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All posts for the month November, 2013

Saturday ~ November 30, 2013

Posted by Dave Updegraff on November 30, 2013
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

Novembere-29-2013

I don’t know what’s going on with me and birds, but this is the third day in a row that I have posted some type of non domestic bird.  Tomorrow I’ll doing something different.

Yesterday Jeanne left for her Mother’s home in Ames and Mark (who’s home for a visit) had plans so I took my camera and my 500 mm lens and drove to the place, where for the last three years, I have photographed Eagles feeding on discarded animal carcasses.   I know, just the sound of that is disgusting but hey, they are Eagles and they are a beautiful creature to look at and photograph.  I said I wasn’t going to shoot those images anymore but it is that time of year (for me anyway) where I have trouble finding interesting things to shoot.

So I drove the 35 miles to the feeding spot and there were no eagles in sight.  I waited around for a little while just to be sure but they were not there this day.  What to do?  I had the big lens, which is great for wildlife but not so good for landscapes.  I took a drive through the country and ended up putting on about 130 miles.

I was about to give up when I came up over a small hill and saw this guy sitting in this tree.  I slowed down, figuring he would fly as soon as I stopped.  He didn’t, so I put on my emergency flashers (there was no shoulder to park on) set up the camera and fired away.  He never moved other than he would occasionally look around.  Other than that, he would keep this pose with his eyes fixed solidly on me.  I got about 20 shots and then moved on before someone ran into me.  🙂

So I’ll take a shot like this any day of the week.  You can click on the image to make it larger.

Hope you enjoy your weekend.  Thanks for stopping by and be careful.

Friday ~ November 29, 2013

Posted by Dave Updegraff on November 29, 2013
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

A liberated Turkey

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  I spent the day snacking, eating, and then I ate some more.  Watched a little football, played with the Grand Kids and then took a short (interrupted)  nap.  Typical Thanksgiving day.  The one thing I didn’t do was shoot any images of Josh or Gabby.  I know, I find that hard to believe myself, but it’s true.

We had a wonderful dinner of, if not the best ham I have ever eaten, certainly the best one I can remember.  And as if to mock us and say I lived through another holiday this guy comes walking through their back yard with about 12 of his friends.  These are the only images I shot the entire day.  😦

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

Thursday ~ November 28, 2013

Posted by Dave Updegraff on November 28, 2013
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , .

November Swans

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you have a wonderful day with your family and friends.  It is normally my favorite holiday of the year.

Here are the Swans from Hurstville Pond. I took this image on Tuesday.  They’re just being difficult in this image.  When I pulled over to park they were facing the roadway.  By the time I got out of the car and set up the camera they had turned their backs on me.  They would look my way every once in a while to see if I was still there.  🙂

My friend Ann Burns who is a Naturalist for the DNR and works at the Hurstville Interpretive Center sent me an email yesterday saying that one day last week there were five adults and four juveniles  on the pond.  Wish I had been able to capture that image.  One of these days they will leave the pond and hopefully we’ll see them next year.

Enjoy your day and thanks for checking out the blog.  Be careful.

Wednesday ~ November 27, 2013

Posted by Dave Updegraff on November 27, 2013
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

An old corn crib

Some good news.  I finally saw the swans yesterday.  I had not seen them for several days so I was a little concerned.  There were four adults and the two cygnets on the ice yesterday morning when I came by the pond.  I did stop and shoot a couple of images of them (most of which were butt shots.)  I’ll show those tomorrow.

I had a lunch meeting at one of our banks yesterday and so as is my custom I took my camera along for the ride.  No time for images on the way over as I was running a little late (imagine that) however I arrived at the bank precisely at the designated time so no one had to wait on me.  🙂

When I’m driving and simply do not have time to stop I always see things that attract my interest and desire to capture an image.  Such was the case on the way over yesterday.  I finished my meeting a little early so I decided I would take the time on the drive back if a photo opportunity presented itself.

Harvesting in the snow

While the sun was out most of the day there were a fair amount of clouds in the sky and so it produced a softer light than there would normally have been in the early afternoon.   So I was able to capture some farm scenes and even this harvest scene.  There is still some corn unharvested, although most of the fields I passed yesterday were barren.

A machine shed

The one shot that did get away yesterday was really disappointing.  I saw a machine shed that I wanted to capture an image of.  Yes I know I’ve shot this old shed many times but I still enjoy shooting it again.

So I pulled off to the side of the road and was getting the camera set up.  When I looked back at the building I noticed a hawk riding the wind and hunting.  He was floating on the wind and remained almost motionless for several moments.  So I reconfigured the camera to burst mode and set a higher ISO then rolled down the window.  In the time it took for me to bring the camera to my eye he decided he didn’t want any part of posing and off he went.  I was able to get 15 shots of his tail feathers.  😦

That’s it for today.  I’m off tomorrow and Friday so can enjoy a 4 day weekend. 🙂  Hope you enjoy your hump day.  Thanks for stopping by and be careful.

