Friday ~ March 25, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on March 25, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , .

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Happy Friday / Good Friday!

I have four images for you today that I’m showing because they tell a story and not for their image quality.  I have saved these images for sometime now because I didn’t want to embarrass the eagle.  🙂

So as you view the first image (which was taken at the 16th Street Basin) you can see there is ice on the water.  This eagle had been up rooted from his sitting place by a larger eagle and so he was moving to a new spot.  He clearly thinks he is landing on another patch of “solid” ice.    This was the last day, by the way, that there was ice on Basin.

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This is that “Oh damn” moment when he breaks through the ice and sinks deep into the water.

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It all happened so quickly I didn’t have a chance to feel concern for him and you can see, as he sinks deeper his powerful wings are providing some lift to extricate him from his predicament.

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Free of the water and with his pride still in tact he flies off to another area, probably to the river where no one knows of his faux pas.  How do I know that this is a male eagle?  Simple a female eagle would have never made such a silly mistake.  🙂

I had an interesting experience yesterday.  Normally when I don’t have a lunch meeting or someone to go to lunch with I will grab my camera, get a quick bite to eat and go looking for images.  It was a nasty weather day yesterday with freezing rain and wet snow showers, so I didn’t take my camera with me.   After eating a quick-lunch I drove out to the “Duck Pond”  just to watch the geese (that’s all there is there right now) and to clean out my center console looking for my binoculars.  I hadn’t been there very long when a car pulled over in front of me to park.  I didn’t even glance up but I was aware that a person was approaching the driver’s side of my car.

They knocked on my window and when I looked up it was my good friend Andreas.  He was on his way home from a business trip in Chicago.  He saw my car from the highway and made an unscheduled stop.  We had a wonderful conversation for about 30 minutes and got caught up on what each of us had been doing.  It made my afternoon.  🙂

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

Thursday ~ March 24, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on March 24, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , .

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Happy Thursday!

I’m sorry I have more eagle images for you today.  I have over 2,000 high-resolution eagle images and I can’t just walk away from them.  🙂

I won’t show them every day but when I have a day like today (I don’t have anything else in the cupboard to show you and I’m running late then I’m going to pull out some eagle images.

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A couple of these images are from the LeClaire shoot (late February) and one of them is from the Bee Branch Canal shoot early March.  Doesn’t really matter to me as they are all eagle shots.

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Nothing much on my mind today so I’ll leave you with these images and say so long.

Remember you can click on them to make them larger.  They do look much better larger.

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

Tuesday ~ March 22, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on March 22, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

March-22-2016

Happy Tuesday!

Back to wildlife images for you today.  I’m still working on the portraits but I went out yesterday afternoon looking to see what I could see and finally ended up at a popular fishing lake.  These ducks caught my eye as I drove by so I turned around and decided that since my memory card was empty I would practice on them.

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It was fun photographing these guys as they paid no attention to me and in fact came pretty close.  At one point I had to go from 600 mm to 400 mm to get all the duck in the frame.  Also unlike most of the wildlife I have photographed I didn’t have to make any butt shots because they walked toward me more than away from me.

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I have to throw in an image of this Blue Heron.  I did visit the Basin yesterday and he was the only critter present when I was there.  The Basin has really been busy the last few times I’ve been there but yesterday it was more or less abandoned except for this guy.

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I’ll leave you with this little Duck.  He was very curious about me and the way he and his buddies  were constantly walking by me gave me the idea that probably many of the fisherman’s children feed them, so they were looking for a handout.  Unfortunately I didn’t have anything for them. I’ll have to remember to take some bread with me the next time I wander over to the lake.

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

Monday ~ March 21, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on March 21, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

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Happy Monday / Happy First Day of Spring!

I have three images for you today from my corporate photo shoot of last Wednesday.  This first shot is of the “Color Checker” tool, which is used to make sure your camera’s color balance is correctly given to the editing software.  I always shoot in RAW so I have more control over the color balance and white balance of the image.  I load this image of the color checker (actually a larger image) into the software and then every image I make with that camera in the shoot is perfectly color balanced.

Normally when I photograph people I use a Green Screen for the background.  There is software designed to make extracting the subject from the green background much easier.  What I have found over the years (even with upgrades) is that the software tends to mess with skin color and requires a lot of tweaking, which makes it hard to get the skin gradation correct.

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So I have gone to a neutral gray background.  I have noticed that most professional photographers tend to use gray or white backgrounds so I decided to try it and I must admit I’m very please with the results.  The extraction of the subject from the gray background is not that difficult with Photoshop and its refined edge detection.  It does take some tweaking to make a good cutout but the skin colors remain true and for me that’s the payoff.

