Upde Designs

Nikon D300S | Tamron 200 - 500 mm lens | ISO 200 1/320 sec @ f10

No this isn’t another set of images from Green Island or Sabula.  These images were taken yesterday on my lunch hour at the Hurstville Wildlife Center.  Affectionately known around Maquoketa as the “Duck Pond.”

There are a pair of Trumpeter Swans that come back every year (for the last 7 years at least.)  They usually stay late up to November before departing.  This year they returned about the middle of February.

Nikon D300S | Tamron 200 - 500 mm lens | ISO 200 1/320 sec @ f10

The “Duck Pond” is known as a rest stop for migratory birds on their way North in the Spring and South in the Winter.  On any given day you may find any number of species of birds.  Last year there was a huge flock of Pelicans that spent a couple of days at the pond.

The  Wildlife Center is only about 1.5 miles from my office and I pass it every morning on the way to work (when the sun is in the perfect position and I am always late) and on the way home when I would be shooting directly into the sun.

Nikon D300S | Tamron 200 - 500 mm lens | ISO 200 1/320 sec @ f10

So yesterday the sun was bright, it was cold and windy but I wanted to get out and do some shooting.  I had noticed a large number of birds on the water when I came by yesterday morning so I thought I’d grab a sandwich and see what I could capture.

It was pretty cold and after about 20 minutes and 180 images I was an ice-cube.  Plus of course I was over my time limit for lunch. There is never enough time.

I don’t know what the Swan above was doing but after her cruise around the pond with her mate she stopped off at their residence and she was flinging grass and dirt every where.  Maybe she was just doing some spring cleaning. 🙂

Anyway it felt good to get out and make some images again.  Hope you have a nice weekend.  I’ll post some more Hurstville images tomorrow.  Be careful and thanks for stopping by.

Good Day.  Okay this is the last Eagle image you will see.  It is the last one that has any value to show in all my collection.  It is the weakest of the weak but I love the pose of this Eagle who has just landed (the instant he landed) and hasn’t yet folded his wings.

My first trip to Green Island, I saw this structure as I was entering the Wildlife Refuge.  It caught my eye but I was so anxious to go find Eagles that I didn’t explore any possibilities with it.  Later on the way out (and being pretty unhappy with what I thought I had in the images of Eagles) I decided that I could at least make an image of something that didn’t move or fly.  I knew I would make it a black and white image when I took it.

And finally on the way back to highway 52 I saw this barn.  Well you know my weakness for barns.  So I had to take a few images of this guy.  He looked like he had been around for many years but was in good condition.

Okay that’s it for my Green Island shots.  They are all used up.  The good news is that my Friend Becki Kenton and I are going back to Green Island on the 9th of April.  Hey Andreas join us if you like.  Of course Steve and Jeanne will join us too.  I’m not sure what they will do while we’re capturing the wildlife at Green Island but if the weather is nice it should be a great adventure.  Stay tuned.

Have a wonderful day and be careful.   And as always thanks for taking the time to look at my work.  I am grateful for your visit.

Sorry, I just have all these Eagle images and I look at them and they are not as good as I would like them to be, but then the more I look at them the more I like them.  So I’m posting some more that didn’t make the first round pick.

The image above is the young Eagle I talked about after my first trip to Sabula.  He grabbed this fish from a more mature Eagle and flew off with it only to drop it a 100 yards later.  Then he didn’t seem to know what to do with it.  This is an out-of-focus image but I wanted to show you the young bird with his prize in flight.

The Sabula experience was such a great learning tool.  I learned so many things on my three trips to Sabula and Green Island.  I really enjoy making images of wildlife even though it is often in difficult conditions.

I saw this guy after I’d been there awhile and was pretty much a frozen Popsicle.  He had been in a tree just above the frozen lake and apparently there was an abandoned fish laying on the ice so what the heck why work for your food when it is just lying around.

He kind of looks like a concord jet landing with his head down, landing gear down and full flaps.  Okay maybe that a little too much but I did like the look of this image.

