Upde Designs

The weather was not conducive to shooting yesterday.  Cold, windy, cloudy, and flurries.  That being said I did go down to the river to see if anything was available.  The only thing I could find were these Ring Billed Gulls who had taken refuge at the 16th street basin.

I could find no wildlife at the river.  In fact I didn’t even see any traffic on the water at all.  It was just a nasty day (weather wise) for shooting or doing anything outside.

Maybe I amped up the sky a little but this is what I saw on the way to the river.  The good news is that I received a text from Angie wondering if I wanted to have lunch with her and Joshua.

That was an easy question.  So we met at Champs around noon.  A great place to eat in Dubuque.  Good food, good service, perhaps a little pricey.

Josh wasn’t all that friendly when we first got together, that is until I took this image and then he lit up and said, “Push button, push button.”  So I had to let him push the flash button 4 times.  I’m sure people in the restaurant wondered what was going on.

After that we played and colored on the menu.  Well the only thing we had to color with was a blue ink pen but he was having fun with it.

So after a good lunch with stimulating conversation and brushing up on my coloring skills I said good-bye to Angie and Josh and went out again looking for something to shoot.

I couldn’t find anything that interested me.  Not many people out walking around.  I saw several barns but nothing I hadn’t already shot this year.  So I decided to go home and take a nap.  🙂

Enjoy your Tuesday.  Stay warm, thanks for stopping by and be careful.

Yesterday was the annual Cops Vs. Kids touch football game.  It has gone on for around 8 years (I think.)  I asked Mark how long they have played this game and he wasn’t sure.  He couldn’t remember exactly how it got started but just that they all make an effort to play it.

Yesterday was a real effort.  As you can see from the top images the field was in pretty awful shape as in a mud bowl.  Plus the fact there was a steady rain and the temperature fell the entire game.  Mark said his hands were so cold he could no longer feel them.

I was pretty sure they were going to not play, but Mark came upstairs in his football gear and said he’d see me later.  So I put some water proof covering over my D3S and was getting ready to head over to the field when it occurred to me an umbrella might be a good item to have.  🙂

I only had to walk a couple of blocks to get to the field but in that time I was wet, muddy and cold.  I fired off a few shots and was still getting some moisture on the lens.  The young guys had two more players than the Cops, so two had to sit out and then they would rotate into the game keeping the numbers equal.

I have to give the law enforcement guys a lot of credit.  They are older and they didn’t get a rest period like the young ones did.  They played every minute of the game and gave the young upstarts all they could handle.

It was at this point I decided this is enough and so I bid them adieu and headed home.  It was then that a Sheriff’s car pulled up with a deputy watching the game for a few minutes.

Duh!  why not go get the car and watch the game in comfort.  I’m not real quick but I eventually finish the race.  🙂

So I came back in the car and if I kept the passenger window to the field I could shoot without getting the camera or myself wet.  Occasionally the mirror or the window frame got in the way but that was a small price to pay for the comfort of a heated seat and dry shooting environment.

I’ll leave you with this image, which I think conveys the misery they were in.  Mark said they won the game but again the Cops didn’t have any replacements and they were playing against younger players.  Not once did I see any give up and get it over attitude on anyone’s part.  I was impressed.

I hope you enjoy your Monday.  Our company is closed today for the Veterans Day holiday so I hope to get out and take a lot of images.  Thanks for stopping by and be careful.

Sorry for the lack of activity on my blog of late.  I’ve been in a funk and just haven’t felt like working on images.  That’s done so now it’s back to clicking away.

I think I have shown this barn before but on the way to work Friday the sunlight was hitting it with warm color and I had to pull of the road a grab a shot.   I like the wagon sitting by the side of the barn and one other sitting in front of it.

I know, yes it’s baled hay or actually baled corn stalks.  The arrangement of the bales in groups of three is what caught my eye.  Plus the sun was nice and soft on this early morning commute so I had no choice but to pull over and take the image.

Yesterday I decided to cut the grass.  The temperature was mild and the grass was really longer than I like it to be going into Winter.  So I made three passes around the yard only to hit a water pipe on the third round.  Apparently the ground has sunk down just enough so that one of the blades caught the pipe square and that was the end of the mowing.

I spent the next two and half hours fighting with the tractor trying to get he blade off.  The blade won the fight so I put the tractor away and will give strong consideration to a new tractor come Spring.  This one is 15 years old and I’ve nursed it through several issues.  I think it is time.

Finally I’ll leave you with this image of some pellet stoves.  Or at least that is what I think they are.  Every day on my morning commute I see a different combination of these stoves sitting near the frontage road.

I assume one of the farmers near by either produces these or is a distributor of them.  There are many different sizes of stoves in the display.  I particularly liked the long row of this style.

