Aerial Photography

All posts tagged Aerial Photography

Tuesday ~ November 29, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on November 29, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , .

november-28-2016

Happy Tuesday!

I have three images for you today.  The first eagle images of the season.  Even though the weather was lousy for photography I decided to go out and see what I could find.

What I found was a few eagles sitting around the Lock and Dam in the trees.  None of them were fishing while I was there but there were a couple of them flying over the park.  I had to shoot at a high ISO (7200) and with the gray sky most of the shots were heavily back-lit so it made it difficult to get any quality shots.  Still these are eagles and I will never pass up a chance to photograph eagles no matter the conditions.  🙂

november-28-2016-a

This reminded me of a married couple.  Even with my hearing impairment I could hear the eagle on the left screeching.  As the other eagle finally came to the tree where she was, the screeching intensified.  I’m guessing he was in trouble for something  🙂

An interesting story to tell, which again shows why I love photography so much.  After yesterday’s post I received a text message from my good friend Rick.  He was commenting on the barge image and said that he knew the guy who was piloting the helper tug.  He wondered if I would mind if he sent him a copy of the image.   I told him if his buddy would email me I would send him the high-resolution original image and he could print it to whatever size he wanted.

When I got home there was an email from Jeremy, the tug boat Captain.  He thanked me for the image and invited me to come along and ride with him and photograph a locking process.  WOW!  What an opportunity.  Hope to get that done before the barge traffic ends for the season.

november-28-2016-b

I took a lot of images but there were very few that I would even process.  It was raining intermittently as well so it was not a day for outdoor photography.

That’s it for today.  Back to work for me.  I enjoyed the 5 days off.

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

 

Wednesday ~ September 16, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on September 16, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

September-14-2015

Happy Hump Day!

A mixed bag of images for you today.  No award winners here but they were of interest to me so I made an image of them.

Our company had its annual golf outing on Monday and we played in Clinton, Iowa at the Valley Oaks Country Club.  The layout of this hole caught my attention so I made a photograph.  The bridge is actually an old railroad box car that has been placed over a small stream and the floor has become a wooden bridge over the stream.  Makes a nice visual presentation.

September-14-2015-A

From the Fly In Breakfast of Sunday.  The U of I Life Flight Helicopter always makes it to the Fly In but this is the first time I’ve been there when it actually took off.  I couldn’t resist taking the shot even though I had to get out of the breakfast line to get it.  🙂

September-14-2015-B

Another frequent visitor to the Fly In is this gyro copter.  The owner has been there for at least the last three years giving rides.  Someone told me that he is actually a dealer for this brand of Gyro.

That’s it for today.  I’ve been busy photographing some images for the City of Maquoketa.  They are building a new website and wanted some images reflective of the community.

I’ve also been building a website for a political candidate so my shooting time has been somewhat limited.  Hopefully this coming weekend I can shoot some harvest images.

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

Friday ~ August 07, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on August 7, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

August-06-2015

Happy Friday!

Look up in the sky, it’s a bird, a plane… Well for me, it really doesn’t  matter.  If it can fly I want to photograph it.

On my way home last evening I caught a glimpse of something large flying low close to the horizon.  So naturally I found a place to turn around and investigate.  This guy was spraying a bean field that was some distance from the highway.

August-06-2015-A

So I parked on a gravel road well off the highway and grabbed my 80 – 400 mm lens.  This lens has become my favorite go to lens.  It isn’t perfect for every type of shot but it gives me enough range and versatility that I can shoot a variety of subjects and scenes so I can capture the action or moment.

Now as the image above shows I was relatively far from the action and that was okay with me.  I didn’t want to be breathing the spray and I had a good focal range with my lens.

August-06-2015-B

What I didn’t expect was for him to make two passes directly over me.  No spray of course but it was obvious that he could see me standing there with a long lens and so he made a couple of photographic passes for me, which I really appreciated.

In fact on the shot above I had to zoom back in to only a 100 mm to get the entire plane in the frame.  I could feel the vibration of that big radial motor as he flew over me.

I watched him for about 20 minutes and there was no other reason that I could see why he would fly all the way over to me and so low other than to give me a nice shot.  🙂

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

Friday ~ July 17, 2015

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

July-17-2015-C

Happy Friday!

It’s hot and it’s mid-July so that means the war-birds are here to practice for their presentation at the big air show at Oshkosh.

I got up early this morning and drove out to the airport.  My hope was that there would be an early morning flight of the war-birds.  I was lucky in that respect but unlucky in that the wind was such they took off on the far runway and I couldn’t get a good shot of them.

July-17-2015-A

I walked into the Jet Service entrance and they were nice enough to let me out on the tarmac long enough to get some static shots of the aircraft.

Once I got a few shots I headed for the observation area so I could watch them.  I thought at first (from looking at the wind sock) they might use runway 130 but they used 180, which is the furthermost runway from the observation area.

July-17-2015-B

They only made one pass over the airfield and then flew out away from the airport to where ever they practice their maneuvers.

July-17-2015

So it wasn’t the best photo shoot opportunity but anytime I can combine photography with aircraft (especially) old war-birds it’s a pretty special time for me.

Got to spend a little time with Angie and the grand kids this morning and read them some of their favorite stories.  Great time.

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

Thursday ~ May 07, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on May 7, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

May-02-2015-5A

Happy Thursday!

I have good or bad news for you today depending on your point of view.  I have one more day of images / video from the fire burn that I’ll show tomorrow.  If you’ve enjoyed the fire narrative and images then it’s bad news because we’re done.  If you’re tired of them then it’s good news because we’re done.  🙂

May-02-2015-5B

Up close and personal with the fire in this image.

May-02-2015-5D

This was pretty cool how the entire structure collapsed in on itself.  The result of excellent planning and execution.

