Upde Designs

Nikon D700 | Nikon 70 - 200 mm f2.8 lens | ISO 200 1/800 @ f2.8

Every day on my way to and from work I drive past an auction house.   There is also an adjacent green house.  From time to time they have some interesting things in their lot.  Last year, for example, they had a metal chicken painted a variety of colors and for the two weeks that it was out on display I intended to stop and photograph it.   Of course one day it was gone and I had missed my chance.

Well about a week ago they had two more chickens out and I vowed that I wasn’t going to miss the opportunity again.  You may recall it rained most of last week so my first opportunity to take an image was Friday on the way home from work.

Nikon D700 | Nikon 70 - 200 mm f2.8 lens | ISO 200 1/800 @ f2.8

I pulled into the parking lot and the owner was watering some plants in the green house.  I asked him if he minded if I took some images of the chicken.  He more or less said knock yourself out.  As I was taking the images I had this feeling someone was very close by.  I took the camera from my eye and he was standing right beside me.  He said, “You got a thing for chickens do you?” 🙂

Nikon D700 | Nikon 70 - 200 mm f2.8 lens | ISO 200 1/800 @ f2.8

That was so funny the way he put it I thought I was going to burst laughing.  I explained that I just like taking pictures and that I found the metal sculptures interesting.   Apparently that satisfied him.

So there you have my experience in photographing the metal sculptures in Maquoketa.  Hope you have a great day.  Thanks for stopping by.  Be careful.

Nikon D300S | Nikon 18 - 200 mm lens | SB800 SL | ISO 200 1/60 sec @f11

Saturday was Angie’s 26th birthday and she, Ben and Joshua celebrated the day in Chicago.  They had a busy two days in the windy city and so on their way home last evening they came by for her birthday dinner at our home.

Our tradition, as in so many families, is to let the birthday person have anything they want for their special dinner.  Angie chose one of her favorites, a bean and cheese sandwich, mac and cheese,  and home-made french fries.  The rest of us had New York Strips 🙂

Hard to believe that my little girl is 26.  I can still close my eyes and see her come around the corner of my home-office with a little doll on her hip and asking “Daddy can you play?”  Amazing.  Yes most of the time I said yes.

Nikon D300S | Nikon 18 - 200 mm lens | SB800 SL | ISO 200 1/60 sec @f11

Ben and Joshua spend some time together before dinner.  His first trip to the big city. Ben said he handled it pretty well.  I mean with all the shopping and eating in fine restaurants.  Pretty sophisticated little guy. 🙂

Nikon D300S | Nikon 18 - 200 mm lens | SB800 SL | ISO 200 1/60 sec @f11

This weekend Joshua  mastered rolling over.  When we kept him last month he was working pretty hard trying to get over but just couldn’t get his left arm out-of-the-way.  No problem now.  You put him on his back and he goes right over.  It is one of the amazing joys of life to watch a child develop.

Great news last night about the war on Terror!  I originally (09/12/2001) signed up for the News Alert by e-mail in anticipation of this day.  Took a while,  but Justice to some degree has been served. The struggle continues though with much more to come I’m afraid.

Make it a great week and thanks for stopping by.  I hope you had an enjoyable weekend.  Happy Birthday again Angie!!  Be Careful.

Nikon D700 | Nikon 24 - 70 mm lens | ISO 640 1/25 sec @f2.8

Good Day and thank you for stopping by.  I have some more images from Friday’s visit to Torque Fest in Maquoketa.   I had actually thought about going back to Torque Fest as the rest of the cars were going to be there today.

Additionally I was thinking about going to Green Island and making images of some of the wildlife.  In reality I stayed home and spent most of the day working in my yard.  I elevated it from sinfully ugly and unkempt to moderately bad.  That by the way took the entire afternoon to accomplish.

Nikon D700 | Nikon 24 - 70 mm lens | ISO 640 1/25 sec @f2.8

I do not believe the grass has ever been higher in the 19 years we’ve lived here.  A combination of some late nights at the office, rain, rain, and more rain prevented me from cutting the grass any sooner.

Nikon D700 | Nikon 24 - 70 mm lens | ISO 200 1/6400 sec @f2.8

So my plan for today is to probably go to Green Island and see what is shaking down there.  Hopefully I can find some wildlife that I haven’t shot before.  Andreas has been posting some amazing wildlife images on his blog.

That’s it for today.  Have a peaceful and restful Sunday.  See you tomorrow I hope.  Be careful.

