Upde Designs

Today would be my Dad’s 102nd birthday.  He was born December 10, 1910.  He was a remarkable man and I have many regrets about not spending more time with him.

He quit school in the 8th grade yet he was one of the smartest men I have ever met.  He use to love watching the cashier at the grocery store ring up his groceries and he would have the total in his head before the cash register put up the total.

I could write pages about him, suffice it to say he was a kind and gentle man of principles and I can only hope to someday be as good a man as he was.  Happy Birthday Dad.

I enjoy capturing images of Christmas ornaments.  A couple of years ago I did a series of posts on some of my favorite tree ornaments.  Not to worry I won’t make a repeat of that.

This is my favorite ornament.  My Mother got it for Angie one Christmas when we were in Bethany and Angie and I put it together with glue so it would not get lost.  It has been on our tree every year since then.

Jeanne went to visit her Mother this weekend and we were talking on the phone Saturday evening.  She was remarking how some of the men at coffee on Saturday morning were talking about their Fantasy Foot Ball teams.

She said she had always thought only younger guys would play that but these guys were in their 80s.  I said “You don’t stop living until you stop living.”  Then it occurred to me I had just uttered my version of a Yogi-ism.  If you think about it, it is actually a remarkable statement.  Profound.  🙂

That’s it for today.  Hope you enjoyed your weekend and are ready for today.  Thanks for stopping by.  Be careful.

Shooting a new image every day for my 365 project is some days a real challenge.  Especially if after a particularly challenging day work wise you find yourself with no photo, no idea, and no energy.  🙂

So as I was getting ready to leave work last evening it struck me.  No image of the day.  Ugh!  I walked to the break room to dispose of a pop can and saw this Christmas wreath in the hallway just outside my office door.  So I snapped a shot and headed for home.  (My project parameters do not require that it be a good shot, just a shot.)

So this is what came out of the camera.   Notice I didn’t say this is what the wreath looked like.  The human eye can capture so much more detail than a digital camera can and more levels of luminance.  You can look at the wreath in person and see all the texture, shades of green and other colors that the digital camera simply cannot capture.

I shoot is what is called RAW format.  Meaning that I set all the parameters of the image.  You cannot print or publish a RAW file.  The only way to do that is to convert it to a JPEG or other usable format.  So the RAW file is not white balanced, color balanced, sharpened nor enhanced in any manner.  Every photographer tries to get the best composure and lighting they can but there is still work to be done in the digital dark room.

So after removing the lens hood vignette, setting the white balance, getting the colors corrected, bringing up the shadows and mid-tones and applying sharpening this is what I ended up with posting for my 365 project.  And this is in fact pretty close to what the human eye would detect and interpret the wreath to look like.

Nice but what I love about digital photography is that you are not limited to what is.  You can push the boundaries and break a few rules.  Try different processing methods and different combinations.

I tried it in black and white and although it did have a certain appeal I much preferred it in color.  So I tried a little background alteration.

Finally I came up with this rendition.  I think I like it best of all.  I like my images to be a little on the edgy side and so I really pushed the sharpening on this and did what is called a high-pass sharpening technique.

The cool thing about digital photography is a person like me with no artistic talent what so ever can express myself in an artistic way.  And like I believe if I like it that is all that matters.

Of course the secret is that I really do hope you like it as well.  🙂  Thank you as always for stopping by the blog.  I hope you have a great Friday and be careful.

I am very blessed to be able to work with and for a lot of quality people.  As you may know one of my favorite subjects to photograph are people.  Problem is most of the time when I point my camera at people they say “NO!”

So that made yesterday very special.  These three friends ask me to take their picture.  Actually they wanted some images made of their team and so before business hours we got together and shot some nice images of them.

Then these three asked me to take a picture of them.  It’s so nice when people smile and pose for you.  🙂

Shot with a Nikon D3 | Nikon 24 – 120 f4 lens | ISO 200  1/125 sec @ f5.6 | Nikon SB800 Speed Light attached to a Last-o-lite Softbox.  SB800 set to manual at 1/4 power -1 ev.

