Thursday ~ March 01, 2018

Posted by Dave Updegraff on March 1, 2018
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

Happy Thursday!

I had an enjoyable lunch yesterday with some friends from work.  On my way out-of-town I drove by the Duck Pond and found a lot of Canadian Geese and a half-dozen Trumpeter Swans.

I have three images for you today.

Even though the pond is still partially frozen everyone seemed to be enjoying being back in the area.  🙂

Many of the geese appeared to be staking out territory for nest-building but there were a lot just sleeping on the ice.

It’s really great to see the Trumpeters doing well.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Wednesday ~ February 28, 2018

Posted by Dave Updegraff on February 28, 2018
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

Happy Wednesday!

I finally found a camera yesterday and decided it was time to get out and make some images.  🙂

I’m enjoying this retirement thing.  It doesn’t pay very well but the hours are great.

I stopped by Mud Lake Park late yesterday afternoon.  The evening sun was getting soft and I saw the faint moon with the sun bathing the rock walls with its beautiful light.

For my Facebook friends there is another image with this post of the moon.

You can click on any image and it will reveal a larger more detailed version of the image.

I shot this with the Nikon 200 – 500 mm lens, hand-held because I was too lazy to set up the tripod.  😦

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Tuesday ~ February 20, 2018

Posted by Dave Updegraff on February 20, 2018
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

Happy Tuesday!

I had to think for moment what day of the week is was.  🙂

For a guy who just retired I haven’t accomplished much in the way of photography.  I’ve been doing some long over due projects and working on a new one.  Most of my time has been spent finishing up my shoot for our Monticello branch.

Each shoot I learn something new.  I started using this “Pop Up Background” some time ago because it reduced the amount of set up time and was a consistent look for my shots.

So I have two photos to show you today.  This one is just like it came out of the camera with no retouching at all.  You can see that the background even though I flipped it horizontally doesn’t begin to adequately cover the subjects in the image.

Normally if I know I’m going to do groups of people I will take a bigger background so I can get more people covered.  Additionally one of the challenges was this room was small and had a very low ceiling.

This is the image I came up with after spending two and half hours in Photoshop.  It’s not perfect but for a website or a small wall picture it will work very well.

I love working on images in Photoshop but I have to tell you I got tired of this one.  🙂

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Thursday ~ February 15, 2018

Posted by Dave Updegraff on February 15, 2018
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

Happy Thursday!

I have three images (Portraits) for you today from my corporate shoot of last Tuesday.  I’ve been working on them off and on but need to get them done sooner rather than later.

I think I’m going to like this retirement thing.  I haven’t been very productive yet but I’ve technically only been retired for two days.  🙂

The image above is Denise and I think it would be very difficult to make a bad image of her.  🙂

I have a new project that is still in the planning stages but hopefully I’ll be rolling that out in a couple of weeks.  Right now my agenda is pretty much filled with naps, some reading, some gaming, and working on images.

I did get out with my camera last Monday but nothing caught my interest so I came home with an empty card.

I can tell that I miss the contacts with my friends and the good news is that I can do something about that.  I have not had a tie on for eight days and don’t plan on putting one on again. 🙂

Second image is of Nick.  Great individual and the last image is of Heather, another quality individual that works for organization.

That’s all I got for today.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Sunday ~ February 11, 2018

Posted by Dave Updegraff on February 11, 2018
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , .

Happy Sunday!

Just one image for today.  We celebrated my and Mark’s birthday last evening at Timmermans.  Ate way too many carbs and was reminded most of the night about that.  😦

Great time otherwise though with Mark, Julia, Jeanne, Angie, Ben, Josh, Gabby, Austin, and of course Addie.  It was a fun evening.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Saturday ~ February 10, 2018

Posted by Dave Updegraff on February 10, 2018
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , .

Happy Saturday!

Went out wandering through the countryside late yesterday afternoon and as a result I have three random images for you today.

I took a road that I had never been on before so I got to see a lot of new countryside.  Most of it was bleak and snow-covered.  🙂

I made a lot of progress yesterday morning getting my technology issues resolved.  Still some things that have to be done but I’ve got a lot of time to fix them.  🙂

It was great therapy to be out in the country with my camera.  I need to do more of that.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Friday ~ February 09, 2018

Posted by Dave Updegraff on February 9, 2018
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , , , , .

Happy Friday!

I had lunch yesterday, with my beautiful daughter and one of my favorite women on the planet, Addie.

Yesterday was my first day of retirement and it was filled with happiness, sadness, frustration, and thankfulness.

