot slipped off the step and I fell backwards from the top step.  I seem to happen in slow motion.  I had the D4 with the 80 – 400 mm lens in my right hand and with my left hand I grasped at various things to stop my fall all to no avail.   I crashed into my tool chest knocking it over and spilling everything and hit the concrete landing on my back.  The only thing I thought about all the way down was protecting that camera.  🙂

I cut a small gash on my right wrist, nothing too serious and a bandage took care of that.  My bottom was pretty sore and I was worried that I might have broken something but after a little walking around I determined I was okay.  So I got in the car (after picking up all the tools) and drove out to the airport.  Sad to say there were no war birds there.  One small corporate jet took off and a couple of birds flying around was all the activity I could come up with for an afternoon shoot.

I do love the intensity of the Brewers Blackbird’s eyes.  They look so serious and intense.

I finally decided to head for home (my bottom and my pride still a little sore.)  When I got home Jeanne was back from sitting with the grand kids and she said oh my God what did you do?  Come to find out the tool chest had not only cut my wrist it had also gouged my dearie.  Tore a big gash out of my shorts and under garment and took a pretty healthy swipe at my bottom.  With the blood and the tear, the shorts were history.  A little Neosporen and a big bandage and I’m fine.

It just goes to show how in the blink of an eye things can change.  I could have broken some bones, cracked my skull or worse smashed my beloved D4.  Thank God none of that happened and other than a couple of scrapes and bruises I’m good to go.

The above image is a little Killdeer.  They are pretty abundant around here.  I love their little brown eyes.

That’s it for today.  Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your day and be careful.  You never know when you’re going to miss a step and hurt something.

The big news from the Duck Pond is that there are now cygnets at the pond.  I had caught glimpses from time to time as I was passing but never really a clear enough look to distinguish them as cygnets from the many little coots that frequent the pond.  These photo clearly show there are indeed two new cygnets inhabiting the pond.

I must be the biggest pack rat of them all.  I spent from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. yesterday cleaning out my office.  I took out 4 large black garbage bags of stuff (all of which was hard to part with) and I will swear that I cannot tell one iota of difference.  Very sad to be this way.  🙂

Not much of a post today.  Just wanted to update you on the big news at the pond.  Hope to get out and shoot today.  Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your day and of course be careful.

Happy Saturday.  It took its sweet time getting here but now I hope you enjoy the day.  Angie, Ben and the kids stopped by for some burgers and Fincel Sweet Corn last night.  We had a wonderful meal and a fun time with the grand kids.  We all over ate and then it was time for baths and bed time.  Ah, the joys of being a grand parent.  Feed them, rev them up with play and then send them home.  🙂

For the photography followers of this blog I have some information that might be of interest.  Adobe (the makers of Photoshop and other creativity products) has made a transition to what they call the Creative Cloud.  Prior to this I would buy Photoshop (I started using it at version 7) use it for 18 months and then they would come out with a new version with new and better features.  Yes, there was a reduction in price if you owned a previous  version and you could pay the upgrade price but there was always this decision to be made, do I upgrade now or wait until the next release?

Trouble is there was usually enough new and exciting features that made upgrading almost a necessity (at least in my tiny mind.)  Well now with the Creative Cloud you pay a monthly subscription price ($10 per month for the first year and $19 a month after that.)  You still have the software on your computer but the difference is you get new features and updates as soon as they come out.  So I started this subscription two months ago and they have added two new features in those two months.

The latest addition is a filter called “camera shake.”  It can literally take a soft image and make it sharp.  Maybe not “tack sharp” but really sharp.  I’ll show an example of this remarkable filter in an upcoming post.  There is a lot of discussion around the net about this new way of doing business but I personally like it.  Go to Adobe’s web site > here

Joshua has always had a fascination with lights and switches.  He loves (even before he could talk or walk) to flip switches and look at the light.  He would flip a switch and then point to the corresponding light with a delightful smile.  So last night while we were all recovering from dinner he was busily checking out all the lights in the house.  🙂

Enjoy your Saturday.  Thank you as always for stopping by the blog.  Check in tomorrow if you have time.  Some exciting news from the Duck Pond.  Be careful.