Friday ~ October 16, 2015

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

October-15-2015

Happy Friday!

“Like a moth attracted to a flame… ” I have always been attracted to fire and smoke.  So yesterday I had a wonderful day of photographing farm scenes and harvest scenes and drove all over Eastern Iowa.  I also met up with a dear friend and we had a two-hour lunch getting caught up.

I digress, so in the middle of my travels I saw a long trail of smoke.  It was not the big black sinister looking smoke from a structure fire, in fact at first I thought it was more dust then smoke.  Intrigued I decided to investigate.

A factoid ~ The fact is scientists think moths aren’t so much attracted to the light of a flame or other bright light as they are disoriented by it. Here’s how it works. Like many flying insects, moths are able to find their way partly by using light as a compass. When the source of light is the sun or moon, that light source is very distant, and the incoming light rays that strike the insect arrive just about parallel to each other.

So moths – and many other flying insects – have evolved to expect to receive light at a fixed part of the eye. As long as the moth flies more or less in a straight line, this visual pattern remains unchanged.

Now consider what happens when the light source is a nearby candle. Then the angle at which the light strikes the moth’s eye quickly changes while the moth holds to a straight-line course. The moth tries to do what it has evolved to do under the light of the sun or moon – that is, maintain a constant angle to the source.

And as it does so, it spirals in toward the light.

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What I discovered was a large corn field was on fire.  Apparently (according to the paper this morning) a farmer was bailing corn stalks and a spark or flame from the baler set the field on fire.  You can see the fire above. You may click on the image to make it larger.

It jumped across the road and set an unharvested field of corn on fire as well as shown in the first image.   I couldn’t get any closer to show the fire of the unharvested field.  I was blocked by law enforcement.  🙂

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This was what they were trying to fight the fire with.  I did see some flames leap up from the field above but I was talking with the guy who was telling me to move my car so I didn’t capture that.

I have never heard of seen a corn field on fire so yesterday was a new experience and adventure all rolled up into one. 🙂

I’m out among them again today trying to capture more harvest images and fall scenes.  Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Thursday ~ October 15, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on October 15, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , .

October-11-2015

Happy Thursday!

I apologize for the lack of activity on the blog this week.  I had several early morning meetings that precluded me from posting.  Monday I left the house at 5:00 a.m. and didn’t get home until 6:30 p.m.  Our company has an all employee day annually dedicated to life enrichment, motivation, and comradely.

I look forward to it each and every year because I get to see most of our staff in one place, hear some great speakers, and have the opportunity to lean new things.  Pretty amazing when you think about it.

Sunday evening we made our annual visit to the Halloween House in Asbury.  I’ve posted some images and a story about this wonderful event before on the blog.

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The house has to be seen to be fully appreciated.  I can capture images of the displays but I can’t capture the sounds, the strobe lights, the fog, and the voices of the creatures.  I did shoot a little video last year, which came out pretty good.  I was all set this year by attaching a Go Pro camera head strap on my head so I would capture what I was looking at.

Unfortunately the camera wasn’t pointed in the right direction so I got a lot of sky and nothing else.  😦

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The Telegraph Herald has written several articles of interest about the house.  The couple who own the house are very gracious hosts and will answer any questions you pose about the workings.  This year they added two huge new displays that were in a word, awesome.  The first image on the blog shows one of the new displays but it is a 4 part display and I couldn’t capture all 4 parts.

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This guy is one of the other new displays.  He rises in the air about 25 feet and talks the entire time.  Of course he is moving and his victim is struggling.  Add some strobes and smoke and you have a very realistic scene that lasts about 90 seconds.

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So what do the kids think of this display?  Joshua loves it and runs from display to display waiting for them to activate.  Gabby doesn’t like to get too close and as long as she is being held she is fine.  Austin slept through the whole thing.

The lady who lives in the house is so nice and she constantly offers everyone candy.  She searched her entire stock for candy that Josh could have.  She even offered to go look a the labels to make sure they were not made in a factory that has peanuts.

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So I encourage you to visit the Halloween House if you live within an hour or so drive from Dubuque.  It is really a technological marvel to watch and as I said earlier you cannot fully appreciate it until you experience it live.

That’s it for today.  I’m off to take harvest images today.  Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Sunday ~ October 11, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on October 11, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

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Happy Sunday!

This is something that you do not particularly want to see up close and personal.  They are annoying and they chew up the leaves.  I remember as a child we used to catch them and they would secrete a brown juice on your hands.  We would say they spit tobacco on us.  🙂

I was at the “Duck Pond” a few weeks ago and there was no wildlife around so I thought I would explore the micro world.  I was impressed with all that goes on when you start looking at the little creatures’ habitat.

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These flowers were growing randomly around the pond.  I hadn’t really paid any attention to them until this day.  They are very pretty and add to the over all aesthetics of the environment but it is easy to take them for granted.

