Upde Designs

Some more flowers to show you.  I didn’t use the macro lens on these and the wind was still present.  I would have been better off using a tripod but I didn’t want to carry it around with me.

I really like Tulips (Tulipa) even though they are hard to photograph.  You have to get right on top of them to actually photograph them.  One of the rules I was taught when shooting flowers is to shoot from an angle that most people would not normally see the flower from.

A couple of weeks ago I told you about the public beta version of Photoshop CS6 that is available for download.  I’m anxious to have the final version released.  I didn’t take the time to install all my plug-ins so it’s kind of a pain to jump back and forth between CS5 and CS6.

I already know that I’m going to upgrade to CS6 so I’m ready to move on and get it installed.  The content aware features found in CS6 is enough for me but there is so much more.  I would recommend you download and play with it while it is still free.

I like this last image even though some of it is very much out of focus.  I like it that it shows a group of three and it is the three stages of development of the tulip.

Well that’s it for today.  I’m fresh out of flowers so I’ll have to find something else for you the rest of the week.  I’m kind of running into a mental or creative block.  Okay it’s probably a mental block.  I can’t seem to find what it is I want to shoot next.  I don’t want to keep repeating the same thing over and over.

I mean I still turn the car around when I see some Canadian Geese but I’ve got a thousand images of them.  So if you have some thoughts I could use some inspiration. 🙂

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

Yesterday afternoon (after waiting most of the day for the sun to show up) we went out to the Dubuque Arboretum.   I haven’t been there yet this year so I was hoping there were some blooming flowers.

It was pretty barren around the Arboretum.  It was only 58 degrees, overcast, and windy.  Not great conditions to shoot plant life but we were there so I captured some images.   Even thought I used my 90 mm macro lens and a ring flash the wind was strong enough that I didn’t get as sharp of images as I would like.

There were maybe 10 other people there.  Most of them were walking for exercise.  there are a lot of trails and some hills at the Arboretum so it does make a good place to walk.  Talk about being out of shape.  We spent about 35 minutes at the Arboretum walking around looking for images and by the end of that I was tired.  😦

Anyway after our visit to the Arboretum we stopped at Dairy Queen and got a couple of Blizzards.  I guess I’ll start working out tomorrow.  🙂

After our visit to the Arboretum we drove around for a while looking for other things to shoot.  We went past the barn that I made an HDR image of last Fall.  It probably is the best barn shot I’ve ever taken.  The light wasn’t very good today so I’ll try to capture it in good light and maybe do a 4 seasons collection of it.

Enjoy your Monday.  Hope you all have a good week.  Thanks for stopping by and be careful.

It’s been a difficult week with lots of different projects and issues to work on so I haven’t done much with my photography this week.  Yesterday I had 15 minutes after lunch to go looking for something to shoot.

Okay, yes this is just a plain old barn but here is the nice thing about barns.  They don’t move, they don’t turn their back on you, and they don’t fly away.  If you get a blurry image of a barn you have some serious issues. 🙂

the other thing I like about barns is that they all are just a bit different.  One of these days when I get serious about photographing barns I’m going to go to the farm-house where the barn is located and talk with the owner.  I’d like to know the history, when it was built, who built it, etc.

I met a very nice lady a few weeks ago when I was making calls for the Chamber.  She lives alone on their family farm and she has this wonderful old barn that is over a hundred years old.  Most of the paint is peeling off and it is bad shape but would make a wonderful photograph.

My fellow chamber person and I were intrigued by her story of the barn as told to her by her Father.  I told her that I would like to photograph it when the snow was gone and she said, “You’d better hurry up because its coming down this Summer.”  I told her that was very sad and she said, “Yes I know but I can’t keep it up and it’s going to fall down anyway.”  I hope I remember to capture that barn soon.

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

This is a follow-up to my post yesterday about the Mexican standoff at the Hurstville Duck Pond.  See the post below if you happened to miss it before.

I was in meetings most of the day yesterday and didn’t leave Maquoketa until dark so there was no opportunity to photograph anything.  There was, however, enough light to see that the geese were nesting on this piece of land  and the swans had moved to another island and were in the process of building their nest.

In fact from what I could see it was like most of the wildlife at the pond was in the process of securing their nesting sites so there may be a lot of young geese at the pond soon.

There are some at the Interpretative Center who believe that the male swan may be impotent as they have not had any signets since coming to the pond.  Who knows maybe this will be the year.

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

On the way home yesterday evening I was happy to see this pair of Trumpeter Swans at the “Duck Pond.”  I have not seen them around yet this year so I was really happy to see that they had apparently wintered well and were once again back in Hurstville.

I have no idea how hard the wind was blowing but you can see some pretty good waves in the image above.  I found it very difficult to stay steady while trying to capture these images.  I opted not to use a tripod because I am stupid.  The Sigma lens is difficult to hand hold on a good day because it is so heavy and long, let alone when the wind is blowing as hard as it was yesterday.

