Monday ~ January 26, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on January 26, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , .

Gabby

Happy Monday!

Angie, Ben, and the kids stopped over for dinner last night.  It had been sometime since we were together so it was really nice to catch up with them.  I asked Gabby if I could take her picture and she said yeah.  🙂

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Josh had his first skiing lesson yesterday afternoon.  He and Ben arrived about 30 minutes after Angie and Gabby came.  Angie showed us a video she had taken with her iPhone of part of his lesson.  This is all I could take as he still doesn’t like to have his picture taken.

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Gabby steals a quite moment for herself and a good book.  She loves to look at the pages and when she gets to the end she just starts over again.  🙂

That’s it for today.  Hope you have a great day.

Thanks for stopping by the blog and be careful.

Sunday ~ January 25, 2015

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

January-18-2015-5A

Happy Sunday!

Eagle Week – Day 6

These are the last of the eagle images.  At least until I can find some more eagles.  🙂

All three of these images were taken toward the end of the session.  You can tell by the beautiful light on the birds.  This Juvenal had made several passes over the fishing area but had apparently never found anything.  I really love how the fading sunlight makes his eyes sparkle.

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This is an image I didn’t think I had captured.  I’m like a kid in a candy store when it comes to shooting eagles.  If it’s black, white, brown or in the air I’m pressing the shutter.   The D4 has such a huge buffer you can rip off 80 images of a lot of nothing, so you can’t always tell on the little 3 inch LCD what you have.

I heard Andreas telling Jeanne that he had captured an eagle eating a fish.  I had followed a couple of eagles but hadn’t seen that.  Sometimes you have to wait until you get home in front of your computer to see what you actually did get.

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I gave a whoop and Jeanne asked what that was for and I told I did get an image of the eagle eating the fish.  🙂

When eagles catch a small fish they will eat it in mid-air.  It satisfies their hunger immediately but more important they don’t have to protect their food from the other eagles.  After an eagle puts his talons in the water he will look down at his talons on the assent.  He wants to know if he caught anything (eagles have very little feeling in their talons) and if the fish is small enough he will eat it in mid-air and not worry about the other eagles. 🙂

You can click on the images to make them larger.  The last image makes me want to clear my throat.  🙂

It’s been fun showing you all the eagle shots.  I hope you enjoyed them as well.

Thanks for checking out the blog.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Saturday ~ January 24, 2015

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

January-18-2015-4A

Happy Saturday!

Eagle Week – Day 5

I intended to post this on Friday but unfortunately I caught a bug of some kind and was in bed most of the day on Friday.  Didn’t feel good Thursday evening and went to bed very early.  Glad to report that I’m feeling much better today.

One of the things that I always try for when capturing images of eagles is the actual catch.  I think it is what most photographers try to capture.  This is not my best effort but it still gives you the idea of what the eagle goes through to get a meal.

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So this was going to be the last of my eagle report but I have one more set of images from the shoot that I want to share with you.  I’ll post those tomorrow.

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This particular image was the last one I shot on Sunday.  As you can tell from the warm color of the sun it was the last of the light for the day. 🙂

If I keep feeling better today I will hopefully get out this afternoon and find some more images for you to view.

Thanks as always for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your day.  Stay well and be careful.

Thursday ~ January 22, 2015

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

January-18-2015-3A

Happy Thursday!

Eagle Week – Day 4

Hard to imagine having so much fun in such a short period of time.  I can see why Burt goes to the lock and dam nearly every day.

This pair of eagles must be mates because throughout the afternoon they taunted each other.  If one of them took off the other one wasn’t far behind.  I was lucky enough to capture this clash in midair.  No it’s not tack sharp but in my view it’s a keeper just for the dynamic action it captures.  🙂

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Eagles weren’t the only wildlife at the dam.  Toward the end of the day this lone pelican flew in over the lock.  While perhaps not as majestic as the mighty eagle none-the-less Andreas and I were both excited to see this guy.  I love to watch pelicans fly and when they get into a feeding frenzy it is really fun to watch.  I shot several images of him floating in the water with the soft golden sun on his feathers.  He was kind of far away after he landed so I’m probably not going to post those images.

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Finally this skirmish between the have and the have not.  Like I said on an earlier post, eagles are lazy and would often times rather steal a fish as to have to catch their own.  I shot close to 80 images of this battle and I can report that the eagle that caught the fish finally ended up getting to eat it.  🙂

That’s it for today.  Thanks for stopping by.  Thanks for your nice email Ron, wish I could find a cardinal for you.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Wednesday ~ January 21, 2015

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

January-18-2015-2C

Happy Hump Day!