Nikon D700 | Nikon 24 - 70 mm lens | ISO 200 1/500 sec @f4.0

Torque Fest is in Maquoketa this day (Saturday) and there are suppose to be several hundred vehicles on display. My friend Steve Kent and I went down to the fair grounds on our lunch hour to check out all the neat cars.

If you like the sound of the old muscle cars and the loud throaty rumble of big engines then you’ll enjoy this.  There are cars (and people) of all descriptions on display and occasionally driving around. There are of course the ubiquitous vendors selling everything to do with vehicles, motorcycles, and various parts.

Nikon D700 | Nikon 24 - 70 mm lens | ISO 200 1/500 sec @f4.0

I’m not a huge fan of this type of event but I must admit I saw a lot of mouth-watering vehicles that I’d like  to drive.  Did I mention there are motorcycles?  Well there are including an old Harley Davidson Police three-wheeler that looks like it has seen a lot of duty, complete with the traffic ticket holder on the handlebars.

Nikon D700 | Nikon 24 - 70 mm lens | ISO 400 1/20 sec @f2.8

The event costs $5 per person and parking is free.  You might have to walk a ways because they are expecting 8,000 or more people (depending on the weather.)  If you like vintage cars, souped up hot rods, motorcycles and just weird stuff then you should drive the 30 miles to Maquoketa and head for the fair grounds.  I don’t think you will be disappointed.

Well that’s it for today.  Thank you for stopping by.  I hope you have an enjoyable weekend and be careful.  By the way my little girl turns 26 today 🙂

Nikon D300S | Nikon 18 - 200 mm lens | ISO 200 1/60 sec @f6.3

Today I had hoped for some newer images but the weather just is not cooperating.  So a couple more images from Easter Sunday.  Above is an image I made of Angie and Josh.  Grandma had purchased this super soft bear (before he was born) for Josh and just remembered to give it to him.    To tell the truth I think he is way more interested in his thumb than the bear.  Plus you always have your thumb with you. 🙂

Nikon D300S | Nikon 18 - 200 mm lens | ISO 200 1/400 sec @f6.3

Finally this image of Ben and Angie walking on the River Walk.  I was looking out over the river and wasn’t keeping up with the group but I liked the composure of this image so I took a series of them walking away.

I processed it first in color and it was okay but it felt like a black and white image to me and I like it better this way.  Short post again today as I’m (wait for it) late as usual.

Thanks for stopping by.  Be careful.

Nikon D300S | Nikon 18 - 200 mm lens | ISO 3200 1/60 sec @3f3.5

Some more of Easter Sunday.  Jeanne sings in the Family Choir at St. Luke’s.  This is a beautiful old church with wonderful colors and I did a series of HDR images of it several months ago.  You can see those if you are interested on my photography website by clicking the upde.net link on the right side of this blog.

I didn’t have a tripod with me and this is not the lens to shoot in low light because it only stops down to f3.5.  I bumped the ISO up to the camera’s maximum of 3200 (which in all honesty was a little too high.)  I had a fair amount of noise in the image so once I removed that it made the image a little soft.  I was experimenting and on the little LCD screen it looked okay.

Nikon D300S | Nikon 18 - 200 mm lens | ISO 1/60 sec @f6.5

Finally (because as usual I’m running late) an image of Jeanne holding Joshua.  I have posted pictures of everyone else holding Josh with the exception of Jeanne and Ben.   I will post more tomorrow because the weather doesn’t look like it is going to cooperate today either for shooting images.

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a great day and be careful.

Nikon D300S | Nikon 18 - 200 mm lens | ISO 200 1/800 sec @f6.3

Today I thought I would show you the images from the River Walk we took after our brunch at the Star Brewery.   This is not a particularly good image but I made it because it was the only vessel we saw on the river while we were there.  The current was very fast and there was a lot of debris in the water.  In fact we all remarked how we didn’t expect to see any activity on the river.

Nikon D300S | Nikon 18 - 200 mm lens | ISO 200 1/1000 sec @f6.3

For those of you who have been to the River Walk in the last few years will recognize this Gazebo, which is at the beginning of the River Walk by the Welcome Center.

It was amazing to see it actually under water.  The last time I was at the river a couple of weeks ago I would not have believed the water would get that high.

Nikon D300S | Nikon 18 - 200 mm lens | ISO 200 1/800 sec @f6.3

This a wide-angle view of the Julian Dubuque Bridge.  You can get a perspective of just how much water is now in the Mighty Mississippi.

