Upde Designs

A lot of the people I know and like have some sort of sinus problem or a cold.  This is the time of year for it but they still suffer a lot even if it only the “common cold.”  I had a meeting in Cedar Rapids yesterday.  I got hung up on a call at the office so I was late getting to the meeting in CR.   By the time I got there the meeting was half over.   I hate getting to meeting late and I don’t like it when people come to meetings late.  I guess it is a fact of life.

On the way to Cedar Rapids I saw a couple of Eagles sitting in trees adjacent the highway and over looking a large field.  I was too late for the meeting to do anything about them, but made a mental note to check on them on the way back.   So cruising along on the way home about 2:30 p.m.  I went by the eagles again.  This time they had found some animal to devour and they were in te process of that when I drove by.  A quick turn around and I was sitting on the road about 250 – 300 yards from them

I had the Nikon D3S and the Nikon 28 – 300 mm lens with me but that proved to be a reasonable combination to capture the action.  There were two mature eagles and one juvenile and the juvenile was pretty much dictating the way things would operate to the two mature eagles.

So sitting by the roadside I shot about 385 images of the eagles taking turns eating the “road kill” (for lack of a better term.)  The mature eagles would eat but when the juvenile came close they would both take off and keep their distance until he was finished and flew off.  I enjoyed the time I spent photographing the eagles.  I once again learned that it is not the equipment that is causing my soft photos it is the photographer.  So I’ll keep practicing.

Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy this Friday even if you .  There are only 52 and they are fun to be a part of.  Be careful.

I didn’t get home until 7:45 p.m. last evening.   Needless to say I didn’t get a chance to shoot anything during the day.  So after grabbing a quick bite of dinner (a warmed up sloppy joe) I still hadn’t captured my image of the day.  With little fore thought and even less preparation this is what I took.  Hopefully this will be my lamest of 2013.

I’ve been thinking about my goals for 2013.  I had my 2012 goals taped to my desk top and looked at them every day but didn’t accomplish any of them.  Some percentage of them but not the whole part of any one goal.  I haven’t been able to think positively about setting 2013 goals because of my miserable performance on last year’s goals.  Then at 3:47 a.m. it came to me.  “GET BETTER!”  That’s the goal.  Just Get Better!  Doesn’t matter at what because it applies to every aspect of my life.  Get Better!  It’s only been 2.5 hours since the epiphany, but I’m liking it.  🙂

Here’s an article I read this morning on one of the blogs I follow.  I’m copying it without permission.  This is some thing I’m going to practice.

~ by Darren Rowse

Grab your camera – what ever one you have handy (I used my iPhone last time I did this) and head out into your backyard (or if you’re in the middle of winter you can choose an indoor location – perhaps your living room – really anywhere will do).

Now find somewhere to sit – somewhere in the middle of whatever place you’ve selected.

Now for the next 10 minutes just sit there. You’re not allowed to take a photo for 10 minutes but rather your sole task for this 10 minutes is to observe what is around you and to plan your shots.

Observe

• Soak in your location.
• Look at the light and how it hits your surroundings.
• Pay attention to what your setting makes you feel.
• Look at the details that perhaps you’d not have noticed if you’d rushed through the setting.

During this ‘observation’ phase you may like to move around your environment to look at it from different angles – but don’t use your camera yet.

Plan

As you sit there – begin to think about your setting and the elements in it as a photographic subject and how you’ll photograph it.

• What will you shoot?
• What perspective will you shoot from?
• How will you compose the shot?
• What settings could you use to get different results?
• How will you convey the emotion of what you’re feeling?
• Picture the shots you’ll take in your minds eye.

Shoot

Now that you’ve spent 10 minutes observing your location and planning your shots you can now spend 5 minutes using your camera to capture the shots you’ve been thinking about.

I find that this kind of ratio of observation, planning and taking of shots brings about a marked improvement in the shots that I take (as opposed to the times I race into a situation to take a quick shot… or worse still a heap of shots without really much thought to what I’m doing in the hope of getting a good one).

I find taking time to observing allows me to notice details that I might otherwise have missed. Taking time to plan often leads me to photograph my subjects in more creative ways than I’d have otherwise done.