Once the fire started it didn’t take long to completely consume the structure.  I’ll say it again there is something that is very engrossing about watching a fire.  It’s exciting, emotional, and scary all at the same time.

May-02-2015-5

I shot this image with my new Sigma AF 15 mm f2.8 diagonal fish-eye lens.  I’ve never had a super wide-angle lens. I’m still in the newbie stage of shooting with it so I haven’t really learned how to make the best use of it.

May-02-2015-5E

This is Brandon Beck.  As you recall Brandon is an investigator with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department and is an avid pilot of Phantom Quad Copters.  He stopped by my office yesterday to bring me some really neat stickers he had created for the Phantom.

While there he showed me his video of the fire scene.  It is a little over 3.5 minutes and beautifully rendered.  I told you a few days ago that Brendon attached a GoPro camera on the fire helmet of his brother, Bjorn.  Bjorn was going to do some fire heat training and they wanted to capture that on video.

When you look at the video you’ll see Bjorn holding a device that looks at first like a cell phone but it is actually an infrared sensor.  It measures the heat of a fire and where Bjorn was, it registered 1200 degrees.  The camera got very hot.  🙂

Click here to see this great video.

That’s it for today.  Hope you enjoy your day.  I’m doing some training at Camp Courageous today.  One of my favorite training sessions to do.

Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Be careful.

Sunday ~ May 03, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on May 3, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

May-02-2015

Happy Sunday!

I had one of the most enjoyable days in recent memory yesterday.  Mark Beck, long time Fire Chief of the Maquoketa Fire Department graciously invited me to attend and photograph a training session and house burn at a location close to Maquoketa.

I had asked Mark sometime ago if it would be possible the next time they had a house burn / training session if I could attend and he remembered my request.  I took two cameras and two Phantoms with me and shot lots of photos and video of the day.

Mark’s oldest son Brandon, who is an investigator with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department also brought his Phantom Vision 2+ and did some up close and personal video of the fire.  He’s a much better pilot than I am so he got some amazing close up video of the burn.

May-02-2015-A

The temperature was about 78 degrees with an 18 – 20 mph wind.  The firemen started their day at 7:00 a.m. with safety training and a planning session.  Figure the heat of the day plus having to wear full bunker gear and be physically active and those guys had to be exhausted by the end of the day.   I arrived a little after 10:00 a.m. and the training was in full engagement.

The above photo shows firemen training on roof ventilation.  It is an important part of the overall fire fighting strategy.  There were firemen from several of the surrounding communities so it allowed all the community fire fighters the opportunity to practice their skills and learn new techniques.

May-02-2015-B

Firemen practice with a life-size dummy the technique of rescuing a person from a 2nd story window and how to properly evacuate them down a ladder.  This is no easy task.

In another life I was a Public Safety Officer at Maryville, Missouri.  We were crossed trained in Police and Fire operations.  I have had to climb ladders to upstairs windows with a fully charged fire hose and I can tell you it is a scary proposition.  I never had to extract a person from a window and I don’t even want to think about the possible consequences that might have happened.

May-02-2015-C

This image is a still photo taken from the Vision 2 copter.  It has a 12 megapixel camera which shoots RAW images.  It also takes video but I’ve got a problem with the gimbal on that copter and the video is very shaky.  I’ve got to get that figured out.

I have a lot of video to edit and I will show that as the week unfolds.  Lots more images as well.

I enjoyed getting to know Brandon much better and learned that we are kindred spirits.  We both love technology and gadgets.  We both have understanding wives and there is no such things as needing something, it is about having something.  🙂

Thanks for checking out the blog.  I hope you enjoy your day.  Be careful.

Monday ~ April 20, 2015

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

April-19-2015

Happy Monday!

Jeanne has been after me for the last few days to shoot some micro shots of the budding trees in our back yard.  Not exactly my favorite thing to do but I do like micro photography so I decided to do it for her yesterday afternoon.

April-19-2015-A

Later in the afternoon Ben, Angie, and the grand kids came over and as always we enjoyed their visit.  Grandma took the kids over to the playground so I decided to buzz them with my Phantom.  🙂

April-19-2015-B

I never pass up an opportunity to photograph Gabby.

Below I’ve added a 4 minute video of Grandma taking the kids on a walk.

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

Sunday ~ April 19, 2015

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

Areial-1

Happy Sunday!

A short post today.  One of the projects I wanted to get done was to do an aerial photography of Angie and Ben’s home before their remodel construction began.  So that they could have a before and after to look at.

Yesterday I was able to accomplish that.  Below is the video.  I forgot to add music to it so there is just the video.

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

Monday ~ March 09, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on March 9, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

Mallard Ducks

Happy Monday!

It’s been a while since my last post.  I would say that part of that was because of a busy work schedule but part of that was just being lazy as well.  I hate to admit it but I let a couple of good photography days slip away in favor of rest and relaxation.  😦

Yesterday Jeanne and I went out looking for some wildlife photos.  First of course we went to our favorite places and there was nothing.  On the way back from the river we spotted these Mallard ducks swimming in some little pools of water from the melting snow.  Any port in a storm I guess.

Canadian Geese

Then we tried a couple of other places that didn’t yield any luck when we happened by these Canadian geese gathered on a frozen body of water.  There must have been fifty or sixty just congregated for whatever reason.  There was no open water for them to swim in nor any discernible food source so I’m not sure what the big attraction was but there they were none-the-less.

I noticed in post production that the one on the left has a metal band on its leg.

Flying Canadian Geese

Finally we went on the Wisconsin side of the lock and dam to check things out.  We heard these geese honking and I was lucky enough to capture them as they flew over.

So not exactly what I had in mind when we set out but I’m happy anytime to photograph ducks and geese so it was a good afternoon.

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