Thursday ~ April 02, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on April 2, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

April-01-2015

Happy Thursday (or in my case Friday,) 

Okay I won’t do that every week but since this is my first week of reduced work I had to enjoy it a little. 🙂

A real treat for me yesterday.  Some of my friends from work and I attended the weekly Rotary meeting and then on the way back Roger (who has worked for our organization over 45 years) said he was going to run out to his farm and look at something.  He grew up on this farm that is a heritage and a century farm.

He asked if I had ever seen his farm and would I like to run out there to take a look.  Of course I jumped at the chance and grabbed my camera before we left.

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As we looked at this old barn from the outside I would have never been drawn to photograph it.  It has been pretty much restored on the outside and modernized with siding.  But on the inside it has remained unchanged.  The wood was magnificent and the craftsmanship of construction is self-evident considering it has stood for so many years.

Interestingly I couldn’t decide whether to present in color or black and white.  Normally there is no decision for me.  One or the other is readily apparent.  But while I loved the color of the old wood and hay it did seem to demand a black and white treatment.  So you get both and you can decide.

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Same with this old feed mixer (at least that’s what I think it is and I’m sticking to that.) I didn’t struggle with that decision as much.  I believe I like the black and white rendering better.

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The interesting thing about both images is that it was relatively dark inside the barn.  The opening we were looking into the barn was about waist-high (and I was in a suit) so there was no going inside to set up.  The sun was coming through the cracks between the boards so the scene I wanted to photograph was back-lit.  I had to experiment with the aperture and ISO settings to finally get a decent image.

Roger gave me a lot of background history about the farm, his Father, and Mother.  It was a half hour of pure enjoyment for me.  He invited me back to photograph the barn and other buildings on his farm and I will certainly do that.  I can imagine a great HDR rendition of the inside of that marvelous barn.

That’s it for today.  Hope you enjoy your weekend / Thursday. 🙂

Thanks for stopping by the blog and be careful.

Wednesday ~ April 01, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on April 1, 2015
Posted in: Uncategorized. Tagged: , .

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Happy Hump Day!

An ordinary, common, run of the mill, Robin.  But special to me because it has always signaled the true beginning of Spring and the end of Winter.  I know I’m a master of redundancy none the less I still enjoy photographing and posting images of Robins.

I was pulling into the garage Monday evening and had the 80 – 400 mm lens on the Nikon D750 in my lap, which is how I come home many nights (don’t tell anyone.)  Waiting for the garage door to go up he was just sitting there so I had to take the shot. 🙂

That’s all I have for today.  Lame I know but it’s what it is.

On a side note I was going to do a test flight of my new Phantom as finally all the parts have come in.  I powered it up and although the engines ran they would not accelerate and so it just sat there with it propellers spinning.  😦

More to come…

Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your day (nice one in the 70s) and be careful.

Tuesday ~ March 30, 2015

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

March-30-2015

Happy Monday!

WordPress®, the blog service I use, decided some months ago to make us use a new editor (although there was nothing wrong with the old editor.)  During the last few months (slowly leading us down the path) you could click a button and revert back to the old editor.  It would last a few days and then the new editor would appear.  Click the button and revert and then the new editor would appear again.  See the pattern?

Well Monday the button and as far as I can tell the ability to change back to the old editor is gone.  Hate is a strong word and I don’t use it often but I will say that I hate this new editor.  I have from the moment they first tried to force it on me.

Now those who know me know that I embrace change.  I love change, I seek out change, not for the sake of change, but for the betterment of people, processes, whatever.  I have yet to find how this change offers anything better for the blogger and for that matter makes it harder and more cumbersome to create.  End of rant!

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Took some of my standard images on the way home last night.  Interesting sky and clouds so I found some old friends to photograph including my favorite tree.

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My favorite windmill.  Whenever I have an interesting sky and if I have the time I will seek out this old windmill.  It sets up on a hill and I have to shoot up to capture it, thus I’m able to showcase the sky.

Enough of my babble for one day.  I had a good day yesterday health wise.  Although occasionally unsteady on my feet I was able to get though the day without any physical discomfort.  That’s a big deal of late!  🙂

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

Monday ~ March 30, 2015

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

March-27-2015

Happy Monday!