Back at it today.  Jeanne still has tomorrow off.  I worked on the Mexican restaurant website most of the morning trying to get a few stubborn features to work.  I was partially successful but there are still some snafus.  Around 3:30 p.m. we decided to go to the river and see what the eagles were doing.  Sad to say this is the only one we could find.  There were no eagles fishing or sitting around the open water.  No geese or ducks at the 16th basin.  Nothing even at the 14th street stream.  Last year there were always a lot of ducks at the 14th street stream but not today.  We went to all of our normal places and nothing to shoot.  Killer light but nothing to shoot. 😦

So back at home I decided to do a macro shoot.  I’m beginning to think I enjoy this type of photography most of all.  You don’t have to depend on the weather or the light (you create your own.)  The temperature was a mild 72 degrees inside with no wind, compared to 11 degrees with a 13 mph wind outside.  I even had a cold beverage with me.  Lighting was no problem as I set up a couple of speed lights with colored gels.  The other neat thing about macro photography is that if you don’t like the lighting conditions all you have to do is move it, not yourself or your subject.  I set the camera on the tripod so no worries about camera shake or an out of focus image.

Nikon D3 | Nikon 105 mm Macro f2.8 1:1 lens | (2) Nikon SB 400 Speed Lights | ISO 1/200 sec @ f14

Additionally If I don’t like the subject matter I just look around the house for something else to shoot.  There are a lot of advantages to shooting in macro.  Having said that do you have any idea what these last two images are of?  That’s the other cool thing about macro photography.  You can shoot something that people see every day and make it new and interesting.

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

I hope you had a safe and sane New Year’s Eve.  Jeanne and I went to the Hobbit for the 6:40 p.m. showing.  The movie is almost 3 hours long.  Hard to sit that long.  When we came out of the theater my eyes were so sore and dry with halos everywhere.  The scenery and special effects were breathtaking and I think you forget to blink often enough.  The movie could have been an hour shorter in my view and it did not have the same magic as the Lord of The Rings.  I believe it is the prequel to Lord Of The Rings.

Anyway enough about that.  I’m not a movie critic, just thought I would pass along my observations.  We got home around 9:55 p.m. and I lasted until 11:30 p.m. but never saw the New Year come in.   I was looking over the first half of my 365 project and decided that I would show the best image of the project (in my opinion) and the worst image.

Now I don’t think this image is the best just because Angie is my wonderful daughter.  Although that is a pretty compelling reason.  I like this image because I love to shoot people and in my humble opinion I did a credible job with this image.

Interestingly enough following up on our discussion from yesterday of what the down side of a 365 project is.  Sometimes you just take the shot to get it done.  Such was the case with this image taken last night.  It was 10:30, p.m. I was tired, my eyes were sore, and I didn’t have an image.  So I took a couple of shots of this prism that I received some years ago for some honor at Rotary.  Needless to say I didn’t take the time to set the shot up, nor the camera, nor the lighting.  I just lined it up in the view finder and pushed the shutter button.  It shows!

I got the shot but it’s really lame.  I feel bad about it but I can’t go back and undo it anymore than I can go back and undo the thousands of other things I’ve done that I wish I had done better or not at all.  It is what it is.  While I’m waxing philosophical I read an article yesterday sent to me by my friend Dwight Duckstein.  The article talked about the unintended consequences of setting goals.

~ …”A goal defines an outcome you want to achieve; an area of focus establishes activities you want to spend your time doing. A goal is a result; an area of focus is a path. A goal points to a future you intend to reach; an area of focus settles you into the present.

A sales goal, for example, might name a revenue target or a specific number of new clients won.  An operations goal might articulate a cost savings.An area of focus in sales, on the other hand, might involve having lots of conversations with appropriate prospects. An operations area of focus might identify areas you want to explore for cost savings.  Obviously these aren’t mutually exclusive. You could have a goal and an area of focus. In fact, one could argue that you need both together — the goal specifies where you’re going and the area of focus describes how you plan to get there.

But there is a benefit to concentrating on an area of focus without a goal.  An area of focus taps into your intrinsic motivation, offers no stimulus or incentive to cheat or take unnecessary risks, leaves every positive possibility and opportunity open, and encourages collaboration while reducing corrosive competition. All while moving forward on the things you and your organization value most.

In other words, an area of focus offers all the advantages of a goal without the negative side effects.”…

You get the idea.  I’ve sure run the gambit this day and yet haven’t really said anything.  I do wish the best for you in this new year.  May we all have prosperity, security, good health, and happiness (what ever that is.)  Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

The last day of 2012.  My God it doesn’t seem to me like it should be here already but as I stated in my last post time relentlessly marches on.  Over the Christmas Holiday we have enjoyed having Mark home during the break.  He has always enjoyed wearing this Santa hat during the gift giving and sometimes wears it just for the fun of it.

I’m not sure what the politically correct term is these days so I’ll just say that this is Taylor Dalsing and she and Mark have been an “item” for about a year now.  She is a student at Iowa and an accomplished golfer.  We have really enjoy having her here from time to time and she joined us for our Christmas eve dinner and celebration before we went to Ames.