Eagle Week – Day 3

I wasn’t particularly happy with my location on Sunday.  I wanted to be on the walkway.  Turns out (at least for this day) that sitting on the rocks wasn’t a bad idea.  As I said yesterday we were right on the flight path to the feeding trees.

My good friend Andreas was also there and it is always a pleasure to visit with him and as always talk about photography in general but more specifically about the wildlife.  He is very knowledgeable about both subjects.  Here is a link to his blog if you’d like to see his account of the day.

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Last evening I attended a celebration my company held for the successful year of 2014.  I am now on my 15th year with this company and it is wonderful to work for a company and for people who appreciate you and what you do.  It’s equally enjoyable spending social time with the friends you work with everyday.  I am truly blessed.

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No matter how many times I photograph them, see them, or hear them, I get excited in the presence of eagles.  They are such a magnificent creature.  Yes, as some people say they are lazy and they are scavengers.  So be it, they do it in style.  🙂

That’s it for today.  Hope you have a great day (it’s your choice.)  Thanks for stopping by and be careful.

Tuesday ~ January 20, 2015

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

January-18-2015-1A

Happy Tuesday!

Eagle Week Day 2.

Through no fault of my own, nor from any elaborate planning I just happened to be sitting where the eagles tend to fly over to get to what the photographers call the “eating trees.”  I shot about 54 images of this eagle from far away (the D4 has a huge buffer) and as he got closer and closer I was concerned about losing him because I was trying to shoot from a tripod.  This was my last shot as he flew over the top of me.  🙂

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The eagle flights were few and far between.  They seemed content to sit in the “eagle trees” across from the lock and just rest.  Occasionally one or two would take off, skim over the water, and I actually saw a couple catch or attempt to catch some fish.  There were, however, no shortage of gulls flying and fishing, so between the eagle flights and to just to help get better at my panning and timing I would shoot the gulls.  I had almost as many gull images as I do eagle images.  The gull images have already been deleted though.  🙂

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This image doesn’t really do justice to the number of people on the observation deck.  It was shoulder to shoulder and then there were another 20 or more along the banks of the river and on the rocks (where I was.)  Then in the parking lot there were a number of photographers taking images of the eagles in the “eating trees.”  Quite the sight.

If you live in the area and are looking for something to do it would be worth your while to stop by the lock and dam.  It’s easy to get to and as Burt says, “it’s a real treasure.”  I don’t know which is more fun watching the birds or the photographers. 🙂

Speaking of Burt, here is the link to one of his websites.  If you want to see some amazing eagle and other wildlife images it’s worth a visit.

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

Monday ~ January 19, 2015

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

January-18-2015

Happy Monday!

Welcome to Eagle week. 

I met a man a few years ago (actually through this blog) by the name of Burt Gearhart and his wife Marylin live in LeClaire, Iowa.  Burt is a retired software engineer and an avid photographer.  He loves to capture images of wildlife in general but his favorite is eagles.  He shoots almost everyday at the wonderful Lock & Dam 14 in LeClaire.  It is an eagle photographer’s paradise.

Burt graciously invited Andreas, Jeanne, I to a presentation he was doing in LeClaire about eagles and about his photography.  He has some magnificent images of eagles, flying, fishing, fighting, and feeding.  He has done a very skilful job.  I would link you to his website but I’m not sure what the address is.  He has many but some are not updated on a regular basis.  (hint.)

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So Jeanne and I drove down to LeClaire had lunch and made it to the center where Burt was presenting.  We were actually on time.   Andreas showed up a few minutes after we did.

It was a wonderful presentation and all the time I was watching it I was getting anxious to get out to the Lock and Dam.

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When we arrived at the lock and dam it was wall to wall photographers.  The parking lot was liquid mud and there were cameras and big lenses everywhere.  I started salivating.  🙂

No room on the observation walkway so I climbed down on some rocks and did some shooting.  It was amazing how out of practice I was.  I had configured the camera before hand so I didn’t have to worry about that but tracking the birds and keeping up with them proved to be a challenge for awhile.  When you don’t do it very often you get rusty.

I shot 855 images with the Nikon D4 | Tamron 150 – 600 mm lens | manual mode 1/1250 sec @ f8.0 | -7 / -1.3 EV | and let the camera pick the ISO.   Lots of sunshine so never really had to hit much higher than 640 ISO.  I got a lot of trash can shots, some reasonable shots and some pretty darn good shots and then a couple of really lucky shots.

