Just some random photos that I have taken over the last couple of days. No connection with each other and no real reason for taking them just trying new things, trying to get better.
It’s been kind of cloudy and rainy for the last few days so I haven’t been out shooting for some time until the last couple of days.
Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy your day and be careful.
We had a wonderful weekend. Our daughter Angie J. Roling graduated with her Doctoral in Nurse Practice. She has a long history of nursing. Earning her BSN degree in 2007 and working as a floor nurse, a surgical nurse, and an ER nurse all at Mercy One hospital.
Obviously I am very proud of her. She accomplished the feat while be a Mother of 4 young children. Her support group included her Mother, her Mother-in-law and her wonderful husband Dr. Ben Roling.
After all the festivities from her pinning on Friday to her graduation commencement on Saturday, she and Ben had all of the family over for dinner on Saturday evening.
Angie and her Brother Mark, who is the General Manager of a large dealership in Dubuque. They have supported each other through the good and bad times and I feel very blessed to be their Father and Jeanne as their Mother.
You know I had to show this picture of Brooks. He is in his Daddies lap.
Since this is a basically photography blog I have to mention that I purchased a new “bang around camera. It is the crop sensor Nikon Z50. I got it because I got tired of lugging around all my gear every day just to lug it back to the house with nothing on the sensor cards.
The Z50 is tiny compared to my Nikon D5 or for that matter the Nikon P1000. I take the Z50 and P1000 with me everywhere I go in a small back pack so there is no excuse for not getting “THAT” shot.
I am going to do my best to post on a more frequent basis.
Enjoy your day and be careful.
I have photographed this bridge (I call it the bridge to no where) many times in different weather conditions. So I was at the Hurstville Lime Kilns and decided to fly up the river a bit to get a bird’s eye view of the bridge.
I don’t know what this bridge was for but it’s been there for the 24 years I’ve been photographing at and around the Hurstville area.
The Hurstville Lime Kilns are a testament to a different time. I’m afraid I do not know the history of the Kilns but I’m sure you could Google it and find out some interesting stuff. I’m sure I did at one time but have since forgotten.
I went past this need weeping willow tree on the way to Hurstville so I had to turn around and photograph it.
I made a shot video (4:30 sec) if you’re interested.
Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy your day and be careful.
Yesterday I had lunch with my beautiful and wonderful daughter in the down town area. It is always a great treat for me to spend one-on-one time with my children. It keeps me connected and hopefully they enjoy it as well.
It was not a great day for photography with overcast sky and intermittent rain showers. Having established that, I had nothing else to do and all day and all day to do it so, off to the river I went. Remember you can enlarge any image by clicking on the image to reveal a much more detailed image.
As it turned out, since I’m not a “professional photographer” I don’t have to follow the rules and had a fun afternoon taking some “creative images.” Well they were in my own mind.
I got chased to my truck more than once because of the rain but it was more disappointing later on.
I was a long way from my truck when I took this image and it started to rain at a pretty good clip. so stuck my camera under my jacket and got under some shelter.
I ran into these really nice people and their dog. They were getting ready to do the river walk and I asked them if I could take their picture. They were kind enough to allow me to do so and introduced themselves to me. We had a small chat and then they were on their way. Two minutes later I totally forgot their names. This happens quite frequently any more. Damn!
I saw this train stopped on the overpass. Often when trains are waiting for clearance to the bridge they will wait here. I got the brilliant idea to fly my drone over the entire length of the train and back. So I was getting the drone ready to fly and the heavens opened up with a substantial down pour. Well, damn again. By the time the rain stopped the train was gone.
So that’s all I have for you today. Thanks for checking on the blog.
Have a peaceful day and be careful.
Happy Tuesday!
Last Sunday afternoon Jeanne and I decided to travel some of the back roads and byways of Eastern Iowa to see if there was anything worthy of a image on my memory card. It was a most enjoyable drive and the weather was almost perfect.
I have a soft spot in my heart for barns and find it difficult to pass up a chance to photograph one. The images on this post look a whole lot better enlarged and more detailed if you click on them.
We ended up in Guttenburg and found this really nice little ice cream shop on main street. The selection was varied and funny that we both ended up selecting the strawberry cheese cake cone.
I also have a problem with passing up and interesting tree. I love the green leaves and especially the fall colors but I do think trees are more interesting when the are “naked.”
Finally ended up in Peosta and had a nice dinner at Round 2. Great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
Short video with some interesting views.
Enjoy your day and be careful.
I had the opportunity to spend some time this afternoon at the river. I was reminded of the fish on a board and when you pushed the red button it would sing, “Take me to the River, throw me in the water.”
It was an unusually warm day in Dubuque and the sun was shining so it was the perfect day to go down to the river. I was surprised, (although I shouldn’t have been) to see so much open water. There was very little ice on the river.
Found a bunch of Mallard Ducks along the shore line and I had fun trying to photograph them. At first they all swim away from you but after they determine you’re not a threat to them they be come more relaxed.
I did a far amount of walking to day, which is good I need the exercise but it was tiring and so I was a little bit sore when I got home.
Remember as always you can click on the image to reveal a larger more detailed rendition of the image.
