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All posts for the month July, 2018

Friday ~ July 27, 2018

Posted by Dave Updegraff on July 27, 2018
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , , , .

Happy Friday!

I have three images for today.  Interesting day yesterday.  I had to take my  car in for some enhancements and had to have it there at 7:00 a.m.  I don’t like having to get up early or at a certain time anymore since retirement.  🙂

So, since I didn’t have transportation and Jeanne was tied up for most of the day I didn’t  plan on any activities surrounding President Trump’s arrival in Dubuque.  My car got finished sooner than expected so I got it back around 12:30 p.m.  What I really wanted to do was get a picture of Air Force 1 so I headed for the airport.

I knew of a position that would give me a great viewpoint of the airport and I was pretty sure it would be available.  Duh!  Every road even close to the airport was blocked off and I couldn’t get anywhere because of the President’s motorcade was expected shortly.  Darn!

Obviously I was hoping for the big 747 but should have realized that they probably wouldn’t bring that to a smaller regional airport like Dubuque.  Instead he flew in the 757, which is still a large airplane just not as impressive as the Jumbo Jet.  🙂

So, to finish my story, I took some side roads that finally reached highway 151 and then took some gravel roads (even though my car was sparkling clean) trying to find any vantage point where I could see the airport.  I saw this vehicle parked on the side of a gravel road and thought, oh great another law enforcement person going to tell me to leave the area.  Turned our it was a guy named Kevin and he was a very friendly and gracious individual who invited me to park behind him.  He said that with the wind direction he figure the plane would take off on the closest runway to us and we would get a great view.

While we were waiting  the President’s motorcade arrived at the airport and it was ten minutes later that a flood of vehicles came by us on the gravel road.  Apparently they had been detained while waiting for the motorcade.  We were inundated by gravel dust.  I was worried about my lens getting dirty and you could feel the grunge from the dust starting to build.  Then the plane started moving and nothing else mattered.  Many cars stopped and joined our little group to watch.  It turned out it was a great vantage point for making some images of Air Force 1.

All images were shot with the Sigma 600 mm lens.  Oh and by the was the GDP announcement today was 4.1%  🙂

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Wednesday ~ July 18, 2018

Posted by Dave Updegraff on July 18, 2018
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

Happy Wednesday!

I have three images for today.

I had a wonderful day yesterday spending time with some dear Friends that I haven’t seen for sometime.  Friends are such an important part of my life and when there is discord in a relationship it causes much pain.  When there is tolerance and acceptance then it creates an aura of peace and fulfillment.  🙂

It was my intent yesterday,  to stop by the Dubuque Arboretum for some flower photography.  It’s been sometime since I captured any flower images.  On my way home from Maquoketa I went by some flowers at the Hurstville Kilns so I pulled into the parking lot and spent a few minutes exploring and enjoying the flowers planted there.

I’ve always enjoyed photographing flowers and I follow several photographers who specialize in flower photography.  I guess I’ve been engrossed in trying to get my head shot photography sideline going and I have neglected some of the other subjects I enjoy photographing.

I hope these images brings a little happiness to you.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Sunday ~ July 15, 2018

Posted by Dave Updegraff on July 15, 2018
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

Happy Sunday!

Today’s post is a little about grand children and a fair amount of discourse about photography.  I have four images that go with the blather so if your on Facebook and are interested, click on the link below to go to my blog.

Ben was on call yesterday and so Angie brought the kids over for some play time and lunch.  I love to photograph Addie and wanted to try out a new lens.   It is a Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 105mm f/1.4E ED portrait lens.  I’ve never shot with a f1.4 lens before so I didn’t fully know what to expect.

I have a couple of f2.8 lenses and I know that you have to be careful with shooting wide open or you get a lot of out of focus areas especially if you photographing more than one person in the image.

Gabby was excited to show me her newly pierced ears so I asked her if I could photograph her.  I love the soft bokeh that an f.14 lens delivers but as you can see in this image, that I shot at f1.4 I got her eye sharp but most of everything else including her new ear-ring was really out of focus.  Obviously I need some practice.

