Saturday ~ December 19, 2020

Posted by Dave Updegraff on December 19, 2020
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Happy Saturday!

Every year on the Saturday before Christmas the City of Asbury takes Santa Clause around the entire community so that all the children can see him and get candy from him.  When we first moved here in December of 1992 that next day we heard all the sirens and thought something bad must be happening but it was just the Santa Clause tradition.

And so every year our kids looked forward to it and every year Angie brings her kids over.  In fact the entire neighborhood was out this morning to welcome Santa Clause.

Right on time the big fire truck pulled out of the station with lights flashing and sirens wailing and drove right on past all the parents and kids waiting to see Santa.  Ironic as it may seem this was a real emergency run and this truck and another were actually responding to a real event.

A few minutes later the truck carrying Santa came by and the kids were delighted.  I had already gone in by the time it came by so I didn’t get any images of Santa.  😦

After some sledding the kids built a snow man in the back yard and Addie was putting some final touches on it when I got my camera back out.

There was more sledding and then the boys built a fort and the girls built a second fort in anticipation of a huge snowball fight.  Apparently it didn’t happen but we still have two large forts in our back yard should an attack happen.

After all the activity of seeing Santa Clause, sledding, building a snowman and a couple of forts, Addie needed a little Mom time.  I couldn’t resist capturing this moment.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Thursday ~ December 17, 2020

Posted by Dave Updegraff on December 17, 2020
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Happy Thursday!

I decided to drive down to the river yesterday hoping to see some eagles flying.  I drove into A. Y. McDonald park and sure enough there was a bald eagle floating around the river just a few hundred feet away.  By the time I got my camera set up and ready to photograph I couldn’t find him anywhere. 

So I drove down to the river’s edge and found some Mallard ducks swimming near the boat ramp.  Not wanting to go home with an empty card I photographed the female as she was swimming near the ramp.

Then this male duck started coming towards me (I was in my vehicle) and perhaps he thought I was going to throw some food to him.  Many people do that.  They drive down to the ramp and throw out bread crumbs and other food for the various wildlife that congregate there.

He finally came up close to my truck and looked at me like (Where’s the food?)  Well I didn’t have anything with me so he was disappointed and went back to the water.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Saturday ~ December 12, 2020

Posted by Dave Updegraff on December 12, 2020
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Happy Saturday!

We had a little house guest sleep over last night and as luck would have it we also had a big snow event.  Probably 8 inches at least and it is still coming down as I write this blog. 

If there’s anything that goes together, it’s snow and kids.  The first thing she wanted to do was go out and play in the snow.  “Mama Jeanne” and her went out as soon as breakfast was over.  Grandpa didn’t go out as I’m probably going to spend most of the afternoon clearing this stuff out.

Addie eats more snow than she makes for snowballs. 

Love having this little munchkin with us last night and today.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Friday ~ December 11, 2020

Posted by Dave Updegraff on December 11, 2020
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Happy Friday!

Well I went to Green Island yesterday with high expectations but in the 10 years I’ve been going there this was my worst experience.  I saw a fair amount of wildlife but they were all too far away to get a decent shot of them. 

I only photographed these Canada Geese for my friend Betty otherwise they too were too far away.

I spent 4 hours driving the “trenches” and setting and waiting hoping that something would land close to where I was but all for not.  I only took these two images. 

I’ve had some wonderful experiences at the preserve and I’ll probably go back sometime but not for a while.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Thursday ~ December 10, 2020

Posted by Dave Updegraff on December 10, 2020
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Happy Thursday!

A couple of days ago a good friend of mine asked if I had any long lenses I would like to sell.  After asking a couple of questions I found out that they had an eagle spending a lot of time in a tree near their home and she wanted to Photograph it.

I gave her my recommendation and so she purchased the lens and then wanted to meet yesterday at the Hurstville Interpretive Center.  Jeanne and I drove down to the Center and met with her and her husband (who is a dear friend of mine.) The lens is complicated and somewhat overwhelming to a new user.  So we all drove over to the “Duck Pond” and as luck would have it there were 9 Trumpeter Swans in the water.  They were pretty far away as you can see in the above image, however it was good practice for her to get to know and get comfortable with her new lens.

As we visited and took several images of the swans I decided to put my camera and lens back in the truck.  I kept noticing that the swans were getting closer the longer we were there.  So I went back to the truck and got my camera and once again started taking some images.

Then as if they had decided among themselves it was time to leave they started taking off in unison.  I was so glad I had my camera ready for their departure.  You can click on any of the images to make a larger version of the image which contains much more detail.

I had my 600 mm lens on the Nikon D4S, which has an incredibly fast frame rate so in a sort span of a few seconds I had close to a hundred images on my card.

And then they were gone.  We said our farewells to our friends and decided to see if we could relocate the swans but they were no where to be found.  It was a fun afternoon and I hope my friend gets as much enjoyment out of her new long lens as I have with mine.

