Upde Designs

A mixed bag of images for you today.  I like this landscape image of the lock and dam.  I’ve seen similar captures on touristy post cards so I thought I would try to duplicate the look.  It was such a gorgeous day at the river I really hated to leave.

Most of the dam doors were closed and the water was pretty choppy because of the wind so it made a nice looking scene.  Maybe I can sell these to some of the tourist shops. 🙂

There were a couple of guys who had climbed down on the rocks to fish in the waterway between the lock and the shore line.  I’ve seen lots of people fish there before.  I captured this image with the idea of converting it to black and white.

When I do a black and white conversion I like to capture a rough finish almost like an old film version with a bit of grain showing.  Some people do not like that look but I find it appealing on certain images.

Finally this image of a woman jogging along the walk way beside the river.  Jeanne and I were talking and I didn’t notice her coming to us until she was right there.  She went down to the lock and then turned around and headed back.  I shot several images of her as she jogged off into the sunset. 🙂

My original thought,  since I was shooting into the sun was to make a silhouette of the runner but the more I looked at the image I decided to do a grungy black and white.  Again some people do not like this type of image and I understand that.

Well that’s it for today.  Enjoy your Tuesday and thanks for stopping by.  Be careful.

Nikon D700 | Tamron 200 - 500 mm lens | ISO 800 1/640 sec @5.6

Are you ready for some football?  Yesterday was the 5th annual football game between my Son, his friends and Law Enforcement.  Even though the thermometer said it was 57 degrees, there was a 50 mph wind blowing (well okay maybe that’s a stretch) so it made for some watery eyes and cold fingers.

Nikon D700 | Tamron 200 - 500 mm lens | ISO 800 1/640 sec @5.6

Mark had a great game.  We only stayed for the first half and in the time we were there he caught three passes (one was an interception) and scored a touch down.  The image above is of him about to catch a pass from his quarterback.  You may have to look twice to see the football but if you look at the light standard the football is right in the middle just above the pine tree. 🙂

Nikon D700 | Tamron 200 - 500 mm lens | ISO 800 1/640 sec @6.0

Couple things became apparent to me right away.  One is that you need to stand a lot while shooting football (unlike basketball where you get to set.) I don’t do standing very well for long periods of time.  The second thing I learned is that as hard as it is to shoot eagles with a long lens, trying to follow the football is even harder.  The Tamron is a pretty inexpensive lens (when it comes to long lenses) but it does a decent job.  It is a little soft on action shots but is much better if the subject is not moving.  I was using a mono pod but with the wind it was not going to be a tack sharp day for photographing.

The above image is after Mark caught the football he ran it in for a touch down. YEA!

Nikon D700 | Tamron 200 - 500 mm lens | ISO 800 1/640 sec @8.0

The proud Mother was freezing.  Once I came back from the field at half time she said (or asked) are you ready to go?  I was indeed.  I didn’t have a hat and just a light wind breaker.  Of course the players were all wearing tee shirts and shorts.  But then again they are young!  🙂

Thanks for stopping by, enjoy your week.  Be careful.

Nikon D700 | Nikon 28 - 300 mm lens | ISO 200 1/1250 sec @ f11

Beautiful day in Dubuque today.  Jeanne was at the church baking pies early this morning.  More about that in another post.  I had an early morning haircut and then headed for the river.

After my haircut I stopped by the church to see the pie baking process (and to take some images of course.)  After a cup of coffee with Jeanne I headed for the river to see if there were any images to capture.

Nikon D700 | Nikon 28 - 300 mm lens | ISO 200 1/1250 sec @ f11

I had just got to the Lock & Dam and was getting ready to shoot when Jeanne called and said that she was all done with the pies and would like to join me.  I told her where I was and I waited for her.  The barge in the first image was slowly getting into place as there was a southbound barge coming through the lock ahead of him.

There were several fishing boats around the damn and some guys who climbed down the rocks to fish in the small inlet by the damn.

Nikon D700 | Nikon 28 - 300 mm lens | ISO 200 1/1250 sec @ f11

Although it was a little chilly the bright sunlight made it feel warmer and it was a wonderful morning on the river.  I love this time of year and yes I enjoy the chilly temperature.   We spent about 45 minutes waiting for this barge to lock through but it was clear it was going to be sometime before his turn so we decided to head out.

I found a few other things to shoot but had a full day of projects so decided I had better get some of those done before shooting any more.  Hopefully I’ll get out tomorrow as well.