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This is my friend Hannah who works at one of our banks.  She was the project leader for the shoot and endured many poses for me while I balanced the lights and got everything set up.  She is a great sport and it’s so helpful to have someone standing there so you can adjust all the settings.

When extracting someone from the background the hardest part is always the hair.  Men are usually pretty easy with their normally shorter hair.  The small strands and fly away hair can take a lot of time.  Hannah’s hair is a good example of that.  Again I was pretty happy with the results.

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

Sunday ~ March 20, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on March 20, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

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Happy Sunday!

It’s been awhile since I posted.  I’ve been busy processing images from the corporate photo shoot I did last Wednesday and the last couple of days have been busy with domestic chores and things that just needed to be done, so not much time for photography.  I hope to correct that today. 🙂

I have three eagle images for you today from my shoot at the Bee Branch Creek project in Dubuque.

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If you recall I spent about three hours there and shot over 2,000 images of the eagles and gulls fishing.  It was a fun experience and offered some real challenges that I haven experienced before.  Lots of background clutter and things for the auto focus to pick up on.  So I did have a larger than normal amount of blurry images as well.

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I still have eagle images that I haven’t looked at and evaluated yet.  🙂

Exciting news for me.  I have enrolled in a photography class that is going to be taught by the great Joe McNally and Bill Fortney.  Two of the biggest names in professional photography.  The cool thing about this class is that it is 4 days long and there are only 14 students, so lots of one on one instruction.  The other really cool thing is that my entire family is going with me, the Queen, my children, grand children and son-in-law.  No they won’t be going to the class but they will be doing fun things while I’m doing fun things.  🙂

Anyway stay tuned because as Mr. Fortney told me on the phone, “This will be epic.”  I hope so.

That’s it for today.  I hope you enjoy your Sunday (snowed here last night.)  Oh and as a side note, my “brackets” are pretty much toast.  Be careful.

Thursday ~ March 17, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on March 17, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

March-16-2016

Happy Tuesday & Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

I had an enjoyable day yesterday.  I think I had mentioned earlier on this blog that my company was needing some “head shots’ of some of our employees for marketing and so yesterday I had the privilege of photographing about 20 of our folks.  Portrait photography is one of my favorite things to do although with all the set up required it is also the most labor intensive.  Maybe I’ll show a couple of those portraits tomorrow.

Today I have three images for you that represent my third favorite type of photography, landscapes.  I said the other day that the quality of light is so important to any photograph and I fully embrace that point of view.  However one of my favorite shooting conditions is what was presented yesterday evening.  Deep blue sky with big puffy white clouds.  Admittedly some of the sky also had storm clouds but one side of the horizon was filled with these harmless puffy variety.

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So I stopped to photograph my favorite windmill against that wonderful sky and as I turned around to head back to my car I saw these two trees growing in symmetrical harmony with one another.  That sounds artsy doesn’t it.  🙂

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Finally I’ll leave you with this image of the ubiquitous farm windmill.  Busily turning in the strong wind making a great subject for a landscape photograph.

That’s it for today.

Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your St. Patrick’s Day.  Consume adult beverages responsibly and by all means be careful.

 

Tuesday ~ March 15, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on March 15, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

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Happy Tuesday!

Some more images for you today although the subject of the images is not that important it is more about the quality of light that is revealing the subjects that make them stand out as images.  I think as one progresses in their photography they become more acutely aware of the quality of the light as much and perhaps even more so than the subject itself.

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I have a long way to go in becoming a better photographer but I am now paying far more attention to the light on my subject as well as the subject itself.  Both are important and there are times when the subject needs to be captured regardless of the quality of the light.  Having said that the quality of the light only enhances and elevates the subject even more.

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This image is a good representation of what I’m trying to say.  The image itself is not note worthy.  It is not tack sharp and it is a butt shot as well, but the softness of the light on the heron and on the water makes the image worthy of viewing in my mind.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.  🙂

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

 

 

Monday ~ March 14, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on March 14, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

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Happy Monday!

I have Blue Herons for you today.  These images were shot towards the end of the day when the light was soft and a pretty orange.  Unfortunately the Herons like to sit at the West side of the 16th Street Basin where all the trees are so the light is really subdued.  Makes for difficult shooting conditions, but I was pretty happy with the images I got.

