Thursday ~ August 13, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on August 13, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

August-12-2015

Happy Thursday!

Short post this day as I have an early morning meeting and I need to hurry up.  🙂

Yesterday afternoon as a service to the Maquoketa Chamber I photographed their annual fund-raising golf outing.  It’s a fun thing to do and it preserves a memory of an enjoyable afternoon.

The weather was perfect and they had a good turnout of golfers.

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After I photographed all the teams and these shots around the golf course I flew my drone over the course to get some different photos and video of the golf course.  I have never seen it from the air and I thought it would make an interesting view.

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It was a bright sunny day and I was only using the small monitor to guide the Phantom over the course.  It’s very hard to pick up detail on that small monitor but good enough to let me navigate over landmarks.

When I was looking at the raw video last night I noticed that some women on 5th tee (I think it was the 5th tee) actually “Mooned” the drone.  🙂

I had to look at it twice but yes indeed there were two moons on the tee.  🙂

That’s a first for me.  Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

P. S.  Of course I’ll show it to you when I get it edited. 

Wednesday ~ August 12, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on August 12, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

August-08-2015-2A

Happy Hump Day!

One of the things I love about the Farmer’s Market (no matter where) is the people.  I love “street photography” but I’m always a little nervous about taking images of people without their permission.  Unfortunately when you ask for  permission you tend to get poses and that tends to diminish the quality of the image (in my opinion.)

Or you can capture an image of an interesting subject like this rugged man and no matter if he is posing his true self shows through.  I would love to do a photo shoot with him as I think he has a story to tell.

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While the first image begged to be in black and white this image demanded to be in color.  I tried it in black and white but it just didn’t convey the true feeling of the subject.  This was a true street image (grab the shot and move on.)

I’m not out to spoil anyone’s day with my photography and I certainly do not want my day spoiled either.  So I take what I can get and if it feels appropriate I will ask.  If not I grab the shot and continue on my way.  🙂

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I love this tee-shirt.  She said “it expresses what I feel.”  Her honesty was refreshing.  I saw a lot of interesting subjects and could have made hundreds of images but there just wasn’t enough time and I kept my camera under my umbrella a lot of the time because of the continuous sprinkles of rain.

Fun stuff for sure.  Jeanne and I think we’ll go to the Dubuque Farmer’s Market this Saturday and see what else we can find to eat and of course make images of.

That’s it for today.  Enjoy your mid-week happy hump day.  Thanks for stopping by the blog and thank you for all your wonderful complementary comments.  It makes me feel so good to know that my images are enjoyed.  So thanks and be careful.

Tuesday ~ August 11, 2015

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

August-07-2015-1A

Happy Tuesday!

I know I showed you some images of a crop duster a few days ago but this is a different one at a different location.  Like I said earlier if it can fly I like to photograph it.  The image above was shot at a focal length of 300 mm and I was lucky to get all the plane in the view finder.

It’s fun to have them fly this close and directly over me.  This guy even gave me a wing wave when he left the area.  🙂

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I’ve always shared the good, bad, and the ugly on this blog.  Writing a more or less daily blog is at times a challenge, therapy, a passion, and a creative release.  Pretty much what is on my mind at the time finds its way on to this blog.

So Friday when I woke up I had a small rash on my left side.  I didn’t think too much of it and there was no discomfort.  I photographed the event in Maquoketa and then Jeanne and I went to Des Moines.  It had grown a little bit on Saturday but was only mildly annoying and certainly not painful.

Sunday it went from an annoyance to a painful event and kept me awake most of the night.  I was very lucky to get in to see my doctor yesterday and he gave me the good news that I have Shingles.  😦

When I turned sixty I took “the shot” which was expensive but it was purported to at the very least lessen your chances of getting shingles and at the best either prevent it or mitigate the effect.  I have no doubt that it probably did the latter but who knows.

So I’m now taking a slew of pill including the dreaded prednisone, which has all kinds of bad side effects including spiking my blood sugar.  The good news is that I only have to take it for two weeks.

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He also gave me a pretty strong pain medication, which helped me get a restful sleep last night.  I’m not complaining mind you.  My Mom and Dad both had shingles and they suffered terribly with it.  At least today there is medication that will lessen the discomfort and I am grateful for that.

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Interesting day today.  I get to work with an outside business that is dealing with some conflict and because they are our customers they have access to my conflict resolution services.  I don’t want to make it sound like I enjoy conflict but I do enjoy helping people work through it.  There is a great deal of satisfaction helping people come to a workable resolution to ongoing problems.

Camera Specs:  Nikon D750 | Nikon 80 – 400 mm VRII lens | ISO 200 1/1250 sec @ f6.5 | Burst mode

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

Monday ~ August 10, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on August 10, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

August-07-2015A

Happy Monday!

Last Friday I was asked if I would come down to Maquoketa and video a special event that one of our banks was doing.  It was called human checkers and of course I said sure I would.