This image is from a little celebration some of my friends held for me on Friday to celebrate my last official Friday of work.  Effective April 1 I will work a reduced schedule, hopefully for many more years.

This image was taken with the mirror-less camera Jeanne got me for Christmas.  It has interchangeable lenses and shoots in RAW but I haven’t taken enough images with it to really know how to use it, (which is obvious from this image) and it is a look through the display to shoot.

It is a 20.3 megapixel sensor camera with lots of features but I’ve only taken about 30 images with it and have yet to read the manual of course. 🙂

Thanks to those who were concerned about me and with the lack of activity on the blog.  I’ve been down with a nasty flu virus.  I missed work on Wednesday and Thursday, felt good enough to come to work on Friday and ate normally.  Saturday either a new bug or a resurgence of the old bug attacked me and put me right back in bed and other places.

I missed my haircut appointment, my Grand Daughters’ birthday luncheon celebration, and a dinner party with some dear friends.  From Tuesday to Sunday I lost 11 pounds.  Enough said!

So I’m going to try it again today and see how it goes.  I’m a little unsteady on my feet but for the most part feel reasonably good.

Thanks for checking on me.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Tuesday ~ March 24, 2015

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

March-23-2015

Happy Tuesday!

A little dust-up at the pond last night.  I noticed the swans were at the duck pond last night on my way home and they usually are not there in the evening so I had to stop and photograph them.  This pair is very territorial (maybe all swans are) but they don’t seem to like anyone.

There were a couple of geese that got a little close to them and they were quite vocal about the intrusion.

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The geese were actually just passing by and didn’t seem to have any interest in invading the swans’ territory.  None-the-less they gave them wide berth after their verbal warning and continue on their way.

Most of the folks that work in the building I do went to lunch together yesterday, which is a rarity and a real treat.  It’s fun to visit with the people you like outside of their normal work environment even if it’s only for an hour.  Enjoyable!

Now I have a little rant.  I ordered a pair of “Fatshark” Dominator V2 FPV goggles sometime ago.  One of the reasons I use Amazon.com is they are usually very fast and the service is great.  So it was a full week before these even shipped (they were in stock) and they were sent by USPS (the post office), which assures a slow delivery.  So they came yesterday and I examined them and found there was nothing to plug the antenna into to receive signals from the transmitter on the Phantom.  No where in the description of the product did it say you had to purchase this item separately.

Not only did I spent about an hour trying to find the receiver (because most places I looked they were out of stock) but the place I finally found it was in China, which means another couple of weeks.  Ugh!  😦

I know, no big deal in the whole scheme of things but poor customer service really frustrates me.  Besides when I got another model of these goggles a year ago from the same manufacture they were all-inclusive.  Everything was there.   Okay I’m done.

Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your day, Spring is coming one of these days.  Be careful.

Monday ~ March 23, 2015

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

March-21-2015

Happy Monday!

Back in the grip of Winter at least for today.  The rest of the week looks pretty decent but for today not so much.  I read somewhere that if people didn’t talk about the weather it would reduce conversation on the whole by nearly 60%.  I’m sure we would find something to fill the void. 🙂

The images I have for you today were taken this past Saturday.  The one above and just below were taken at the Dubuque Ice Harbor where the ice is still hanging on.  The main channel of the river is free of ice now and I would imagine it won’t be long before barge traffic once again becomes prevalent.

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We watched this little gull struggle with this small fish for sometime.  He just couldn’t figure out how to devour it and finally we got tired of watching him fight with it.

We were going to take a walk on the river walk but with the breeze and the sun beginning to set it was pretty uncomfortable so we just opted to head for the restaurant and a more cozy environment.

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I couldn’t figure out how to capture what I saw with this image of the moon.  This is the best I could get but I’m not happy with it.  I could see the full moon and just this small sliver of it was being reflected by the sun.  I’m sure if it had been a little warmer and I’d had one less glass of wine I would have made a better image.  🙂

I’m going to have to do some reading about this because it was a beautiful moon Saturday evening I would like to give it a try the next time the moon is waxing crescent.

That’s all I have for you today.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Sunday ~ March 22, 2015

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

March-20-2015

Happy Sunday!