That’s it for today.  Hope you enjoyed the Eagle pictures.  Sounds like the weather is not going to be good for the rest of the week so I don’t know if I will get any shooting in or not.

Have a great day.  Give the people you love an extra long hug and don’t let the small stuff bother you.  Be careful.

Some more things to show you from our Green Island visit.   For example this Ring Billed Gull was having a snack on this dead fish.  Jeanne and I saw lots of dead fish in the water.  I’m thinking they must have died from the lack of oxygen because the water is fairly shallow and it was frozen solid.   Like I said I’m not really very knowledgeable about wild life.

This pair of Geese were swimming in one of the small ponds located in the wildlife refuge.  They were just slowly meandering along and grooming them selves without so much as a look our way.  We would have never gotten this close to any of the Eagles.

Finally here are a pair of turtles.  We were driving by and I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye.  This pair of turtles had been sunning themselves on this tree branch and when we drove by they dove for the bottom.

We just stopped and stayed motionless for about 5 minutes and slowly they would stick their heads up out of the water, look around, and then go under again.  Finally I guess they decided we were not going to bother them and they finally climbed back up on the log and continued working on their sun tan.

I have really enjoyed the time I spent at Green Island and I’m sure I will go back from time to time this Spring and Summer.  I find it fascinating to watch and photograph the wildlife.

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

Nikon D300S | Nikon 70 - 300 mm lens | ISO 200 1/100 sec @f11

When Jeanne and I went to Sabula / Green Island yesterday we stopped in Bellevue to grab a quick sandwich for lunch.  We ate at the Subway on the river and there were probably 40 – 50 fishing boats on the river just below the damn.

We asked the guy at the Subway what was up with that and he said there was some type of fish (spoonbills?) and that the season was only two weeks long.  It started Saturday.  Well I’d never seen that many boats on the river in one place at one time so I grabbed a quick shot.  I didn’t have a wide-angle lens with me so I couldn’t really capture the sight of all the boats congregated in a fairly close area.

Nikon D700 | Tamron 200 - 500 mm lens | ISO 800 1/1250 sec @ f16

I have to show you one more Eagle image.  I spotted this Eagle in a tree and I had the 200 -500 mm lens off the tripod in anticipation of getting a great in flight image of this eagle.  So I walked very slowly up on him trying to keep him in frame as I walked.  Just as I got to THE Line (of course I didn’t know it was the line only he knew that.) I looked down to make sure of my footing and that was the exact moment he decided to fly.  I got a lot of shots of nothing but blue sky 😦

It’s like Jeanne said afterward, “It really makes you appreciate the really good nature photographs you see, when you know how hard they are to get.”

Nikon D700 | Tamron 200 - 500 mm lens | ISO 800 1/500 sec @ f16

After a few more minutes of looking for Eagles we decided to head for Green Island.  Andreas had said he hadn’t seen any Eagles there but Jeanne wanted to see what it was like so we headed out.

It is a very interesting place and the Eco System there must be amazing in the Spring and Summer.  I plan to visit there on a regular basis.  I just hope there aren’t any snakes.

There were lots of Geese at the Refuge and I enjoyed shooting some images of them.  Like Andreas says “They don’t have to be Eagles, I’m just as happy capturing a great image of a Goose as well.”  He is correct.

We saw Andreas again and were going to hook up with him but by that time Jeanne had had all the sitting she wanted for one day.  It was getting late and she wanted to go home.

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a great rest of the weekend.  Be careful.

Nikon D700 | Tamron 200-500 mm lens | ISO 800 1/400 sec @ f14

What a difference one week makes.  Last Saturday was cold, windy, gray and overcast with a fair amount of ice and Eagles in Sabula.  This week, sunny, little wind, not much ice and unfortunately not many eagles as well.

I had asked a friend of mine who lives in the area to text me if there were any Eagles in Sabula today.  I didn’t hear from her but I did receive an e-mail from my friend Andreas Exner that he was going to Sabula and Green Island and perhaps we would run into each other.

