Monday ~ July 15, 2019

Posted by Dave Updegraff on July 15, 2019
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

Happy Monday!

Last Thursday Angie and Jeanne took the grand-kids for a visit at the Hurstville Interpretive Center near Maquoketa, Iowa.  I have written about the “Duck Pond” many times on this blog, which is part of the Interpretive Center.

I had lunch plans with a dear friend on Thursday so I asked them if I could join them for a couple of hours.  It was a blast to say the least.

The Interpretive Center is a wonderful place to take kids and teach them in a fun way about nature and some history of the area as well.  So they spent about 45 minutes looking at and interacting with the displays and creatures the center has.  Then they decided to go catch frogs at the little pond in front of the center.  That is where the fun really started. 🙂

Joshua caught the first frog.  He was methodical in his method and it paid off.

Gabby was finally able to catch one although she got a little frustrated because the frogs just wouldn’t cooperate.  🙂

Austin just couldn’t catch a frog so as is with most kids and water he just decided to play in the water.  The water was over the top of his boots so when he walked on land the water sloshed and splashed as he walked.

He said to me, “I tried to catch a frog Papa, but I couldn’t catch a frog.”  He was totally wet from head to foot.  Being the good mother that she is Angie was prepared for any circumstances and had a clean, dry change of clothes for him. 🙂

Josh’s prize catch.  None of the frogs were hurt and all were released back into the pond.  They had lunch at the picnic area provided at the center.  Wonderful time with the kids.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

 

Wednesday ~ June 26, 2019

Posted by Dave Updegraff on June 26, 2019
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Happy Wednesday!

I was lucky enough to have a photo shoot with a wonderful group of people yesterday in Maquoketa.  We met at 8:00 a.m. and I have to tell you that since being retired that seemed awful early considering it is a 50 minute drive from where I live.  There was a photographer from the newspaper who needed to get some shots as well so I let her do her shots and then I worked with the group.

I had scheduled a lunch with a good friend and thought the shoot would take a lot longer then it did.  Everyone was very cordial and the shoot went perfect.  So at 9:15 a.m. we were all done.  Now what to do for the next two hours and 45 minutes?

A side note:

When I retired over a year ago my thoughts were that I would really focus and concentrate on my photography.  With a significant amount of time on my hands I figured I could really learn even more about my craft.  I discovered, however, there were other things that I enjoying doing including taking naps.  🙂

So I went several weeks even months without touching a camera.  I didn’t lose my passion for photography but there was other things that occupied my mind.

I had pretty much given up on golf (except for best shot and group events) and what little skill level I had enjoyed evaporated very quickly.  I was a member of the Thunder Hills Country Club and enjoyed it for over 20 years.  However when I started working out of town and putting in some long hours it didn’t make sense to keep my membership so I took a demit (resigned) from the club.  I really missed the social aspect of it but photography and work filled that void.

After a year of retirement I decided that I really missed the friends that I had made over the years and one of my best friends had, for several years tried to get me to come back to the club.  So after much thought and discussion I rejoined THCC last month.

For the most part it has been a wonderful experience.  Rekindling many friendships and enjoying meeting the new people who have joined our original group.  The golf has been a real challenge.  I have really struggled with trying to reclaim some of the skill level I once had.  It has been frustrating and at times embarrassing but I have to tell you I am loving it!!

Getting back to the club and being with some many old friends has enriched my life immensely

So with camera in hand I spent the next two hours just wandering around the area looking for images.  It was really fun and satisfying to have a camera with me again and looking for subjects to photograph.  Like any complex endeavor you have to do it on a continuous basis or lose a lot of what you have leaned.  Photography, Photoshop, golf, or any other endeavor that requires some knowledge or skill is a use it or lose it proposition.  So I’m back on the (re)learning track.

I only had my 28 – 300 mm lens with me so I couldn’t get any closer to the bird even after putting my sensor in crop mode.  I still liked the shot.

After my photo shoot and lunch I stopped by the club and practiced for a couple of hours.  It was an enjoyable day and very satisfying.  I LOVE Retirement!

Enjoy your day and be careful.

 

Monday ~ June 17, 2010

Posted by Dave Updegraff on June 17, 2019
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Happy Monday!

My Dad started taking me (and our family) to fish at Leech Lake Minnesota back in 1955. We went up every year for many years.

Jeanne and I started going up and taking our kids. We just spent a wonderful week at a magnificent resort called Trapper’s Landing.

The customer service and accommodations were amazing. We didn’t have a lot of luck fishing but bonfires every evening and games with the family made up for the lack of fish.

I didn’t take my DSLR out in the boat this year, so these images were shot with the Nikon Cool Pix P1000.  It’s a neat camera that shoots in RAW and has a focal length of 3000mm.  Very unstable at that focal length and requires a tripod.

These were shot from the fishing boat on a fairly rough day so I had trouble just keeping the image I wanted to make in the view finder.

I love Leech Lake and hope I can keep going back for many more years.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Sunday ~ June 16, 2019

Posted by Dave Updegraff on June 16, 2019
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , , .

Happy Sunday and Happy Father’s Day!

Happy Father’s Day to my Son-In-Law Ben Roling.  He is one of the most compassionate, generous, and thoughtful men I have ever met.  I feel so blessed that he and Angie found each other and gave us 4 beautiful grand children.

I am a blessed individual with a wonderful caring wife, two beautiful, successful children and four wonderful grand children.  Thank you all for putting up with me.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Wednesday ~ April 24, 2019

Posted by Dave Updegraff on April 24, 2019
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Happy Wednesday!

Talk about déjà vu.  It was a week ago that I posted images of the pelicans at the “Duck Pond.”  I was in Maquoketa again yesterday for lunch with friends and I fully expected them to be gone.  

