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Friday ~ June 24, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on June 24, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: Friends, Maquoketa Art Experience, Photography, Small Towns.

June-23-2016

Happy Friday!!

Yesterday afternoon one of our departments held a customer appreciation event for their clients at the Maquoketa Art Experience.  I attended to be supportive of them and of course I took my camera.  I grabbed this “snapshot” of two of the principles of the department set against the background of some pretty neat art work.

One thing I thought about later on the way home was that I should have captured some images of the artwork as well.  Anyway it was a very nice event and I got to see a lot of friends from the community.  One of the many things I love about working in a smaller community.  I grew up in a small town and that small town influence has never left me.  🙂

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

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Wednesday ~ June 22, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on June 22, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: Creative Block, Glamor Photography, Photography, Portrait Photography.

June-21-2016

Happy Wednesday!

I don’t remember a time (since probably 2001) that I have gone this long without taking any pictures or for that matter even having a camera in my hand.  Certainly since I started blogging I have not had this long of a dry spell.

Call it a creative block, a funk, or a brain cramp I just could not see anything that inspired me to take images.  😦

So yesterday I got to do my favorite type of photography.  I love doing portraits and the neat thing is that my lighting system has evolved to a style that was taught by Joel Grimes, which seems to fit my creative vision perfectly.  Is it perfect?  No of course not (I still have tons to learn) but it is to the point that I can set up my lights, camera and background without much adjusting and that gives me additional confidence.

I was at one of our banks yesterday taking images of our summer interns.  It takes about an hour to get everything unpacked and set up.  The air conditioning was almost nonexistent in the room I was using so with all the physical activity of getting things set up in the limited amount of time I had, the temperature got even hotter.  I think I perspired away about 3 pounds.  🙂

The image above is our Corporate Trainer, Joni.  She was gracious enough to pose for me while I tested and balanced the lights.

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This image is without a digital background.  A lot of portrait photographers shoot on a neutral gray background because it makes for an easier extraction of the subject so that you can use any background you want to.  Photoshop Creative Cloud just released a major update yesterday and they dramatically changed the selection tools.  So I had a little trouble refining my selection.  Anyway I like the digital background over the plain gray one but it’s up to the beholder.

That’s it for today.  Thanks for stopping by the blog.  A Happy Birthday to my wonderful Son-in-Law Ben.  Hope you have a great day!!

Enjoy your day and be careful.

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Monday ~ June 13, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on June 13, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: Event Photography, Grand kids, Photography, Soccer Photography.

June-12-2016

Happy Monday!

More Grand Kid stuff for you today.

Yesterday afternoon was the second Soccer practice / game / snack-time for Gabby.  It was great fun watching these three-year old children, most of whom would have rather been left to their own devices and just play with each other in the grass, try to grasp the concept of kicking and moving the ball towards the goal.

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Angie calls it a “glorified snack break.”  It does seem that they really look forward to coming to the sidelines to get a drink and some snacks.  During the practice part of the game they sat the ball on a little disk so the kids could practice kicking it.  I tried to get some images of that but couldn’t really dramatize with a still photo the hilarity of the effort.  🙂

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Gabby and her little friend did this a fair amount of the time they were on the field.  I don’t know how effective it was but things are always better when you do them with a friend.

I made an error yesterday that I haven’t done in years.  Some how I inadvertently changed the image quality setting on my camera from RAW to JPEG.  I have not shot in JPEG for years.  So I’m not happy with the results but still cannot figure out how I changed it as I would have had to go into the menu settings and manually changed the quality settings.  That’s not something that is easily done by mistake.

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Couldn’t pass up an opportunity to photograph Austin practicing his walking.  He gets pretty excited when he walks, which makes him speed up, which makes him fall down.  It’s a learning process and he’s getting very close.  🙂

That’s it for today.  Several projects around the house today and I hope to get in a bike ride.

Thanks for stopping by the blog.  I enjoy your comments so please feel free to leave one (good or critical.)  Enjoy your day and be careful.

 

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Sunday ~ June 12, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on June 12, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: Dubuque Iowa, Event Photography, Grand kids, Grandview Gallup, Photography.

June-11-2016

Happy Sunday!

Today’s post is all about my little grand son Joshua.  Yesterday he ran in his second Grandview Gallup.  It was very hot and humid yesterday and as I stood by the finish line of the one mile event waiting for Josh, the look of exhaustion from the little competitors was evident.

