Wednesday ~ September 03, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on September 3, 2014
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , .

Swans

Happy Wednesday!  ~  198

Yesterday was one of those rare days when I had no lunch meeting nor engagement so when that happens I grab my camera and head out to see what I can find.  It was a beautiful sunny day with blue skies, puffy clouds, and low humidity.  In other words, perfect!

I actually started out looking for a farm scene to shoot.  After several miles of driving without finding anything that caught my interest I decided to stop by the duck pond.

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The duck pond has been a little disappointing for me this year.  Very little activity of late.  There were a couple of swans on the far side of the pond but it would have been impossible to get close enough to get a shot.  So I thought I would go across the highway to the other marsh.  There hasn’t been much there this year either but I was pleasantly surprised to see this pair of Trumpeter Swans rooting around in the grass.

All of a sudden they both started flapping their wings and headed right for me into the water.  Like they decided they should pose for me.  🙂

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After posing I guess they decided they needed to primp a little so they climbed up on this dead tree and started grooming themselves.

Camera specs: Nikon D610 | Nikon 80-400 mm lens | ISO 400 1/800 sec @ f8.0 | Manfrotto tripod / ball head

Yes I actually took the time to set up the tripod.  I haven’t had very good results trying to shoot the 80 – 400 mm lens hand-held so I decided to put it on a tripod and I was happy with the results.  It was good to see the swans again up close.  They didn’t seem to mind me at all and swam very close to me from time to time.

I spent about 20 minutes photographing them and it was a great way to spend my lunch break.

That’s it for today.  I hope you enjoy your mid-week hump day.  Thanks for stopping by and be careful.

Tuesday ~ September 02, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on September 2, 2014
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

Gabby

Happy Tuesday!  ~  199

Wonderful three-day weekend.  I took a couple of bike rides including a very hard one yesterday.  I only did 24 miles but took on the biggest hill of all my routes.  The hill is 1.1 miles long and unforgiving (meaning there are no flat spots to catch a breath.)  I made it up the hill in 2nd gear without stopping.  Sometimes I was going so slow that I worried about tipping over.  🙂

Part of my ride took me through downtown.  I didn’t remember about the parade and ran right into the middle of it.  Had to take several side streets to complete my journey.  One auxiliary police officer was not happy with my route selection but he allowed me to cut through the parade and get to the street I wanted to.

Josh

Angie, Ben and the kids came over for dinner last night.  It had been some time since we’d seen them.  We had a nice dinner and then went over to the school play ground. The kids just love it over there as there are so many things to play with and on.

The sun was beginning to set so I had to use a flash on many of the images.

Ben & Gabby

My numbers continue to be very good.  I was a little low on energy last evening so I sat a lot at the play ground.  I think the ride took more out of me than I thought.  Feeling very good today though.

Angie

A busy work week ahead and then another Doctor appointment on Friday to figure out my heart murmur.

Coming into my favorite time of the year.  Lots of changes in the landscape and of course the coming harvest season.  Hopefully many photo opportunities.

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

Monday ~ September 01, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on September 1, 2014
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , .

August-29-2014-AA

Happy Monday, Labor Day  ~  200

A short post today as it’s a holiday.  🙂

I saw this interesting cloud formation on the way home from work Friday.  I had to pull over and grab some images of it.

I continue to work on the portraits I took last week and I have a website for a client that needs updating so today will be spent in part sitting in front of the computer.  Just as well because I think there is lots of rain in the forecast for today.

My health continues to progress and the numbers are good.  I’m actually starting to get accustomed to this way of eating so it’s all good.  I don’t like sticking my fingers but fortunately I only have to do that twice a day, which isn’t bad compared to what some of my friends have to do.

Nothing special about the camera settings for this image.  Nikon D4 | Nikon 28 – 300 mm lens |  ISO 100 1/800 sec @ f13.

That’s it for today.  Hope to see Angie, Ben, and the kids sometime today.  Enjoy your labor day and be careful.

Saturday ~ August 30, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on August 30, 2014
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

GSB_Officer-Laura_T

Happy Saturday!  ~  202

A rare post today for three reasons.  1.  I normally do not post on Saturday but I have been so sporadic of late that I need to keep images in front of you so you don’t forget about me.   2.  There are no birds in the images I show you today.  3.  I get to show you portraits of real people, which I normally do not get to do.

