Sunday ~ December 22, 2013

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

December-21-2013

Some family images this day for you.  We received a call from Angie asking us if we’d like to go to dinner with them at Mario’s on 13th street?  I had to think about that for… (well let’s see, get a chance to see the kids, grand kids, and eat at one of my favorite restaurants) for a moment, yes I think we’d like to join them.  🙂

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It was fun to be with everyone.  Grandma Jeanne is Josh’s favorite and he spent a lot of time visiting with her, which gave me an opportunity to spend some quality time with Gabby.  She is such a fun little girl with a great disposition.  She enjoys entertaining herself and at one point I gave her a spoon, which she had the most fun with.

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It was an enjoyable meal until we were getting close to leaving when a woman from the table across from us came over and asked me to stop taking flash pictures as it was distracting them from their meal.  I had a list of about 15 different responses for her but fortunately the good little selfie on my shoulder said, “Of course I will.”  I’m not out to ruin anyone’s day so I packed up my camera and just visited with the kids.

Snowing hard as I look out my window this morning.  It is a beautiful snow (if snow can in fact be beautiful) replete with shinny diamonds reflecting the light.

That’s it for today.  Enjoy your Sunday and if you need to go out please be careful.

 

Thank God It’s Friday ~ December 20, 2013

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

Distortion Corrected

A year ago, when I was in the middle of my 365 project, I had to capture at least one image each and every day for a full year.  I was searching for an image for today’s post and couldn’t find anything that appealed to me so I decided there must be something in my project that didn’t see the light of day.

So that is what I have for you today.  I remember shooting this barn and I posted it on my project but did not put it on this blog.  One of the things I didn’t like about the original was the distortion caused by the angle of where I was standing, plus the lens created some distortion.

I got a new software plug-in yesterday and even though I really do not fully understand (okay to be honest this is the first image I’ve used it on) how to use it yet, it made a huge difference in the image.

December-12-2012

Here is the original image I took on December 12, 2012 for my project.  I can tell already that once I learn how to use this plug-in I’m going to really like what it can do.

That’s all I have for you today.  I hope you enjoy your Friday.  (My fingers aren’t awake yet because every other letter I press with them is wrong.  I’m going to have to get a new backspace key.)  🙂

Thanks for stopping by.  Be careful on this slippery day.

Thursday ~ December 19, 2013

Posted by Dave Updegraff on December 19, 2013
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

Julian Dubuque Bridge

Imagine me running late.  Well when I opened me little eyes this morning my bedside clock said it was 45 minutes later than I normally wake up.  Ugh, now I’m running hard just to get as much of my morning “stuff” done as possible.  Fortunately I had this image from last Saturday already processed.

I passed over it on the first round of views but there is something about this image that just struck me this morning so I wanted to share it with you.  You can click on it to make it larger.

Sorry for the short post this morning, I’m sure I have something profound to say but just can’t think of it right now and don’t have the time.  🙂

Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your day and be careful there are a lot of crazy people out there.

Wednesday ~ December 18, 2013

Posted by Dave Updegraff on December 18, 2013
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , .

Lenae

I love to photograph people.  It is without a doubt my favorite thing shoot.   My first love is formal portrait photography (head shots) a close second would be candid shots and then environmental images.  Problem is that most people (myself included) do not particularly enjoy having their picture taken.  I have several images in my mind that I want to create but trying to find people who would be willing to dress up in costume and pose on location is a challenge.

Tom

So yesterday there was a grand opening / ribbon cutting at the new Kwik Star Convenience store that opened in Maquoketa.  Since I’m a member of the Chamber and on the Chamber Board I get to go to all those types of events.  There are always lots of people at these events and so if I’m stealthy I can sometimes capture some nice candid shots, like the first one.  Lenae serves on the board of directors with me and in fact she will be the President of the Chamber next year.  Tom is the Executive Director of the Chamber and he gave a welcoming talk at the opening.

Nicole and Joni

Finally a posed shot (and they hesitated for a moment) is Nichole (left) and Joni (right) who also serve on the Chamber Board.

It was a nice event and it’s always gratifying to see progress and new businesses come to Maquoketa.  Kwik Star has made a huge investment in Maquoketa opening two new stores in six months.  They also donated $2,000 to various community groups including the Fire Department and The School.  They are a great corporate neighbor and they have a solid value system for their employees.

That’s it for today.  Enjoy your mid-week hump day.  Thanks for stopping by and be careful.