I normally shoot in Aperture Priority and as much out of habit as anything I generally shoot at f8.0 unless I’m trying to create some special look with depth of field.  At f8.0 you have a relatively large depth of field and seldom have to worry about your subject being out of focus.  F8.0 is my go to aperture for wildlife since you can aim at the body of the bird and get the eye in focus as well.

I shot this image at f8.0.

Finally this image of Addie holding on to the large pink Bear, called “Boo-Boo.”  That’s the name Angie gave it when she was old enough to talk.  She learned to stand holding onto the bear just as Addie is doing.  The day after Angie was born I went to the toy store at the mall and said I want the biggest pink stuffed animal you have and this is what they had.  I can remember all the looks I got walking through the mall with this thing and at the hospital as well.  Josh found Boo-Boo in the store-room yesterday and brought it up.  Addie took right to it.  🙂

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Saturday ~ July 07, 2018

Posted by Dave Updegraff on July 7, 2018
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , , , , .

Happy Saturday!

Today is the last post I will do about our New York experience.  I hope you have enjoyed the images and narrative.  There is a lot of untold stories and experiences but frankly I’m tired of working on it and want to move on to other things.

So, today I have 12 images and 3 videos to wrap up the trip.

Anytime we were in the hotel room this is where I would find Jeanne.  Either standing by the window or sitting on the window ledge.  She really enjoyed watching the people and traffic no matter what time of day or night.

We decided, after some negotiation, that we would spend the morning at Ground Zero.  I was tired of walking all over New York and standing in line. One of the main reasons I went to New York was to be at Ground Zero.

With a new-found confidence I convinced Jeanne to trust my navigation skills and we walked a half block to the subway and took the A train all the way to Ground Zero.  I was so proud of myself!!  I was amazed by the subway.  I had heard so many stories over the years most of them bad.  The subway was clean and we felt safe the entire time.  Only one exception was when because the train was full we had to set next to a very large man who was pretty well wasted and he was singing, shouting, and talking to himself.  As soon as a new area opened up we moved.  🙂

It took me over 30 minutes to get this image of the “Survivor’s Tree.”  There were so many people around it and I kept shooting hoping I could remove people from the scene using a Photoshop technique.  Then as if my wish was granted I had 90 seconds of no one around the tree.  I was so happy to make this image.

I cannot tell you how wonderful the morning was.  I felt at peace and thought about all the video I have seen over the years of the 9-11 tragedy.  For some reason I felt connected.  It’s hard to explain but I have to say that Sunday morning was my favorite thing of the entire trip.  There we lots of other things I enjoyed at well.  We went to “Wicked” on Broadway Friday night and had front row center seats.  It was amazing.  The Freedom Tower was amazing as was some of the 9-11 museum.  The part of the museum Jeanne and I both wanted to see was inundated with so many people that you couldn’t get close to any of the exhibits unless you stood in line and waited for several minutes.

Because of the number of people crowded into a relatively small space it was very uncomfortable and hot.  That is the one thing I would do different if I were to go back.  I’d visit the museum as soon as it opened in the morning.

We walked around both towers’ footprints and then sat and reflected.  This pigeon dropped down and grabbed a drink then flew off.

Jeanne wanted to visit the Fireman’s Wall honoring the 343 Firemen who lost their lives on 9-11.  It was too big to get in one picture so I shot 4 images and stitched them together in Photoshop.  This is a technique that works pretty well but I did a really lousy job of taking the images and so there is a lot of distortion in the image.  I would suggest clicking on this image to see a more detailed version.

Finally around 1:00 p.m. we decided to go have some New York pizza.  I did some terrible things (food wise) while in New York, including eating the first pizza since I was diagnosed with diabetes over three years ago.  It was so wonderful. 🙂

Bolstered by my new-found confidence in negotiating the subway system, I told Jeanne I could get us back to within one block of our hotel.  She was skeptical but went along.  I got the right train but I failed to take note of the “Express” on the train placard.  Jeanne tried to tell me that she didn’t think this was the right train but I insisted it was.  Well I found out what “Express” means.  It goes fast and it doesn’t stop very often.  We soon found our selves on 136th Street so we got off to get our barings.  Ironically it did stop at our stop but I was waiting for 49th Street, which of course there is no stop on 49 Street.  😦

So, about an hour later and after many questions to other confused travelers we found the right train and arrived at 50th Street exit.