Tuesday ~ November 26, 2013

Posted by Dave Updegraff on November 26, 2013
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

A little gull

I guess I wasn’t prepared for the amount and intensity of snow we had yesterday morning.  I suppose, had I read the forecast, I might have been better prepared.  I was pleased with the all wheel drive of my car.  That was one of the things I insisted on getting.  I have been a little unhappy with the car as it doesn’t have xenon headlights or sensor bumpers.  My own fault for not doing enough research before buying the car.  However the AWD is awesome and it helps make up for some of the features I didn’t get.  It was an easy drive this morning despite the slick roads.  It took me 20 minutes to get from my house to the highway (normally a 5 minute drive) because traffic was moving so slow,  but aside from that the trip was uneventful.

I really missed the shot of the day however.  I have shown an image of two horses that I go by about every morning, on this blog before.  Yesterday morning when I went by them they were standing back to back heads down and snow accumulating on their uncovered backs.  The snow was heavy enough that it would have made the image amazing.  There was absolutely no where to park and I was already 30 minutes late so I didn’t even hesitate.  I’ve regretted all day not stooping and taking that shot.

So instead of that amazing shot I’ll show you this little Ring Billed Gull.  They were plentiful on Saturday.  People apparently have been feeding them lately because they exhibited none of the fear like they did in the Spring.  So it was very easy to get close and make an image of them.

That’s all I have for today.  Hope you enjoy your Tuesday.  Thanks for stopping by and be careful.

Monday ~ November 25, 2013

Posted by Dave Updegraff on November 25, 2013
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

November-24-2013-B

Happy Monday!  I love it when a plan comes together and things work out like I had envisioned.  Such was not the case yesterday.  Late yesterday afternoon Jeanne and I headed out for our typical Sunday drive / photo shoot.   I knew there wasn’t much time to make images because there was only an hour of sunlight left so since I had shot water the day before I was going for a landscape shot Sunday.

Using my massive brain I reasoned that if I were going to shoot some great light landscapes I should go West.  So the very first thing I see as we’re driving were two grain wagons parked on a hill of a harvested field.  I reasoned they would make a wonderful image in silhouette.  Problem was there was no place to park.  It was too cold to park a half mile away and walk back so what to do.

After shooting the above bridge and not finding anything else worthy of making an image I decided to drive back to the wagons and see if I could reason out how to get closer to them.  On our second pass I notice a small entrance to the field.  Aha, I thought, this is where I will go.  Jeanne reminded me that we had a car not a truck or tractor.  Not to worry my dear we can do this and down into the field we went.  After turning around and heading back up the steep incline we parked and I got out to make an award-winning, much acclaimed photo that would surely seal my fate as a world-class photographer.

Problem was the sun wasn’t down yet and I couldn’t get the angle I wanted so the sun was directly behind the wagons, because of a large row of very tall trees.  Finally, as the sun disappeared below the horizon,  I capture the shot and it looked pretty good on the little LCD screen on my camera.  Problem is, it wasn’t anything like I imagined in my mind.  Sunsets look great if they are over water or some other amazing scenery or if there are some clouds in the sky to cast some interesting shades of light on.  Unfortunately I had none of those yesterday so the image was a (yawn) nice snapshot.

Problem is I spent so much time on and effort to make it I’m bound to show it to you.  😦

November-24-2013

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

Sunday ~ November 24, 2013

Posted by Dave Updegraff on November 24, 2013
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

A tug on the Mississippi

37 years ago I was a rudderless ship adrift in a sea of confusion, turmoil, and futility.  Then I met and married Jeanne who has given my life purpose, structure, and joy.  She is, other than my parents, the only person who loved me for what I am. Not what she thought I can be, what she wanted me to be, or what she hoped I would be.  It has been a wonderful journey with my best friend and soul mate.  It has not been without its hills and valleys but it has always been a place of love and acceptance.  Thank you Sweetheart for sharing your life with me.

November-23-2013-A

Yesterday Jeanne and I went on a photo shoot as we enjoy doing.  It was around 2:00 p.m. and the light was beautiful.  Since the harvest is pretty much done and the landscape is browning and barren, we decided we would try to find some wildlife to shoot.  So we headed for our favorite spots around Dubuque.

Nothing going on at the 16th Basin.  I’m hoping that will change when the river starts freezing over.  Last year I had lots of opportunities to shoot eagles at the Basin.  We also tried the lock and dam.  There was one eagle perched high on a tree limb but he was so well protected by other branches that I couldn’t get a clear shot of him.

November-23-2013-B

We finally ended up on the Wisconsin side of the river and found a couple of great barns to shoot in the setting sun.

The first image was captured on the Illinois side of the river.  I was hoping to get some more images of the Julian Dubuque Bridge as sunset but there were no clouds in the sky and so I wasn’t all that happy with what was presented to me.  I did find a great place to shoot however so more on that later.