So here he is finishing the race and you can see he is about done.

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Then of course there is the reward that most of the young ones enjoy.  Come to think of it I would have enjoyed one of those as well.  Unfortunately I’m not sure I could have (well okay I am sure I couldn’t) ran the mile to earn it.  🙂

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The look of satisfaction.  It didn’t take long for the Popsicle to be devoured.

I was going to run down to Farmer’s Market and shoot some images but I was already melting in the heat so I opted to go home to the air conditioning.  I know what a wimp.

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

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Friday ~ June 10, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on June 10, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: End of the day, Photography, Pretty tree, Sunset.

June-09-2016

Happy Friday!

A short post today with only one image.  It rained in my world most of the day yesterday.  But last night towards the end of the day I was presented with this subject.  I had to get my camera and make an image.

I hope you have a wonderful day and a safe weekend.

Be careful.

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Tuesday ~ June 07, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on June 7, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: Barns, farm structures, landscape photography, Photography, Windmills.

June-03-2016-2XXa

Happy Tuesday!

I have three more images for you today.  This is from last Friday when the weather was so good for photography.

I worked yesterday because of an event that was happening at our organization.  It was funny the number of second looks and questions I got from fellow employees when they saw me on a Monday.  🙂

I love to photograph windmills.  I found this guy along a country road I had never been on.  So I will add him to my collection.

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Three silos setting in a field.  I liked the pattern they made so I stopped for a few images.  It was just a gorgeous day, mild temperature, light breeze (to keep the bugs away) and a beautiful sky.

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I’ll finish up with this barn.  Although not one of my favorites it is after all a barn, so in my mind it is worth capturing an image of.

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

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Saturday ~ June 04, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on June 4, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: Barns, Beautiful Blue Sky, Farm Buildings, landscape photography, Photography, Puffy Clouds.

June-03-2016

Happy Saturday!

Yesterday was one of my favorite days from a photography standpoint.  I love to make photographs against a deep blue sky with big puffy white clouds.  I was presented with such a sky yesterday morning and although it was later in the day before I could get out the conditions were still very good.

I decided to look for farm structures to photograph and so I took roads that I have never been on (well let’s say I don’t remember being on them.)  I saw a lot of new places yesterday but not a lot of farm structures that stood out to me.  I love red barns so I’ll show that as my first image.

June-03-2016A

I don’t like photographing images with power lines in them and where possible I will remove the power lines in Photoshop if I cannot eliminate them by the angle I take the image.  There were just too many power lines in this image and it would have taken an hour or more to remove all of them so they remain.  😦

June-03-2016B

This old structure is in the twilight of its life.  One day the owner will decide to tear it down and put something else in its place of just let it become pasture again.  I enjoy photographing deteriorating structures and usually render them in black and white, but I loved the blue sky so the color remained.

Personal story.  I have had a Microsoft Surface 3 tablet for a couple of years and I started using it as my work notebook because I would have anywhere from 6 – 12 paper note books lying around and sometimes it was hard to keep track of everything.  It just made sense to keep everything in one place and with the Surface 3 I can type my notes or hand write them and they are very easy to organize.  Thursday I got out of the car for a meeting with a couple of employees and sat the tablet on top of my car to get some more materials and then shut the door.  The vibration of the door shutting caused the tablet to fall off the roof onto the concrete parking lot and the tablet now has the most interesting mosaic arrangement of glass.

I turned it on when I got inside and it actually still functioned although the cursor would radically move around what was left of the screen at random times.  So I got the replacement yesterday afternoon and will probably spend most of the day today getting it reconfigured.  It is amazing how dependent I have become using the tablet and the thought of going back to paper note books was in my mind not an option.

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

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Tuesday ~ May 31, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on May 31, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: Children Photography, Grand kids, Memorial Day Weekend, Photography.

Josh and Gabby

Happy Tuesday!

I hope you had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.  We were able to spend it with our children and grand children and that made it very special.  We attended the annual Memorial Day parade yesterday.  It is always impressive to see all the veterans who have served this great country get a small amount of the tribute they deserve.

If you have followed this blog for at least the last couple of years you may remember seeing the image above.  It was taken two years ago.  Josh and Gabby were playing with some small toys in the bird bath.  By the time they were through playing they were both soaked.  Something about water and kids.  They are drawn like a magnet to it. 🙂

May-30-2016

So fast forward a couple of years and They are still playing in the water.  Angie put Austin on the grass at the far end of the patio.  He walked, crawled, and coasted to the water, drawn like a moth to the flame.  I couldn’t resist the capture.