These images are from my commute home Friday evening.  It was a nice soft light and I found a never traveled road (by me that is) so there were lots of new things to see.

I actually was, for a time, lost in the relative sense and thought I might have to turn on my navigation system to figure out where I was but finally came to a main road so all ended well. 🙂

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I think when I retire I may just drive around the countryside and shoot old farm structures.  I love the looks of them and to me they are very interesting.  They mirror life, in that at one time they were new and purposeful and now the passage of time has taken its toll on them.  Perhaps their original purpose is no longer needed.  Some have been abandoned while others have been relegated to a different less meaningful purpose.  All seem to be waiting for their inevitable fate of final demise.

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We had a great dinner last night with Angie, Ben, Josh, Gabby, and Mark at a nice restaurant downtown.  I’ve eaten there several times before and for the first time we had a very good server who was attentive to our needs and got everything correct.  It makes dinning out so much more enjoyable when you have a server who actually seems to like their job.  I tipped him well and told him he had done a great job.

That’s it for today.  I hope you enjoy your Sunday.  We’re expecting another (hopefully short) round with Winter today.  I’m getting anxious to start photographing flowers and other Spring related things.

Thanks for stopping by.  Be careful.

Friday ~ March 20, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on March 20, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

March-15-2015-4A

Happy Friday!

I will finish up my wildlife post today with some more eagle images.  Even after I culled the images I still have 400 keepers, which for me is rare.

There were even pelicans that flew over the lake but they must have thought it was too crowded because they never stopped.  Just circled several times and flew off.

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Of course some would say my standards for keepers is pretty low and I might agree when it comes to eagles.  🙂

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A short post today as I had a late night and I am running late this morning.

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You will remember I told you that the eagle scared the crap out of the gulls!  Well here’s the proof.  🙂

My friend and naturalist Ann said that many times an eagle will buzz smaller birds in groups to see which ones get separated and then they will grab the slower one.  Nature isn’t always pretty.

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

Thursday ~ March 19, 2015

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

Geese

Happy Thursday!

I have a potpourri of images for you today. These Canadian Geese are for my friend Betty.  Jeanne loves geese also and even though they are really quite common in this area I never get tired of watching them or photographing them.

Gull

Another bird I enjoy watching and photographing is the Ring-Billed Gull.  This little guy was riding the wind right in front of my lens and posing for me so I had to capture an image or 40 of him.  🙂

There were so many gulls at Sabula I’m sure that lake will be well fertilized when the ice finally melts.

Eagle

Of course it goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway) Monsieur Eagle is my very favorite bird to photograph and I could sit and watch their antics all day long.  This particular image is one of my favorite as I like this amazing stare he has.  His mind is focused on food and nothing will deter him.

Gulls

Finally I leave you with this image.  I told you in an earlier post that one of the eagles at Sabula must have gotten tired of all the chirping from the gulls and he essentially dive bombed them.  He must have scared the crap out of them (pun intended) because hundreds of them scattered.  I have some images that would just make you chuckle and perhaps I will show them although they are kind of gross.  🙂

That’s it for today.  Thank you as always for stopping by my blog and a special thank you to those of you who follow the blog on a regular basis.  Your support and comments are very much appreciated.

Remember  you can click on the image to see a larger version.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Wednesday ~ March 18, 2015

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

March-17-2015

Happy Hump Day – Post Saint Patrick’s Day!

Hope you are okay today.  I actually know some folks that took today off in anticipation of too much celebration yesterday.  🙂

I depart from my wildlife presentation to show you some farm related images.  I shot these yesterday on my way back from Cedar Rapids.  There always seems to be something of interest along the road so I was happy that I had my camera along.

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I’m not thrilled with this image.  I tried it in black and white but the metal buildings detracted from that process as they do in color.  My intent in photographing this old structure was to show the decay and deterioration of the building.  I think the image accomplishes that but with the metal buildings as a detractor none the less.

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I’m not sure what it is about windmills but I seem to shoot a lot of images with them as my primary subject matter.   I have a friend who enjoys windmills and has a beautiful large painting of a farm windmill against a beautiful evening sky that I think I may be trying to emulate.  I just seem to enjoy photographing them.

That’s it for today.  More wildlife tomorrow, that is unless I find something interesting for you today.  🙂

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