Thanks for stopping by the blog.  I hope you have a wonderful Thursday.  Be careful

Another short post today as I don’t have a lot of images worthy of showing.  Lot of travel yesterday but little time to stop and take any images.  As I was coming back from the Quad Cities yesterday I went past this familiar scene on 61 highway South of Maquoketa.

Normally I just give it a cursory look going past because it is a nice scene.  Yesterday however it was about 3:30 pm and the light was already getting softer and more orange so I turned around and came back for this shot.

It actually ended up as being the image I selected for my shot of the day on my 365 project.  That’s it for today.  Hope you enjoy your middle of the week hump day.  Look for something interesting today, it’s out there.  Sorry Gary, I’ve stolen your tag line.  🙂  Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Be careful.

I have a short post for you today with only one image.  I’m running late as usual and I haven’t been able to take many images the last few days.  I have managed to get my photo of the day although sometimes it is a real challenge.

This is the sunset I shot Sunday.  It pretty much looks just like it did when it came out of the camera.  I did shoot it with a full minus 3 stops exposure compensation.  All the other images I shot above that had blown highlights.

So about the only thing I did to this image was some sharpening.  I love how you can see the full sun through the clouds.

I’m sorry for the short post.  Thank you for stopping by.  Enjoy your Tuesday and be careful.

Jeanne and I went on a photo drive yesterday as we do about every Sunday and while we were stopped to fill up with gas Jeanne pointed across the Arterial to a remote airplane doing some pretty fancy flying.  We couldn’t see exactly where it was flying over or the pilot but after filling up we headed over by Medical Associates.

We found the pilot and his friend plus another couple out on a walk.  It was quite an airplane.  Once he filled it up with fuel and started the engine the plane just sat there until he gave it just enough gas to start taxing.

He taxied the plane pretty close to me so I could get a picture of it (the first image) and then increased the power for the plane to take off.  The power to weight ration must be phenomenal because the little plane went straight up with no effort until it was almost out of sight.

Then he did a little roll and brought it right back over my head.  I should have stayed longer to practice my shooting of flying things technique but after a few minutes of watching the plane and keeping an eye on the sun it was obvious that the sun was going down quickly so we decided to move on.

We drove down to the 16th street basin.  There were lots of water fowl there but there were also a lot of people on the walkways so the birds were all out in the middle of the pond.  Too far to get good shots of them.

I did take a picture of an old house made of large stone.  Jeanne points to this house every time we go by it.  It’s got a lot of clutter around it with wires and junk around the property because it is apparently abandoned.  The sun was hitting it just right so I grabbed a couple of shots.

We were chasing the sun so I headed out West of Dubuque trying to get a pretty sunset (I’ll show you some of that tomorrow.)  But I wanted to leave you with this shot.  We drove to the end of a street to capture the sunset and as I was walking back to the car I notice this pump sitting in the side yard of a newly constructed home.

So staying on the street to respect private property while leaning and kneeling (hard to do for an old man) I shot the pump trying to get it lined up with the sunset.   Not one of my better efforts but I still like it.

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

Happy Friday.  Since it is officially the season, I thought I would show you some Christmas type images today.  Downtown Maquoketa suffered a devastating a few years ago and the area was finally cleared and is now a green space (that is available for development.)

This year they put up a very nice Christmas tree for everyone to enjoy.  I’ve wanted to photograph it for the last couple of weeks but it has been too cold and or windy (the tree would be moving) to do so.  Last night there was no wind and the temperature was a mild 41 degrees so I got to take some shots.

There was a movie a few years ago (I think 2008) called Vantage Point.  It was not a good movie but it sucked me in and I watched the whole thing.  The movie revolved around one horrific incident and then it would rewind and you would see the same incident from another individual’s point of view.  You couldn’t understand the whole incident until you saw all the different vantage points.

