Upde Designs

I normally do not post on Saturday as my blog analytics show very few of you ever visit the blog on Saturday.   However I was in the mood to bloviate today so here it is.  I probably violated several composition rules with this image but I still like it.  I took this on Thursday morning after my abbreviated meeting.  Nice way to spend an early morning, floating down the river with a buddy, fishing.

Since I am in the people business I spend a fair amount of time listening to people’s problems, dreams, frustrations, and extrapolations.  I also read a lot of books on human nature and spend a lot of time observing human interaction and the consequences of that interaction.  I am always fascinated, often surprised, occasionally shocked, and sometimes in disbelief of what I see.  Now I do not try to set myself apart from this human interaction, quite the contrary.  Many times my weirdness is the most unpredictable of them all.

The point (if any) that I’m trying to make is that it is like sitting on the sidelines of a game of checkers or chess.  Your view is totally different from the point of view of the participants and you can see things that they cannot because they are engaged in a single primary cognitive function of planning their next move and ultimately winning the game.  A sidelines observer however can often see things and possibilities that the participants cannot.  It is called cognitive blindness.

I often write in a journal.  It used to be daily and now more sporadic as the mood strikes.  It provides a way for me  to set on the sidelines of my actions and hopefully see some things and possibilities that I normally would not be able to because I am too focused on the present.   There are times when I think this blog has taken the place of the daily journal.  Like today. 🙂

Someday perhaps, after I retire, I will write more about the experiences I have had, observing the interaction of people.  In a recent meeting for example with several people in attendance the dynamics of the participants was ever-changing and powerful.  Just focusing on the body language and tonal inflection changes of the participants I could see (from a sidelines point of view) who was comfortable and who was not so comfortable.  Who was winning and who was building up defenses.  It was fascinating!

Anyway that is one of the reasons I continue to work at this stage of my life.  That and the fact that I like to buy too many toys.  🙂

If you have made it this far, thank you for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your Saturday and be careful.

Happy Friday!  I had a 7:00 a.m. meeting yesterday in Maquoketa, which meant I had no time for a blog or any other routine morning things.  I was proud of the fact that I not only made the meeting I was 15 minutes EARLY!  Amazing.  So I sat in my car and caught up on emails until time for the meeting and then found out that two of the people who were suppose to be there were not coming.  So after a productive non-binding discussion I had 50 minutes before going to the office.  What to do?  🙂

It was a beautiful morning and temperatures were mild.  It was past the golden hour but still the light wasn’t too harsh, so off I went to my favorite place to see what was going on at the Duck Pond.  One area of Human Relations I have enjoyed over the last 30 years is conflict resolution.  I have developed a systemic process to help individuals, couples, and groups of people resolve conflict and find synergistic solutions to their issues.  I have in all modesty had a fair amount of success with this process and in one form or another practice it on a regular basis.  Because any where there is more than one person in an environment there is the potential and all likely hood that there will be conflict.  See the Genesis process©.

Humans do not hold a monopoly on conflict.  The animal kingdom has conflict all the time and it is not always a matter of eating or being eaten.  It is often over similar issues that humans find conflict.  Turf protection, group protection, posturing, and protection of possessions.  The images I have on the blog today are of conflict with birds.

The first image was taken at the marsh area across the highway West of the Duck Pond.  Two Canadian Geese were exploring a grassy area and the ever aggressive red-winged black bird, who are absolutely fearless, spent the better part of 15 minutes dive bombing these geese.  The geese would duck and strike at the black bird and honk but they never touched him.  The black bird on the other hand would occasionally get a beak on the head of one of the geese.

I’ve stated before on this blog that I was attacked many times when riding my bike on the back roads around Dubuque.  They would actually peck at my helmet and on more than one occasion almost cause me to lose control of the bike.

The image above seems like over kill.  Two RW-Black Birds  attack a lowly sparrow and drive him away from their territory.  Remember you can click on the image to reveal a larger rendition of the image.