My two favorite subjects in photography are people (portraits and fine art) and of course wildlife.  I do not get the opportunity to capture “modeled” images of people very often so it is always a new learning curve for me.  By the end of the shoot I am comfortable and realize what I forgot to do, what I should have done better, and short cuts to get the lighting right.  If I did this on a regular basis I would get much more adept at it.

I do enjoy it very much, especially the interaction with the folks I’m photographing.  So last Thursday one of our banks wanted portraits (headshots) of their officer staff for a variety of reasons.  Marketing material, website images, social media images.  They could have hired a professional to come in and take the shots but I was fortunate enough that they chose me instead.   Like I said I love doing it.  I’ve taken images for billboard advertisement for another one of our banks.  Of course bottom line is that if I can have a camera in my hand and something or someone to capture an image of it makes me very happy.  🙂

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I had 12 officers for this session.  It takes an hour to set the lights up and get them balanced and an hour to take it all down and pack it up, but like I said I love every minute of it.  In my next life I’m going to come back as a famous people photographer.  🙂

On the health front, my numbers continue (knock on wood) to be GREAT!  I’m feeling good, eating healthy, exercising every day, and losing weight.  I had a conversation with a good friend of mine yesterday, who is a prime candidate for diabetes.   He asked me about my diet because he said he noticed I had lost weight and he is weight challenged.  I told him the reason for the weight loss and I could tell he was concerned.  He admitted that he had been diagnosed as pre-diabetic.  He like me did not fully understand the ramifications of that diagnoses and so we talked about it at some length.

He left my office with a new focus on getting his health in order.  If I have one lament it would be that I wish I had done all this research before getting to the point I am now.  Having said that (it’s not my nature of course) I continue to see this as a blessing and it has given me a new lease on life.

Enough babbling for one day.  Let’s talk about the camera settings for this shoot:

Nikon D4 | Nikon 85 mm f1.4 portrait lens | ISO 100 1/200 sec @ f8 -7 exposure compensation |  2 Elinchrome BRX 500 strobes with soft boxes | Green screen background.

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

Thursday ~ August 28, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on August 28, 2014
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

August-26-2014

Happy Thursday!  ~ 204

Sorry more birds.  Today I get to do some portraits of the officers at one of our banks.  A real treat for me and the bank uses the portraits for their websites, advertising material and the officers can keep the head shot for their own personal use.

I’m learning how to test my blood sugar.  Sounds relatively simple and millions of people do it everyday.  It took me 4 tries and 4 fingers to get the first sample yesterday.  Today only 3 so I’m improving 🙂

My numbers were really great at my appointment on Tuesday.  I had a 9.1 rating when I was diagnosed with diabetes.  That is just below really bad.  Tuesday my number was 6.4%.  So great improvement.  We’ve worked hard on food content and portion size of each meal, plus at least 30 minutes of exercise everyday.

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I have a good friend who likes to say there is always a dark cloud behind every silver lining.  Well mine was that my doctor detected a heart murmur doing my examination.  A first for me so they ran an EKG and that led to the decision to have a cardiology echo test (next week.)  It is a mild murmur so I’m not overly worried.  Still it is something that isn’t right and that bothers me.  🙂

Okay, enough about my health.  I got the new controller in for the phantom last night and got it configured to match up with the vision 2 Phantom.  By the time I got that all set up it was way too dark to fly so hopefully this weekend both Phantoms will be cleared for flight.  The Phoenix Phantom was still a little unsteady on its last flight test so I’m thinking if it still is I’m going to have to buy another GPS piece for it.  😦

Boy they are a lot of work, couple that with my ineptness means that I spend about an hour of work for every minute they are in the air.  They are beginning to lose their luster in my eye.  🙂

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I’ll show you a couple of the portrait shots tomorrow assuming I do a good job.

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

Tuesday ~ August 26, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on August 26, 2014
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , .

August-25-2014-B

Happy Tuesday  ~  206

Big day for me today.  I will spend a fair amount of my day at the medical clinic meeting with two doctors and getting poked and prodded.  In the process, hopefully I will get the answers to my many questions about this disease.  I continue to be amazed by the number of my friends and other people I know that have diabetes.  Each person I talk to has different methods of coping and keeping their lives balanced.  I’ve learned a lot, but have so much more to learn.  It’s a journey not a destination. 🙂

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I have birds for you today.  You’ll have to admit I’ve given you a bit of a respite from showing birds but today that’s all I have.  We’re coming into my favorite three months of the year so I will have more harvest, barns, and other assorted images as the months progress.

I have to talk a little bit about the Tamron 150 – 600 mm lens.  It has become my favorite lens in the last few weeks that I’ve owned it.  Even though it stretches out an additional 100 mm over the Sigma 500 mm lens it is lighter and more compact than the Sigma.  Unlike the Sigma it is super fast focusing and when they say whisper quite they really mean quite.  I have never had a lens that is so quick to snap to focus.  If mounted on a tripod it produces tack sharp images.  Right now I have it mounted on my Nikon D600.  The D600 doesn’t have all that fast of frame rate but for what I’ve used it for (backyard birds) it does just fine.

This Winter when I go looking for eagles I’ll put it on the D4 for the faster frame rate.  The Tamron is one of those rare products that actually delivers exactly what the manufactures say it will plus more.  I’m very pleased with it.

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Thursday I get to do a portrait shoot of some of our loan officers for the websites.  I love to do portrait photography and working with strobes.  Because I don’t do it very often it takes me longer to get set up with the lights than it should but truly I enjoy the entire process.

That’s it for today.  Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Should be a cooler day today for a change.  Be careful.

 

Monday ~ August 25, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on August 25, 2014
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

August-24-2014

Happy Monday!  ~  207

Yesterday evening Jeanne and I went for a photo run.  It reminded me of when we were in Minnesota fishing and we’d go out in the morning and come back empty-handed or only with some small fish not really worth saving.

My idea when we headed out was to go West and find a nice place for a sunset image.  Unfortunately that is really something that needs to be scouted before hand so that you can get set up and wait for the sunset to come to you.

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So we turned around and headed East thinking of my philosophy that it really doesn’t matter much what you have in front of your lens as long as the light is soft and pretty.  Well I’m thinking of modifying that theory as well.   🙂

What I have for you today is not some of my best work, however I didn’t want to show more bird images either so it was these or nothing.  Just not what I had envisioned when I headed out.

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On the health front I had a bit of a down day yesterday.  I worked in the yard for about 3 hours and may have gotten overheated.  Just couldn’t get myself oriented so took a couple of naps and spent the rest of the day inside.  I was going for a bike ride but the heat and humidity were not on my side and I was concerned about my stability on the bike so again I opted to not ride.

I see the Endocrinologist tomorrow and hopefully many of my questions will be answered and I’ll have a better idea of how to regulate my highs and lows.

That’s it for today.  Thank you for stopping by the blog.  Better days ahead.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Sunday ~ August 24, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on August 24, 2014
Posted in: Uncategorized.

August-23-2014

Happy Sunday!  ~  208

Some unrelated ramblings this morning.  I had the best day (health wise) yesterday in recent memory and for the first time that I can remember slept through the night without waking up once. 🙂

The above image was taken with my little point and shoot camera that I carry on the bike.  I did a 23 mile ride yesterday but it was a difficult ride as I chose a route that had some major hills.  This is my favorite place to stop (it’s halfway through the ride) for a little energy snack and a 5 minute respite.

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Couldn’t resist an image of my bike.  I’ve had a bunch of bikes in my lifetime.  This is the least expensive bike I’ve owned, yet it is the best bike I’ve ever had period.  It’s called a fitness bike and is a cross between a road bike (really skinny tires) and a hybrid.   On level ground in 27th gear I can get 22 mph, downhills usually top out at 30 mph and lately I’ve averaged 11.7 mph, which in my present condition isn’t bad.  On my road bike I generally averaged 14.8 mph.  Yesterday (because of the hills) I only averaged 10.1 mph.  I was also passed by one woman and three men (on road bikes) like I was standing still.

All four of them blew by me and only one said “hi”,  I always give the person I’m passing (when I actually pass someone) notice, “passing on your left” for both of our protection.

