Sunday ~ August 13, 2023

Posted by Dave Updegraff on August 13, 2023
Posted in: Aerial Photography. Tagged: , , .

Happy Sunday!

What a fun Saturday I had this week.  I spent a little time with my Grand Kids and took some pictures for a future project.  Gabby has started a dog walking business in her neighborhood, which I think is great.

Then I decided to go down to the river and see what was happening.  I hadn’t been to the river for several weeks.  I had my drone but not a camera.  (I know, WHAT, no camera.)  I generally throw it in the truck anytime I’m going anywhere but for some reason Saturday I did not.

As I was coming off the freeway I looked over at the 16th street basin and couldn’t believe what I saw. I have, for sometime lamented about how all the wildlife has left the basin because they cut down all the trees and put in solar panels.  But today was something else.  There were 30-50 egrets, Canada geese, blue herons, and a variety of ducks all using the basin.

What a time to be without a camera.  So I made the decision to drive all the way home to get my camera on the chance they would all be gone by the time I got back.  30 minutes later I was back at the basin with long lens in hand and shooting up a storm.  699 images to be exact. 

I’ll post those images in a couple of days.  Anyway, after that I drove over to the lock and dam and there were a large group of pelicans in the water.  Unfortunately I couldn’t get any pictures of them because, they were blocked by the lock walls.

So I walked over to the control center of the Lock Master and he was busy getting a boat locked through.  He did come outside for a moment and I asked him if I could fly my drone over the dam.  He was very friendly and said “sure you can.”  I was elated.

 The video is a little over 6 minutes.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

 

 

 

Sunday ~ July 23, 2023

Posted by Dave Updegraff on July 23, 2023
Posted in: Aerial Photography. Tagged: , , , , .

Happy Sunday!!

I have readers of this blog in many parts of this country and even some from overseas.  So it makes sense to say that I suspect some of you have never seen or been to a drive-in theater.    Living in the Midwest they were fairly common in a lot of communities during the 1960- 1980s.  But like so many things that have almost become extinct.

The small community of Maquoketa has a Drive-In show  and not only that but they get first run movies to  boot. The owner of this Drive-In is a friend of mine and we met in Rotary.  Anyway on the same day that I had issues with the water tower I also flew my drone around the Drive-in.

It is usually packed every weekend and as you will see from the video they have a lot to offer for good family entertainment.  The video is very short but fun.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Friday ~ July 21, 2023

Posted by Dave Updegraff on July 21, 2023
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , , .

Happy Friday!

This is my Friend Ted Strait, founder and manager of the great Maquoketa Farmer’s Market.  He is a man of many talents including former HR Director of a major corporation on the West Coast, a master carpenter, and community leader.

I saw him a week ago at a Rotary meeting and asked him if I could do some aerial and still photography of the Market.  He said sure and so this past Tuesday I spent some time at the Market.

What the Market lacks in overall size is more than made up for in a wide variety of things for sale, delicious foods, musical entertainment and great bargains.  It is the meeting place of people from Jackson County every Tuesday.

This is Santa and Mrs Claus.  This is the first time I have met them.  They do a variety of events in and around the Maquoketa area.   They have their own FB page, so search FB to learn more about them.

The musical entertainment is provided by “Momma J.” known for her beautiful voice and wild hats.

She modeled these for me while she was taking a break from her singing.  Really neat lady.

My friend Sally Davis at the information booth for Alzheimer’s activities.  There is a very active group of supporters in Jackson County.

Some of the many vendors are shown below.

And is you made it far, here is a very short video of the Market.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Sunday ~ July 16, 2023

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

Happy Sunday!

These were the ominous clouds that were over Maquoketa Friday that produced a deluge of rain and wind.  Thankfully no hail or sever damage were reported.  (you can click on images to reveal a larger and more detailed image.)

So to begin the story, I had a lunch meeting with some valued friends at Noon on Friday.  I also had a dinner meeting with another great Friend later in the day.  So I brought my camera and drones along to fill up the time between the two meetings.