Anyway I called the Jones County Sheriff’s Department yesterday about the incident that occurred on November 15th.  After talking with their investigator I was satisfied with the answers I received and I am happy to report that as far as I’m concerned the incident is closed.  Again it depended on your vantage point as to what the story looked like.

So I set up the tripod in the middle of the green spot and cranked the ISO down to 100.  The native ISO for the D3 is 200 but I figured as long as I was taking timed exposures on a tripod it didn’t matter how slow the shutter speed was.

I shot at f10 so I could get a pretty good depth of field and used the 24 – 120 f4 lens.  I tried several timed exposures and then some 5 shot HDR exposures.  The first two images in this post are HDR images.  The one above is a 3 shot HDR.  It was originally a 5 shot but the two longest exposures had some cars go through so they had a bunch of annoying red, orange, and white lines running through them.

Although you can see (click to enlarge the image) a thin red line going through the shot I really like this image.  I could have spent 40 minutes taking the red line out but maybe it adds something to the image (yes, a red line.) 🙂  Sorry I couldn’t resist.

Finally I wanted to capture a couple of the businesses that were still open.  This is the Great Wall.  A Chinese restaurant that I have lunch at from time to time.  Again I had to make a 3 shot out of this as the two longer exposures were full of lines.  I took one of the Main Street Cafe but all the images had cars in them.

That’s it for today.  Enjoy your Friday.  It is supposed to be a very nice day weather wise.  Thank you for checking out my blog.  I hope you enjoy what you find here.  Be careful.

Imagine we are almost through November and in a few short weeks Christmas will be here assuming the Mayans were wrong.  Anyway our Organization held a nice event last evening at the Ohnward Fine Arts Theater in Maquoketa, Iowa.

I was asked to take images of the even so I showed up a little before guests were scheduled to arrive to shoot some test shots and get the lighting balanced.  If you have never attended a performance at the Fine Art Center you really owe it to yourself to go see this amazing theater.

It was built by volunteer labor, materials and donations.  It was the dream of Gary Drew and he raised a lot of money and got a lot of people engaged to build this remarkable facility.  It rivals any theater in the region for sound, comfort, and aesthetics.  There is also an Art Gallery that is part of the Theater and it is decorated in full Christmas attire.  So last night I shot a few random images to capture the feel of the evening.

There were over 600 people in attendance last night to hear a remarkable speaker, Jim Borel with DuPont agriculture and nutrition businesses.  His presentation focused on how to feed the world in the coming years.  Very interesting.

The more people started coming to the theater the warmer the room got.   I don’t like warm rooms so I would duck in and out of the building.  It was a nice evening so I didn’t mind standing outside greeting people as they came in.

I know this sounds funny coming from an individual whose career is Human Resources but I don’t like being in a crowd of people making small talk.  I’ve always been uncomfortable with that.  Once I’ve said “Hi how are you, glad to see you.” I’m stuck (if it is someone I don’t know or don’t know very well.)

I know all the questions to ask and the rules of engagement, I just don’t enjoy it.  🙂

Anyway it was a nice evening.  I got a lot of nice pictures of the event and left after the presentation about 7:15 pm.

I had the nicest thing happen yesterday.  I went to Rotary (which I’ve been very bad about doing.)  Before the speaker began a fellow Rotarian told the group about my website and my photography.  He was very complementary of my work and it made me feel wonderful.

I’ve known this gentleman for years but not all that well.  So his remarks came as a complete surprise to me.  It was very gracious and kind of him to say the things he did.  Interesting because I had read a blog yesterday from a world-famous photographer who said that the only one you have to please and impress is yourself.

Don’t try to shoot and create for other (unless of course you’re being paid) but shoot to express your vision of the world.  If you please yourself, others will enjoy it as well.