As I was heading back to the office I passed the farm that has many peacocks as residence.  They were out in the new corn field and sure enough two of them were fighting each other.  They would circle around each other.  They would even walk away from one another and I would think it was over but instantly they would both turn at the same time, run towards each other and then fly up and use their feet to claw at the other.  This went on for 15 minutes.  With no apparent victor they both moved closer to the barn and the other peacocks.  Perhaps they did find a synergistic solution to their conflict.  🙂

All images shot with:  Nikon D800 | Nikon AF-S 80-400 mm f/4.5-5.6 G VR lens | ISO 400 ( 1/1200 – 1/3200 sec) @f8 ~ The only problem with shooting with the D800 is the huge file size it produces and it only bursts at 4 fps.  Hard to capture the action with that slow of a shutter speed.  However it does really capture the detail.

So it was a fun 50 minutes spent doing what I enjoy the most and I still made it to work ahead of time.  🙂

Thanks for stopping by the blog.  I hope you have a great Friday.  Be careful.

Happy Hump Day.  Hope you enjoy your day.  I have another early meeting this morning so not much time.  I was coming home last night from one of our banks and drove past this awesome old barn.  I’m sure I must have seen it before but for what ever reason I didn’t make an image of it before last night.

Even last night I was tired and I drove about two miles down the road before I decided to turn around and go explore this magnificent old structure.  I’m sure glad I did because the barn looked even better up close then it did from the highway.  It has all the ingredients that I like in a barn.  Rock foundation, original wood and paint, original roof (by original I mean no aluminum siding or metal roof.)

There was a house by the property but it looked as if it were abandoned.  I wish that I had been less tired and felt more like exploring more.  I’m happy with the images I captured but there is always room for improvement and more shots makes for a better composition of the subject.

I finished a course on automobile photography and feel like I learned a lot.  I’m going to shoot my car this weekend and see if I did in fact learn anything.  Hope you have a great day.  Thanks for stopping by the blog and be careful.

Quick post this morning as I have an early meeting today.  Sunday Jeanne’s Sister and Mother came over for a visit from Des Moines.  Mary had not met Gabby and so she wanted to come see her and to bring her Mother for a visit as well.  We all met at Angie and Ben’s home for lunch and then enjoyed a time with the kids.

Mark and Taylor were there also and Josh was the certainly the center of attention.  He was really enjoying all the attention he was getting and there was a lot of it to go around.  I remember once when I was visiting my Grandma and Grandpa my Grandfather said to me, “Kids should be seen and not heard!”  He said it sternly and I suppose I was making a lot of noise.  Amazing how our culture has changed.  It obviously bothered me because I still remember it to this day.

I don’t know what kind of a Grandfather I will be to Josh and Gabby but they’ll never have to worry about being told that they should only be seen.  🙂

That’s all for today.  Gotta run.  Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Happy Monday.  Nice weekend, mostly doing family things.  Saturday was the annual Grandview Gallop.  It is a 4 mile run on one of the prettiest streets in Dubuque.  It is one of the favorite areas for runners because it is relatively flat.  For the last three years Ben and Angie have participated in the Gallop and I have photographed them in this event.  I arrived at Grandview unusually early for me.  The race hadn’t even started yet.  🙂  I got my chair set up and my camera configured and checked then waited for the event to begin.  The image above is the start of the run for Angie and Ben.

The weather was perfect.  About 68 degrees, a slight breeze, low humidity, and great clouds with blue sky.  the only problem was the gnats.  They were just thick and very bothersome.  Occasionally the breeze was enough to keep them at bay but for the most part everyone was just waving their hands in front of their faces.  This year the run attracted over one thousand runners and walkers.  It is a fun event to watch.   The winning time was just a little over 19 minutes and the guy who won it looked like he had barely broke a sweat.

Angie and Ben finish the run.  This was Angie’s first big run since Gabby entered the world.  Lots of shooters there with expensive lenses.  There is some comfort in knowing I’m not the only one who has the addiction.  I met a nice lady who works at Medical Associates.  She shoots with Cannon equipment.  There is always a running joke between Cannon shooters and Nikon Shooters.  I’ve been asked which is the better DSLR to buy and I always have the same answer.  They are both amazing cameras each with their own strengths and weaknesses.  Cannon has some things Nikon wished they had and the same can be said for Nikon having features Cannon wishes they had.