Tuesday ~ December 17, 2013

Posted by Dave Updegraff on December 17, 2013
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

Angie and Josh wait for Santa

Yesterday I was telling you about Asbury’s Holiday Tradition.  We bought our home when it was a year old and there were not that many other homes in the neighborhood.  In fact there were less than 20 on our street and the three or four side streets.  There was nothing but farmland behind us so it was a small little community within a community.

We moved on Friday December 18th and at that time Angie was eight and Mark was a couple of months shy of two years old.  Everyone was tired and so we were sleeping in on Saturday.

I had just settled down for a long winter’s nap, when out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.  Away to the window I flew like a flash, tore open the shutters and threw up the sash. The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow gave the lustre of mid-day (actually it was around 9:00 a.m.) to objects below, when, what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a big red fire truck, with a little old driver, so lively and quick, I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.

Santa arrives

Yes every December the wonderful guys of the Asbury Fire Department load up the fire truck with candy and Santa Clause and go all over Asbury greeting the children and throwing them candy.  They blow the siren constantly and have all the emergency lights on.  With Santa Clause waving at all the children and his elves with him he dispenses his candy treats.

Josh and his treats

So this year I was thinking it was around 10:00 a.m. when they would come by our house.  I was just puttering around when I heard a commotion in the garage.  When I opened the door there was my little grandson with eyes big and wide explaining to me “Papa, he’s coming soon, Santa will be here soon, come watch.”  🙂

And so the tradition continues.  They start around 9:00 a.m. and finish up now around 3:00 p.m. so you can see our little community has really grown.  It is a wonderful event put on by the volunteers and it brings a lot of happiness and joy to lot of children both young and old.

Thanks for stopping by the blog today.  I’ll have more tomorrow.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Monday ~ December 16, 2013

Posted by Dave Updegraff on December 16, 2013
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , , , , .

Gabby and her fire truck

Happy Monday.  I apologize for the lack of posts over the last three days.  A shortage of thoughts and images helped to produce the recent lull of activity.  I will endeavor to do better.

Asbury has a neat Holiday tradition that happens around the second weekend of December.  More about that tomorrow.  We moved to our new home (in Asbury) December 18, 1992, 21 years ago Tuesday.  I doubt that I will move again but if I were to do so I would never move in December.  Especially only a week before Christmas.  Some how we managed to put it all together and still have a nice Christmas for the kids.

Anyway all this babble is to simply say that Angie, Ben, and the kids stopped by Saturday morning to participate in this Asbury tradition and then we had a little play time, which is always a treat.

Joshua and his beads

My weekends are usually veg time.  I work on photos, do a little gaming, take care of some minor projects (doubtful) and practice my napping skills.  It might sound boring and counter productive to many but for me it’s just fine.  Anyway this past weekend was quite different.

It started with the kids coming over and then Jeanne and I drove over to Galena to have lunch with some dear friends.  Back to Dubuque for some photo shooting and then we drove to Anamosa for one of our bank’s Christmas parties.   Way too much activity for me.  🙂

The good Lord willing I’ll have more to the story tomorrow.  Thanks for checking out the blog.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Thursday ~ December 12, 2013

Posted by Dave Updegraff on December 12, 2013
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

Farm Buildings

Thinking about my post of yesterday and my photo stagnation got me thinking about all the kinds of photography there are.  This line of thought was prompted by a video I watched last night about a professional event photographer.  It was about this 30 something lady who lives in New York and makes a very good living shooting nothing  but events.  A convention, a party, you name it if it is an event and there are people there she and others like her are hired to photograph an event.  So I put together a list of the types of photography I could think of off the top of my head and they are:

Wedding Photography  |  Event Photography  |  Wildlife Photography  |  Environmental Photography  |  Food Photography  |  Product Photography  |  Aerial Photography  |  Fashion Photography  |  Real Estate Photography  |  Commercial Property Photography  |  Sports Photography with all its iterations  |  Celebrity Photography  |  Journalistic Photography  |  Portrait Photography  |  Head Shot Photography  |  Automobile Photography  |  Landscape Photography  |  Macro Photography  |  Artistic Photography

This is by no means an exhaustive list and they are only what I could come up with after a few minutes of thinking.  I have taken on-line photography classes for the last 4 years.  Every one of these categories has professionals and that is all they do plus they make a lot of money doing it.  For example, Peter Hurley is a world-famous head shot photographer in New York City.  That is all he does.    Tim Wallace is an Automobile Photographer and shoots for all the large expensive car manufactures.  He travels all over the world shooting images of cars.  David Zieser is a famous wedding photographer, who has shot hundreds of weddings and he travels all over.

