Monday ~ February 06, 2017

Posted by Dave Updegraff on February 6, 2017
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

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Happy Monday!

I have three random images for you today that represent a photo trip that Jeanne and I took yesterday afternoon.  Went to all of my usual places and couldn’t find anything worth photographing or at least that caught my interest.

I captured this image because I have never seen someone wearing pink, ice fishing before.  I think that it is interesting that they have a fishing pole in one hand and their phone in the other.  A sign of the times.  🙂

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I have some friends that are in Jamaica right now and they have posted some great pictures of that beautiful place on FB.  I have this little squirrel foraging for food at the Mud Lake Park.  🙂

Obviously I need to get out more.

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Finally I’ll leave you with this image of the Spirit of Dubuque excursion boat.  I have photographed it many times over the years but the way the light was bathing it in the soft yellow glow appealed to me.

That’s it for today.  Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Friday ~ February 03, 2017

Posted by Dave Updegraff on February 3, 2017
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

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Happy Friday!

I made this image yesterday evening at about 5:08 p.m.  Two significant things about this image is that there was enough light at 5 p.m. for an exposure at ISO 100 and that even though the pond was frozen over there were two trumpeter swans sitting calmly on the ice.

So the image above is the last image I took before leaving the Duck Pond.  The second image was one of the first.  When the sun ducked behind the cloud the photographing was done.

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This has been quite the week for the Duck Pond.  A few days ago there were 10  to 15 trumpeters on the pond in the morning when I came to work.  I was already running a little past late so I only stopped for about a minute to just enjoy the view and then on Tuesday of this week there were about 20 bald eagles sitting on the ice and in the trees at the pond.  I have never seen that many eagles at the pond in the 17 years I’ve been driving past it.  In fact the most I’ve ever seen at the pond was one juvenile eagle last winter.

Once again I didn’t have time to stop and photograph them.  😦

That’s it for today.  Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Thursday ~ February 02, 2017

Posted by Dave Updegraff on February 2, 2017
Posted in: Daily Posts.

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Happy Thursday!

I want to say Happy Birthday to my wonderful Son, Mark.  I am very proud of the man you have become and the things you have accomplished.  I wish for only the good things that life has to offer for you.

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That’s it for today.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Monday ~ January 30, 2017

Posted by Dave Updegraff on January 30, 2017
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , .

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Happy Monday!

Mark was home this weekend and so we celebrated his birthday a couple of days early.  Angie, Ben, and the Grand Kids were here as well so we had a nice brunch for the whole gang and of course lots of playing with stuff.

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Austin is always smiling and when he came in the house he yelled Papa.  Melted my heart.  He is a lot of fun and such a happy young man.

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This was about the only image I could get of Gabby.  If she sees this later in life she won’t be too happy with Grandpa but for now, well it’s okay.  🙂

That’s it for today.

Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Sunday ~ January 29, 2017

Posted by Dave Updegraff on January 29, 2017
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , .

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Happy Sunday!

I have five images for you today.  Jeanne and I attended the last of our bank holiday parties Saturday evening and had a wonderful time filled with great company, good food and funny entertainment.

The group above is called “It’s A Mystery” and they presented an interactive play during the course of the evening entitled “Rock Into Murder.”

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We arrived around 40 minutes after the start of the social hour and people were already interacting with members of the cast.  We could hear laughter before we even entered the room and the cast was deeply involved with the guests.

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I won’t give away any of the plot details other than to say I was about as wrong on my guess as I could be.  The acoustics of the room were not very good so you couldn’t hear all the conversations of the cast but their actions made up for that.  I don’t remember laughing so hard in a long time.

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They are available for booking and I would highly recommend them.  You can check out their website by clicking here.

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The cast includes Disco Dick Manero, Shanin Twain, Buck Fifty, Izzy Richards, Metal Queen, Vinyl Richie, and my favorite Tiffney Spares.  🙂

Stayed out way past my bedtime.

That’s it for today.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Friday ~ January 27, 2017

Posted by Dave Updegraff on January 27, 2017
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , .

january-26-2017

Happy Friday!

I don’t remember how long it’s been since we had sunshine in this part of the world but I do know it’s been way too long.  I have three images for you today that were taken yesterday against a featureless gray sky in the middle of a snow shower.

So those are pretty difficult conditions to take images of moving subjects with a long lens and expect great results.

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I had an all day event to attend yesterday and I left home about 30 minutes earlier than needed because a good friend of mine had told me of a gathering of eagles near a farm.  Since it was on the way to my event I thought I would take a chance and hope I could find some eagles.

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I would much rather photograph this majestic bird in brilliant sunlight against a watery background in the process of catching fish.  However, that being said an eagle is an eagle and they are still majestic no matter what they are doing.  🙂

There were more than 30 eagles congregated at this table and like any family gathering there were squabbles and seating disagreements.  But on the whole they were behaving reasonably.

Hope you enjoyed the images.  Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Tuesday ~ January 24, 2017

Posted by Dave Updegraff on January 24, 2017
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , .

january-23-2017

Happy Tuesday!

I have three images for you today, all of them with the same subject.

I debated yesterday about driving to LeClaire and trying to photograph eagles.  It was really bad weather for that with cloudy gray skies so I decided to wait for a sunny day.  I went down to the river instead and found absolutely nothing of interest to photograph.  So I tried some of my other favorite places and the same was true of all of them.

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On the way back home with an empty card I found this Red-Tailed Hawk sitting on a “private property” sign along the roadway.  I used the Nikon D500 with its cropped sensor and the Nikon 200 – 500 mm lens, which in effect gave me a 750 mm lens.  I was shooting at ISO 9000 with a shutter speed of 1/1600 sec @ f6.3.  Again not great conditions but it worked.

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He only gave me a few images and the he was off.  The D500 has a relatively quite shutter noise  but apparently not quite enough for him.

That’s it for today.  Thank you for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Sunday ~ January 22, 2017

Posted by Dave Updegraff on January 22, 2017
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

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Happy Sunday!

I have three images for you today.  As I came out to the kitchen this morning to make my breakfast I saw this beautiful red sunrise.  So even though I wasn’t properly dressed I grabbed a camera went outside and made a few images.

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Jeanne and I attended a surprise birthday party for a long time friend of ours, who was celebrating his 92nd birthday.  It was a great joy to see him again and spend a little time with him and his wonderful family.  Our friends Mike and Normal attended with us and then we went to the iconic Mario’s Restaurant for an early dinner and conversation.

It was during the 90s and early 2000s that I played a lot of golf with Ron and he was fun to be around.  When I started working in Maquoketa on a daily basis keeping track of my friends became more difficult.  So I haven’t seen much of Ron the last few years.  It was great to see he is still as sharp as ever and still has a zest for life.

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Two old friends with printer’s ink in their veins share a moment together.  Ron and Dave were in the printing business for years and have a wonderful friendship that still endures.

That’s it for today.  Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Friday ~ January 20, 2017

Posted by Dave Updegraff on January 20, 2017
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , .

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Happy Friday!

Only one image for you today.  This old abandoned structure sits in the middle of a corn field.  There used to be a large barn next to it and I have photographed it several times but it was taken down a couple of years ago.  I liked the way the setting sun looked on the harvested field and building.

Enjoy your day and be careful.