What we have here is a Mexican standoff.  The swans (who traditionally rule the pond) found themselves up against an irate pair of Canadian geese who had already staked out this little island mound of dirt as their nesting place.  There was a 25 minute posturing and honking event but eventually the swans swam away leaving the geese to their nesting island.

At the far end of the pond I saw this lone juvenile swan.  He showed up at the pond about three weeks ago and pretty much stays at the South end of the pond.  He has no mate and doesn’t seem to mind that fact.

He paid no attention to the other two swans at least while I was there.  I don’t know where this swan came from.  He was there in the Fall last year and like I said came back about 3 weeks ago.  I really love to stop at the Duck Pond and watch the wildlife.  There haven’t been as many migrating birds this year as I remember from past years.

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

Ugh!  Monday already.  Doesn’t seem like there was much of a weekend.  I did get the new light fixtures installed in the kitchen and dinning room.  They turned out pretty good in spite of my best effort to screw them up  🙂

Saturday was pretty much shot after we got done with the light fixtures.  So no photo trip on Saturday.  We did get out Sunday afternoon for a couple of hours.  Drove for an hour and didn’t find anything that I wanted to capture an image of.  Saw a lot of stuff I haven’t seen around here before and was on some roads that I had never traveled.

The Blue Heron above was at the 16th Street Basin.  There wasn’t a lot going on but he was there until I tried to get a little too close and then he was gone as well.

He flew off and then after a while he came back by.  Apparently he still wasn’t happy with my position because he made a big circle of the pond and then took off in the general direction of the river.

We drove over to the river and up around the Lock and Dam but other than a lot of fishermen there just wasn’t any wildlife around.  So we drove down to the river walk area and ran into to some friends of ours.  We had a brief visit with them and then off to see what else we could find.

We went back to the 16th Street Basin.  I saw several of these large black birds flying over the Basin.  At first I thought they might be juvenile eagles but upon examination of my images I discovered they were Turkey Vultures.

This is not a very good shot but it was the only one I had that was even half way in focus.  I don’t know why I couldn’t get the Sigma to focus on them.  I was having pretty good luck with the little gulls but for some reason this big bird just wasn’t holding a focus.

I don’t mean to be insensitive but damn these are ugly birds.  They have a face only a mother could love. 🙂  So some pretty uninspiring images today but at least I got out with my camera on a really beautiful day.

Enjoy your week.  Hope to have more images for you as the week unfolds.  Thanks for stopping by and be careful.

Nikon D3 | Nikon 28 - 300mm lens | ISO 200 1/400 sec @ f8.0

I stopped over to the Decker Pub last evening after work.  On many Friday evenings there is a group that goes over to celebrate the end of the week and play some Euchre.    I never like to pass up a Euchre game so I stopped by and played a few games.  Basically got it handed to me.  🙂

On the way home I drove past the Hurstville “Duck” Pond and this was the sight that greeted me.  Too good to pass up.  I love this time of year.  Everything is getting greener, blooming, and starting to grow.

I got home and Angie’s car was in the driveway.  Ben was working late so she and Joshua stopped over.  I had so much fun playing with him that I didn’t even get the camera out.  😦

Hope you have a wonderful weekend.  Although not technically a sunset, this is for you Burt.  Thanks for stopping by and be careful.

First things first.  It’s back and it looks brand new.  Among other things fixed they cleaned the sensor, updated the firmware, and checked all functions of the camera.  It took me an hour last night to reconfigure the camera to my preferences but to say I’m happy to have it back is an understatement.  I’m sure you’ll be glad not to have to hear about it anymore as well. 🙂

Tuesday Adobe announced the public beta testing of the soon to be released Photoshop CS6.  It is a free download from Adobe.com and you can have a full featured version of what PSCS6 will look and feel like for about 30 days.  I downloaded mine last night because I was interested in seeing all the new content aware features that CS6 is suppose to have.

It rained on me the entire trip home last night.  Of course I was wanting to make some images but I don’t like standing in the rain to get them.  I came home through the industrial park last night because it takes me past a recreation area and there is usually something going on there.

I saw these guys in a canoe on the pond rowing.  I had never seen anyone use a canoe at this pond.   Usually there are walkers around path, lots of people bring their young children here to fish, and there are picnic tables around the pond for gatherings.

Anyway I braved a little rain to capture these guys rowing a canoe in March.  What great weather these past couple of weeks have been.  I hope to get out shooting this weekend.  Enjoy your Friday.  As always thanks for stopping by and be careful.

YEA!!

Actually all things considered 22 days from the time the D3 failed until I have it repaired and back in my hands after going all the way to California is not too bad.  Still for an impatient person like myself it was a long wait. 🙂

Hope to have some fresh images for you tomorrow.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

I was informed yesterday that the above image was chosen by the Iowa Bankers Association to be in their 2013 calendar for the month of November.

Of course if the Mayans were correct the calendar will not be published.  Otherwise my little image will be in a lot of homes come November 2013.

The D3 is scheduled to be delivered tomorrow. 🙂  I am not a patient man.  Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your Wednesday and be careful.