Friday ~ November 27, 2015

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

November-26-2015

Happy Friday!

I hope you and yours had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We were invited to Angie and Ben’s home and I got to see it after the extensive remodel.  It is beautiful.

We had a wonderful meal and a fun afternoon of playing with the grand kids and we even managed to get in a card game.

It became obvious after an hour or so that I had not eaten properly and it really got me down for a while.  I get along very well with the diabetes as long as I stay with what works.  If I venture out of that safety zone I pay the price, which I did yesterday.  By 8 p.m. I was back on an even keel.

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Our beautiful children.  I am so happy and proud of them.  Their Mother did a good job raising them.  🙂

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I’ll leave you with this image of Ben carving the turkey.  He said it was the first turkey he had ever carved.  Did a magnificent job with it.  Josh watched his every move and I was just wondering if he was storing that all in his inquisitive brain.

That’s it for today.  Thanks for stopping by the blog.  I hope you enjoy your day and as always be careful.

Wednesday ~ November 25, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on November 25, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

November-25-2015-11-22-15

Happy Wednesday!

Thank you for all the kind sentiments yesterday.   Jeanne and I had a wonderful dinner last night and both came to the same conclusion…  She truly must be nuts to have stayed with me this long.  Boy am I glad she has.  🙂

Some wildlife images for your today.  Sadly, not some of my best work but it is the first time with the long lens in a while and the rust is showing.  Hopefully by the time I try to capture some eagle shots I will have improved.

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I’m sure you are getting tired of hearing about the editor we have been forced to use for blogging but I have to tell you the forum where people can vent is busy.  At last count over 30 pages of complaints from bloggers all over the world.  I feel fortunate that I learned of a way to get back the old editor with a “work around.”  PITA but it works, so until they take that away I will use it.  It that goes, so do I and I’ll put my blog on my website.

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Woke up with a cold yesterday (second one in two months) and today it is worse.  😦

I know, suck it up buttercup and get on with it.  Still it amazes me in this amazing time we live there is still no cure for the common cold.

That’s it for today.  I hope you enjoy your day.  If you’re traveling be safe and be aware.  If you’re not enjoy the fact that you don’t have to travel.  I certainly am going to.  Most of all I wish you peace and the comfort of being with those who love you and you love back.

Be careful.

Tuesday ~ November 24, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on November 24, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , .

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Happy Tuesday!

39 years ago today I did the smartest thing I have ever done in my life.  I married my best friend, soul mate, lover, confidant, and life partner Jeanne.  It’s been an amazing journey with peaks and valleys as all things in life are.  Way, way more peaks for sure and the valleys have strengthened the bond even more.  Thank you Jeanne for a wonderful life together! 🙂

Yesterday I took a 4 hour drive through the country side.  Some familiar roads but a lot of unfamiliar roads.  I took two cameras and two lenses.  The long lens unfortunately never made it out of the bag, which means that I didn’t find any wildlife to photograph.  So today I have barns for you.  I love to photograph farm structures and especially barns.

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I thought the contrast of red and green was appropriate for the season.  🙂

I went as far North as Guttenberg looking for some eagles or other water fowl but found only a couple of sea gulls flying over the lock and dam.  I did spot a Coyote in a field hunting but he took off running when I slowed the car.  He would have been too far away to photograph but I could always hope that if I remained in one place long enough he might come my way.  I also saw a huge hawk but same story.  After spending 15 minutes slowly getting into range he decided that was close enough and he took off.

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Finally I’ll leave you with this barn.  I don’t think I have ever seen a barn this color.  Really caught my eye so of course I had to turn around and photograph it.

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

Monday ~ November 23, 2015

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

November-22-2015

Happy Monday!

Jeanne and I went on a photo drive late yesterday afternoon.  We ended up at the Mud Lake Park around the time the sun was starting to set.  I was hoping to catch some wildlife but they were not to be found so I settled for some landscape images.

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This little guy was the only wildlife we found at Mud Lake.  He was too far away to get any detail on him even though I had my 600 mm lens.  Still the beauty of the soft sunlight on the water and him going merrily going on his way conveys the look and feel I was after.

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A little more rant from yesterday.  Adobe™ just came out in early October with an update to their Lightroom software.  Most photographers use Lightroom to sort, catalog, and do some minor touch up to their photos.  One of the great features of Lightroom was that it would automatically eject your camera card once the photos were downloaded.  This was a preference you could choose and I think a lot of photographers (from what I read on Adobe’s forum page) really like this feature.

But Adobe™ in their infinite wisdom just decided to take that feature out!?!?!?!  Why?  Well, they said their research showed it was “under utilized.”  Ugh!  Why not leave it as a choice.  Does it cost money to keep it in the software?  Are people less likely to buy the product because it’s there?  Were people angry that it was a choice?  Damn!!

That’s it for today.  Thanks for stopping by the blog.  I’ll stop ranting now until something else pushes my buttons.  🙂

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Sunday ~ November 22, 2015

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

November-21-2015

Happy Sunday!

Oh what a difference a day makes.  The image above was made Friday morning before the big snow fall and the image directly below was made a little later in the day on Saturday.  😦

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I have a couple of rants this morning so if you’re not interested in listening to me rant then I’ll say thanks for stopping by the blog and hope to see you next time.