That’s it for today.  Enjoy your day and as a great friend of mine often says.  Find something amazing today, it’s out there.  Be careful because you never know when a guy with a gun is going to walk up behind you and say, “What are you doing?”

Some more images from Monday.   I haven’t shot any images of a train for sometime.  I came across this train sitting just short of an intersection apparently waiting for traffic from the other direction to clear before he could move.

Trains always remind me of my friend Ralph.  He worked for the same company as I did back in the 70s.  His office was in Des Monies.  Occasionally I would go to Des Moines for meetings or to help out as he had a really busy work flow.

Ralph was also an avid photographer and he loved trains.  His office was full of train pictures he had taken over the years.

He also loved to ride motorcycles.  He and some of his buddies traveled all over the US on their bikes and anytime he got the chance he would take a picture of a train.  He had trains from about 40 different states.

His entire office was like an art gallery devoted to railroad trains.  They were all framed, matted, and hung with great care.  It wasn’t sloppy but one was overwhelmed when you first walked into his office.  You could easily spend an hour just looking at all of his train pictures.  He rotated them from time to time so each visit I had some new trains to look at.  He was also a very good photographer to boot.

I remember once that Jeanne and I went to Ames, Iowa where his home was for a Christmas party he threw for the Iowa offices of our company.  There were lots of train pictures but in one room, floor to ceiling was a row of book shelves and they contained every Playboy magazine ever published (at that time.)  Jeanne was not impressed but I was.  🙂

Tragically he was killed in a freak accident in a small Kansas town.  On one of his motorcycle trips he had parked his bike and was walking across the street and a motorist ran into him and he died from the injuries he sustained.

He was such an interesting man and I still think of him some 30 plus years later when ever I see a train.

That’s it for today  Thanks for stopping by and be careful.

Nikon D800 | Nikon 70-200 f2.8 lens | ISO 100 1/320 sec @ f5.6

Back at it today.  I could get use to this life style however.  No tie, wake up when you feel like it and no pressing issues.  🙂  Yesterday afternoon I went down by the river to see what was up.  Found a bunch of Ringed Bill Gulls, Geese, and Ducks.  So I had some fun shooting images of them.

I found this guy sitting on a guard rail.  I didn’t think I could get very close but just kept driving very slowly until I was up close to him.  Then I shot away.  I’ve never seen a gull up close and personal like this.

So I drove around the 16th street basin area.  There isn’t very much water in it. Some of the gulls were just walking around on the water so it is only a couple of inches deep in many places.

Nikon D3S | Sigma 50-500mm f/4.5-6.3 DG OS HSM APO lens | ISO 200 1/400 sec @ f8.0

I found this duck at the river.  He was up along the edge bobbing for food.  I could never catch him with his head completely out of the water so I had to settle for this image.

I sat and watched the river for several minutes.  It was very peaceful and quite.  It was colder than cold but it was peaceful.  I only had a sweatshirt on so I didn’t last long outside the car.  I was surprised at the number of people who were down at the river during the afternoon.

Nikon D800 | Nikon 70-200 f2.8 lens | ISO 100 1/400 sec @ f2.8

I stopped back by the 16th basin on the South side there were a lot of geese milling around.  I tried my stealthy approach and had pretty good success.  I got close enough to this guy that I used the 200 mm lens and still needed to back it down a little.  They seemed totally unconcerned with me.

I had a lot of fun watching the gulls and geese.  There were very few ducks around but I always enjoy watching the water fowl.

I know this image doesn’t fit the theme of the other three but I stuck it in just cause I like it.  I was standing beside the river and finally focused on this house.  It seemed so isolated sitting there all surrounded by trees.

I knew when I shot the image I was going to convert it to black and white.  I have a preset called Antique and I like to use it on a lot of my black and white photos.

Well that’s it for today.  Don’t want to be too late on my first day back.  Hope you enjoy your Tuesday and thanks as always for stopping by.  Let’s be careful.