I don’t know what was going on but they had some heavy-duty equipment on hand and a Battalion Chief.  It’s really interesting the way the Fire Department responds to a call.  they have this low growling siren (used to be called a Q2)  It was the loudest motorized siren around when I was in law enforcement.  They never use it at its full capacity but have the loudest air horn I’ve ever heard.  They get your attention.  🙂

We decided to go back to the hotel to rest and refresh and then go out to Times Square after dark.

After dark the “street vendors come out and they spread their wares (purses and handbags) out on traps.  I never saw a woman walk by without looking at the purses and the men had their eyes straight ahead trying to keep walking.

We were having a nice dinner at TGI Friday’s and there were two street vendors right outside our window.  All of sudden they packed up there stuff and moved away in less than 45 seconds.  Watch the video below to see why. 🙂

Street Vendors

Did you notice the woman with her cart?  As soon as she saw the mounted police officers was not interested in her she set up again as fast as she had packed up.  The guy standing with his cart did the same thing.

Watch this video below of this artist making an image.  I bought the image for $20 and he gave me another for free.  I do not have them framed yet but intend to.

Street Painter

I was never surprised by the humanity we encountered.  But at night there are some crazes that get out.  Jeanne and I were sitting at outdoor area on Times Square and she said to me, “I wish that lady would stop singing.”  I couldn’t hear her so I asked Jeanne to point her out to me.  You should watch this.  🙂

Singing Street Lady

After a while I notice this guy sitting at one of the tables playing chess with another guy.  He is the guy on the right in the image below.

What drew my attention to him was that after every move his opponent made he would go through a very animated series of hand gestures and you could hear him talking to himself.  I couldn’t hear what he was saying but he was talking about the situation of the pieces after the last move.

I watched this game for about 20 minutes and finally the guy on the left knocked over his king (resigned his position), stood up and shook the gentleman’s hand and walked away.  I didn’t hesitate one second but quickly walked over to engage him in conversation.

His deal was that you could play him for $5.00 and if you won the second game was free.  love chess.  I have played since my neighbor taught me the game when I was 12 years old.  I played all though high school, college, and all my life really.  Jeanne brought me two electronic chess boards over the years and I wore them both out.

Now I play every day on my iPhone, iPad or my computer.  I’m not bad but playing against the computer is not as good as playing a live person.  I’ve gotten complacent in my strategy and developed a form of tunnel vision in my play.  It’s good enough to win a high percentage of the games I play but not grow and develop as a chess player.

I am excited that my Grand Son, Josh has become interested in chess.  He will grow to become a worthy opponent.

Turns out this guy is a chess master.  he teaches at the Chess Forum (http:\\www.chessforum.com).

The first few moves I made were pretty good and I was feeling pretty confident with one of my favorite openings.  I was just getting ready to make my “kill shot” when he took one of my key pieces.  I looked up at him and he was smiling.  He said, “You didn’t really think I was going to let you do that did you?”

He pretty well kicked my butt after that.  But he was a gentleman and he explained the flaw in my strategy, which I really appreciated.  It was worth the $5.00 fee to play him.

Back to the hotel well after midnight for a glass of wine and then to bed.

This is the last photograph I took in New York.  There is a lot of suffering that goes on in that city.

Thanks for staying with me while I finished this long post.  I don’t think I would ever want to go back to New York but as I told a friend the other day it was kind of like when I rode RAGBRAI some years ago.  There was never a day that I could say, wow I’m having a great time but the experience was remarkable and will stay with me for the rest of my life.  That’s how I feel about New York.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

 

 

Thursday ~ July 05, 2018

Posted by Dave Updegraff on July 5, 2018
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , .

Happy Thursday!

As the image would suggest I’m back to our trip to New York City this past June.  I have 10 images for you today and of course more discourse as well.  My Facebook friends can click on the link below to see the entire post and as always you can click on any image to get a larger image with more detail.

If you remember my last post on New York (which was Sunday July 01) then you will remember that the bus tour turned out to be less than perfect.  I had heat exhaustion, was sunburned, and dehydrated.  Other than that it was a fun tour.

