Friday ~ November 22, 2013

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

November-03-2012-2013

I used to think that when someone reached the age I am now they were pretty solid in the things they believed in.  As for me I find myself with more questions than answers and that is unsettling for me.  No I don’t mean my core values. Those have and will remain solid for me through most of my life.  I mean some of my beliefs in some of the institutions and people I have, in the past, held in high esteem are no longer self-evident.

I taught my last leadership class yesterday.  It was a bittersweet moment for me.  On the one hand I’m glad it is over because it is an enormous amount of work to put that on every week for three hours.  On the other hand I will miss the folks that attended the class and their contribution to the quality of the event.  One of the things I always share with the class is the “Top Ten Things You Need To Know About People.”  Each time I look at this list I become more aware of its validity.

Here is the list I share with the participants of the leadership class:

  1. The number-one fear among all people is REJECTION.
  2. The number-one need among all people is ACCEPTANCE
  3. To lead people effectively, you must do it in a way that protects or enhances their SELF-ESTEEM
  4. EVERYBODY approaches every situation with at least some concern about “what’s in it for me?”
  5. EVERYBODY prefers to talk about things that are important to them personally.
  6. People hear and incorporate ONLY WHAT THEY UNDERSTAND.
  7. People like, trust, and believe those who like them.
  8. People often do things for other than the apparent reasons.
  9. Even people of quality can be and often are, petty and small.
  10. EVERYBODY wears a social mask.  You must look beyond the mask to see the person.

That’s it for today.  Hope you enjoy your Friday and the weekend.  My favorite holiday is next week.  Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Be careful.

Thursday ~ November 21, 2013

Posted by Dave Updegraff on November 21, 2013
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

Great Egert

Happy Thursday!  I took this image a few weeks ago while visiting the 16th Street Basin.  It is one of my favorite places to go for watching wildlife.    There are a lot of power lines around so it is not very accommodating for shooting wildlife in flight but what I like about it is I can get reasonably close to them without really disturbing them.

Depending on when you were born, each generation seems to have a focal point in history that we can all remember vividly throughout our lives.  For my generation it was the assassination of President Kennedy.  I was a Sophomore in high school and when I heard the news we were in typing class taking a speed test.  The teacher was Charles McBride (one of my favorites) and I can remember typing feverishly trying to better my score.  I was a very fast typist, the only problem was there were a lot of words that you couldn’t read.  So I got points for the number of words on the page but when he subtracted all the mistakes I had, I usually ended up with a negative number.  🙂

Anyway, I digress.  The Superintendent came to the door and said something to Mr. McBride and his face went featureless.   It was amazing.  Then he told us that President Kennedy had been shot in Dallas Texas.  The noise in the room is something I’ll always remember because it went from the sound of hundreds of typewriter keys being feverishly pressed to only a few keys then to none as the information he gave us begin to sink in.

Then for what seemed like a long time we all just sat there with our hands in our laps.  Mr. McBride told us to forget this typing test and that we would do it another time.  It wasn’t long before we were all called into the study hall (the largest room in the school) and given the news that President Kennedy was dead.  School was dismissed early and we all went home.  I can remember so much about the whole event from watching it all on TV and the Jack Ruby incident to the funeral and that solemn drum cadence being played over and over again during the long funeral procession.

Fifty years ago tomorrow.  Wow, that seems impossible.  Quite a remarkable time in our history.  Over the years I’ve watched a lot of “documentaries” on the assassination and all the conspiracy theories.  It is hard to know what really happened that day.  I suspect, like anytime the government is involved in anything, there is more to the story then has been told, but I’d like to think what happened so many years ago in Dallas was as it seems.

Didn’t mean to write about this today.  I hadn’t even thought about it until I heard one of the newscasters say this morning that tomorrow will mark the 50th anniversary.  That’s how my feeble mind works, the last thing it hears is what dominates. 🙂

Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your day and as always be careful.

Wednesday ~ November 20, 2013

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

Harvesting the crop

I was looking through my images last night and came across this harvest image from a few weeks ago.  Most of the crops have been harvested and I see a lot of barren fields on my daily commute.  There are still some isolated fields that remain unharvested but for the most part the harvest seems to be over for the year.

It remains as one of my favorite times of the year and reminds me of so many great memories while growing up in a small farm community.  Now however we have a browning landscape and the looming cold snowy Winter months ahead of us.