One of the many things I love about the organization I work for is the philosophy of “working hard and playing hard.”  So last Friday they held a human checker event when some of the staff wore red shirts and some wore black / gray shirts.  The parking lot was mapped out in the dimensions of a full-sized checker board and two teams were selected to be the masters of the checker game.  You can see my drone flying over the game above.  🙂

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The game ended up taking a little longer than anticipated.  Standing on the pickup trucks gave a different perspective of the game but it was still difficult to make the call on which move to take.

I have deep-seated friendships with so many of the folks I work with that to pass up an invitation to participate in this event (even though on my day off) would have been unthinkable.  It was great fun and the good news is that the drone never crashed and no one was hurt.  🙂

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Friday I received a note from one our interns who had completed our program.  I was truly humbled by her kind words.  There were times when making the presentation to the interns on Tuesday was a challenge (as well as keeping up my regular work load) but after reading her wonderful note it made me realize that it was indeed all worth while.  It reminded me also of a good lesson in life… “Appreciation takes so little from the giver but is so powerful, meaningful, and gratifying to the receiver.”

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I can assure you the next time I play checkers (either on a device or in person) I will remember this Human Checker Game.  There is a short 4 minute video below of the game that I shot with the Phantom.  Take a few minutes and watch it.  It’s kind of fun.

Oh, and just for the record.  Black won the match.  🙂

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

Sunday ~ August 09, 2015

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

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Happy Sunday!

Fun weekend.  Jeanne and I drove to Des Moines, Iowa on Friday to meet up with some great friends from Kansas City, Missouri.  Des Moines is about half way for both of us and we have talked about doing this for sometime.

Jeanne and Debbie were in college together, both are teachers, and have been great friends since those college years.

Friday evening we had a wonderful dinner and conversation at a nice restaurant in West Des Moines.  I’m not sure how long Jeanne and Debbie visited but I know I was asleep when she came back to the room.  🙂

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Saturday we decided to visit the Des Moines Farmer’s Market.  Followers of my blog know that I enjoy photographing the Dubuque Farmer’s Market, so I was really excited about getting to photograph what is billed as Iowa’s largest Farmer’s Market.

It was cloudy, overcast and rainy but the crowd was large and people were shopping, eating, and laughing regardless of the weather.

We walked for what seemed like hours and still didn’t see all the vendors or listen to all the music performers.  We finally stopped at an outdoor restaurant to have lunch and people watch.  The food was excellent and we enjoyed more conversation as well.

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Shortly after lunch the rain stopped and full of sustenance we decided to explore more of Des Moines.  The rain had indeed stopped and the sun came out, which meant that the humidity went sky-high.  Whew it was hot walking around the area.

Saw some interesting things in Des Moines that I didn’t realize were there.  It is a nice, relatively clean, and friendly city.  We encountered many nice people at the Farmer’s Market and no one seemed to mind me clicking away with my camera.

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Someone thought enough of this rusty old bike that they put a chain around the bike stand so no one would steal it.

I shot 387 images on Saturday.  Not really a large number unless you consider it was one image at a time.  No burst mode so that is a lot of single shots for a few hours.  When we got home last night I ran through some of the images and culled them down to 184.  It was a difficult cut process (which is good) and of the keepers I’ll probably show you 20 at most.  🙂

That’s it for today.  I still have the event I photographed on Friday to show you as well.  So for the first time in recent memory I have a stock pile of blog material.  Yea!!

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

Saturday ~ August 08, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on August 8, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , .

August-07-2015

Happy Saturday!

Early yesterday morning I drove down to Maquoketa because some of my friends had asked if I would photograph and video a special event they were doing first thing.  I was happy to do so and after the event I was on my way out-of-town when I saw this beauty parked by the post office.

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It is a 1951 Dodge Coronet with GYPO Matic drive (what ever that means.)  I couldn’t just pass a beauty like this up so I spent a half an hour photographing it from a variety of angles.  The sun was behind some clouds so I didn’t get a lot of hot spots.  It was fun to photograph this old beauty.

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After photographing this Dodge I headed out-of-town but found some activity at the “Duck Pond” so ripped off a few images from there.  Then back to the highway for the ride home.

As much fun as I had on Thursday photographing the Crop Duster I found another one spraying a field of corn.  So I pulled on the side of the road (not my favorite position) and spent about 20 minutes with him.  When he was finished he actually gave me a wing wave.  🙂

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So I got home and spent the rest of the afternoon working on images and video.  I enjoy the processing almost as much as the actual taking of the images.

I hope you enjoyed a look at this rare old Dodge.  For the condition its in its in pretty remarkable condition.  🙂

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

Friday ~ August 07, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on August 7, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

August-06-2015

Happy Friday!

Look up in the sky, it’s a bird, a plane… Well for me, it really doesn’t  matter.  If it can fly I want to photograph it.