Don’t they make a sweet looking couple.  Perhaps I am a little prejudiced.   I didn’t shoot any images this weekend except for my 365 project.  I’ve been in a funk lately and just haven’t had the drive to do anything constructive.  I think the operative word would be “slug.”   I was watching a photography lesson yesterday afternoon and the instructor said that “A 365 project was one of the worst things you can do to improve your skills.”  He went on to elaborate  about how it only forces you take a picture, to get it done and does nothing to improve your technique or skills as a photographer.

I thought a lot about what he said and to some degree I agree with him.  There are times that I just take the shot to get it done.  But most of the time I’m trying to create a quality shot.  Additionally it helps me shoot when maybe I would otherwise be too lazy to do so and I can’t imagine anything but good coming from trying to make a quality image.  Since I am still enjoying it I will keep doing it until it is done or I am.

That’s it for today.  Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your New Year’s Eve.  Be careful and I’ll see you next year.

Time relentlessly marches on.  Today marks the 600th post I have made on this blog.  Hard to believe.  There has always been something very enjoyable about putting my random thoughts in print.  I started journaling in college and it has always helped me think things through or come up with ideas.  Couple that with my passion for photography and that is why I love to blog.  I am thankful you have taken a small part of your time to read my babble and to look at my images.  Thank You!  Enjoy your day and be careful.

This is the dragon Josh got for Christmas that goes with his castle.  It makes its own sound effects of course but when it gets near the castle, the castle interacts with it and sounds a warning.  If you push a button the dragon will actually gobble up a soldier and then spit him out.  I think you’ll admit the dragon is a pretty fearsome looking creature.  When you push another button his wings expand and he is about half the size of Joshua himself.  So it is no wonder that when Josh saw the dragon he didn’t want anything to do with it.

Christmas morning he and Mark were playing with his castle and I was fooling around with the dragon. Josh would say, “No, no”, and push the dragon away.  So we had a little talk about the dragon and introduced him to Josh.  We told him what a nice dragon he really was and that he could pet him.  It wasn’t long until he had made friends with said dragon.

We have all faced dragons in our life.  Sometimes they turn out to be real dragons, dangerous and hurtful.  Prejudice can cloud or judgement into thinking that all dragons are like that.   You just have to be willing to peel back the layers to find out what kind of a dragon it really is.  I have not nor still do not do that as often as I should.  It is just easier to label a dragon than it is to get to know it.

I apologize for the soft image of Josh.  He was constantly moving and I pushed the shutter before the camera fully focused.  Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your Thursday and be careful.

I hope you had a great Christmas.  As is our custom these many years, living so far away from family, we spent a fair amount of Christmas on the road.  It didn’t use to bother me and I’ve driven through ice storms, near blizzards, and everything in between.  Now that I’m getting older (hell I’m not getting I am) traveling is just a PITA.  So after a busy day of Christmas cheer, dinner, and family we left Des Moines and dropped Jeanne’s Mother off in Ames and then on home.

I didn’t last long once we got home.  I helped unload the car and processed a few photos, then headed for bed.  Driving at night (which I have to do about three months of the year) is a bother anymore.  Especially with all the deer on the road.  But for all my grousing I had a wonderful Christmas with our family and ate even more food than I did at Thanksgiving, which I thought would have been impossible.

These are some of my favorite images from the Christmas.  The one above is of the whole clan.  We’re missing some folks from Christmases past.  But everyone was in good spirits for the moment and enjoyed the family sharing. I had one day of vacation left and thinking what it would be like going back to work after a full day of driving I decided to save it for the day after Christmas.  Back at it tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your Wednesday.   Be careful.

A very Merry Christmas to you and your family.  May God bless you and keep you and fill your day with peace and joy.  Our company closed at noon yesterday for Christmas Eve so I drove over to Ames and joined Jeanne, Angie, Mark, Josh, and Ben at Great Grandma Andreae’s home.  They had left earlier in the day.  It was an uneventful drive over and I got there about 3:30 pm.  We had a nice dinner of Papa Murphy’s Pizza (say that stuff is pretty good.)

Then off to a candle light service at Great Grandma’s church.  This is the same church we were married in 36 years ago.  They have a wonderful candlelight service and it is very special to Angie.  She was really looking forward to it.  She loved holding the candle as a little girl.

When the time came for the young to go to the front of the church  Josh indicated he wanted to go with the rest of the children.  Since he was sitting on my lap I took the cue and we went up front.  It was so much fun watching him take little bitty steps closer and closer to the other kids and the preacher.  Finally he got his little gift and I helped him unwrap it.  It was a little Shepard boy.  The idea was that all the kids got a present that was part of the Nativity scene.  He really didn’t want to give it back but he did.  Then he decided to explore the pulpit, which caused Grandpa to have to out maneuver him.  No small feat I assure you.