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Another of life’s creature that we see a lot of.  Never have given any consideration of photographing one.  Any port in a storm I guess.  I spent about 30 minutes at the pond just looking and listening and occasionally photographing.

That’s it for today.  Enjoy your day.  Suppose to be sunny and 80 in our part of the world.  Thanks for stopping by and be careful.

Saturday ~ October 10, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on October 10, 2015
Posted in: General Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

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Happy Saturday!

Today I thought I’d publish an all Gabby Day.  She is one of my favorite subjects to photograph and by the way to be around.  🙂

Last Saturday Angie and I did the World Wide Photo Walk in Galena and Gabby came along.  She got tired of walking pretty quickly and since both her Mother and I were photographing it was a challenge to carry her.  My good friend Steve volunteered to carry her.

This look says it all.  If I don’t look at him he doesn’t exist and it does beat walking.  🙂

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This image is when I was walking behind Steve and Gabby.  She is saying, “Grandpa won’t you please carry me.”  She did come to accept Steve later during the walk but she would, given the chance run to her Mother or me.

We had a decent time at the photo walk although it wasn’t set up like the typical walk.  The group didn’t stay together much and we didn’t meet afterwards for food and conversation.  I think some of them did go to the distillery in town but we opted to keep walking and photographing.  Later we had lunch.

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Finally I’ll leave you with this image from the pumpkin patch.  Gabby wanted to go in the corn pool and Angie said no it was time to leave.  So this is the response Gabby gave her Mother.  I had to take the shot.  🙂

Love that little girl so much.  She is a real treasure.

That’s it for today.  Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your day, it looks like a good one weather wise at least in my part of the world.  Be careful.

Friday ~ October 09, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on October 9, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

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Happy Friday!

I have some harvest images for you today.  I enjoy shooting the harvest in Iowa.  The light is generally softer although I shot these before the golden hour the sun was still softer than mid summer.

Busy last few days.  We’re getting ready for a big event at work and I will spend a fair amount of time today working on some of the video and graphics for that day.  I enjoy doing that but I’ve let my video editing skills get rusty.  🙂

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They are tearing down a one story commercial building right next to the office building I work in.  It’s been an interesting process to watch.  First they had an asbestos abatement team come in and they took several days to remove the material from the roof of the building.

Then the big machinery came in and started tearing down the building.  I’ll have some images of that perhaps for the blog later.  I was impressed with the operator of the big wrecking machine.  He brought down one cement block at a time.  He was super careful so as not to damage our office building.

Amazing job and the skill he must have to operate such a big machine with such a delicate touch.  Impressive.

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That’s it for today.  Lots to do before the end of the day.  Prayers for my friend Melinda.  Thank you for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Tuesday ~ October 06, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on October 6, 2015
Posted in: General Posts. Tagged: , , , , , .

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Happy Tuesday!

Some images from the Saturday Photo Walk for you today.  I used what I call the “Retro” look to process these photos to make them look old.  Of course the first image of the post office is a little out of character with the huge power lines in the background.  It would have taken more time than I had to remove them.

Apparently (what I was told, no research involved) this is a historic post office still in service today.  I did not go inside, which now I regret.  I may have to make another trip over to investigate it more closely.

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This guy was fascinating.  I wish I would have had time to visit with him. He was kind enough to step out into the street and pose for this image.  Very nice man.

Apparently they offer what is called “Ghost Tours.”  General Grant gives you a walking tour of downtown Galena and points out several points of interest from the Civil War era.  The uniform looks pretty authentic and he certainly like he could be General Grant. 🙂

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This is the Dowling House, which is the oldest house in Galena.  Galena’s oldest house, Dowling House, was built-in 1826 by John Dowling. Built of limestone, it was once the only trading post in the city. The Dowling House was equipped with primitive living quarters and hosted many fur traders in years past.

I’ll talk more about the actual Photo Walk later in the week and I have a few more images to show.  On the whole I was disappointed in the walk.  I really didn’t come away with many images.

I’m giving strong consideration to hosting a Photo Walk next year and Angie had some great ideas on where to hold it.  So I’ll mull that over during the Winter and decide if I will do that.  I have had some people who were on the other two photo walks if I would consider holding one just on my own.  I’ll think about that as well.  Might be fun.

That’s it for today.  Back at with lots to do.  Thanks for stopping by the blog this day.  Enjoy the Fall weather and be careful.

Monday ~ October 05, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on October 5, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , .

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Happy Monday!

What a wonderful “Fathers” weekend I had.  It was one of the best weekends I can ever remember.

Saturday Angie, Gabby and I participated in the World Wide Photo Walk event hosted in Galena, Illinois.  My good friends Steve and Becki joined us.  The Photo Walk is held around the world and was the idea of world-famous photographer and Photoshop guru Scott Kelby.