Nikon D300S | Nikon 18 - 200 mm lens | ISO 200 1/600 sec @f6.3

Finally as we were walking to the end of the River Walk I was going to take a picture of the kids looking at the River.  Angie of course being brought up with a camera pointed at her all the time gave me a great pose.  Ben is learning 🙂

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you have a great day and be careful.

Nikon D300S | Nikon 18 - 200 mm lens | SB 800 SL | ISO 200 1/60 sec @f6.3

Wonderful Easter this year.  Mark came back for Easter.  He had to work late at Montage so he didn’t get home until 3:00 am.  But he was up for early service and we enjoyed the morning service.  Jeanne sang in the “Family Choir.”

After the service we drove down to the Lock & Dam to see what the river was doing.  It is the first time I have ever seen the water above the flood gates.  After that we met Angie, Ben, and Joshua at the Star Restaurant for a magnificent brunch.

Nikon D300S | Nikon 18 - 200 mm lens | SB 800 SL | ISO 200 1/60 sec @f6.3

Way too much food.  OMG I’m not sure I will ever eat again.  Okay well I am sure that I will but as of yesterday No!  After brunch we took a walk on the River Walk and was amazed to see how high the river actually was.  I’ll show those images tomorrow.

Nikon D300S | Nikon 18 - 200 mm lens | SB 800 SL | ISO 200 1/60 sec @ f6.3

Ben’s parents, Art and Paula Roling graciously invited us to dinner at their beautiful new home.  Art and Paula are the consummate hosts.  Their home is specious and wonderfully appointed.  The meal was exquisite and the conversation stimulating and thoughtful.  In short it was an absolutely perfect ending to a wonderful day.

One of the most enjoyable Easters I can remember.  The most wonderful day of the year of course as a Christian we celebrate our Savior’s triumph over death and the forgiveness of our sins.

Thanks for stopping by.  More images of the river tomorrow and (maybe) some more images of Joshua.  Be careful

First let me apologize for the quality (lack thereof) of these images.  I was on my way to one of our banks when I saw this tree out in the field.  There was a large bird sitting at the top of the tree, which as I went by the tree I determined was an Eagle.

I pulled off to the side of the road and carefully backed up as close as I thought I could get to the tree without spooking the Eagle.  The only camera I had set up was the D700 with a 70 – 200 mm lens.  Not exactly the lens needed to shoot Eagle images.  So I grabbed the camera and got off three shots when my friend the Eagle decided to take to wing.

Without so much of a pardon me, off he flew as far away from me as he could get.  So instead of some great shots of an Eagle I got junk.  But it’s my junk and it’s all I have to post today so this is as good as it gets for today.

Thank you for stopping by.  I will have better images for you next week.  Happy Easter and be careful.

Nikon D300S | Nikon 18 - 200 mm | SB 800 Flash | ISO 200 1/60 sec @ f4.5

Good Day.  I’ve been in Des Moines since Monday attending the Iowa Bankers Human Resource Conference.  I try to make this at least every other year and this was the time for me to attend.  I sincerely enjoy learning new things and in the HR field things are changing so rapidly it is difficult to know who is on first.

Nikon D300S | Nikon 18 - 200 mm | SB 800 Flash | ISO 200 1/60 sec @ f4.5

The images today will finish up my Sunday shoot at Angie and Ben’s home.  I was hoping to take some pictures around the Des Moines area to get a different perspective but the weather was so lousy it took all desire to get out and shoot away.  It rained all day Monday and Tuesday here.

Nikon D300S | Nikon 18 - 200 mm | SB 800 Flash | ISO 200 1/60 sec @ f4.5

So I’m looking forward to getting home late this afternoon.  I talked to some folks from western Iowa yesterday and they said they almost turned around on the way in because of the snow.  The main conference didn’t start until Tuesday but there was an insurance and employee benefit program on Monday that I attended.

So I hope you have a happy hump day.  Stay warm, spring is really just around the corner.  I remember one April 30^th Angie had some friends on a sleep over to celebrate her birthday and it snowed 6 – 8 inches that Friday night.  I had played 3 – 4 games of golf already that year so it was very depressing to not be able to play that Saturday morning and be home with a house full of young energetic school girls. 🙂  I think I stayed in my man cave the whole day.

Thanks for stopping by.  Be careful.