The frustration part came in the way of my cellular phone.  I have had a company phone for 14 years.  Since change is a constant, I wasn’t really aware of how intertwined my life had become with that device.  I kept my same phone number but as is company policy the phone needed to be wiped down.  In that process I lost 28 years of contact information.

Unfortunately I did not have that information backed up properly (as I found out yesterday.)  So if you call me or text me please leave your name so I can rebuild my contact database.

Additionally from my car to my camera many devices are also intertwined with my phone.  Passwords of 5 years ago have long been forgotten and so I basically spent most of yesterday trying to get my phone up and running and reconnecting to my devices.  I’m about 75% there but still some way to go.

The sadness is from leaving a position that I loved and friends that have become such an important part of my life.  I will make the effort to keep those relationships alive but I also know that when you lose that common bond of say a job or team or organization it is hard to keep some relationships going.

The happiness was from hearing from so many friends yesterday with birthday and happy retirement wishes.  It made my heart sing with joy.

The thankfulness comes from I have always tried to do good and leave a place better than when I found it.  One of my greatest joys in life is helping someone realize their potential and helping them achieve it.  That is why I loved Human Resources so much.  Everyday I got that opportunity.

So now I will really focus on my photography, my family, and my friends and enjoy the blessings that God has so graciously given me.

Thank you for your support of my blog and me.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

 

 

Wednesday ~ February 07, 2018

Posted by Dave Updegraff on February 7, 2018
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , .

Happy Wednesday!

I saw this scene a few weeks ago and didn’t have time to photograph it.  Yesterday morning I still didn’t have time but I wasn’t going to pass it up again.  🙂

I have three images for you today and some stories.  I’ve had some readers of the blog ask why I say how many images I have.  I do that because I also post this blog to Facebook™ and it only shows one image and a little of the writing.  They have to click on the link to get to the blog.

Today is my last day of working.  At the end of the day I am retiring after working 62 years.  I have been with my company for 18 years and it has been a wonderful experience.  I will miss the people I work for and with.  It is a great organization and they have been good to me and for me.

Yesterday I spent five hours shooting corporate head shots for later marketing materials.  I had 16 people and ended up shooting 278 images.  It was a fun afternoon although by the end of the shoot I was tired and still had all the tear down to do.

This is the area I had to work with.  There was literally no other place in the bank to work that wouldn’t disrupt customer service.  So the folks cleaned out this store-room for me and we made it work.

I’m friends with all the folks that got their image taken and it was very gratifying to spend an afternoon with them.

This is just one of the individuals that I photographed yesterday.  Her name is Maggie and I photographed her three years ago when she went through our Intern program.  She is now full-time with the bank and doing a great job with a wonderful future.

So yesterday was a great way to wind up my career with the organization.  Spending time doing what I love with the great people I work with.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Tuesday ~ January 30, 2018

Posted by Dave Updegraff on January 30, 2018
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

Happy Tuesday!

I actually got out with my camera yesterday looking for something interesting to photograph.  It is a bleak time of the year with not a lot of interesting (to me) things to shoot.  I did pass this red bridge, which caught my eye.  So I have a couple of images for today.

I was on my way home when I saw this guy.  The only long lens I had with me was the Nikon 80 – 400 mm lens, which was not quite long enough to get a close up of him.  He let me make about 6 images and then got fed up with me and flew away.  🙂

You can click on the image to make it larger for more detail.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Saturday ~ January 20, 2018

Posted by Dave Updegraff on January 20, 2018
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

Happy Saturday!

I finally made it to LeClaire yesterday and went to Lock & Dam #14 to see if I could get some eagle images.  The parking lot had several cars in it and there were about 10 – 15 photographers on the observation deck so I knew it wasn’t going to be a banner day for sure.  I have three images for you today.

Only two eagles flew over the water close enough to photograph.  I have hundreds of images like this one but I can never pass up an opportunity to photograph this magnificent bird.

The only excitement was when this large pelican came by the platform very close and landed a few hundred feet from the lock.  He then just drifted past us as he floated back to the lock.  We were all so hungry for something to photograph that all cameras were pointed at him and the sound of shutters clicking was in the air.  🙂

I saw something yesterday I had never seen before at the platform.  There were tons of fish floating on the surface moving past the platform.  Fish of all sizes.  Some seemed dead but some of the larger fish were moving (like they were stunned) and I saw several swim to deeper water.  It would have been a smorgasbord for the eagles but only two came by and neither of them seemed interested the buffet.

I had one image that, while I was trying to follow the second eagle and got ahead of him and the lens focused on the trees across the river.  I didn’t notice it until I was going through my images.  Those trees were full of eagles, at least a hundred of them. 🙂

If I had of known that I would have crossed the river and tried to find that location.

Enjoy your day and be careful.