I stopped at a variety of places to shoot video and drone video and I’ll post those at a later date.  All the time I was capturing images and video I noticed the clouds building up and getting more and more foreboding.

As I headed back to town I noticed a group of farm tractors traveling in line so I decided to follow them.  Turns out there was a large numbers of tractors that had been traveling through some towns in Jackson County and they had all stopped at Maquoketa High School, presumably for dinner.

Well I thought this would be a wonderful video for the drone to fly over so I parked about a block away so I wouldn’t be in the way and launched my drone

Well this is what happened.  The drones have forward, backward, and downward safety sensors but not sideways sensors.  So I backed the drone up to get all the shot and slide into the side of one of the legs of the tower.

So I had to walk about a block and a half to see if I could find the drone.  I found it alright but it was behind the fence that protected the water tower.  I could see that it was missing one of it props but hoped I could fly it out of the grass and the fence.  NOPE!

So I called a dear friend of mine who called one of the city crews.  So thanks to my friends Chris and Shelby plus Jeff who was so gracious to interrupt his day off to help me I was able to retrieve my crashed drone.

Now for the good news.  The prop that I thought had broken off was just folded into the side and was just find.  Very minor body damage to the drone itself.  After three hours of drying and installing new propellers on the drone it was ready to fly again.

That’s it.  Like a friend of mine said if you fly drones enough you’re going to crash one.  Unfortunately I’ve had more than my share of crashes. A dear Friend of mine might say that people like me shouldn’t have drones.  🙂

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Friday ~ July 14, 2023

Posted by Dave Updegraff on July 13, 2023
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

Happy Friday!

I have photographed the Maquoketa Dam many times over the last 20 + years.  I finally decided to fly my drone over the dam to see just what was on the other side.  Short video about 3 minutes.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Monday ~ July 10, 2023

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

Happy Monday!

This magnificent church is St. Lawrence Parish, located near Otter Creek, Iowa.  I have photographed it many times over the years because of its stately structure and I just love the way it looks.  Having said that, I have often wanted to see it from a different vantage point and now that I’m back to flying drones I can finally accomplish that.

It’s one thing to stand on the side of a road and take pictures of a structure (or whatever it is) it’s quite another thing (in my mind anyway) to actually go on the property and fly around a structure.  

So I stopped by the parish a couple of times but couldn’t raise anyone.  Fortunately last week as I was coming back from Maquoketa, I stopped again and was greeted by a friendly pastor.  He was very gracious and gave me permission to fly and photograph this wonderful structure.

I hope you enjoy this short video of St. Lawrence Parish.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Sunday ~ July 09, 2023

Posted by Dave Updegraff on July 9, 2023
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

Happy Sunday!

Yesterday we got to spend a little time with our new Grand Son.  Mark and Julia were gracious with their time and let me and Jeanne spend some quality time with Brooks.

Jeanne hasn’t lost her touch with babies.  He was asleep most of the time we were there, but its so much fun just to spend some time with him and watching all the moves he makes and the little sounds.

It is such an amazing thing for me to look at my Son and see him with his own child.  Brooks is just a very lucky little guy to have Mark and Julia as his parents.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Thursday ~ June 29, 2023

Posted by Dave Updegraff on June 28, 2023
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , .

Happy Thursday!

Below you will find a short drone video of Maquoketa, Iowa.  I’m working on a project and this was some spare footage that I had and I liked it so I made a video for this blog.

Hope you enjoy it.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Monday ~ June 26, 2023

Posted by Dave Updegraff on June 26, 2023
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

Happy Monday!

Yesterday Jeanne and I went for a drive in the country side.  We ended up at Mud Lake Park.  I was up there a few weeks ago and the park was closed because of flooding.  It was nice to see the park open again and the camping area all cleaned up.

I had a drone with me so decided it was a good day to fly and show some of the debris that has piled up along the shore from all the flooding.

This video is a little over 13 minutes so it’s a little long bur pretty scenery!

Enjoy your day and be careful.