Thursday ~ December 31, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on December 31, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , .

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Happy Thursday and Happy New Year’s Eve.

Yesterday was a real treat for me.  Right in the middle of all the year-end pressure and tasks that absolutely have to be done by today I got to take a short respite from work and do a photo shoot across the street at the wonderful Decker Hotel.  One of our departments was getting ready for a new promotion and they needed some photography.  Well they only had to ask once.

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After the team photos some of the team decided they would like some “head shots” taken, which of course is one of my favorite images to make.  I used my Elinchrome portable strobes and two large soft boxes to get the wonderful soft light that you see here.  I was very pleased with the results.  The only problem I had was I forgot to bring my favorite portrait lens the Nikon 24 – 70 mm f2.8 so I took these with the Nikon 28 – 300 mm f4.5, which is a good lens, just not best choice for portraiture.

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It was a fun break and I was able to help out one of our departments so it was a win – win.

Exciting things happening at our organization and it is fun to be a part of it.

That’s it for today.  Have a safe and sane New Year’s Eve.  Thanks for stopping by the blog.  I wish you the best year ahead that you’ve ever had.  Be careful.

Tuesday ~ December 29, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on December 29, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , .

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Happy Tuesday!

I have another Christmas decoration for you today that I photographed last week at work.  This is the third year for this little fawn and I think it is such a beautiful arrangement that I wanted to share it with you.

Back at it today.  We have a lot of fresh snow on the ground and according to the news the roads are terrible.  I still have to dig out but want to wait a little longer so I don’t wake the neighbors up with the snow blower.  🙂

It’s going to be slow going this morning so have to get into that mind-set.  I’m not always the most patient driver.

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

Sunday ~ December 27, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on December 27, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , .

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Happy Sunday!

My annual after Christmas chore is to review all my images from that year and purge the ones that I really have no reason to keep (to maintain disk capacity.)  It’s hard because they all mean something to me even the bad ones.  This was the first batch I went through taken January 18, 2015 at Lock and Dam #14.  It didn’t make the blog then but I thought I would show it today.  I’m getting excited about photographing eagles again.

Have a great day and be careful.

Saturday ~ December 26, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on December 26, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

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Happy Saturday!

Okay, I wouldn’t be a Grandfather if I didn’t show some snapshots of the Grandkids on Christmas Eve, so here they are.  But I will also tell you I won’t show anymore for a while.  🙂

I love to watch Josh as he has a lot of these moments and you can just tell he is deep in thought.  There is usually a profound statement or question that comes shortly after one of these looks.

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Gabby got this pink purse and the little brown horse, which is the softest little animal I have ever felt.  But shortly after opening those gifts,  she lost all interest in presents and instead wanted to play with some of the familiar toys that we have here for them.  She didn’t even open a couple of her presents and Angie had to open them and show them to her.  🙂

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Of course this was Austin’s first Christmas and he was more interested in eating the Christmas wrapping then the gifts.  Although he did get a little toy that lights up and plays a nice tune and when ever it was turned on it garnered his attention.

Fun Christmas Eve watching the kids enjoy their presents.  I did way better than I deserved from Jeanne and my children.  After gifts were exchanged we went to the candle light service at the church and then Christmas Eve was over.

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas.  Thank you for stopping by the blog and following my photography.  I work every day to get better and to show interesting images.  I am hopeful you find enjoyment in some of them.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Wednesday ~ December 23, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on December 23, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

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Happy Wednesday!

Busy day yesterday including taking some images of new employees for our Intranet.  I was the last one out of the building last night and since my camera was still out from the employee session, I decided to take it with me as I walked through the building making sure it was properly secure.

Our office is really decorated beautifully and there are several Christmas displays throughout the building.  Since I had my camera with me I thought I might as well take some images of my favorite displays.

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I stopped on the way home to pick up some food from one of my favorite restaurants as Jeanne was sitting with the Grand Kids.  I’m not sure if I’ve gotten less tolerant in my advancing years or just more cognizant of improper customer service.  At our organization customer service is our  focus.  So when I get poor customer service it really frustrates me.  The service at this restaurant has been noticeably deteriorating over the last few months and last evening was the final straw.  I was at the pickup window for 15 minutes and even though several servers saw me none acknowledged my presence or made any effort to see what I wanted.   

When I finally did get waited on (I had previously called my order in) the food was cold and looked like it had been recycled.  So they have lost me as a customer and they won’t care or even notice but I will at least have the satisfaction of knowing I quit them.  🙂

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I have to leave you with another image from my Monday session with Gabby and Austin.  Too many images to just show three of them.  🙂

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

Tuesday ~ December 22, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on December 22, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , .

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Happy Tuesday!

I had a fun morning yesterday.  I had arranged with Angie to shoot some photographs of Austin since I  really had the chance to do that.  I took one Nikon SB910 speed light, a 2 X 2 softbox, and a reflector to her home.  As you can see from this first image Gabby was most helpful in working with Austin.  He is such a happy little guy it was hard to find a time that he wasn’t smiling but I managed with this image.  🙂

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Normally Gabby is not fond of posing for me but she cooperated somewhat for this image.  I gained a new respect for child photographers after the session yesterday.  As a Grandpa it was a hoot but as a photographer trying to get a wonderful image it was a real challenge.  So I had this vision in my mind when I went over there of what I wanted to capture and how I wanted to do it.  I wasn’t successful but came away with some really nice images.  I’ll show those at a later date.

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Josh was in preschool so it was a little easier to control the situation but any semblance of control was just that, a semblance.

I had a lot of fun with Gabby and Austin.  I want to try some more because it is good practice I just need to lower my expectations and enjoy the Grandpa angle.  🙂

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

 

Monday ~ December 21, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on December 21, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

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Happy Monday and Happy Winter Solstice – 2015!

Today is the shortest day light of the year, which is not so good news, but the good news is that starting tomorrow the days will start getting incrementally longer daylight.  🙂

I have Ring-billed Gulls for you today.  I’ve been working as often as I could on the portrait shoot I did a week ago Saturday and finally got that done yesterday morning.  So after church I decided to drive down to the river to see what I could find and the only thing of interest was a bunch of Ring-billed gulls.  I always enjoy photographing them and it is good practice trying to capture sharp images of them flying.

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Lots of people throw out pieces of bread by the loading ramp at McDonald Park and that of course attracts a lot of gulls.  So it’s a good place to sit and practice panning skills.  I leaned that I’m pretty rusty so I shot a few hundred images of the gulls and sadly a lot of them were blurry.  Photo specs: Nikon D4 | Nikon AF-S 200 – 500 mm SWM VR ED 5.6 lens | ISO 1,000 1/1250 sec @ f10.

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Not a very nice day in this part of the world weather wise, but at least it’s not snowing.  I have one more small project to finish up this morning and then I can put the portrait session to bed.  I also have a project to do for Angie this morning that I’m really looking forward to.  More about that later.

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

Thursday ~ December 17, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on December 17, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , .

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Happy Thursday!

Some more images from the Saturday portrait shoot at the Maquoketa Art Experience.  I’m reasonably happy with these but there are several things I would do differently today.  By the time I get to shoot portraits again I will have forgotten all I’ve learned including where I put the list of the things I learned.  🙂

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Lots of detail work for me this time of year.  It’s not my strong suit and it is always very hectic at year-end in the banking business. With all the new employment laws and regulations it is a significant challenge to stay current on it all.  It’s the only part of my job that proves to be less enjoyable than all the other facets.

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That’s all I have for today.  I had a couple of great photo opportunities yesterday but was traveling without my camera (which is very unusual for me) so nothing to show for it.

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