That’s it for today.  I hope to get out and take some images this afternoon.  Mark has his annual “Cops and Kids” touch football game this afternoon.  This game has been played for the last 8 years on the second Sunday of November.

Local policemen and Sheriff’s Deputies play a number of the kids that are Mark’s buddies.  I’m not sure how the game got started but they are religious about playing in any kind of weather.  Hopefully I’ll have some images from that game tomorrow.  Unless the weather is bad. 🙂

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for checking on me Burt.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

This is one of the cartoons I read every morning.  The Cartoon is called “What The Duck”  and it is the creation Aaron Johnson, an accomplished photographer in his own right.  The cartoon is about the happenings of a professional photographer’s daily life.

In fact I’m a big enough fan of the strip that I have my own “What The Duck” character sitting on my desk top.  🙂  Weird I know but I look at him when I’m disgusted with some images I have taken.

Anyway I liked the cartoon this morning.  It made me laugh so I decided to share it with you, but then again I felt compelled to explain the whole “What The Duck” thing.  (It’s a lot of work being me.)

Now for something completely different.   I told you earlier that Josh and Angie stopped by last Sunday morning.  Here is an image I captured of Josh drinking out of a glass.  No sippy cup for this big boy.

We had a lot of fun sitting at the kitchen bar and drinking our beverages.  He did very well, not spilling a drop until we toasted and then the contents of the glass dumped on his sweatshirt.  🙂

Finally I’ll leave you with this image of Josh (after he had changed shirts) sitting at the piano.  He climbed up on the bench by himself and started playing notes with both hands.

After awhile he did some banging but most of the time he was playing individual notes with both hands.  After a little while he asked Papa to sit with him and play.  Unfortunately I can play no better than he can so we sounded pretty awful but we had a great time sounding bad.  🙂

That’s it for today.  Enjoy your Thursday and thanks for stopping by.  Be careful.

No blog this day.  I am still at a loss to understand.  I received an email from a friend this morning that may contain the reason.  “THE TAKERS OUT NUMBERED THE PROVIDERS.”  I just don’t know…

This is an image I took at around 5:10 pm last night.  I took it for my 365 project.  I was driving past what is left of the duck pond and what little light remained revealed these two geese standing in the little pond.  I just caught a glimpse of them but I thought I might be able to capture an image.

So I made a U-turn and then found a place to park, walked about three blocks with camera and tripod in hand.  Dodged on coming traffic but got this image.  I’m glad I did.

Photo Specs:  Nikon D3S | Nikon 28 – 300 mm lens | ISO 200 1.6 sec. @ f10

I added a little drama to the original image.   I duplicated the layer, changed the blend mode to “multiply.”  Then I added a mask and painted out the effect to show the geese in a better light.

I have more Galena images to show but I departed from that shoot today because of two wonderful emails I received yesterday.  One from a dear friend from Waterloo.  We’ve been friends for 35 years and even though we rarely get together when we do it’s like we’ve been together every day.  Anyway John just sent a nice email that sparked a few more between us. 🙂

My friend Andreas (whom I’ve referred to many times on this blog) also sent a very nice email thanking me for mentioning his blog and some personal thoughts on the election and photography.

Andreas also had a 365 project and he felt that it was more about producing a picture (quantity) as opposed to a great image (quality.)  Plus he said it got to be a real struggle.

I can understand that.  It is a self-imposed pressure and sometimes I do take a picture just to have one done.  But the thing I’ve noticed (and I’m only a little over 3 months into it) is that so far I’ve captured images that I otherwise might not have taken if I didn’t have the image of the day to shoot.

So at least for now it is doing what I wanted it to do.  I am thankful for my friends.    And for my friend Betty, thanks for your comment yesterday,  I am thankful for your continued support of my blog as well.  Remember to vote today please.

I hope we all make the right choice for the sake of our country.  Thanks for stopping by and be careful.

Some more images from Galena I took on Saturday.  Not a lot of commentary today as I told you about the shoot in yesterday’s blog.  Like I said it is a paradise for photographers.  I shot about 20 shop signs Saturday and I’ll show you those in a future post.

Most of what I have to show you today is just things I found in the stores or looking through the windows.  I enjoy shooting neon lighting.

Angie was out running errands yesterday.  Ben was at the Hospital so she and Josh stopped by to say hi to Poppa and his lights.  We read a couple of books and played with Poppa’s flash and then we decided to have a glass of water.

He did very well until we toasted and the turned the entire glass (half) on his chest.  He was wet.  After the second time Angie stripped him down and I used the hair dryer on his clothes.  10 minutes and he was good to go.