Over the years I have spent thousands of dollars with Adobe™ in software purchases, upgrades, and add ons.  My personal information was hacked on their system two years ago and I took no action against them.  In short I’ve been a loyal customer of theirs since way back to Photoshop V7.

So yesterday morning I get an email from Adobe™ asking me if I would participate in a survey to determine what future enhancements and product offerings I would be interested in.  They cautioned that the survey would take 12 minutes  but they would enter my name in a drawing for some prize.  I spent a few minutes making sure this was a legitimate survey by going to their website and doing some research.  Satisfied that everything was okay I agreed to take the survey.  They asked for my name, my email address, and my date of birth.  Then I was taken to a screen that said, “Thank you for taking the survey.”

In other words you’re too damn old for us to care what you think! 🙂

Rant # 2:  I spoke briefly yesterday about how WordPress™ forced the new editor on us bloggers without so much as a notification.  They took away many features that are very helpful and made it more difficult to post a nice blog.  The more I thought about it the more frustrated I became by their arrogance and lack of concern for their customers.  So I went to the WordPress™ Forums.  It didn’t take long to find the subject string about frustration with the new editor.  I posted my “give us a choice” statement and then checked the box that said send me any responses to my post.  My email box was overwhelmed.

WordPress™ has really irritated their customer base and the maddening thing is they don’t give a “rat’s ass!”  Not my words but that quote was posted many times on the forum by different bloggers.  🙂

Okay, if you stayed with me through all this, I’m done.  Thanks again for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Saturday ~ November 21, 2015

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

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Happy Saturday!

A short post today with only one image.   I didn’t get any photography yesterday because of some “honey do” projects.  I did photograph our back yard at sunrise and then plan to do the same this morning when I can clear a path to the patio.  🙂

I have no idea how much snow we have but it looks like the 10 – 12 inch variety.

Oh and I’m a happy camper or should I say blogger this morning.  I found a way to get the “classic editor” back to post my blog.  It is a bit of a chore but well worth it.  The arrogance of Word Press to say “You will use this new editor and you will like it!”  Why not give us, the customers a choice of using the tried and true editor or the new one?

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

Thursday ~ November 19, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on November 19, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

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Happy Thursday!

A couple more HDR images for you today and one regular image of a tree.  I appreciate all the kind comments on yesterday’s post.  It is gratifying to know that some enjoy my photography.

Photography gives me the opportunity to share with others the beauty I find in this world.  Thank you again for visiting my blog.

The image above is a large Catholic Church located in Bankston, Iowa.  I had the tripod set up to capture the farm scene that I showed yesterday but if I turned the camera 90 degrees South this is what I got.  🙂

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Finished up the benefit meetings in Cedar Rapids yesterday evening around 4:00 p.m. and then drove back to Marion to meet Mark for a coffee and some catch up time afterwards.  It was great to see him again and to learn about what he’s been doing.

Had to drive in a pouring rain most of the way home.  I kept thinking to myself…  this is better than snow.  Then the morning forecast is for 4 – 8 inches of snow starting tomorrow night.  😦

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This is the same scene I showed yesterday from a different focal length and at a few minutes later then the other one.

Back to a “normal” day today.  I’ve been leaving the house the last couple of days long before light and getting home in the dark.  It will be nice to see the road without headlights.  🙂

That’s it for today.  Hope you enjoy your day.  Be careful.

Wednesday ~ November 18, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on November 18, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , .

November-18-2015-11-15-2015

Happy Rainy Wednesday!

Only time for a short post and one image today.  An over cooked HDR image that I took this past Sunday.

One of the things I like about HDR is that you can really take it to some extremes to express some creativity if you like.  This has more of a painterly look and feel and is obviously over done but I do like the looks of it.

So I started the post this morning and the first thing I’m greeted with is another new editor.  I do not mind change and in fact I often embrace it with great joy but damn change just for the sake of change is annoying.

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

Monday ~ November 15, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on November 16, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

November-15-2015

Happy Monday!

Jeanne and I went looking for a nice sunset scene yesterday, late in the afternoon.  When we started out there wasn’t that many clouds but as we got closer to sunset a bank of gray clouds rolled up and spoiled the sunset that I had sought.

No matter I found a couple of farm structures that I have not photographed before including this old machine shed.  I had spotted a barn (the image below) that I wanted to photograph and after I made several images of it I saw this magnificent building right in front of me. 🙂

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So we continued driving West hoping the find the perfect backdrop to a sunset.  Finally about 20 minutes before the sun slid below the bank of clouds I found a nice farm scene to photograph the sunset.  Well it didn’t turn out all that great because frankly the sun wouldn’t cooperate with me.

So I ended up making a bunch of HDR images, which I haven’t processed yet so we’ll see how they turned out.  I was a little disappointed but still happy with these images.  Remember you can click on any of the images to reveal a larger version of them.

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We were driving along and I pulled off the road and walked a little way to capture this image.  Jeanne said, “What did you see to take a picture of?”  I showed her this image on the LCD screen and she was unimpressed.  I don’t care I really like it.

It’s not every day you see three cows more or less evenly spaced walking as a silhouette across a harvested field against a dynamic sky close to sunset.

At least it’s not every day for me.  🙂

Busy week ahead.  I have an appointment with my Endocrinologist this morning and I’m doing employee benefit meetings this week, which means a couple of zero dark thirty departures so I’m not sure I’ll have a blog but will give it my best effort.

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