Upde Designs

I should have called this left overs Friday because that is all I have for today.  Images that didn’t make the first or second cut.  As I finished my photo walk Tuesday evening (while in Des Moines) the sun was just about gone and I liked the way it played against the side of the hotel.  I finally found an angle where there were no cars (at least that’s my story) and captured this image.  😉

This is part of the brick facade in the front of the building.  I liked the texture of the bricks and the way the sun light made them look.

Not too far from the hotel is the Ankeny airport.  They do not have jet traffic there but as I was walking around I noticed a lot of  air traffic landing from the South.  I walked about a mile (after shooting the geese) and positioned myself in front of the runway (still on the sidewalk of course.)  I waited for 35 minutes and not one airplane came in for a landing.    😦  I am not, as you know a patient person.

I wanted to get a shot of one landing because they get very low flying over the roadway and I thought it would make a neat image.   So 35 minutes of standing on the sidewalk looking like an idiot with nothing to shoot.  Well actually I did take an image of a tall thistle growing out of the sidewalk but how pathetic is that?  Finally I gave up and of course half way back to the hotel two more big twin-engine airplanes landed.  😦

I leave you with the flag.  It was waving vigorously in the strong wind of Tuesday evening and against the blue sky I thought it would make a nice image.

So that’s all I have left of my trip.  Oh yes, a friend of mine pointed out that in yesterday’s post the structure I referred to as a barn is actually a corn crib.  Thanks for catching that Tom.   Tom is an old farm boy and he enjoys farm scenes, only he wants me to call things by their right name.  🙂

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

I had an uneventful trip home yesterday afternoon.  I can’t remember a prettier sky than yesterday.  Deep blue color and big puffy white clouds.  I shot a ton of images of just clouds.  You never know when you’re going to need some good clouds for a composite image. 🙂

Where Highway 20 and I-35 meet there is a large number of wind turbines near a town called Jewel.  I wanted to take an image of those wind machines against that wonderful blue sky.  This image is not quite how I had it pictured in my mind but I couldn’t get the view I wanted as I would have been shooting directly into the sun.

I saw lots of barns on highway 20 that I wanted to shoot.  Some were in a real bad state.  I didn’t stop for a lot of them because of traffic and to be honest I was ready to be home.

I liked this shot because you can get a feel for how beautiful the sky was yesterday.  The structure was sitting in the middle of a field with no other building around.  That’s what first drew my attention to it.

So I made it home and Jeanne and Maggie were both glad to see me.  It is fun to go sometimes but I’ve become a home body pretty much.

The conference was a little weak this year.  There were some good subjects on Tuesday, but yesterday I was not inspired by the presenters.  I think the main benefit most of the time is the networking you get to do.

Making sure you have a good peer group of people who you can help and be helped by.  So from that stand point and the CE hours it was worth the two-day investment.

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

It seems like forever since I last held a camera in my hand and captured some images.  This post feels that way too.  I didn’t really capture anything special but it felt so good just to get out and take some shots that I really didn’t care what it was that I shot.

I’ve been in Des Moines this week.  Well more precisely in Ankeny, Iowa for an HR Conference.  I have to take so many continuing education hours every year and this is one of the better conferences to attend.

It is over this afternoon and then I’ll drive home later this evening.  Last night there was a pre-conference meeting so it was dark by the time I could go out and shoot.  Not to mention that the wind was blowing 50 mph.  Well at least 30 mph.

Yesterday evening after class I took my D3 for a walk around the area to see what I could find.  Yes I know more pictures of geese and ducks.  Well that’s all I could find that was worth shooting.  Several of the hotels have small ponds in front of them and they all had a number of geese and ducks present in those ponds.

Besides Jeanne and my friend Betty both like geese so please endure another goose picture.

I have no idea how far I walked.  it seemed like miles and it felt like 20 miles at least.  I discovered two things.  I am pitifully out of shape and one should be mindful where one is walking keeping in mind that one has to return the same way as he came.  Meaning that if you walk a mile or two in one direction you have to walk a mile or two in the other direction.  😦

I wished I had more to show you but this is all I found to make images of.  It was fun to get out and walk some new territory.  It was a nice evening and the wind had finally calmed down.  It will be good to get home this evening.

Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your middle of the week day and be careful.

A short post today as I do not have much.  Just some more shots of Joshua from his Wednesday evening visit.  One because I needed something for the blog but mainly it’s because he’s just so darn cute. 🙂

It was so very long ago that I watched our kids grow that today it is like a new experience watching Joshua learn and develop new skills.  Then when he gets cranky he goes home. 🙂  Ah the beauty of being a grandparent.