If you are a fan of the current occupant of the White House then my friend Andreas has some truly wonderful close up photos.  You can see them by clicking here.    I like the photography not the subject.  No matter how you vote please do so.  I believe this is the most important election of our life time.  The choice is remarkably clear between two diametrically opposing paradigms.

Well now that I have alienated half the readers of this blog I’ll say, thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your Monday and be careful.

Yesterday we met our good friends Steve and Becki in Galena for a photo shoot, shopping, and lunch.  Mostly I was the one doing the photo shoot and the lunch.  I left the shopping up to everyone else.

We try to get together once a quarter at a different place to do a photo outing.  As we were winding up our stroll through Galena I asked my friend Becki how many images she had taken and she said one.  🙂  I shot 126.

There is a lot to shoot on the streets of Galena.  Just the architecture alone is a whole memory card full of interesting images.  Additionally there are all the colorful displays in the store windows and on the sidewalk in front of some of the shops.

One lady who was working in one of the stores asked me what my favorite thing to shoot was.  I had to think a moment because I love all kinds of photography.   I guess my very favorite (and yet I find it the hardest) is people.

For example the streets of Galena are filled with lots of interesting looking people yet I am hesitant to capture their environmental image because I do not want to be intrusive.  Jay Maisel, arguably one of the best and most famous street photographers in the world, has made a wonderful living just taking candid “intrusive” shots of people on streets around the world.

He says, “I’m not out to ruin anyone’s day, but I am out to create art.”

I’ve taken two of his on-line lessons but still cannot summon up the intestinal fortitude to pursue that type of photography.  Perhaps someday.

We had a wonderful lunch at Benjamin’s Restaurant.  If you have not eaten there and find yourself in Galena at mealtime I can highly recommend it.  I had the gourmet ham sandwich with 4 kinds of cheese on Texas toast.  A real artery clogger but WOW it was amazingly good with home fries.

We decided to drive out to the airport to see if the Romney rally was still in progress.  By the line of cars coming the other way we figured it was over.  We pulled in any way to see if we could get an image of the Romney plane and I got several of the takeoff.

That’s it for today.  Enjoy your Sunday.  I have several more shots from Galena to share with you tomorrow if you have interest.  Thanks for stopping by and be careful.

Happy Friday.  Yesterday after work I went up to La Casa De Pancho restaurant to take some more images for the website I am building for them.  I wanted some fun pictures of patrons at the bar enjoying an adult beverage.

Since I couldn’t count on random customers being at the bar and allowing me to take pictures I bribed some good friends with the promise of a free margarita (as in one only) if they would let me take some images of them at the restaurant.

I had thought about the lighting set up for sometime.  Last Saturday I actually had too much lighting for the small restaurant.  It was hard to maneuver around and it blocked a lot of the traffic lanes.

So this time I opted for a smaller strobe with a white umbrella modifier and reflected light to cover the entire bar.  I think it worked pretty good.  The image above is one of the test shots I took to get the settings right.

This is the final image (I think) that will go on the new website.  The lady serving the margarita is the owner of the restaurant Leticia.  She is a very nice lady and makes a wicked margarita.  If you get a chance I would suggest you try the Cadillac Margarita.  Not that I have tried it mind you. 🙂

Anyway the shoot went pretty good.  I was out of there by 6:00 pm and we only disrupted one group of customers.  I think they got tired of the strobe going off and they moved to the other side of the restaurant.

That’s it for today.  Enjoy your Friday.  Thanks for checking out the blog and a special thanks to my friends for helping me out.  I am really very grateful for you and for the help.  Be careful.

You knew this would be the feature of today’s post didn’t you?  We took the easy way out last night and put a bucket of candy on the front porch with a note wishing Happy Halloween and “Please Take One Piece Of Candy.”   Because we have a couple of dogs it is just too crazy to open the door give the kids treats.  I don’t have any idea how many kids actually got candy or if one got all of it.  It certainly didn’t last long.  🙂

We did have one special little “trick or treater” last night.  Joshua dressed up as a Pirate.  Angie said that he filled his little bag by going to the houses in their neighborhood.  He got pretty good at saying “tick teet” and wallah candy!!  🙂

Grandma had a little problem trying to get an image of Josh.  He doesn’t hold still for very long.  I’ve learned that you have to anticipate where he is going to look and then take the picture.  It helps to have a really fast camera as well.

I also bribe him.  He loves to push the button on my flash and watch the light.  I tell him if he poses he can push the button.  🙂  By the time she got her picture composed and focused he was on to something else.

They were only here for about 10 minutes but in that time he found his favorite little house with the magnets and was busily arranging them in an ordered way.  He loves to play with the magnets.

Then “whoosh” they were gone and Halloween 2012 was over (at least for us.)  Thanks for stopping by.  Hope you had a great (safe) Halloween.  Enjoy your day and be careful.