What ever you start with is more than likely what you’re going to stay with because you invest in proprietary accessories and lenses so you’re pretty much locked in.   Many shooters had the 70~200 lens with them.  That is truly a great lens but I like the versatility of the 28 ~ 300 lens.   I know the 70 ~ 200 is a bit sharper but the 28 ~ 300 lens lets me shoot telephoto and with the twist of a dial shoot wide-angle.  I really like that flexibility.

On a personal note I have decided to get tested for hearing aids today.  Ugh!  I guess it’s just part of the aging process but it is a part I’d just as soon pass by.  I don’t know if I will go through with it but will listen to what the Doctor says and then make a decision.  I know that all my friends would be happy if I got them and they could stop having to repeat what they say to me.  🙂

Oh by the way.  Adobe Lightroom 5 was released today.  It is a sweet program for processing your digital negatives.  I’ve used it since version 1.0 and love it.  You might consider it if you have never used it.  It is a great database for managing your photos and you can probably do 90% of everything you would need to do to your photos with it.  About the only time I use Photoshop anymore is for complex retouching or removing unwanted distractions from an image.

That’s it for today.  Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your Monday and be careful.

Happy Friday and none too soon!  Yesterday I got to do one of my favorite things.  Portrait images.  I enjoy the inter action with the individual and of course the technical side of getting the lights set up and balanced.  Post processing has its challenges as well so it is a relatively long process to achieve satisfactory results.  These images are for the Newspaper in the community where these two individuals received a promotion.

A high fashion shoot for a magazine can take tens of thousands of dollars in travel, wardrobes, support people and equipment plus the fee the photographer charges.  I took a class once on fashion retouch.  It was a six-hour course and many retouchers can spend an entire day on one image.  They literally examine and retouch every pixel of an image.

On these two images I have over 3 hours invested.  That includes setting up the lights and background, calibrating the lights and camera, breaking down the equipment, and finally over an hour of retouching.  The goal is to end up making the person look their very best.  You be the judge because after all beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Have a great day.  Thanks for stopping by the blog and be careful.

Oh and by the way this is my 700th blog post since I started this blog in 2010.  Whew!

Today with only two more days of the regular school year left I think about the amazing work you have done in your career.  For 39 years you have worked with special needs children and have consistently put their needs ahead of your own.  How much better and enriched their lives are because of you.

How much better my life is because of you.  I am humbled that you have chosen to spend your life with me.  Thank you!

I shot some images of flowers over the last few weeks and I picked three of my favorites to show you today.  Not for any particular reason, I just felt like flowers today.  I enjoy shooting flowers in fact there aren’t many things that I can think of that I don’t like to shoot.

A good friend asked me a few weeks ago what my favorite thing to shoot was.  Interesting question.  My favorite thing to shoot is the thing I get the least opportunity to shoot.  I love to do portraits.  Fine art portraits and environmental portraits.  I have all the lights and backdrops but most people just don’t enjoy having their picture taken and hiring a model is too expensive.  So I shoot flowers, barns, and geese.  🙂  They are cheap and don’t seem to mind having their picture taken.

I also enjoy shooting flowers.  The beauty of flowers is so strong it is hard not to take a good image of them.  I received a letter by snail mail yesterday.  It contained the nicest words I have ever read in a letter.  I’m not sure I earned all those kind words but they lifted my heart and made me feel like there are still miles to go before I rest.  Thank you for your wonderful thoughts.

Today another friend offered a kind word just because they felt I needed it.  Those kind thoughts and words cost nothing but mean so very much to the people who receive them.  Like so many things in life the more you give of something the more you seem to receive.  Zig Ziglar once said you can have anything you want if you just help enough people get what they want.

That’s it for today.  Sorry for the mindless wandering but it was one of those kind of mornings.  Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your day and be careful.