Happy Wednesday!
This is the last of the Robin images for awhile. I have three images for you today. I took these last evening as I was again trying to grill some dinner and it proved to be a challenge.
Every time I made a noise or opened the patio door this is what happened.
If the kids weren’t wanting food, the Mother was squawking at me for being out around the children.
This reminds me that the squeaking wheel gets the oil first. 🙂
Enjoy your day and be careful.
Happy Saturday!
We have baby Robins. 🙂
I have two images for today. Last night I was grilling and of course each time I went out to attend to the burgers Mother Robin flew away. Even though I have had several talks with her about me being her friend.
I got a mirror (so as not to disturb the nest) and peaked in. I saw 4 baby Robins with their mouths open and moving around. Of course then Jeanne had to look as well. Remember you can click on the images to see a larger more detailed photo.
This morning Mother Robin was more tolerant of me, but apparently I got too close for her comfort so she flew a few feet away. I held up the mirror again and grabbed a couple of quick shots of the babies. Not the best photography but you get the idea.
Enjoy your day and be careful. More to come. 🙂
Happy Friday!
Fun day yesterday as it was graduation day from Pre-Kindergarden for Gabby. I have three images for you today.
It was a nice program and Gabby was excited for the ceremony. The kids sang some songs, presented a slide show of their activities during the year and ended up with the handing out awards and medals.
Ben was able to slip away long enough to see Gabby’s award. Austin was having some fun with his stethoscope. Ben’s Mother was also able to attend as was Jeanne.
This is the entire class. Hard to get a decent picture because of all the cell phones between me and the kids. My height gave me a small advantage. 🙂
Enjoy your day and be careful.
Happy Thursday!
I love the beauty and serenity of a well manicured golf course. Then you have to spoil it with golf. 🙂
Played in one of my favorite events at the Maquoketa Golf Club yesterday. The Kiwanis Charity Golf Outing. I have three images for today.
This is the group I played with. Great bunch of guys from work.
The other team was from Dubuque and represented Honkamp & Krueger. It was a fun day and the weather was perfect although the gnats were a real nuisance.
Enjoy your day and be careful.
Happy Saturday!
I have 5 images for today as I was doing a lens evaluation. The results are pretty amazing.
Jeanne and I are going on a couple of trips this Summer and I don’t want to carry a heavy camera bag with lots of lenses. I also don’t want to get in a position where I don’t have the right focal length to capture the images I want.
So about a year and a half ago Tamron™ announced an 18mm – 400mm lens to bridge the gap of several lenses. Like everything there are pros and cons to a zoom lens with that big of focal length range. Being a certified gear head I had to have it, even though I have not always had the best luck with Tamron™ lenses.
It is a Dx lens meaning it is for a “cropped sensor” camera body. I have it on the Nikon D500, which is a “cropped sensor” camera body. There is a multiplier factor to the focal length on a “cropped sensor” camera body of 1.5 times. Which means that the 18mm-400mm lens becomes a 27mm – 600mm lens. It is relatively light weight and compact so it is the perfect “touristy” walk around lens.
I’ve probably told you way more than you want to know about this lens other than the fact that it was fairly inexpensive compared to a “normal” lens. To be honest, I didn’t think it would be a very good lens but I had 30 days to try it out before buying it. I remember shooting a few images with it and thought it’s okay. Click here if you want to see the results of that initial shoot.
Yesterday I had lunch with my wonderful Daughter at the Dubuque Golf & Country Club. I even dressed up a little bit for that. 🙂
Then I went down to the river with this lens to put it through its paces. I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised and pleased with the results.
It has a fast focus and is quite. It’s light weight so pretty easy to hold and carry. The lens also has image stabilization so it mitigates camera shake. As you can see with the Red-Winged Black bird it is a pretty sharp lens. But the real eye opener is the next two photos.
I was standing in the parking lot near the River Center and took this photograph of the Dubuque County Courthouse.
I was standing in the exact same place at the racked out focal length of 600mm and this is the uncropped image as it came out of the camera.
Needless to say I was very impressed with the lens and it will travel with me.