Nikon D700 | Tamron 200-500 mm lens | ISO 800 1/640 sec @ f14

Jeanne really wanted to go as she had missed the previous two trips and wanted to see some Eagles.  She watches the Decorah Eagles every day and wanted to see some up close and personal.  Well they were pretty few and far between.  There were some in Sabula but they were pretty scarce and very skittish,

We saw maybe a half a dozen Eagles in Sabula but the really neat thing was running into Andreas.  We swapped lenses for a little and talked about our passion for photography.  Turns out he likes to bike as well so another common thread.  He is an Engineer by training so he is very precise and thoughtful in everything he does.    I on the other hand am very imprecise and do not think much about anything. 🙂  So I’m sure I would drive him nuts.  But the world takes all kinds doesn’t it.

Nikon D700 | Tamron 200-500 mm lens | ISO 800 1/400 sec @ f14

But I enjoyed our conversation and he had some wonderful tips for me on how to improve my shooting.  I had my ISO set too high today but it worked out okay.  We decided that we would shoot together in the next couple of weeks.  Stop by his blog if you want to see some exceptional images.

Have a great rest of the weekend and thanks for stopping b;y.  Be careful.

That’s a phrase I heard a lot growing up.  “What’s for dinner Mom?”  “Left overs.”  Course Mom was a great cook from the old school so even left overs were great.  What does all this have to do with the image above?  I was looking over my images for something to post today and I had nothing.  So I had to resort to the left over shots.

I looked at the Eagle shots from Sabula (the ones I hadn’t posted ) and this was the only semi-in-focus shot I could find.  But it was against an almost perfectly gray sky, so with the softness of the shot and the blah sky it wasn’t worth working on.  I made a composite image out of it.  (Blended the sky from another image with this one and sharpened the hell out of it.) 🙂

This was the only other image I could find that appealed to me this morning.  It is an Easter display that Angie has on her fire-place mantel.  So you can see I was digging pretty deep for something today.

I did have one of Josh just before Ben put him to bed (when we were there a week ago.)  But it was not a flattering shot of him (he was in a not so good mood) and when he saw the picture a few years from now he would remember Grandpa Flash and all those bright lights and well I’d just rather not go there. 🙂

Okay I’ve rambled enough.  Go have a great Friday and a wonderful weekend.  Be careful.

Nikon D300S | Tamron 200 - 500 mm lens | ISO 200 1/500 sec @ f6.3

I overslept yesterday, which is a rarity for me as I almost always wake up 10 minutes before my alarm goes off.  So I didn’t have time to post any images.  My trip to Sabula last weekend was not all about Eagles.  Well yes it was but there are other creatures there as well.

Nikon D300S | Tamron 200 - 500 mm lens | ISO 200 1/500 sec @ f6.3

Andreas Exiner calls these Gulls, Ring-Billed Gulls.  I take him at his word because he is a nature enthusiast as well as an avid photographer  and I suspect he does a lot of research on the wildlife he shoots.    He has a wonderful wildlife collection of images if you’d like to view them just click here.

The little guy above was kind of isolated from the rest of the Gulls.  I don’t know if he has a self-esteem issue or just likes to be alone but while the rest of the Gulls either flew together, fought together or floated together he just stood there like this the entire time I was shooting them.  I don’t know maybe I’m just over analyzing the moment.

Nikon D300S | Tamron 200 - 500 mm lens | ISO 200 1/500 sec @ f6.3

I shot about 80 images of the Gulls.  They are so busy, fighting for position.  They almost hover even in the strong wind of Saturday.  There were a lot of red-headed “ducks” in the lake as well.  I’d never seen any of that type before.  I live such a sheltered life. 🙂

Anyway I’m thinking of going back to Green Island or Sabula this weekend.  I know I said no more Eagles for a while but the landscape is so dull right now.  I drove around for an hour last night after work looking for something interesting to shoot and just didn’t find anything.