What’s the point?  It occurs to me with the wide variety of photo opportunities available, there really shouldn’t be a time when there isn’t something to photograph.  It like so many things in life is actually just about making the time and the effort available to capture the image that someone might enjoy.

Thank you Kathy for your kind words yesterday.  That is one of the reasons I keep pointing my camera at different things and pushing the shutter button.

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

Wednesday ~ December 11, 2013

Posted by Dave Updegraff on December 11, 2013
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , .

Just an old barn

I got to thinking yesterday as I was looking for images to capture that I’m more of a Road Photographer than anything else.   By that I mean I tend to drive around over the countryside until something catches my eye or interest and then I stop and photograph it.  Sometimes in great detail and other times just a few clicks and done.  Such is the case with this barn.  It caught my interest yesterday and so I stopped on the road and photographed it.  I don’t particularly like the metal roof, but other than that it’s a great looking barn.

It reminds me of how my Dad and I used to hunt rabbits in the Winter time.  We would drive the country roads looking for rabbits in the ditches and along the fence lines.  I had a little single shot 22 and my Dad had a 22 semi automatic rifle.  No matter who shot the rabbit I was the one who got out of the old station wagon and waded out into the snow to retrieve the bounty.

My Dad was disabled and just couldn’t walk so this was the way we hunted and since we were not very well off we ate a lot of rabbit.  The local game warden would always look the other way because he knew Dad was a good man and couldn’t walk so he didn’t say anything.

It’s not my favorite style of photography but it does work from time to time especially when it cold and windy like it was yesterday.  🙂

That’s all I have time for today as I have to go clean the snow off the driveway and sidewalks again.  We’re not even into Winter yet.  Sigh!

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

Tuesday ~ December 10, 2013

Posted by Dave Updegraff on December 10, 2013
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , .

January Tree - 2013

I know they call it writer’s block but I’m not sure what it’s called when it happens in photography.  I call it a Winter funk I guess for lack of a better term.  I really dislike this feeling that I can’t seem to find anything that is of interest to me or that I want to capture.  Perhaps it is time to consider another project.

I got an email from my friend Burt with an image of a nice juvenile eagle eating a small fish in a tree.  So apparently the eagles are pushing South with the colder weather, which hopefully means they will be abundant around here before too long.

This is my favorite tree to photograph.  I have photographed it any number of times.  Even thought it is a little hard to get to I never get tired of making images of it.   I shot this image on February 15, 2013.

Today is the birthday of my Father.  I have written about him many times on this blog.  I sure wish I could talk with him now.   He was right about so many things and there were so many times that I didn’t spend the amount of time that now I wish I could.  There are very few days however that I don’t think of him and remember the lessons he taught me.

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

Friday ~ December 06, 2013

Posted by Dave Updegraff on December 6, 2013
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

December-05-2013A

These are by no stretch of the imagination great eagle shots.  They are eagle shots and I’m glad to have them.  Some of the technical issues, I was shooting at ISO 400 with a shutter speed of around 1/1000 @ f8.0  The wind was blowing hard and I was so cold I was literally shaking (hence the softer, than I like them, images.)

I was on my way out-of-town headed to Monticello yesterday for a meeting.  When I crossed the bridge of the Maquoketa River I noticed a half-dozen eagles sitting in a barren tree that was close to the water.  There were another half-dozen flying over the river and the harvested corn field.  I had never seen a single eagle there before let alone over a dozen or more.  Once I got the vehicle parked I had to walk about 50 yards back to where I could get a decent shot of them.  It didn’t take long for my face and hands to start burning from the cold and the wind was blowing so hard it was very difficult to hold the camera anything close to steady.

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To top it off I was shooting into the sun, which of course made matters worse.  So all in all I’m lucky to have captured even these poor quality images.  Most of the eagles I saw were juveniles.  Even this guy looks to be in the transition phase of his life, not quite a mature eagle yet.

Believe it or not, even though I racked off 90 images at the bridge and sat in the vehicle several minutes warming up I still made it to my meeting on time.  🙂

December-05-2013

I have shot this old rural one room school-house before but never from this angle.  Same problem as with the eagles.  It was windy and very cold and difficult to hold the camera still.  My tripod was in my personal car so I didn’t have anything to steady the camera.

That’s all for today.  Thanks for stopping by the blog.  I hope you enjoy your Friday.  They are special you know.  Be careful.