So if you like eagles, stay tuned, I’m showing them (not all 855) in the order they came out of the camera.  So please check back cause that’s what I’ll have all week.   Thanks to Burt for the invite and as always great to visit and shoot with Andreas.

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

Sunday ~ January 18, 2015

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

January-15-2015-A

Happy Sunday!

Some more farm structures for you today.  I enjoy making images of farm buildings.  I especially like to make images of buildings that have some wear and tear on them but still serve a useful purpose.

January-15-2015

I’m wondering if customer service is a dying art?  Jeanne and I went out around 5:00 p.m. to look at a new computer for her.  We had talked about what she wanted in her new laptop and so we went to two of the big box stores in town.  Our first stop was frustrating because no one acknowledged our presence even though we were there about 15 minutes and actually found one that we probably would have purchased.  Finally after not finding anyone to  help us we walked out.

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On to the next store where again we looked for several minutes when finally this guy with a real attitude of I don’t give a crap showed up and basically said “Want some help?”  We told him we had found a computer we’d like to purchase if he had it in stock.  With a sigh of frustration he disappeared only to come back a few minutes later to say that he did not.  “You can stop in Tuesday and see if we have it then.”  Uh, no thank you we’ll do what we should have done in the first place.

Log on to Amazon.com, find the exact same machine for a few dollars less and it will arrive Wednesday.  No sales tax, no hassle and no attitude.  So much for trying to support the local stores.  They have to meet us half way.

That’s it for today.  Sorry for the rant but poor customer service just pushes my buttons.  🙂

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

Saturday ~ January 17, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on January 17, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

January-16-2015-B

Happy Saturday!

Normally I do not post on Saturday, however since there has been a drought of images of late I thought I would do a little babbling this morning.  Thanks to my good friend Barb who suggested I look for other things and from different perspectives.  Great advice.

Yesterday my normal Friday noon meeting got canceled so I was able to take my camera and travel.  My car was already dirty so I decided to take some gravel roads that I had never driven before and it was a good choice.  Even though it was high noon I was pleased with some of the images I captured.

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I had the 80 – 400 mm lens with me yesterday and I could have gotten much closer to this house but as I played with the differences in focal lengths I liked this image better than a close up photo.  It had to be in black and white.  I’m sure this old farm-house could tell some stories.  I love to shoot old decaying structures and wonder what they were like in their creation.

January-16-2015

This old combine sitting in a field of harvested corn covered with snow really appealed to me.  There were other angles I wanted to explore but this was sitting across the road from a farm-house and they had a couple of angry dogs.  They were also large and untethered so I reasoned I should grab what I could and run.  🙂

So a mixed bag for you today.  It was fun seeing some new territory that I had not explored before.  Perhaps I’ll take some more gravel roads soon.

Thanks for stopping by today.  Sounds like a nice weekend temperature wise.

I took the plunge this morning and ordered a new Phantom.  I gave up trying to get the other one to fly again.  Hopefully I got all my crashing done with the first one and the new one will suffer less.  Can’t wait to get it as I still have a lot of ideas that never got tried out with the last one.

Enjoy your day.  Be careful.

Tuesday ~ January 13, 2015

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

January-13-2015-02-25-12

Happy Tuesday!

It seems like it’s been forever since I last posted on this blog.  Actually it’s only been 3 days.  🙂

My photo cupboard is still lean but Jeanne reminded me that I have thousands of images residing on my storage drives so giving that some thought I’m showing you some images (never seen) from two and three years ago.  Not for any particular reason other than I started back in 2012 around January and February and only concentrated on those two months.

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Looking back on my history it seems that February is actually my best month to capture eagle images.  I have a few in the month of January but the bulk of my eagle shots have been in the month of February.

Yesterday I had a quick-lunch and then went out looking for something to shoot.  I only had about 20 minutes as lunch took longer than anticipated.  Nothing caught my interest so I came back with an empty card.  Like going fishing and having nothing on your stringer.

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Last year during much of January I was flying my drone.  Making modifications and tinkering with the wiring and camera mount.  That took up a lot of my time and I posted many shots of our neighborhood with snow on the ground.  🙂

Of course this year the drone is grounded.  I crashed it last year doing a project for the Jackson County Parks and Recreation project and even though I’ve made many repairs and replaced a lot of the electronics it still is not really air worthy.

So I’m going to have to start thinking from a different perspective and look for opportunities where I have not looked before.  We’ll see how that works out.

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