I’ve been thinking a lot about a photo project especially after I read a blog yesterday from an accomplished photographer that praised the benefits of creating a self-imposed project.  Right now the two thoughts that are at the top of my list.  One is of course barns but yesterday I got to thinking of shooting Churches in HDR format and thought that might make an interesting project.  I’ll think more about that today.  Of course I have an unspecified project of capturing Josh’s growth… 🙂

Thanks for stopping by.  Be Careful!

Nikon D300S | Tamron 200 - 500 mm lens | ISO 200 1/500 @ f 6.3

Okay I promise after today’s post no Eagles for awhile.  I’m getting kind of tired working on them and need something else to freshen up my out look.  Don’t get me wrong I still love Eagles and will shoot some more images when I get an opportunity but it is time to do something else for a while.

I liked this shot even though it is a little soft because he is looking straight at me.  He would look off to the side from time to time but he always would come back looking straight at me.

I really think if the wind hadn’t been blowing so hard I could have gotten some really sharp images.  The Eagles were flying all around and landing beside each other.  It was really enjoyable watching them maneuver around the food on the ice.

Nikon D300S | Tamron 200 - 500 mm lens | ISO 200 1/500 @ f 6.3

Here is another Eagle flying around the lake at Sabula.  He was banking to the right and looked so majestic in his turn.  Now imagine me with this long lens and a tripod hanging off the end of it trying to move that whole contraption fast and steady enough to get a decent image.  I’m surprised I got anything but a black and white blur.

Nikon D300S | Tamron 200 - 500 mm lens | ISO 200 1/500 @ f 6.3

Finally this image of a young immature Eagle.  He was trying so hard to get something to eat and the older bigger Eagles kept chasing him away.  I got a bunch of images (shot in burst mode) of him stealing a fish (or what’s left of a fish) from a larger older Eagle and flying for some distance with the entrails hanging out.  He finally dropped it and then landed beside it here but never ate a bite from his prize.  Go figure.

It’s been a fun experience and I’ve learned a lot with a lot more to learn.  I will enjoy making images of Eagles and other wildlife in the coming weeks and months.  I may throw in an Eagle here and there just to use up the 200 or more images I have. 🙂

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a safe day.

Nikon D300S | Tamron 200 - 500 mm lens | ISO 200 1/500 sec @ f6.3

Happy Monday. I hope you are not getting tired of Eagle pictures because I’ve got a ton of them.  🙂  Actually I have a lot less now than I did yesterday.  I spent much of the day going through the 700 images and culling them down to 172 images.  Of those 172 you may only see 6 or 10 of them.

The image of a soaring Eagle is interesting if you know what was happening when I took it.  Imagine me with my camera on a tripod (well actually because the lens is so big and heavy the lens is on the tripod and the camera is attached to the lens.)  The icy wind is blowing at 35 mph, I’m trying to focus on an Eagle 400 500 yards away and I see this Eagle take off.  Now the Tamron lens is very slow to auto focus and I forget about the quick release on the tripod so I pick the camera, lens, and tripod up trying to catch an Eagle in mid-flight.  I’ll let that image resonate with you for a moment.

Nikon D300S | Tamron 200 - 500 mm lens | ISO 200 1/500 sec @ f.63

Above is an image of three Eagles at water’s edge.  The middle eagle looks to have no legs.  Apparently he/she is standing behind a small rise in the ice.  With the gray skies, the gray ice, and the gray water (yes I enhanced the water a tad) it was really difficult for the Tamron lens to find enough contrast to focus.  Of course it never occurred to me to switch to manual focus.  Frankly as cold as it was I don’t think that would have worked either because my fingers were already numb.

Nikon D300S | Tamron 200 - 500 mm lens | ISO 200 1/500 sec @ f.63

Finally something I see in my day job from time to time is a little turf protection going on in the image above.  The Eagle on the right has its talon on what is left of a fish.  I watched this scene for several minutes as I half expected there to be a battle.  The Eagle on the left finally gave up and flew off.  Soon after that an immature Eagle landed and spent a lot of time sizing up the older Eagle.  I’ve got some interesting images of that confrontation to share with you later.

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