Yesterday I had a meeting in Dubuque that I anticipated would only last an hour.  But I didn’t get home until 5:30 pm so not much savings.  I had intended to go out shooting but Jeanne said that we lost one of the dogs in the back yard and that was my clue to fire up the mower.  I finished at 7:45 pm.

It is supposed to rain this weekend and I hope it does.  I know we need the rain and it is really sad to see the duck pond right now.  The water level is getting very low and all the little islands where the Geese are nesting on their eggs will shortly be exposed to predators who can walk on ground to their island nests.

A friend of mine said to me yesterday as I was lamenting the low water at the duck pond and the danger to the geese, “Well that’s Nature.”  It is but it doesn’t mean I have to like it.

I’m rambling so enjoy your Friday.  Thanks for stopping by and be careful.

Wonderful treat yesterday evening as Angie, Ben, and Joshua stopped over for pizza.  It is great fun seeing Josh learn and develop.  Each time I see him he has learned so many new things and is so aware of everything around him.  In this image Angie has just asked him where Grandpa is and he is pointing to me.  🙂

There was no warm-up period last night as Joshua took to Grandpa right away.  We had a nice conversation about a lot of interesting things.  Of course only one of us at a time understood what the other one was saying but it was all good.  🙂

While we were all visiting and playing with Josh he found his Mother’s sunglasses and tried them on.  He liked how different everything looked with the glasses on.  Then of course he would take them off and laugh, put them back on and the repeat.  Fun stuff to watch.

We ordered pizza from Falbo Brothers Pizza.  This was only the second time I have had their pizza and I must say it was very good.  Joshua had an assortment of foods but his favorite for this evening anyway was Cheerios.

Josh and I was having a conversation and I was asking him where different parts of his face were and then I’d ask him to find the same part on me.  Unknown by me Angie had my beloved D3 and captured this moment when I asked Josh where Grandpa’s nose was.  It looks like he is sticking his finger in my nose but actually he just missed.  🙂

I’m sorry you had to endure my image on this blog.  I try not to let that happen with any frequency.  So it was a fun evening and we enjoyed everyone’s company but unfortunately they had to leave much too soon.

We got a text from Mark last evening that he has caught the same viral bug that I had.  He was home over Easter and gave me a couple of hugs.  I enjoyed the hugs but I’m sorry he caught the bug from me.

Enjoy your Thursday, make someone’s day better.  Thank you for stopping by my humble blog.  Be careful.

I’ve been battling a viral bug for the last few days, so I have not been up to writing a blog event nor of course capturing any images.  I seem to be over it now and feeling much better.

Last evening as Jeanne and I were eating dinner these two Doves landed on our back patio and proceeded to interact with each other.  The one on the right stayed more or less stationary while the one on the left (presumably the male) would puff himself up to almost double his original size and make a complete circle around the female.

He would then deflate himself and start the process all over again.  In the blink of an eye he would go from double his original size to small and smooth.  I shot these images through the glass in the door to our patio.  I decided I would like to get a clean shot so I slowly and carefully opened the back door.  As soon as I turned the lock there was only one.

By the time I got the door open so I could have a clean exposure they were both gone.  I took this shot from just outside the patio and when I walked out to the end of the patio to get a better shot they were gone.  Very skittish.

Yesterday on the way to work I was running late as is my custom.  I went by the Duck Pond and out of the corner of my eye I saw four Great Egrets.  Now the dilemma.  Do I find a place to turn around, get the big lens on the camera, set up the tripod and try to get the shot and be an additional 20 minutes late…  Nope I opted to keep going.  It was hard but considering I’d already missed three days of work I thought I’d better get going.  Hopefully there will be another group yet this Spring.

Enjoy your day and thanks for stopping by.  Be careful.

Nikon D3 | Tamron 90 mm f2.8 macro lens | Ring Flash | ISO 200 1/60 sec @ f8.0

I’ve been a  little under the weather the last few days so I haven’t been able to get out and shoot.  So these images have no relationship with each other just leftovers from the Arboretum shoot I did.

This is a wonderful art piece donated by Bob and Donna Walhert.   I’m not up on my flowers but I think maybe this is a tulip bulb.  It is very well done.

Nikon D3 | Tamron 90 mm f2.8 macro lens | Ring Flash | ISO 200 1/60 sec @ f8.0

One of the flowers I didn’t publish before.  I didn’t do a good job of composing this shot, which is why it didn’t make the first cut.  But since this is left over day I thought it was good enough to show.  I’m going to spend more time at the Arboretum this year.  Hopefully go back in early May when things are a bit more in bloom.