I couldn’t pass up a chance to photograph a tree that was so perfectly surround by the river.
Once the ducks got use to me they started getting back on the ice and settling down for a nice afternoon nap.
It was a fun afternoon. Thanks for stopping by the blog. Enjoy your weekend and be careful.
RotarI had a really great day today. I had been asked to present the program for the Maquoketa Rotary Club. It is a small club but filled with many dear friends. The subject I was asked to present was about drones.
I’ve been flying and sadly crashing drones since 2014. I love the hobby and as I said today the drone allows us the opportunity to make images that could not be made with a hand held camera.
I have, unfortunately, drifted away from photography since my retirement but I plan to change that in 2024. In preparing for my presentation I went back into the past looking for images to support my presentation. I quickly discovered the enjoyment and wonder of photography as I looked back on the last 12 years. Photography has brought me so much joy over the years and with the added enhancement of aerial photography I feel like I can once again share my passion for making images.
I did not fly any drones today for a variety of reasons. Mainly because it was so damn cold. The other reason was that where I took these images did not lend itself to launching a drone.
So I hope you enjoy the trees today. I know you get tired of me telling you that you can click on any image and it will give you a much larger print with more detail. Beauty is actually in the eye of the beholder so if you like small images so be it.
Enjoy the rest of your day and be careful.
A quick side note. The organization I retired from had a consultant who had written a book entitled “Thank God It’s Monday.” It was a theme we carried for several years, TGIM. To be perfectly honest I never really bought into the concept that I was so happy it was Monday! That is until I retired. Now I can honestly say TGIM!
It was a motivational concept, and I understood the meaning of it and espoused it continuously. Any way this has nothing to do with today’s post. Just struck me as funny.
Below is an aerial of St. Lukes Methodist Church. It is the oldest church in Iowa and was the first organized religion in Iowa. The church has magnificent Tiffany windows and is a regular on the tourist agenda. My wife along with other women of the church give tours of the church and tell of its vast history. It is a must see for all the different cruise ships that dock at Dubuque.
Anyway, I have, for the last couple of years wanted to do an aerial shot of the church. Either I had a drone with me and wasn’t anywhere near the church or if I was near the church no drone.
Today I was lucky enough to have lunch with my wonderful daughter and when we finished, I decided since I was already downtown that today was the day for the church shot. It was -4 degrees and there was some wind, but the sun was shining, and I reasoned it would be an easy thing to do. I was wrong. I about froze my fingers off and trying to fly a drone with gloves on is nearly impossible. But I got it done and now I hope to do a series of seasonal images of the church in 2024.
If you click on the image you can see a much larger more detailed version of the image.
By the time I got the drone up and in place my poor fingers were hurting so much. So I took the picture and then put the gloves on.
I usually don’t get myself in the image but wanted to demonstrate trying to fly with gloves. It is hard to make precise movements with the drone. The good news was that I was able to land the drone without hitting my truck and didn’t have frost byte either.
Enjoy your day and be careful.
Yesterday evening our granddaughters, Gabby and Addie came over to do some snow boarding on our hill. Gabby pm the right and Addie on the left. We have a great hill behind our home and they wanted to use it.
Before they went snowboarding they decided to clean off the patio and grandpa’s grill. It’s so fun to watch them do things and the level of energy they have. I’m not sure I ever had that much energy when I was there age.
Click on any image to reveal a larger and more detailed version.
They did a decent job clearing a path to the grill and to the back door. (spoiler alert) today mid-blizzard the grill looks the same and there is no path to the grill. 🙂
Then it was time to go snowboarding. “you want to come with us Papa?” I would have loved to but not in the condition I’m in now. 😦
Even Grandma got into the act. It was a fun evening with the girls and then all to soon they had to go home.
Thanks for stopping by the blog. Enjoy the rest of your day and be careful.
One of my New Year’s Resolutions for 2024 is to shoot more images. I’ve gotten away from taking images that catch my attention. To that end I purchased a used / refurbished camera that is small enough to carry with me all the time and yet has the ability to deliver some quality images.
Interestingly, I had this same camera in October 2018 and liked some to the features it had but it didn’t deliver the things I wanted in a camera at the time. You can see some of the images I took with it at this address on my blog –> November 2018. (i.e., use the list of dates on the right side of this blog to see the images.
So today I took it with me as I drove around down by the river before a lunch engagement I had. I came to realize some interesting things.
This camera is good at so many things, (i.e., quick point-n-shoot images, far away images, and images that do not demand a “tack sharp” rendition of the subject of the photo.) As an example, like the one above.
So as long as you understand its limitations and its strengths you can use it to your advantage. We all have said strengths and weaknesses and it’s important to use them when possible. The above image was taken because it had the Dubuque Water Tower in the background and there was a lot of smoke coming from the smoke stack on the building. The problem is the smoke did not get captured by the camera.
So using this camera in the proper settings will deliver great images. But don’t expect it to do everything that a high quality DLSR will produce.
Remember you can click on any of the images to show a larger more detailed image.
So that ‘s it for today. Thanks for stopping by the blog and remember to enjoy your day and be careful.
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