Very busy time of the year in the banking business.  Closing out the year or as we lovingly call it “year-end.”

Enjoy your “Hump Day” and thanks for stopping by.  Be careful.

Tuesday ~ November 19, 2013

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

Mark and Taylor

Here is an image of Mark and Taylor from Joshua’s birthday party.  It was great that they both could make it.  Taylor is a senior at University of Iowa and Mark works for a marketing company based in Iowa City.

I got through the procedure in good shape yesterday.  All and all it was an okay event.  The folks at Mercy were just great.  They are warm, friendly and professional.  I was always made to feel like I was the only patient they had that day.

One lesson learned is do not schedule the procedure in the afternoon.  Take the first early morning slot available even if you have to wait a month or so.  I ate breakfast on Sunday morning and didn’t have anything else to eat until 4:00 p.m. on Monday.  Additionally I wasn’t able to have any water from midnight until after the procedure and that is a long time to go without a drink of water.

Other than that it wasn’t all that bad.  I’m not anxiously waiting for my next one but as unpleasant things go it wasn’t all that bad.

Let us speak of this no more.  🙂  Thanks for stopping by the blog.  I appreciate your kind words and wishes of luck.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Monday ~ November 18, 2013

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

Joshua on his birthday

I’ll show you some of the many images I took at Josh’s birthday party last Saturday.  I never saw one kid get so many presents.  He seemed to take it all in stride however and was appreciative of each and ever gift.   With two loving parents, four doting grand parents and three uncles he does not want for presents at a birthday celebration.

Gabby on Josh's birthday

Gabby took it all in and kept herself busy with her toys.  She was passed from grandma to grandma so she never lacked for attention during the evening.  We had a wonderful dinner with of course cake and ice cream.  It was a great night and fun to be with Ben’s side of the family.  Mark and Taylor also made the celebration.

Angie

As you can see I have some competition at family gatherings.  For as little time as she has had to practice Angie does a great job with her photography.   She made the croutons, Cesar dressing and everything else from scratch.  I can say in total objectivity it was a magnificent meal.

Ben and Josh share a moment

Ever the attentive Father, Ben has some fun with Josh before taking him upstairs for his nightly routine.  It was a great evening and fun to watch the little guy grow up.

I am off today as it is the day of my procedure lovingly known as the “rotor router” procedure.  😦   I don’t go to the hospital until Noon and then I am scheduled for a 2:00 p.m. session.  So the last time I had anything to eat was yesterday morning’s breakfast.  Now there is no concern about me starving, I could live for a year if I had too, but I can tell you I am damn hungry and probably will be more so before it is all over.

That’s all I’ll bore you with today.  Enjoy your Monday.  I doubt I’ll be taking any images today but you never know.  Thanks for stopping by.  Be careful.

 

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

Joshua's birth image

HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY JOSHUA!!

What a wonderful day that was.  We get to celebrate his birthday this afternoon.  Hope to have some images for you tomorrow.  The image above is Josh when he was about 18 minutes old.

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

Friday ~ November 15, 2013

Posted by Dave Updegraff on November 15, 2013
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

One of my favorite barns

I’m still not sure what the attraction that I have with barns is all about but I love to photograph them.  I think they are such interesting buildings and there is a part of me that wants to get to know more about them and the other part that is just content to take a few images and move on.  Maybe it is because I spent a fair amount of my teenage life in one of these barns.  No I don’t mean that way.   🙂  I mean working in the hay fields I always seemed to be one of the guys that got sent to the hay loft.

This is one of my favorite barns to photograph.  It still has a shingled roof and wood structure.  I don’t like to photograph these type of barns with a metal roof.  Having said that don’t immediately look at the second image in this post.  This old barn is on the way to Cedar Rapids so I get to see it a few times a year.  I’m always tempted to stop and make an image and this time was no exception.  The barn was lit by some soft golden light so it was doubly tempting.

A large machine shed

I don’t really classify this as a barn as much as I would call it a machine shed.  Still it sets at the top of a hill and usually has a grain wagon or two parked around it.  I was drawn to this image because of the setting sun and I just like the looks of this old building.

I’m thrilled that it is finally Friday.  Even though technically we only had a 4 day work week, there was a lot of traveling and preparation for the week so I’m glad it is over.