Thanks for checking in.  Enjoy your Sunday and be careful.

Nikon D700 | Nikon 28 - 300 mm lens | ISO 200 1/320 sec @ f8.0

A very short post today as there is much to do, people to see and miles to travel before I rest.  🙂  No not really many miles, just lots of things that need to be done today.

So I will post an image of my favorite place in Maquoketa.  I stop here at least a couple of times a week on my way home and usually have lunch at the Hurstville pond once a week.

Inevitably when I’m late for a meeting in the morning there will be some interesting wildlife at the pond and I won’t have time to stop and photograph it.  The sun is always at my back in the morning so it’s a perfect time.  Just no time, usually.

In the evening I have to shoot into the sun so lots of times I can’t get the shot I want.  Of course if I were a little more adventurous I could go around by the Interpretive Center and walk around the pond on the other side.  But then there is the snake issue so I normally do not do that. 🙂

Anyway I hope you enjoy this image I took  on Thursday evening.  Thanks for checking the blog.  Be careful.

There is a stretch of highway 61 where during this time of year I see a lot of deer hits on the roadway.  Inevitably I will see at least one or two new impact areas on a weekly basis.    The above image gives some indication as to why.  These are three of a larger heard of about ten deer that were grazing in a field that abuts highway 61.

Combine resting after a hard day in the field

Nothing special about this image.  I have shot this combine before.  This farmer lives on Skyline Road and has a small field of corn that runs parallel to the road for about a half mile.  I’ve watched him combine for the last week and last night when I came by the field I saw this old 4 row combine sitting in the field, its work done for another season.

I’ll close with this image.  As I turned on Monastery Road I saw this beautiful cloud formation with the setting sun reflecting orange and magenta colors on it.  I went down in a ditch (with my suit on by the way) to capture this image of a corn bale against this wonderful sky.  No challenge to great for my beloved readers of this blog. 🙂

Enjoy your Friday.  Thanks as always for stopping by the blog and be careful.

This past week Jeanne and I had a real treat and a challenge.  Angie and Ben went to Washington D. C. to attend the wedding of a family member.  They debated about taking Josh and decided it was best to leave him with us.

I learned quickly there is a reason 20 / 30-year-old people have babies and why older people do not.  It is a lot of work. 🙂  Josh was an absolute jewel to be with but having said that, with an eleven month old baby you are always on duty.

So we had Josh for a whole week and my big night was Wednesday evening because Jeanne had to work late.   I had a bit of trouble with the car seat but once I got that figured out, we made it home and went right to playing all sorts of things.

It was fun to think as I was rocking and giving him his bedtime bottle in the same rocking that I also rocked his Mom in about 24 years ago.   We talked about that and he thought that was cool as well.

Finally Sunday arrived and we all trucked out to the airport to meet the kids.  I love the joy in this image even though it isn’t much of a picture.  When Angie and Ben saw Joshua they both light up with big smiles.  As babies typically do he was a little less excited but that only lasted a little while.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your Thursday.  Be careful.

Nikon D700 | Nikon 28 - 300 mm lens | ISO 200 1/100 sec @f8

Nothing special about today’s images.  The title suggests it all.  I left work last evening about 5:05 pm and decided to take a new route home.  Some of the time I was lost but then came across a familiar county road.   I saw a few things I wanted to capture but there was just no place to park as it was a pretty narrow county road.

I came over a hill so I could see traffic from both ways.  There was no shoulder to park on and no field driveway so I just stopped on the road and took this image.  I liked the way this structure was sitting in the middle of the field surrounded by this tall grass.  (okay I don’t know what this type of grass is called.) 🙂

Nikon D700 | Nikon 28 - 300 mm lens | ISO 200 Bracketed HDR @f8

Next I came across a bridge and usually when I cross a small stream I like to stop and look to see if there is anything interesting to shoot.  I liked the way this stream looked against the setting sun but it was so dark I couldn’t capture it on normal settings.

I didn’t want to walk all the way back to the car, get the tripod and waste time setting it up so I rested the camera on the bridge railing and took a 5 bracketed HDR image.  It’s an okay image but not what I hoped for.

Nikon D700 | Nikon 28 - 300 mm lens | ISO 200 1/30 sec @f4

I came around a rather sharp corner and saw this pond in a little valley, with the sun was just starting to set.  There were two farm dogs growling at me and smelling my legs and a woman on a horse that was wondering what the hell I was doing (I parked in her driveway.)   She looked mighty disgusted with me but I got the image and didn’t get bitten so all is good. 🙂

What I was trying for was the setting sun reflected in the pond.  When I first saw the pond that’s what I saw.  By the time I got turned around, parked, fought off the dogs, got the camera set up and took the picture the mighty sun had sunk too low to catch the reflection.  Now with about 15 minutes of Photoshop work I could have recreated that, but that would have been disingenuous.  Besides I didn’t have that much time.

