Monday ~ October 16, 2023

Posted by Dave Updegraff on October 16, 2023
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

Happy Monday!

I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted any thing but I’ve got a lot of things in the works. Sunday afternoon Jeanne and I went out on a photo run like we use to do a few years ago.  It was a good time and we saw a lot of colorful scenes.  The difference in this photo run compared to those a few years ago is the fact that I didn’t take a camera with me.  

Instead I took a drone.  Well, technically the drone has a camera that takes both RAW images and Video.  So obviously I did have a camera of sorts with me.  You hear a lot of people say that there is nothing but corn to see in Iowa but it is so much more than that.

The scenic of the countryside in Iowa is something to behold.  We drove around Sunday to several places I use to go to shoot landscapes.  They did not disappoint.  But the neat thing about a drone is of course that you can get images that you could never get with just a camera.

Below is a short video (5 minutes) of our day with lots of pretty trees and land.  I hope you enjoy it.

Enjoy your Day and be careful.

Monday ~ September 25, 2023

Posted by Dave Updegraff on September 24, 2023
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

Happy Monday!

I know, you’re getting tired of Egrets already.  I was not intent on photographing any Egrets this time as I traveled to a different location on the Mississippi River.  I actually was just going to do some drone flying around the river but these Egrets were everywhere.

For me it is cool to find Egrets in a tree.  It just doesn’t seem to me that they are suited for landing in trees but they certainly seem comfortable doing so.

You can click on any image to make a larger more detailed photograph appear.  The video below is super short.  I just wanted to see what was on the other side.  Kind of like the chicken crossing the road. 🙂

This is a little 2 minute video of crossing the river.  Enjoy

Enjoy your day and  be careful.

Tuesday ~ September 12, 2023

Posted by Dave Updegraff on September 12, 2023
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Happy Tuesday!

Yesterday I drove to Manchester, Iowa and had lunch with my dear Friend John.  We have been friends for 46 years and as usual it was a very enjoyable time spent talking, reminiscing, remembering, and looking forward.

I don’t remember the name of the place we ate at but the first two places we went to were closed.  I was telling John about my done adventures and he pointed out there was a nice park / stream just next door to the restaurant.  So what’s with this creature?  Well, you’ll have to watch the 6 minute video below to find out.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Sunday ~ 09-10-2023

Posted by Dave Updegraff on September 10, 2023
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

Happy Sunday!

I was downtown at 1st & Main, a great little restaurant & grill.  Go to spend some quality time with Angie, Ben and their kids and Jeff & Tina Bower, Kelly Bower, and Tina’s Mother.  Also Mark, Julia and little Brooks were there.  It was a great time for fellowship, for reflecting, for remembering, and for consoling.

After we all left the restaurant Jeanne and I went to the Town Clock Plaza as I wanted to fly my drone around the Town Clock.  I have wanted to do this for some time but never a good time to do it.

On a Sunday afternoon there was almost no traffic and no one around.  Hope you like the video below, it’s pretty short 4 minutes 30 seconds.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Friday ~ September 08, 2023

Posted by Dave Updegraff on September 8, 2023
Posted in: Daily Posts, General Posts. Tagged: , , , , , , , .

Happy Friday or as I use to say when I was working TGIF

Over the last couple of years you have heard me lament the loss of a great wildlife area in the 16th Street Basin.  Almost all of the trees (that eagles used to perch in) were taken out and a vast solar panel array made it difficult for wild life to use the basin.

There were countless times that I would drive to the basin anticipating some wildlife only to find the basin void of any life at all.

Back on August 13th I wrote about the Basin and how I found a lot of wildlife there for the first time in a long time.  Here is the link in case you want to read my rant.  https://updedesignsblog.com/2023/08/13/sunday-august-13-2023/

Well on that day there were 30 or more Egrets, Ducks, Canada Geese, and Pelicans.  I even found a Blue Heron that I wasn’t even aware of until I saw it in post processing the image.

You can see him in the upper right corner of this image.  Unbelievably I have not been back to the Basin to see if the Wildlife are still frequenting the place.

A bunch of ducks were in various parts of the Basin.  The water level like so many areas was very low on the 13th.  I’ll have to get back down there this weekend and see what’s going on.

Remember you can click on any image to reveal a larger more detailed view of the image.

Always the ubiquitous Canada geese were present.  Most of them were on the far side of the Basin, too far away for a good image.

There were a fair amount of Pelicans at the Basin but a lot more at the lock and dam.  With the Nikon D500 set on high continuous mode I ripped off about 700 images.  Most of them were duplicates and my lack of practice with big lens was obvious with a high number of unsharp images.

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

Wednesday ~ September 06, 2023

Posted by Dave Updegraff on September 6, 2023
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , .

Happy Wednesday!

A very quick post today.  I’m doing a project for a not-for-profit entity and these great folks were part of the project.  I will post more on this as time goes by.  But speaking of time, this image took a full two hours to finish.  Mainly because of me but some to do with the media.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Friday ~ 08/25/2023

Posted by Dave Updegraff on August 25, 2023
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , .

Happy Friday!

This post is not for everyone.  The video below is of the golf country club I use to belong to.  The video is about 13 minutes long and I know that is a long time to watch a video.

I first jointed Thunder Hills Country Club around 1984 and played there for 20 years.  I had to leave in 2004 because I was working out of town and couldn’t find time to play.

I rejoined in 2019 and enjoyed four more years until I had to resign because of health related issues.

There will always be a warm place in my heart for THCC.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Tuesday ~ 08-22-2023

Posted by Dave Updegraff on August 22, 2023
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Happy Tuesday!

I was doing a little practice with the drone this evening and saw this neat sunset.  The drone has the capacity to either take video or RAW still images.  So I shot this with still focus.

Just a quick post this evening.  More to come later.

Enjoy the rest of your day and be careful.

Sunday ~ August 20, 2023

Posted by Dave Updegraff on August 20, 2023
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

Happy Sunday!

We had a nice pre-birthday party for Jeanne since she is celebrating a momentous birthday tomorrow.

We had a lot of her family in and some dear friends also attended.  It was a very nice affair.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Friday ~ 08-18-2023

Posted by Dave Updegraff on August 17, 2023
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

Happy Friday.

This image has nothing to do with the video below.  As I was lining up the drone shot I saw these two amazing homes and so I made an image of them.  My first thought when I saw them was, WOW!, just WOW!

Anyway the video is only 5 minutes long and I think pretty interesting.

Enjoy your day and be careful.