Enjoy your day and be careful.
Happy Wednesday!
After dinner last night I peeked out the patio door and saw that Ms. Robin was not sitting on the nest. So I grabbed a camera and a glass of wine and decided to sit outside and watch the clouds roll by.
I have three images for today. You can click on any image and make it larger with more detail.
I enjoy including clouds in my images and but rarely make them the main subject. I was impressed with this large Cumulonimbus cloud that continued to grow as I watched.
Before my wine was finished Ms. Robin started letting me know it was time for me to move. 🙂
Enjoy your day and be careful.
Happy Tuesday!
One image and a short story (well short for me) for today. I’ve been having an ongoing feud with a mother Robin the last several days. She first attempted to build a nest outside my office window. I kept moving the grass, straw, and mud and she finally gave up.
Then I found a bunch of straw, grass, and mud on the back patio as she was trying to build a nest on a step-ladder Jeanne had left out. I brushed away that mess and then it was several days before I went back to the patio and she had a fully constructed nest.
I hated to tear it down but what mess that was going to be. I peaked inside and there was one egg. Well, shoot! Now I can’t touch it. Now there are 4 eggs in the nest and she is mostly on the nest 24 hours a day.
Last night we had burgers for dinner and she was pretty upset with me because I kept coming out to take care of the burgers. So today I snuck around the corner of the house to grab this image. Even though it looks like I am really close, I used a 600mm lens so she wasn’t stressed out.
It’s going to be a mess for awhile, especially when they hatch and there all the chirping and feeding going on. Probably more to come. 🙂
Enjoy your day and be careful.
Happy Monday!
Had an enjoyable Mother’s Day afternoon at Angie and Ben’s home with the Grand Kids, Mark, and Julia.
Spent a lot of time watching the kids swing on their new swings.
Enjoy your day and be careful.
Happy Sunday and Happy Mother’s Day!
Yesterday was a fun afternoon and I have two images for today.
I met some great friends from Cedar Rapids at the Maquoketa Art Experience as they wanted to see my photography exhibit.
Left to right is Emily, Crissie, Lynda, and Lavon. They all use to work at the same company I did and only Crissie is still there. We spent an hour at the Art Experience looking at and talking about the images and then we went for Mexican food for lunch.
We had a nice lunch and good visit. I never cease to be amazed and thankful for the wonderful friends I have made over my career. I’m truly blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life.
Enjoy your day and be careful.
Happy Saturday!
Yesterday was a fun day. It started for me with a trip to Anamosa to have lunch with a great friend. Then back to Dubuque for the celebration of an amazing person and career.
I have three images today and a story. Remember you can click on any of the images to see a larger more detailed version of the image.
Jeanne has taught special education for 43 years. An amazing accomplishment given the challenges she has had to face. Coincidentally we’ve been married 42 of those years and many would say that she has had a good practice subject to perfect her craft. 🙂
I just know that there are a lot of kids over that career that have benefited and have a better life because of her care, concern, teaching, and compassion. She taught in Missouri for two years and in the Waterloo District for 2 years before we moved to Dubuque and she has been in the Dubuque School System for 39 years. She retires at the end of this school year after a phenomenal career.
So last week Angie received an email from the School Principle advising her that her Mother was going to be receiving a special inaugural award that was to be given to the outstanding teacher of the year. The nominations were made by the students and it was the culmination of a week-long staff appreciation celebration. There was an assembly Friday afternoon when the award was going to be presented and we could come but had to keep it a secret from Jeanne. We had to keep it a secret because if she had known about the award she wouldn’t have gone to the assembly. 🙂
So we gathered the grand kids and snuck into the back of the gymnasium where we got to see the whole program and Jeanne’s big award. There is a phenomenon called cognitive blindness and I used to teach about it at the leadership training I did over the years. Jeanne was unaware that we were there (even though Josh ran up and gave her flowers) because she was not expecting us to be there and as always she was focused on keeping an eye on her kids.
It was a fitting tribute to an amazing person, teacher, wife, and Mother. I am truly blessed!
Enjoy your day and be careful.
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