Anyway the congregation got a kick out of it and there was a lot of laughing going on.  🙂  I didn’t care it was a very special moment for me.  After church it was back to Great Grandma’s house for presents and dessert.  Wonderful Christmas.  I can’t imagine the toys they have today.  Jeanne and I brought Mark a Castle when he was a little boy.  It had a lot of neat things but didn’t make any sounds and you actually had to make your own sound effects.

Joshua got a castle from Santa and I have to tell you it was simply amazing.  If you pushed a button on one of the cannons (even from across the room) they would sound the warning and you would hear the sound of a cannon.  There was also a dragon and anytime the dragon got near the castle they would yell “Dragon!”  Amazing.  Mark was so jealous.  🙂

Angie and Ben got me a great book on bird photography.  I was thrilled because I enjoy shooting birds and my friend Andreas does such a great job with bird photography.  I hope to learn a lot from reading this book.  Then they gave me one of the most unusual gifts I have ever received.  My very own Cuisinart Automatic Bread Maker. Can you say 300 pounds and climbing!!  What a kick.  It even has a setting that you can set it up the night before and wake up to fresh-baked bread for breakfast.  Just like your Mother was in the kitchen, (well almost.)

It was a wonderful evening with my family.  A very special Christmas to be sure.  I hope you had a wonderful Christmas as well.  We’re off to Des Moines to celebrate Christmas with Jeanne’s Sister and Cousins and them home this evening.  Lots of driving but we’ve been doing it for 36 years.  🙂  Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy this blessed day and be careful.

Happy Christmas Eve to you.  I hope you have a joyous Christmas and here’s hoping we all have a prosperous New Year.  Yesterday I went out to see if I could find something to shoot.  Usually my first place to check is the 16th Street Basin.  It is mostly frozen over now and there we at least a hundred geese sitting on the ice.  I watched them for a long time and occasionally one would stand up and flap their wings and then snuggle back down on the ice.  Doesn’t seem to me to be a comfortable way to spend an afternoon but hey what ever trips their trigger.

The only time the geese would do anything was if I got out of the car.  Then they would start doing their slow walk to the other side of the pond.  If I got back in my car they would waddle back to their original place.

I decided to go by the river and see if there were any eagles out.  Wow, were there eagles out.  They were everywhere.  Large groups of them sitting on the ice near some open water.  Several sitting in the trees on the bluff by Eagle Point Park.  I would imagine there were also a lot of them on the other side of the river.

At any given time there would be between 4 to 8 eagles circling the open water just below the dam.  Unfortunately at Lock and Dam 10 there isn’t a good view of the water where they fish.  You would have to shoot through a fence, which makes getting any kind of a good shot almost impossible.   There is always the observation deck but then I am so far from the action that it’s hard to focus on a fast-moving eagle.

It was pretty cold out.  My temperature gauge said it was between 18 and 20 degrees with a pretty good wind.  I thought about setting up my tripod and in fact did get it out of the car and over to the side of the road but my hands were so cold by the time I got it set up I decided I was done shooting eagles.

I drove over by the Yardarm Marina figuring there would be some gulls if nothing else.  I was surprised to see another large group of eagles.  Mostly juveniles.  In fact of the 30 or more eagles I saw by the Marina only two were mature eagles.  I remember how many times I drove by this children’s play area and it would be full of young boys and girls yelling and laughing and now old man Winter has taken over and the kids are gone and the playground is silent.

I had a lot of trouble with my 500 mm lens yesterday.  It would stop working like it did so many times last Winter.  I had a lot of trouble getting sharp images (but that is more me than the lens.)  My friend Andreas has the same lens and he gets great shots so it is a matter of practice and technique.

I had the lens on the Nikon D3S and it would just not produce a picture.  The shutter would work fine and I’d rip of 10 – 20 images only to find that I had 10 – 20 black shots with nothing in them.  If I twisted the lens a little it would shoot images but then it would stop right in the middle of a series of shots.  Very frustrating.

I know Burt, I can hear you saying “buy a decent lens.”  I don’t use one enough to justify that kind of money on a Nikon 500 mm lens.  They cost more than Nikon’s top of the line camera.  If I shot wildlife a lot like Andreas I might give it some thought but it is not a big part of my photography.  I would rather capture images of people than of birds.

Well that’s it for today.  Enjoy your Christmas Eve.  I’m looking forward to spending a little time with my family and eating a lot of good food.  Hope you have a very Merry Christmas.  God Bless you all.  Be careful.