I am really looking forward to Josh’s big birthday bash.  Hopefully I can capture some of the fun.  Jeanne said that he is all excited about his birthday but thinks there is a parade associated with it.   🙂  Perhaps some day my little grandson.  Perhaps some day there will be.

Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your Friday.  Watch for the deer and be careful.

Thursday ~ November 14, 2013

Posted by Dave Updegraff on November 14, 2013
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

The Deer that got away

Interesting day yesterday.  Had four employee benefit meetings scheduled so I did a fair amount of road time getting to the different locations.  The last meeting was in Monticello so I took the “Caves Road” and this little deer tried to get very familiar with my car.  I was able to slow down and avoid hitting her and once I got pulled off the side of the road I grabbed my camera and got off a few shots of her running away.  I didn’t have the right lens on for wild life shots but you go with what you’ve got.

November-13-2013

I got back to the car and was sitting on the side of the road putting my camera back in it bag, when I looked back at the road I saw this Hawk sitting on a power line keeping a sharp eye on me.  So back to the camera bag I went and was able to shoot this image from the car.  I got off three clicks and he took off and offered me nothing but a butt shot.  I’ve stopped wasting sensor space for butt shots anymore.  🙂

November-13-2013-B

This final image occurred when I rounded a corner and out in a harvested corn field sat five eagles.  Three took off as soon as I pulled over.  The fourth one flew off as I slowly moved my car forward trying to get a clear shot of the eagle.  This guy didn’t seem to mind me at all.  I suspect if I had gotten out of my car he would have spread his wings but I shot about 10 images with him not paying any attention to me.  He was far enough away from me to not be of any perceived threat to him.

So with only the 300 mm lens I couldn’t get any real close-ups but you get the idea.  Our meetings were over at 6:00 p.m. so driving home in the dark I saw hundreds of deer.  At least I thought I did.  Boy I hate this time of year for commuting.

That’s it for today.  Hope you enjoy your Thursday.  The weather is supposed to improve as we move towards the weekend.  Big birthday coming up in two days.  Joshua turns 3.  Got to be one of the most photographed kids around.  Well maybe that title belongs to his Mother.  I can’t imagine how many images I took of her growing up and that was with a film camera.  I wonder if digital had been around then how many would have been on my hard drive today.  🙂

Thanks for stopping by.  Be careful.  There are deer everywhere.

Wednesday ~ November 13, 2013

Posted by Dave Updegraff on November 13, 2013
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

Old Fire Truck

Another early morning meeting so a fairly short post today.  After the first meeting yesterday I drove to Cedar Rapids to conduct the presentation to our two banks in the Cedar Rapids / Marion area.  It went very well and then after the last presentation I headed back to the office.  I found a few things to stop and take pictures of but none more interesting than this old fire truck

I had seen this old truck a couple of times before on the way to Cedar Rapids but the light was not good so it didn’t capture my attention.  Yesterday on the way home the light was just wonderful and so I had no choice but to stop and take some images.

Pumper Controls

It was on 29 degrees and the wind was blowing so it was pretty cold.  The old truck was sitting in the middle of a harvested corn field and I had misgivings about walking out in the corn field to shoot the truck.  I walked along the fringe of the corn field and finally decided to jump feet first and walk out on the field to make some images.  I hurried my shots and didn’t take nearly as many images as I would have liked to.  One it was very cold and uncomfortable and two I was uneasy about being in a corn field without the owner’s permission.

Proud Fender

I could have easily spent an hour photographing this gallant old fire wagon.  I love to shoot old cars and trucks.  I like to capture a couple of images of the entire vehicle and then spend the rest of my time exploring the individual detail of the vehicle in small parts.  That is where I would have enjoyed more time with this vehicle.

It didn’t take too long to lose the rich light as well, so I’m happy I was able to get what I did.

That’s it for today.  Enjoy your work week hump day.  Thanks for checking out the blog and be careful.

Tuesday ~ November 12, 2013

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

November-10-2013

Happy Tuesday.  Early morning meetings the next two days so there won’t be much time to blog or make photographs.  I shot this yesterday afternoon.  I’m not sure whose basketball this is but I liked that it was the only colorful thing in the yard.  29 degrees and snow most of the afternoon.  Not a nice day but any day that you can stand upright and take nourishment is a good day.

Thanks for checking out the blog.  Enjoy your day and be careful.