So, our tour bus dropped us off close to Battery Park (where you can board the cruise boats.)  Following my instincts we walked several more blocks until Jeanne said, “We’re going the wrong way.”  After some discussion about the finer points of location and situational awareness I yielded to her sense of directions and we walked back those same several blocks plus several more until we found where we were suppose to board.

We were about an hour early, which was okay with me as it afforded the opportunity to recover from all that walking and riding.

There was a concession stand at the port and I bought a large bottle of Gator Aid, a large bottle of water, some trail mix, sun block, this dorky hat that didn’t fit, and these even dorkier pair of sunglasses (which, by the way were for a woman.)

At least the hat did keep me from getting more sunburned on my head.  I drank the Gator Aid in one gulp, ate some trail mix, and drank half a bottle of water.  After that I felt a little better.   Jeanne and I shared the sun block as she was burnt as well and waited for our boat to arrive.

It was smaller than the two I had seen before but we made it on board okay and even got decent seats.  There was a nice breeze and the hat offered some protection so I’m not going to gripe about the cruise.  It actually was pretty fun.

The trip lasted about an hour.  The captain positioned the ship so we could get a good view of the Manhattan skyline.   This image is a three shot panorama I stitched together.

Ellis Island.  There were a ton of people on the island and tours of that attraction lasted between 1 and 2 hours.  I had no interest in visiting it and going through a museum full of people.

There is an antiquated maritime law that says any cruise ship from New York must enter the harbor on the New Jersey side and dock there for 10 minutes before continuing its cruise.  I googled this but couldn’t find the law.  We pulled into the harbor and spent our ten minutes there before continuing the cruise.

Another shot of the Statute of Liberty from a different angle.  There were lines of people on the base and on the second level.  You have to make reservations months in advance to be able to climb the stairs inside the Statute.  Its outer skin is made of copper only the thickness of two pennies stacked together.  It is all attached to a steel frame, which keeps it standing up.

This is a shot of one of the busiest ports in the US located in New Jersey.  Only California and Long Beach are busier.  Interesting fact is that China has the 10 busiest ports in the world.

I hadn’t really paid that much attention to this building until we were on the cruise.  Its offset design is unique to the New York skyline.

I couldn’t resist another shot of the Freedom Tower.

Another sky scraper from the New York Skyline.

When we got back to the pier from our cruise we decided to take the subway back to Times Square.  That’s a whole different story for a later time.  More to come…

Enjoy your day and be careful.

 

 

Wednesday ~ July 04, 2018

Posted by Dave Updegraff on July 4, 2018
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!

Late Monday afternoon we went out to the airport to see a static display of some of the aircraft that would be in the July 3rd airshow on the river.  I have five images for you today.

This F/A 18 Super Hornet was sitting at the end of the tarmac and was roped off so that I couldn’t get close to it.  One of the airport guards told me it was going to take off in the next few minutes so I positioned myself to get the best angle I could for his departure.

He took off with full afterburners and the sound was deafening.  After he took off you could hear a lot of the little children crying because it hurt their ears.

While I was waiting for the F/A 18 to take off Jeanne, Angie, and the Grand kids were standing in line to tour the inside of this Marine Osprey.  This only a small part of the line waiting to take the inside tour.  I had all the lines I wanted in New York so I opted out and stood in the shade.  Wouldn’t you hate to go anywhere with me?

Finally Josh got to take his turn in the Captain’s seat.  Angie later said that Addie and Austin both cried when the jet took off.

When the two Osprey landed they blew up a lot of clover and grass from the hay-field that is in the middle of the airport.  There was a lot of clean up to do before the Jet could take off.

The kids always love to see the Mercy Helicopter.  Angie knows the flight nurses and pilot, so while they were waiting in line to sit in the helicopter she visited with them and the kids chilled on the stroller.

Can’t leave little Addie out.  She was smiling most of the time and enjoying all the people.  She’ll learn.  🙂

Enjoy your day and be careful.  I’ll get back to the New York images and commentary tomorrow.

Sunday ~ July 01, 2018

Posted by Dave Updegraff on July 1, 2018
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , , , .

Happy Sunday!

After we left Fox Studios we headed for a day of fun on the “Hop & Go Bus System” that tours the entire island of Manhattan.  So, I have seven images and of course some commentary for today.