Nikon D700 | Nikon 28 - 300 mm lens | ISO 200 1/15 sec @f4

Finally coming into Bernard I came across this scene.  Not a great moon but I still liked the way it framed up against the barren tree.  I again stopped on the road and braced myself against the car to take the shot.  I was lucky to get very little camera shake.  The sad thing about this whole experience was how quickly the light was gone.  At about 5:48 pm the sun was down and it was starting to get dark enough I needed a tripod. 😦

Thanks for stopping by.  I’m way late so have a great Hump Day and be careful.

Hard to believe that it is November already.  I think I said the same thing about the first of October.  The images today are from last Thursday.  I love to capture sunsets and silhouettes, so I have a couple of those for your today including the one above.  I actually took this same barn about the same time of the year in 2010.

The difference in that image and this one is the color the sun gave off.  The one from last year was really orange and this sunset was more yellow.  Still I like this old barn and you can see sunlight coming through the cracks.

Just a bit up the road from the previous farm was this structure that I really hadn’t paid much attention to until now.  When I went by it I caught a glimpse of the sun behind the building so I pulled off the road and captured this image.

I suppose you get tired of seeing these silhouette images but I just love how the colors of the sky mixed with the sunlight are so powerful when the sun is blocked out by a structure.

Finally my favorite image for the entire week (last week.)  I have shot sunsets with this windmill in the background before but I really like the blue sky mixed with the yellow sunset. I think this is one of my all time favorite images.

So no promises that I won’t have some more sunsets in the future but at least not for the rest of this week. 🙂  Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your Tuesday and be careful.

Actually it is more about the images I chose for today then about the season.  Maybe because it’s Monday or just that the images I selected for today’s post seemed to speak to me in black and white.

It kind of started with this barren tree that I took at the Hurstville Kilns last Friday.  I remember last winter I got so tired of looking at barren tree limbs and was so happy when the tree buds started coming out.  These reminded me of what is coming in a very short time. 😦

There is an old structure behind the Hurstville Kilns that at one time may have been a barn or more than likely a storage building of some kind.  Anyway it is an interesting old building in a just about to fall down state and on the two occasions I have ventured behind the Kilns I have enjoyed capturing images of this weathered old structure.

I can’t help but think what great picture frames this wood would make.  I have a friend who makes picture frames out of old barn wood.  He has made several frames for people who wanted some of my barn pictures.  It makes a stunning wall mount.

the two times I’ve been behind the Kilns has proved to be interesting.  I went there once in the middle of summer (2010) and then again this fall.  I would like to go again in the spring and take my large lens and tripod to see if I could capture some of the wild birds  that make their summer home there.

Finally I’ll leave you with this image of the stairs that descend from the Kilns.  They are not even nor are they spaced correctly so you have to be pretty careful coming down.  Hope you enjoyed the black and white images.

I hope your Halloween Monday is anything but black and white.  Enjoy your day and be careful.  Thanks again for stopping by.

Coming home from work on Friday I knew it was going to be a special sunset because at 5:15 pm the sun was already pretty big and very orange.  It turned a wonderful red as it sank in the West and try as I might I wasn’t able to accurately capture that color.  I’m close but not exactly what I saw.  It was the reddest sunset I can ever remember seeing.

I went to my favorite place to shoot silhouette sunsets but the sun was in the wrong place for where I could get to so I drove further and had just about given up on finding anything.  Then I noticed the lone grain silo in the distance and thought “what the heck” might as well shoot a wide angle sunset. 🙂

The above image is looking just North of the setting sun.  I liked the way the light played off the puffy clouds.

The last Howrah as the sun sets in the west and it all of a sudden started getting very dark.  Funny how that works.  Although it was not what I had in mind when I started chasing the sun on this Friday, I’m actually quite pleased with the results.

As my friend Andreas says you should always turn around.  As I was turning to walk back to the car this is what was in front of me.  I had been so intensely focusing on the sunset that I had not paid attention to the beautiful clouds being bathed in the rich sunlight from the setting sun.

Enjoy your Sunday.  Back to work tomorrow and thankful for that.  Be careful and thanks for stopping by