That’s it for today.  I haven’t gone through my parade images.  Usually they are not all that good because of the clutter of the background but perhaps a couple will be worth posting.

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

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Monday ~ May 30, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on May 30, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: Brown-headed Cow Bird, Downy Woodpeckers, Gold Finch, Indigo Bunting, Photography, Robins, Wildlife Photography.

May-30-2016-05-20-16-AA

Happy Memorial Day!

The freedoms and lifestyle we enjoy today are the result of sacrifices our Military Men and Women have made.  All gave some and some gave all.  God Bless The USA!

I have a bunch of birds for you today.  These are the last images of my May 20th walk at the wildlife reserve.  I’ve been riding my bike the last few days so I haven’t done any new photography.  🙂

You’ve seen some of these birds in recent posts but these are not the same images.

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I believe this is a Brown-headed Cow Bird.  I haven’t seen many of them this year.  A couple of years ago when I had all the feeders set up in the back yard I saw a lot of them.

May-30-2016-05-20-16-DD

I never get tired of showing this little guy.  It was the first images I have ever made of this species.

May-30-2016-05-20-16-EE

A common Robin up close and personal.  They are not nearly as skittish as many of the other birds.  I have been able to get really close to them, take their image and they sit perfectly still for me.

May-30-2016-05-20-16-BB

It looks like a beautiful day weather wise.  I may go to the annual Memorial Day parade and make some photographs.  Parades are hard to photograph because there is so much background junk.

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

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Sunday ~ May 29, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on May 29, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: Bad Thunder Storm, Dangerous Weather, Event Photography, Golf Photography, Maquoketa Kiwanis, Maquoketa Kiwanis Golf Outing, Photography.

May-25-2016

Happy Sunday!

I have some fun “snapshots” for you today that I took last Wednesday at the Maquoketa Kiwanis Golf Outing.  I rendered them in black and white just for fun. This is an annual event and is their big fund-raiser for the year.  It usually takes about 5 hours but there were fewer teams this year so we were done in about 4 hours.

May-25-2016-A

It is a best shot event with a couple of twists.  Each team has a yellow ball and the first shot of every shot has to be hit with that ball.  You don’t have to use that ball at your “best shot” but you do have to make it the first shot of each stroke.  If you don’t lose the ball it is put in a bucket at the end of the round and a lucky team wins a nice prize if their yellow ball it drawn out.

May-25-2016-B

We lost our yellow ball in the water but was lucky enough to find it and retrieve it.  I won’t mention the name of the individual who put it in the water.  🙂

The other twist is if your shot is the one picked as the best shot you are not allowed to hit the next shot.  A lot of best shot events have that rule.

Anyway it’s a fun event and the money raised is well used in the community to fund projects that benefit the children of in the community.  So I play in the event every year.

May-25-2016-C

Oh, an interesting story for you.  Yesterday I went on a 23 mile bike ride.  At the farthest point in my ride I noticed the sky was getting pretty dark in the west.  I had checked the radar before I left the house and saw nothing within a hundred miles of Dubuque.  I neglected to take into account that storm cells can form in a very short time.  The looks of the sky indicated to me that I had better get going and with due haste.

On the way back is the longest hill on my route.  It is a mile long and I have to take it in a very low gear.  I have never made it up that hill in such a short time.  About two miles from home and I saw some lighting and it was obvious it was going to rain.  So I came to a picnic table (on the path) that had a roof over it.  I secured my bike and got under the roof just as the storm hit.

The wind blew so hard that the structure was shaking and I was concerned that it might actually blow over.  My upper body was protected by a rain jacket and by the roof but it felt like my legs were being stung by a thousand pins.  I look around after a while and the rain was blowing sideways.  There was a young man who had also taken shelter with me and I didn’t realize he was there until he said he was worried about the storm.

After about 20 minutes the storm blew over and I rode the last two miles in a steady rain.  Along the way I had to dodge debris from the storm.  Saw a couple of road signs that had been snapped off and were laying on the ground.  Tree limbs were everywhere.  It was a bad storm to be sure.  I’m thankful that I made it through it unharmed.  Wet but unharmed.  🙂

That’s it for today.  Thanks for checking out my blog.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

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