We walked several blocks to the nearest (as provided by my smart phone) “Hop” on stop and when the bus got there the driver said that we needed a ticket. What we had was just a voucher saying we had purchased an option to ride.

So, we got to walk several more blocks until we found the office of the tour-line, which was down two flights of stairs in a crowded little office space with two women behind a thick glass enclosure.  The air conditioning was not for the customers, so it was getting very hot in this little space and there were people in front of us who didn’t speak very good English.

Finally, we got our tickets and also booked our Statute of Liberty cruise for 3:00 p.m. that afternoon.  Now we get to walk all the way back to our original spot to wait for the next bus.

Once we boarded we headed to the top, so we could see the sights of the city.  We took the uptown bus thinking we could see the upper side of Manhattan, then take the downtown bus, which would take us to the docks and our sight-seeing boat.

So, we sat for 15 minutes in the hot sun waiting for a full load to board.  I could feel the sun on my thinning hair and knew that was going to be a problem.  I hadn’t brought a hat or my sunglasses and did I mention that it was hotter than the hubs of hell with a heaping of humidity thrown in for good measure.

This was the last time I smiled for several hours.  The seats were closer together than they had been on the little regional jet we had flown in and so I was compressed tightly in my seat.

Finally, the bus started moving, which gave us a little breeze and occasional shade from the buildings.  We moved three blocks and sat for another 15 minutes while people got on and off.  I looked at the travel map and did some quick math and concluded at this rate we were not going to make our sight-seeing cruise.

I asked one of the workers on the bus if this was the way it was going to be for the entire trip.  Is it going to be 15 minutes per stop?  I was assured it was only going to be 5 minutes per stop.  So I put my travel map back on top of my head to prevent further burning from the sun and tried to enjoy the scenery.

As you can imagine real-estate is at a premium on the island.  This is one of several mini-parking stalls.  In case you can’t read the sign it is $10.14 per ½ hour and $50.69 for 24 hours plus an additional $165.95 for SUVs and minivans.  There is additional charge of $422.39 for any car they consider to be a luxury car.

An image of Times Square and the normal amount of people at any given time.  The two large statue of liberty figures you see in the image are actually people who walk around and you can have your picture taken with them for a fee.

I realize that I am a complete pain in the ass to travel with.  Jeanne deserves and citation for patience, which she always was.  I hate being hot, getting sun burned and being cramped so as you can imagine I was not in a great mood as the tour continued.  Finally, I told Jeanne I was going downstairs and at least sit in the air-conditioning.

About 30 minutes later she came down and said, we’re not going to make it all the way up town and back to the harbor in time.  We need to get off the bus.  So, we did and we waited about 20 minutes for a down town bus to come by.  We were lucky that one of the workers told us that the down town bus would not be stopping here and that we had to walk several blocks to get the right connection.

He was kind enough to walk us in the right direction.  The first bus we got the chance to get on had a broken air conditioner and no roll down windows.  We rode that for about 20 minutes and it was clear to me I was getting heat exhaustion.  I told Jeanne I was getting off at the next stop.

When we stopped I got off and Jeanne came with me.  🙂

This is the Flatiron Building, originally the Fuller Building, is a triangular 22-story steel-framed landmark building located at 175 Fifth Avenue in the borough of Manhattan, New York City, which is considered to be a groundbreaking skyscraper.

The iconic Empire State Building

I walked up to the bus in front of me and asked the driver if his bus had air conditioning.  He assured me it did because he had seniority with the company and he took care of his bus.  The problem was the bus was full, on top and inside.  He looked at me and I guess he figured I was not in a good way, so he let us on and we had to hold on to the rails.  They have a strict rule about no standing in the bus, but he let us do it and on the second stop a pair of seats opened up.

Penn Station is in the midtown area of Manhattan, close to Herald Square, the Empire State Building, Koreatown, and the Macy’s department store. Entirely underground, it sits beneath Madison Square Garden, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues and between 31st and 34th Streets.

We finally got to our stop at the harbor (which is a whole another story) and I tried to tip the driver for going out of his way to let us on his bus.  He said that wasn’t necessary so I added a few dollars more to the tip and encouraged him to take it.

That’s enough fun for one day.  I’ll have more if you have the patience to come back tomorrow.

Enjoy your day and be careful.