Today I am headed out to the wild life preserve at Green Island.  A photographer I know posted some great images from last weekend so I think I’ll see if I can find something interesting.

Be safe, enjoy your day and be careful.

Thursday ~ December 03, 2020

Posted by Dave Updegraff on December 3, 2020
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Happy Thursday!

Out among them again yesterday searching for something to photograph.  This was my best image for the day.  I had a really old barn lined up but there was no way to get to it so I had to shoot through some branches.  Unfortunately when I got home and viewed the images on the big monitor the only thing that was in focus was the branches.

I did find this old barn but it too had a lot of clutter around it and there didn’t appear to be anyone home at the farm so I opted not to go on their property to get a better angle.

So all in all I’m not that happy with yesterday’s shoot.  See what I can find today.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Tuesday ~ December 01, 2020

Posted by Dave Updegraff on December 1, 2020
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Happy Tuesday!

Yesterday late afternoon I saw there were some puffy clouds in the sky and that is my favorite sky to photograph.  So the biggest decision I had to make was where to go.  Since I hadn’t been to the mines of Spain area in some time I decided to try that.  Not a lot going on but I saw the soft rays of the sun catching the Julian Dubuque Monument and so I decided to take an image of it. 

Continuing to walk through the area I found this view of the river from high up.  No traffic on the river but I liked the way it was framed between the trees.  Remember you can click on any of the images to see a much larger and more detailed image.

Another view of the river looking the opposite direction.  I don’t go out on the river very often so I’m not really familiar with the different backwaters and when there is a division in the river like above.

It was getting late in the day and the sun was going down.  Those beautiful clouds had disappeared and all I was left with was a plain sky.  So I waited for 25 minutes until the sun finally went below the horizon to get this image of a family farm.  It would have been so much better with lots of clouds in the sky.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

 

 

 

 

Sunday ~ November 22, 2020

Posted by Dave Updegraff on November 22, 2020
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Happy Sunday!

Yesterday when I went out it was not a good landscape photography day.  It was midday and the sun was harsh with no clouds in most of my images.

But I was tired of sitting at home so I loaded up my cameras and headed out.  I went to a lot of different places that I normally go to but in the end I decided to take a road I had not been on before.  I found this wonderful old barn.  If you have followed my blog for anytime at all you know I have a love of old barns.  This was a perfect barn (in my opinion) in that it had it’s original roof and paint on the sides. 

The shot above was taken from road and normally that would have been the only image I would have made.  But this old barn intrigued me so I decided I would drive onto the property and see if the owner would give me permission to photograph this magnificent structure.

When the owner came to the door I was delighted that he said, “sure go ahead.”  So I spent the better part of a half hour photographing this beauty.  Like I said earlier the light was not good and in the first two shots there was just blue sky.

After I shot this image (notice there are clouds on this side) I walked around the other side of the barn and saw a gentleman splitting wood.  As I walked around and down to where he was I was worried that he might not want me there.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that he was very friendly man who one could tell had worked hard his entire life.

We visited for about 10 minutes and I found him to be very engaging with a wonderful sense of humor.  He told me that he didn’t know exactly how old the barn was but that it was built before his time.  He said he didn’t know how much longer the old structure would remain standing as it had been through a lot in its lifetime.

He said that it had withstood a tornado and when it went through it actually moved the barn six inches from its original place.  He also said that they had some high winds this year and it had moved a little bit more.

I really enjoyed the time we talked and I think I would have enjoyed a much longer conversation but he was busy and I know how sometimes when you have a project to do you would just like to get on with it.

I hope I get to meet him again.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Saturday ~ November 14, 2020

Posted by Dave Updegraff on November 14, 2020
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Happy Saturday for all my working friends. 

Kind of a frustrating week photography wise.  I went out three days in a row and didn’t find anything that interested me.   So yesterday I decided to go down to the river.

There were several Ring-Billed Gulls at A.Y. McDonald park.  I was really surprised that this little guy let me get this close to him. 

I photographed this guy standing on one of the light poles.  I cleaned a significant amount of bird leavings on the light so you didn’t have to look at it. 

After the gulls I went to the 16th Street Basin (which used to be a great place for wildlife.)  Found this group of Double-Crested Cormorants that were sunning themselves in some rare sunlight.  A little gull was mixing in among them as well.

Hope you enjoy your weekend.  Be careful.

Posted by Dave Updegraff on November 11, 2020
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Happy Wednesday!

Not a lot of commentary today, just three more images from my photo shoot on Monday.  I have a friend that calls these shafts of light in the clouds “God Beams.”

It’s hard for me to pass up a tree especially when they are almost barren of leaves.  This harvested field made a nice backdrop for the tree.

This is the last image for today.  I hope to get out later this afternoon and see what I can find.

Not sure what happened to the images I posted yesterday.  You could not enlarge them.  It is working today so if you click on the image you will get a larger more detailed image.

Enjoy your day and be careful.