I lead two photo walks in Dubuque a few years ago.  The weather was brisk and chilly with a slight breeze just enough to make your nose run.  I have several stories to tell about the photo walk but that will be for later in the week.  It was so much fun actually getting to photograph with Angie.  Although we spent a fair amount of time keeping track of Gabby we had a lot of fun shooting as well.

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Then on Sunday Mark drove up from Cedar Rapids to play in an annual Chili Dipper event at Thunderhills Country Club.  We were joined by two good friends Jake and Bjorn.  We actually did pretty good and shot 9 under par for a score of 62.  They had 8 inch cups and it was a best shot but still that’s not too bad.  We each won $40 in prize money.

It was so much fun spending the time with Mark and visiting between shots.  I am a lucky, lucky man to have two wonderful and successful children who don’t mind spending a little time with their old man.  🙂

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I’m not into this “selfie” thing.  As much as I love to make photographs I absolutely hate to be in them.  We finally stopped for coffee, warmth and someplace to sit down for awhile and during that time Gabby and I were having a lot of fun teasing each other.

So I took a couple of these types shots to send to Jeanne who is in Ames taking care of her Mother and this turned out to be the one everyone seemed to like best.

Little Gabby has my heart all locked up!  🙂

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

Saturday ~ October 03, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on October 3, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

October-02-2015

Happy Saturday!

I spent two hours yesterday afternoon driving the countryside, much of which was new territory for me.  The sky was too bright and the lighting not so good but I wanted to see if I could capture some landscape / farm scenes so out I went.

Every one of the images I have for you today was a drive by, turn around, park the car where it was safe, and walk to get the best (in my judgement) point of view.  So although I didn’t really exercise yesterday I did do a fair amount of walking and I’m going to count that.  🙂

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Today I am headed for Galena, Illinois to be a participant in Scott Kelby’s World Wide Photowalk.  I hosted the Photowalk in Dubuque for two years but it was a lot of work and some people got frustrated with me because of Kelby’s website problems and so I haven’t done anything with it for the last few years.

When I found out someone was hosting a walk in Galena I signed up.  All the enjoyment without any of the responsibility. 🙂

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That’s it for today.  I hope to have some images from the walk for you tomorrow.  My daughter, Angie is joining me for the walk and I’ve wanted to go photographing with her for a long time.  Gabby will be there too so I suspect some of my attention will be directed to her as well.  🙂

Becki I’m looking forward to photographing with you too.  It’s been a long time since we shot together.

Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your day.  It looks like we will have perfect weather.  Pray for the folks on the East Coast.  I had an email from my good friend Paul who lives in Virgina and he said that he’s been through 8 hurricanes since moving there and they have had 9 straight days of rain.

Be careful.

Thursday ~ October 01, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on October 1, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , .

September-30-2015

Happy Thursday!

I’m in Cedar Rapids today to get more training on the Affordable Care Act.  Now there is an oxymoron for you.

When I first started working in Maquoketa I would spend my noon hour break traveling the countryside in and around Maquoketa looking for things to photograph and just learning the area.

I remember this old structure was one of the first farm buildings I photographed (even before the blog.)  It was also before it was over grown with trees.  There was a corn crib and a barn.  It looked like they hadn’t been used for sometime and so they were pretty rustic looking even back then.

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Yesterday I was visiting one of our banks and took an alternate route back to the office and had to do a double take when I went by this farm.  Apparently they decided to tear the structures down.  Even though the trees have pretty much taken over, it is still sad for me to see these old buildings being dismantled.

Life moves on and change is inevitable.

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

Wednesday ~ September 30, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on September 30, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

September-29-2015

Happy Hump Day!

A couple  of early harvest images for you today.  We had a pretty good rain yesterday morning and I saw these two combines sitting in the field on the way to work.  I reasoned they might still be there in the afternoon on my homeward commute because it would probably be too wet to continue the harvest.

I was delighted to see them both in their original position and I had some softer light from the evening sun shinning on them.  🙂

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I’m doing some video work for a project this evening after work for my company.  I used to shoot a lot of video and make training videos as well as video vignettes for website work.  About the only video I work with now is from the Phantoms and they have been pretty much non-existent of late.

I actually was pretty good at editing video and using some special effects along with green screen effects.  But like any skill if you don’t use it on a regular basis it deteriorates. Additionally the video editing software has changed a lot and I haven’t kept up with the changes so it is a real challenge trying to piece some video together in a coherent manner.

This morning I’m desperately charging batteries for cameras that haven’t been powered on for several years, hoping that the batteries will last long enough to get the footage I need. 🙂

So that’s all I have for today.  It should be interesting working on this project.  I have two video cameras and if they fail I can always use one of my DLSRs as a backup.  Believe it or not I’ve never really shot any footage with the DLSRs even though they have the ability to do so.

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