On my way home last evening I caught a glimpse of something large flying low close to the horizon.  So naturally I found a place to turn around and investigate.  This guy was spraying a bean field that was some distance from the highway.

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So I parked on a gravel road well off the highway and grabbed my 80 – 400 mm lens.  This lens has become my favorite go to lens.  It isn’t perfect for every type of shot but it gives me enough range and versatility that I can shoot a variety of subjects and scenes so I can capture the action or moment.

Now as the image above shows I was relatively far from the action and that was okay with me.  I didn’t want to be breathing the spray and I had a good focal range with my lens.

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What I didn’t expect was for him to make two passes directly over me.  No spray of course but it was obvious that he could see me standing there with a long lens and so he made a couple of photographic passes for me, which I really appreciated.

In fact on the shot above I had to zoom back in to only a 100 mm to get the entire plane in the frame.  I could feel the vibration of that big radial motor as he flew over me.

I watched him for about 20 minutes and there was no other reason that I could see why he would fly all the way over to me and so low other than to give me a nice shot.  🙂

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

Thursday ~ August 06, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on August 6, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

August-05-2015

Happy Thursday!

Enjoyable day yesterday.  I don’t normally talk about work on this blog but will make an exception today.  For the last 8 weeks our organization has hosted 6 bright young interns who worked at our various locations during the week learning the banking business and fulfilling a number of roles with in the banks.

Then for one and a half days each week they learned about leadership, food scarcity, small business ownership, community issues, community service, and a variety of other career choices.

One of the things they learned about was deficiency in reading at grade level and the disparity in life skills and choices that causes.  If a child is not reading at grade level by 3rd grade the consequences of that lead to a number of serious life issues.

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Corrine Kroger from the Community Foundation has served as a catalyst for the Dubuque Campaign for Grade-Level Reading. This collaborative effort by funders and nonprofit partners across the community is working to ensure that more children succeed in school and are prepared for college, a career and active citizenship. The campaign focuses on the most important predictor of school success and high school graduation: grade-level reading by the end of third grade.

Linda Nudd (former Maquoketa School Principal) works for the Jackson County Campaign for Grade Level Reading and has been a great resource to bring much needed attention to the problem.  She and Corrine presented a program to our interns about reading deficiency and one of the initiatives to combat it is what is called “Little Free Libraries.”

Our organization has a community based program called “Pay It Ohnward” where we give our full-time employees $100 and part-time employees $50 to contribute to a charity or cause of their choice.  So the Interns decided they wanted to contribute their money to providing the first “Little Free Library” in Maquoketa.  It is located at Little Bear Park in Maquoketa.

Yesterday we had the official ribbon cutting ceremony for the opening of the little library.

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This little girl was the first to use the new Little Library.  Several young people also donated books.  It was a wonderful event and gave me a lot of pride to be a very small part of this wonderful group.

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

Tuesday ~ August 04, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on August 4, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

August-02-2015-1A

Happy Tuesday!

I have some images from Josh’s last soccer game of 2015.  It was like an oven at the field.  Temperatures were hovering around 92 with a heat index of 103 degrees.  I took an umbrella to keep some of the sun off Jeanne and I but the wind was strong enough that it made it difficult to hold on to.

Thank God for the wind though because without it the heat would have been unbearable.

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Josh was very proud of his soccer medal (I suspect there will be more) and he also got a nice Popsicle.  Not sure which he was most excited about.

Busy day yesterday (for me anyway.)  We had a meeting with our financial guy, then home to mow and trim the lawn, suited up and went for a 23 mile bike ride, and then changed clothes and took a golf lesson.  No nap time.  😦

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I love this image of Josh as he takes a break from the action.  They are really careful with the kids making sure they stay hydrated and that there are plenty of rest breaks between the action.

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

Monday ~ August 03, 2015

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

August-02-2015

Happy Monday!

I took a little drive Sunday morning and found this interesting collection of farm buildings against a dynamic sky full of clouds.  Although it was past the golden hour for landscape photography I think the clouds makes up for it.

Then I happened by some flowers growing along the side of the road.  No one seemed to be living there but the flowers were beautiful so I had to make some images of them. I didn’t have my macro lens but the 24 – 120 f4 VR lens seemed to work just fine.

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I also had my long lens just in case i came across some wildlife but they were scarce so no images of them for today.

Very hot afternoon so I didn’t get outside much.  Josh had his last soccer game of the year yesterday afternoon at 5:00 p.m. so we went and baked during that.  I’ll have some of those images for you tomorrow.

Ben got called from the game and had to do surgery so Angie and the kids came over for dinner and I grilled some chicken for us.

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We played a lot, ate a lot, visited a lot and then they went home.  I think I lasted maybe 15 minutes in front of the History Channel and then was out like a light.  🙂

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That’s all I have for you today.  Less humid today so I have a lot of activities planned.  We’ll see how many of them I get done.  Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your day and be careful.