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I enjoy watching and photographing Herons.  I like to watch them stalk along the shore line and all of a sudden faster than the eye can follow their entire head will shoot underwater and usually come up with a fish, which is then normally devoured in one gulp.  🙂

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These guys were really in the dark and I had to use ISO 10,000 to get a usable image of them.  I like the fact that their mouths are open and although I couldn’t hear them I suspect they were communicating with each other.  Probably saying they wished I would leave them alone.

Busy day today with a long list of to-dos so I’m not sure I’ll get any photography in.  I have a photo shoot for my company this week and get to take bunch of head shots, which is one of my favorite things to do.

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

Sunday ~ March 13, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on March 13, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , .

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Happy Sunday!

I have three images for your today.  On my way back from Green Island I happened to pass this Red-Tailed Hawk sitting on a power line.  Well there is no way I’m going to pass up a chance to photograph one of these Raptors.

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Normally what happens is that I see the hawk going highway speed and then I look for a place to pull off the road.  Finding that I will get my camera turned on, set up, and ready to fire.  Then I go back to the hawk (constantly checking my rear view mirror) and if everything works out correctly I get three shots off before the hawk has had enough and flies away.  Usually one or all the shots are blurry.

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So this time I pulled onto the shoulder and approached slowly (there was very little traffic) expecting him to take flight at any second.  To my surprise and delight he stayed still and let me rip off about 60 shots.  After I had captured about every pose I could I decided to leave him alone and bid him adieu.  Once in a while you do get lucky.  🙂

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

Saturday ~ March 12, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on March 12, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , .

March-11-2016

Happy Saturday!

What a fun day I had yesterday.

I got a new lens this week (don’t tell Jeanne) and I wanted to try it out so I decided to go to Green Island to photograph some of the migrating birds.  Sounds like a good plan but the only thing missing were the migrating birds.  😦

What I found instead were lots and lots of Canadian Geese. I don’t have to drive all the way to Green Island to find them.  🙂

It wasn’t a total loss as I did get to photograph some other species and the geese were good test material for the lens.   Those who follow my blog on a regular basis know that I am a gear head.  I love camera gear.  I am always looking for the sharpest, longest lens I can get in my price range.

When the Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sports lens first came out I purchased it.  It is a great lens (heavy construction weighing in at over 6 pounds.)  One reviewer called it a tank and I would have to agree.  It is very difficult (at least for me) to hand hold but a professional looking and feeling lens none the less.  There was only one problem.  I never was able to get “tack sharp” images with it.  I worked at finding the right combination and tested it in lots of circumstances but never could achieve the sharpness that I wanted compared to other lenses I have.  So I finally sold it.  Now I should say that my good friend Andreas, who is an excellent photographer and an engineer recently purchased the Sigma Sports lens and he loves his.  He has gotten wonderful results with his lens.

So after doing lots of research and reading a lot of reviews I decided to purchase the Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Contemporary lens.  It weighs in at just over 4 pounds and has an over all smaller footprint.    It is not as weatherproof as the Sports version (but I don’t intend to photograph in the rain.)  It is less than half the price of the Sports version and Sigma dropped the price another $150.  So I decided to order it and test it for 30 days.  If it didn’t meet my expectations I could send it back with no loss.  I have to tell you that it not only met my expectations but has far exceeded them.  It is without a doubt the sharpest long lens I have ever had.  🙂

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Okay enough gear talk.   I was on my way back from Green Island and when I drove past the Off Shore Restaurant I thought I would pull in to their parking lot and walk down by the river to see if there was any wildlife near the shore.  When I got to the parking lot I noticed a gentleman at the far end with his SUV and it looked like he had an RC plane on the ground.  Well I couldn’t resist that so I pulled in beside him and started a conversation with him.  Turns out he was a really nice guy by the name of Lonnie Louvar whose hobby and passion is RC Planes.  He has several and I caught him at then end of his flying session.  He said he was going to make one more flight and I asked him if he would mind if I photographed it.  He graciously said I could.

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Talk about good practice.  This P51 Mustang is much faster and smaller than an eagle.  It took me a little while to get the timing down but the lens preformed beautifully.  The shot above is just how it came out of the camera.  I did my normal processing but there is no cropping or other modification to the image.  See what I mean about being a sharp lens.  🙂

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Lonn is a great guy and I’m glad I decided to stop and visit with him.  You can see in the image above that he had to battle a cross wind but did a great job and made a perfect landing.  He has made several videos of his flying adventures and they are worth looking at.  I’ve included a couple of links here.  Link #1

Link #2

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After leaving Bellevue I stopped at the 16th Street Basin and found lots of interesting things to photograph so I’ll show some of those at a later time.  That’s it for today.

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