However on my way out-of-town I discovered they are beginning to look like permanent squatters.

This guy paddled away from me when I first arrived but I just stayed on the observation platform for about 15 minutes and he swam very close to me and didn’t seem to mind the shutter clicking.

Many of the Canada geese are nesting now and they seem to cohabit pretty well with the pelicans.

There were pelicans flying in and leaving the entire 30 minutes I was there.  Busy airport. 🙂

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Wednesday ~ April 10, 2019

Posted by Dave Updegraff on April 10, 2019
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , .

Happy Wednesday!

Had lunch with a couple of my dear Friends yesterday in Maquoketa and on the way back I had to go by the Duck  Pond.  Found this guy and lots of his friends there as well.

There were two eagles at the pond as well.  A mature and a juvenile.  The mature eagle was circling the pond at a pretty high altitude.  I couldn’t get a sharp image of him.  The juvenile was sitting on top of a dead tree but for some reason the auto focus locked on the tree and not the bird.  I have a lot of blurry shots of him.

I did get these two double-crested cormorants however.

I took the foot trail up to the blind to get a better angle on the eagle but he flew so I grabbed some close-ups of the pelicans.  There was quite a large gathering of them at the pond!

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Friday ~ April 05, 2019

Posted by Dave Updegraff on April 5, 2019
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , , , .

Happy Friday!

Anyone who has followed my photography over the years realizes that I’m not an avid “birder.”  I don’t study the critters migratory patterns or their habits.  I just enjoy photographing any type of wildlife.  In fact, I haven’t found anything that I don’t enjoy photographing whatever it is.

Remember you can click on any image to reveal a larger more detailed version of the image.

Wednesday I drove down to the river to see the rise in the river and was impressed by how high the river was.  The people of Dubuque were smart so many years ago after a devastating flood of 1965 did a terrible amount of damage.

Many older residents of Dubuque remember the Flood of 1965 as one of the worst in the city’s history. Many areas of downtown Dubuque were under several feet of water, which resulted in damage or destruction of homes and businesses in the path of the floods. Only sandbagging efforts of local citizens kept the main highways open to keep traffic flowing.

Following the 1965 flood funds were sought from the Federal government for the installation of a flood-wall. This flood-wall was finally built-in the late 1960s. When the entire Midwest was prone to widespread floods in 1993 the flood-wall helped keep the city from experiencing serious flooding, while other cities – such as Davenport, Iowa – sustained major damage.

After that I decided it would be a nice drive down to Green Island.  My last visit was less than productive and I had heard that a lot of the migrating birds were visiting the wild life preserve.

I was delighted to see many kinds of wild life in the preserve including the Buffalo Head in the top image.

I always enjoy photographing the Northern Shoveler.  The canals at the preserve were full of water and many areas around the wetlands were flooded.  The Preserve was full of wild life which I enjoyed the three and half hours I was there.

A pair of Northern Shovelers.

I’ll leave you with this Blue-Winged Teal.  At first blush it looked like a small Canada Goose but once I got him in focus I could tell it was the Blue-Winged Teal.

I have many more images to share over the next few days if you’re interested.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Monday ~ April 01, 2019

Posted by Dave Updegraff on April 1, 2019
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

Happy Monday!

I was in Maquoketa last Thursday and had lunch with a great friend.

As I used to do when leaving work, I decided to take the Hurstville Road out-of-town as it goes past the “Duck Pond.”  I stopped at the observation deck and was going to watch some of the geese being busy building their nests when I noticed a bald eagle sitting on top of a dead tree about 200 yards away.

I thought, what the heck might as well get another image of an eagle sitting in a tree.  Besides there were no obstructions between the eagle and me so it would make a decent shot.  I got out of the truck and got my long lens and even thought about setting up my tripod.

Of course when I looked back at the eagle he was already in the air flying away (or so I thought.)  He actually was flying towards me.  I’ll admit I was a little nervous because I imagined how great it would be to capture a head on shot of an eagle.  Unfortunately I couldn’t get a focus lock on him until he was almost over me as the first two images show.  I’m thankful they were in focus as I figured I was going to have a half-dozen brown blurry balls.

I couldn’t get him in the center of the frame and was lucky to capture about 6 images of various parts of the eagle.  🙂

As many eagles as I have photographed over the years I still get an adrenaline rush when I see them. Such a magnificent creature!

Enjoy your day and be careful.

 

Sunday ~ March 24, 2019

Posted by Dave Updegraff on March 24, 2019
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

Happy Sunday!

Jeanne and I went down to the river yesterday to look at the rise in the water.  Nothing like the Missouri River is getting but still the river is higher than normal.

I have taken and posted hundreds of photos of the critters I am showing today but I find it hard to resist photographing any of them when they let me get this close.  Jeanne actually spotted this guy in the marina as we were headed to the river.  At 900mm focal length I felt like I was right next to him.  🙂

Click on any image to make it larger and reveal more detail.

The ubiquitous Canada Goose is a common subject but couldn’t resist photographing this pair searching for food in at the Mud Lake park.

Finally one of my favorite subjects.  This little ringed-bill gull was waiting on something but after watching him for about 7 minutes he never once moved so this is the pose he offered and the one I took.  🙂

We saw a couple of eagles on the ice but they were too far away to get a decent picture of them.

We decided to eat lunch at a place we had never been to before.  So we dined at 1ST & Main.  Nice restaurant, good service, and great food.  We’ll stop there again.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Thursday ~ March 22, 2019

Posted by Dave Updegraff on March 22, 2019
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

Happy Thursday!

I took a road trip up to Edgewood, Iowa to visit a long time friend of mine.  Turned out that on this day he was in Dubuque for other reasons.  🙂

Found this old guy at Greeley, Iowa.  It won’t be long till it no longer stands.

Enjoy your day and be careful.