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Finally I couldn’t leave without showing you at least one bird image.  I missed the last two days on my bird feeder project and was able to shoot some birds yesterday afternoon.

Jeanne and I plan to go on a photo run this afternoon and hopefully we’ll find some things of interest to photograph.

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

Saturday ~ August 23, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on August 23, 2014
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

August-223-2014-07-18-14-1A

Happy Saturday  ~  209

It’s been three days since I touched a camera.  That doesn’t sound long to some but for me it is a very long time.  I have been so focused on my health and work that I just have not been able to take interest in my photography.

Work has been very busy and as we come into the last quarter of the year it will only get busier and more consuming.  Every evening after work Jeanne and I have taken long walks for exercise and by the time I get a shower (2 a day) it’s time for some reflection and bed.

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So these images are from July 18th when we enjoyed an evening with Angie, Ben and the kids at their home for dinner.  That’s my wine glass on the table of the first image.  That was before I discovered I had diabetes.  It was a wonderful evening.

Josh had just learned to ride his bike without training wheels.  It didn’t take him long partly because he had ridden a balance bike for sometime and the fact that when the training wheels came off he could get a kick stand for his bike.  I’m not sure why he is so enthralled with having a kick stand but he takes great joy in stopping his bike and putting the kick stand down. 🙂

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He wasn’t very impressed with Grandpa’s bike because it didn’t have a kick stand and the tires were too thin.

I’ve felt pretty good.  Still having some issues with my right eye and hopefully I will get some answers about that soon.  I meet with my endocrinologist and my regular doctor this coming Tuesday.  I’m anxious to get some answers and see where I stand.

We’ve been eating healthy since we got the news (disgustingly and boringly healthy) and I’ve been either on my bike, treadmill, or walking the neighborhood with Jeanne every evening.

With the help of friends and Jeanne’s dedication to making sure I eat right I’m actually starting to feel good most of the time.  I’ve fallen a few times because I’ve gotten dizzy (not sure what that’s all about)  and I still have a fair amount of road rash from my bike accident from a couple of weeks ago (that itches like crazy) but other than that I seem to be doing fine.

Right now meals are pretty mundane for me.  Jeanne does a wonderful job of choosing variety but there is only so much that can be done.  We celebrated her birthday Thursday evening at one of my favorite restaurants.  Their menu is not geared to the healthy side so I had a broiled walleye (which was very good) a bed of plain lettuce, and a cup of clam chowder.  The latter of which wasn’t a good choice.  I chuckled to myself as I watched other patrons enjoy their spirits and unhealthy foods and lamented back to those care free days.  🙂

Don’t get me wrong.  I understand that it was those care free days that got me to this point and I’m glad to be headed in the right direction now.  But I’d be dishonest if I didn’t admit that I thoroughly enjoyed eating lots of bad (for me) food.  🙂

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Okay enough about my health.  Although this blog is not about my health since that is prevalent on my mind that is what came out today.

I’m going to shoot some images today no matter what of.  I just feel better when I have a camera in my hand and I’m looking through the viewfinder.

That’s it for today.  Enjoy your Saturday. We were supposed to go to the Irish Hooley this evening with our dear friends but because of the chance of sever weather in the region they moved it to the Five Flags Center.  Couple that with festival seating and there is also Summer’s Last Concert downtown tonight and it will be a traffic and parking nightmare.  So we opted to not go this year and hope to make it next year when our favorite band “Gaelic Storm” will be back.

Thanks for stopping by the blog and be careful.

Thursday ~ August 21, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on August 21, 2014
Posted in: Uncategorized.

Jeanne-60

Happy Thursday  ~  211

Jeanne

“When no one else can understand me. 

When everything I do is wrong. 

You give me hope and consolation.

You give me strength to carry on.

And you’re always there to lend a hand in everything I do.

That’s the wonder, the wonder of you.” 

“And when you smile the world is brighter.

You touch my hand and I’m a king.

Your kiss to me is worth a fortune.

Your love for me is everything.

I guess I’ll never know the reason why you love me as you do.

That’s the wonder, the wonder of you.”

Happy Birthday Honey.  You are my best friend, my soul mate, my lover, my life partner and I love you so much.