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.
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!
I have three images for today. Yesterday late afternoon I played golf with a couple of great friends at the Maquoketa Country Club. It was my first time out and it was ugly.
Before going to the golf course I rambled through the countryside and found some things to photograph that appealed to me. Actually it was the sky with the big puffy clouds that I wanted to capture so I looked for things to frame with the sky.
We finished the round about 7:30 p.m. It was a beautiful day but the wind was blowing a gale. I would like to blame the wind for my poor play but I can’t. 😦
We decided to have dinner at a local restaurant. While I was waiting on my friends two more friends walked in, which was a real treat, so the five of us enjoyed dinner and I had to endure some trash talk about my lack of golfing skills.
I had lunch yesterday with a Dear Friend and she presented me with this wonderful “retirement gift.” I was speechless and so appreciative.
We had a good visit and got caught up on what’s been going on in our respective lives. It is but another reminder to me of just how precious friendship is.
It’s been a while since I posted as I have had several things going on that have occupied my time and mind.
My photography showing at the Maquoketa Art Experience is now on display and there is a “Meet & Greet” this Sunday May 06, 2018 from 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm.
The Have Studio Will Travellogo above, is my venture into a small sideline business of corporate photography. I have all the equipment and experience to make successful corporate head shots, marketing materials, and product photography.
Still some work to do on the legal end of things and I need to get my website up and running, but I’ve ordered business cards. 🙂
I have two images, a short video, and a long story for today.
For my Friends on Facebook {Click Here} if you want to go directly to my Blog Post.
Yesterday was the culmination of a month-long project. I never imagined how much was involved in the project in both time, work, and money.
I have close to 80,000 digital images on my computer and back up hard drives. Out of those I have probably printed no more than 20 over the last 18 years as the bulk of my work has been posted digitally.
About a year ago I was offered the opportunity to present my photography work at the wonderful Maquoketa Art Experiencein Maquoketa, Iowa. It is truly a remarkable place and if you are in the area you owe it to yourself to pay a visit. They have learning experiences and workshops for young children through senior citizens and allow artists the chance to show their work to the public.
So my showing was originally scheduled for December 2017, which gave me seven months to prepare. Being a chronic procrastinator I didn’t do anything about it and was notified in October that my showing (because of a scheduling conflict) was being moved to May 1, 2018. Even more procrastination followed plus retirement and then I received an email with a notice of the scheduling of my showing and when I needed to have my work to the Art Experience. PANIC!
I spent hours looking through those 80,000 images trying to pick a wide representative range of my work from wildlife, landscape, portraiture, farm scenes, and of course trees. I visited the Art Experience to see the layout of where I would be presenting and went to the wrong section of the building. The photographer, that was currently displaying had 47 images. Wow, I thought, that’s a lot of printing, matting, and framing not to mention the expense involved.
A commitment is a commitment so I started the process. I selected 43 images and sent them off to be printed. Then I shopped for and purchased 45 frames and matting materials. UPS was delivering boxes almost every other day. 🙂
All that “stuff” had to be un-boxed and unwrapped and then assembled. It was a daunting project to say the least. Our dinning room table became my storage space and the breakfast counter my work space. Jeanne was very supportive and put up with all the materials without complaint.
I got everything done and ready to transport so I sent an email to my contact at the Art Experience telling them I had 43 images to show. I received a reply the next day which stated, “You have too many photographs, we don’t have room for that many.” Ugh! Now what.
To shorten the story, the wonderful folks that make the Are Experience work said to me, bring what you have and we’ll make it work. WOW! They were so gracious and helpful I was very moved. One of my friends, who volunteers at the Art Experience came to my retirement celebration and told me that they had it all planned out and bring all my images. I was very happy.
So yesterday I loaded up the car and took my work to Maquoketa. Ted, Dick, Wayne, and Helen helped me with the hanging, wiring and placement of the images. We worked for four hours getting it ready. It was a fantastic experience that I will not forget. Wonderful people.
I have a 38 second video below if you want to see the work in progress.
Three images for today. I know, this is a ring-billed gull. I’ve only posted about a hundred images of them on this blog. So here is one hundred one. 🙂
Jeanne and I went to the river Saturday waiting for time to go to the reception. There were some folks throwing bread to the gulls so it made for good practice trying to capture a sharp images of these small birds who are very quick in their change of direction.
I like this image because it reminded me of trying to get a group shot of people. Someone is always looking the wrong way or has their eyes closed. The little guy on the right is just not paying attention to his pose and is more interested in the camera.
At the 16th Street Basin we found these pelicans sunning themselves on a concrete wall. While the the others rest and relax there is this guy keeping his eye out for trouble. I snuck up on them and only shot a couple of images so I didn’t disturb them.
This is my beautiful daughter Angie. She was a bridesmaid in a wedding yesterday. If you’ve followed my blog for any length of time you know that I dislike weddings for a variety of reasons.
I went to this one because growing up Megan (the bride) was one of Angie’s closest friends and she was like a second daughter.
I will admit it was a wonderful ceremony. Then we had two hours to kill before the reception so Jeanne and I went to the river just to see what was going on. I got some great (I think anyway) images that I’ll share tomorrow.
Ben and Angie together at the reception. It was held at the River Museum, which offered a unique venue. Lots to see while waiting for dinner to be served. We were at a table with people who knew each other but we didn’t know. That always makes for an interesting dinner. 🙂
This is the intricate hair do that the stylist gave Angie. I won’t repeat what Austin said to Angie when she stopped by the house. 🙂
Today we celebrate Austin’s third birthday. It was actually yesterday but the celebration is this afternoon.
Today I have three images of three of my favorite women.
Addie is eating solid food now and loves yogurt. I took a couple of images of her after eating but she would later kill me if I showed them. 🙂
Gabby got some jewelry and paste on ear rings from her other Grand Ma. She was having fun playing with them and getting all prettied up for Mamma Jeanne.
This is how Addie kisses her Mom. The picture speaks for itself.
I have never met a Blue Heron that I didn’t want to photograph. I can’t help myself. 🙂
I have three photos for today.
My great friend Mike and I had lunch yesterday and I was about 30 minutes early for our appointment (believe it or not) so I decided to drive a couple of miles to the 16th Street Basin. I was delighted to see a few Herons fishing there.
The deplorable conditions of the basin (junk wise) is something I have talked about before. I was overjoyed to see City Crews working diligently picking up garbage around the shoreline. I stopped and talked with one of the crew and told them how much I appreciated their work and she said that the city was committed to cleaning up the area. Later that afternoon I saw even more workers picking up trash.
I know this is a butt shot but like with herons I just have trouble passing up an opportunity to photograph a Goose. Besides my friend Betty loves geese. 🙂
I didn’t Photoshop out any of the garbage out of this shot. Normally I will work to get all the distractions out of the image but I wanted to give you an idea of just a small bit of the task ahead of the cleanup crew.
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