All together I captured 145 images of a variety of things that I will show during the coming days.  I hope to get out again today as it is a clear and sunny day albeit a little on the chilly side of only 10 degrees.

Thanks for stopping by the blog.  I hope you enjoy your Sunday and be careful.

Friday ~ November 22, 2013

Posted by Dave Updegraff on November 22, 2013
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

November-03-2012-2013

I used to think that when someone reached the age I am now they were pretty solid in the things they believed in.  As for me I find myself with more questions than answers and that is unsettling for me.  No I don’t mean my core values. Those have and will remain solid for me through most of my life.  I mean some of my beliefs in some of the institutions and people I have, in the past, held in high esteem are no longer self-evident.

I taught my last leadership class yesterday.  It was a bittersweet moment for me.  On the one hand I’m glad it is over because it is an enormous amount of work to put that on every week for three hours.  On the other hand I will miss the folks that attended the class and their contribution to the quality of the event.  One of the things I always share with the class is the “Top Ten Things You Need To Know About People.”  Each time I look at this list I become more aware of its validity.

Here is the list I share with the participants of the leadership class:

  1. The number-one fear among all people is REJECTION.
  2. The number-one need among all people is ACCEPTANCE
  3. To lead people effectively, you must do it in a way that protects or enhances their SELF-ESTEEM
  4. EVERYBODY approaches every situation with at least some concern about “what’s in it for me?”
  5. EVERYBODY prefers to talk about things that are important to them personally.
  6. People hear and incorporate ONLY WHAT THEY UNDERSTAND.
  7. People like, trust, and believe those who like them.
  8. People often do things for other than the apparent reasons.
  9. Even people of quality can be and often are, petty and small.
  10. EVERYBODY wears a social mask.  You must look beyond the mask to see the person.

That’s it for today.  Hope you enjoy your Friday and the weekend.  My favorite holiday is next week.  Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Be careful.

Thursday ~ November 21, 2013

Posted by Dave Updegraff on November 21, 2013
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

Great Egert

Happy Thursday!  I took this image a few weeks ago while visiting the 16th Street Basin.  It is one of my favorite places to go for watching wildlife.    There are a lot of power lines around so it is not very accommodating for shooting wildlife in flight but what I like about it is I can get reasonably close to them without really disturbing them.

Depending on when you were born, each generation seems to have a focal point in history that we can all remember vividly throughout our lives.  For my generation it was the assassination of President Kennedy.  I was a Sophomore in high school and when I heard the news we were in typing class taking a speed test.  The teacher was Charles McBride (one of my favorites) and I can remember typing feverishly trying to better my score.  I was a very fast typist, the only problem was there were a lot of words that you couldn’t read.  So I got points for the number of words on the page but when he subtracted all the mistakes I had, I usually ended up with a negative number.  🙂

Anyway, I digress.  The Superintendent came to the door and said something to Mr. McBride and his face went featureless.   It was amazing.  Then he told us that President Kennedy had been shot in Dallas Texas.  The noise in the room is something I’ll always remember because it went from the sound of hundreds of typewriter keys being feverishly pressed to only a few keys then to none as the information he gave us begin to sink in.

Then for what seemed like a long time we all just sat there with our hands in our laps.  Mr. McBride told us to forget this typing test and that we would do it another time.  It wasn’t long before we were all called into the study hall (the largest room in the school) and given the news that President Kennedy was dead.  School was dismissed early and we all went home.  I can remember so much about the whole event from watching it all on TV and the Jack Ruby incident to the funeral and that solemn drum cadence being played over and over again during the long funeral procession.

Fifty years ago tomorrow.  Wow, that seems impossible.  Quite a remarkable time in our history.  Over the years I’ve watched a lot of “documentaries” on the assassination and all the conspiracy theories.  It is hard to know what really happened that day.  I suspect, like anytime the government is involved in anything, there is more to the story then has been told, but I’d like to think what happened so many years ago in Dallas was as it seems.

Didn’t mean to write about this today.  I hadn’t even thought about it until I heard one of the newscasters say this morning that tomorrow will mark the 50th anniversary.  That’s how my feeble mind works, the last thing it hears is what dominates. 🙂

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

Wednesday ~ November 20, 2013

Posted by Dave Updegraff on November 20, 2013
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , .

Harvesting the crop

I was looking through my images last night and came across this harvest image from a few weeks ago.  Most of the crops have been harvested and I see a lot of barren fields on my daily commute.  There are still some isolated fields that remain unharvested but for the most part the harvest seems to be over for the year.

It remains as one of my favorite times of the year and reminds me of so many great memories while growing up in a small farm community.  Now however we have a browning landscape and the looming cold snowy Winter months ahead of us.

Very busy time of the year in the banking business.  Closing out the year or as we lovingly call it “year-end.”

Enjoy your “Hump Day” and thanks for stopping by.  Be careful.