Nikon D3 | Tamron 90 mm f2.8 macro lens | Ring Flash | ISO 200 1/60 sec @ f8.0

Finally this water attraction.  In the Summer months they have the water turned on and it makes a nice peaceful waterfall.  The Gold Fish are abundant and you can buy fish food at the welcome center to feed them.  Jeanne and I saw lots of baby Gold Fish that looked like they had recently hatched so they should have a good number of them this year as well.

Enjoy your weekend and Happy Easter.  Thank you for stopping by.  Be careful.

Happy Friday.  This is one of my favorite weekends because it is the Masters Tournament.  No I’m not forgetting it is also Easter but this weekend is always the Masters.  Even though I’m not into golf like I used to be I still enjoy watching the Masters.  One day I hope to see Augusta National  for myself.

The image above is a railroad bridge that crosses a little stream as you are coming into Guttenberg.  I saw it on the way into town but there was a lot of traffic around me so I decided to shoot it on the way out-of-town.

For those who have not been to Guttenberg it is a remarkably clean town with a thriving business community.  They have built a park along the river and it has benches, picnic tables and kid rides to enjoy.

This railroad track is on the North side of town.  I had been over to the island driving around the island.  I didn’t realize that there is a grass air strip there with hangers and runway lights.  I’ve seen the island many times from the highway but I have never actually driven over to it and explored.

There were no barges locking through during the time I was there.  I would have enjoyed sitting on one of the many benches and watching that process.  One interesting thing I noticed that almost every car I met while driving around in Guttenberg the occupants would wave at me.  That felt good.

Finally this older sailboat adrift in the grass of a field.  I don’t know if it is sea (or river) worthy but it didn’t look all that great.  I thought it would make a nice image however and I did envision this in black and white when I took it.

I have a few more images to show you this weekend from my Guttenberg trip.  I  hope you enjoy your Friday and this Easter weekend.  Thanks for stopping by and be careful.

This is I believe a Long-billed Dowitcher (Limnodromus scolopaceus.)  Okay this all started this morning.  I was sitting at my home office desk and thinking “I don’t want to be at work today.”   Not that I don’t love the work that I do because I truly do but I just needed a break.  So I called my associate and said I’m taking PTO and I’ll see you tomorrow.  🙂  Is this a great country or what!

So  I went back to bed and took a nice long nap.  Then I got on the tread mill and did 40 minutes (for all the good that will do.)   Ate some lunch, took a shower and then grabbed my camera and headed for Guttenberg.

Why Guttenberg?  Well I haven’t been there for a while.   It is a beautiful community on the Mississippi and I was hoping to find some interesting things to capture.  I didn’t realize that I would make an image of a bird that I have never seen before.  That’s pretty cool.

The image above is of a common Robin.  He was sitting in the tree very close to where I captured the Long-billed Dowitcher.  I liked the way the image looked so I included it in this post.

Finally as I was leaving the area and heading back for Dubuque I came across these three turtles sunning themselves on a tree branch sticking out of the water.  I drove pretty close to them and they didn’t dive so I took a bunch of images of them.  The sun was too high in the sky and that caused it to be too bright for it to turn out the way i wanted but you get the idea.

So that’s part of the adventure for yesterday.  I shot about 90 images.  I saw a lot of Coots, a Blue Heron (which I couldn’t get a picture of) lots of Geese but I didn’t shoot any of them.  I’ve only got a thousand goose pictures.

I’ll have some more stuff tomorrow from my impromptu photo adventure.  Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your Thursday and be careful.

On the way out-of-town last evening I was on 61 highway but from the 4 lane I saw a bunch of swans on the Hurstville Pond.  So I took the side road and came up on the East side of the pond.  There were 8 to 10 swans on the pond and I didn’t notice until I was in post processing there was also a Blue Heron and what may be a Great Egret there as well.  I was far enough away that I couldn’t tell.  It is very unusual to see that many swans on the  pond.  From where I was everything just looked like swans.

Closer to shore were this pair of swans.  These are the ones who stay here most of the year.  Apparently the others are migrating elsewhere.  If I had realized there was a heron and perhaps an egret on the other side I would have worked my way around to the other side of the pond to try to capture a better  image of them.

So I hung around for a while to see if the swans would come any closer and when it became clear that they were not I decided to leave.  So I packed up my tripod and camera and headed home.  I was hoping to find something else to photograph but unfortunately  that was not the case so it is swans and a goose standing on one leg for you today.  Sorry.

Hope you have a wonderful Wednesday.  Thanks for stopping by and as always be careful.