Flower Photography

All posts tagged Flower Photography

Tuesday ~ July 26, 2022

Posted by Dave Updegraff on July 26, 2022
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , .

Happy Tuesday!

I didn’t make it to the Dubuque Arboretum yet but on my way home from lunch I came across some pretty flowers and so I decided to photograph them.

It was a real challenge to find a place to park that wasn’t too far away and didn’t interfere with traffic. I did find a place fairly close by so I spent about 30 minutes with the flowers.  The temperature was really nice.

Remember you can click on any image to reveal a much larger and more detailed version of the small image.  There were several bees working the flowers but fortunately they had no interest in me.

I really enjoy photographing pretty flowers.  I still intend going to the Arboretum, as my Wife told me that the flowers there were really special this year and that it is the peak time for them.

There were some other flowers I wanted to photograph but they were up a level and I couldn’t really get close to them.  Photographing with the macro lens does not allow for long distance shooting.

I hope you enjoy the flowers.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Wednesday ~ August 01, 2018

Posted by Dave Updegraff on August 1, 2018
Posted in: General Posts. Tagged: , , , , , , .

Happy Hump Day Wednesday!

I thought, as did some of my friends, that I would spend a greater amount of time on photography after retiring.  I’ve actually spent less time for some reason.  My passion for and of photography has not wavered and 90% of the time I have a camera with me.  However I’ve been focused on many other things and have developed a significant case of being lazy.  🙂

I have four images for today.  Yesterday, I had lunch with a dear Friend and for the first time in recent memory I was actually early, so I decided on the way down to stop and photograph anything that interested me.  This pond sitting in the middle of a corn field has always attracted my attention for some reason but yesterday I had, for the first time in years, time to stop and photograph it.

When I went by the Duck Pond I saw this Blue Heron.  I have ten thousand photos of Herons but I just can’t pass up a chance to photograph one.  I had to make a U-turn and do some stealthy sneaking up on this guy to get a shot of him.

On the way out-of-town I stopped at the Hurstville Interpretive Center and shot a couple of images of their flowers.

I love the Interpretive Center and used to spend a lot of my lunch hours just walking around the grounds and enjoying the wildlife and echo system.

Just a word of caution for email users.  It used to be pretty easy to spot a phishing email attempt because of the wording and their look.  Not so much now.  Yesterday I received a notice from PayPal that my account had been put on hold because of a security breach.  I opened the email and it looked like every other PayPal email I’ve receive over the years.  But when I hovered my mouse cursor over the “Log-In Here” button the URL was clearly not PayPal.  I later went to the PayPal website and found there was nothing wrong with my account.  Had I been busy or in a hurry I might have clicked on it and who knows what would have happened.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Wednesday ~ July 18, 2018

Posted by Dave Updegraff on July 18, 2018
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

Happy Wednesday!

I have three images for today.

I had a wonderful day yesterday spending time with some dear Friends that I haven’t seen for sometime.  Friends are such an important part of my life and when there is discord in a relationship it causes much pain.  When there is tolerance and acceptance then it creates an aura of peace and fulfillment.  🙂

It was my intent yesterday,  to stop by the Dubuque Arboretum for some flower photography.  It’s been sometime since I captured any flower images.  On my way home from Maquoketa I went by some flowers at the Hurstville Kilns so I pulled into the parking lot and spent a few minutes exploring and enjoying the flowers planted there.

I’ve always enjoyed photographing flowers and I follow several photographers who specialize in flower photography.  I guess I’ve been engrossed in trying to get my head shot photography sideline going and I have neglected some of the other subjects I enjoy photographing.

I hope these images brings a little happiness to you.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Saturday ~ November 26, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on November 26, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , .

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Happy Saturday!

Hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  The three images I have for you today are from the dozen roses I got for Jeanne.  We celebrated 40 years of marriage on Thanksgiving day so it was a double day of giving thanks.

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The woman deserves sainthood for putting up with me for 40 long years.  For me it was the smartest and best thing I have ever done.  She is a truly remarkable woman and, I and everyone she touches is blessed.  For 42 years she has faithfully taught learning disable children.  Each of them have a better life because of her care, love, and teaching.

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Yesterday Jeanne and I went to see the movie Arrived.  It was not what I was expecting and in fact was a wonderful movie, great story, and left me pondering things.  🙂

I used a new filter on these images with a subtle texture overlay.  I kind of like it.  🙂

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

Thursday ~ September 22, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on September 22, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

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Happy Thursday!

I have four more images for you today and before you say “Not more flowers”, the answer is yes, but this is the last of them.  I made almost a thousand images at the Arboretum last Monday so showing you 12 isn’t too bad.  🙂

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I had a corporate photo shoot yesterday afternoon.  One of our banks is making some changes to its website and needed some fresh “head shots” of some of our staff.  I enjoy doing portrait work a lot and it’s nice for the staff because they have a business appropriate image for their social media and Linked-In accounts if they want to use them.

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My portrait photography keeps evolving as I’ve added equipment, gained experience, and changed my lighting set up.  I’ve followed the lighting technique of Joel Grimes, a well-known photographer, whose work I admire and so I’ve adapted my style to utilize some of the lighting set up he has been so successful with.

I still have a lot to learn but with each session comes more comfort and confidence.  🙂

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I have another big photo session next week as I make some more formal portraits for the board of directors for one of our banks.  It will be fun to compare this session to the one I did for them 4 years ago.  Hopefully there will be a nice improvement.

Okay that’s it for today.  No more flowers or butterflies for a long time.  Thanks for your patience.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Wednesday ~ September 21, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on September 21, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , .

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Happy Wednesday!

The light was harsh and not a cloud in the sky on the way home last evening so I have more shots from the Dubuque Arboretum taken on Monday.  I thought I only got one image worth while of a Monarch Butterfly.  Turns out after looking through the photo shoot last night, I got lucky several times.

So I have four images to share with you today.  I have mentioned before my love of photographing flowers.  Hopefully after viewing today’s offering you can understand why I feel that way.

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On another note, I have spent a significant amount of my life studying and trying to understand human nature.  Since I make my living working in Human Resources that would seem to be a worthwhile and useful endeavor.    I can tell you however that it is a practice in futility.  For example,  I understand that if you want to make a good image from an exposure stand point there are three things that you must do proportionally.  You must use the proper shutter speed, the proper aperture, and the proper ISO.  Get all those correct and you have a well exposed image.  Perhaps not interesting but well exposed.

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Not so absolute with human beings.  There is no routine formula that seems to work with humans.  And just when I think I have things figured out I am proven wrong.  I guess that’s what keeps me coming back each day.  🙂

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So what’s the point?  I’m not sure.  Nothing is routine and seldom predictable when it comes to human nature.  But just like photography you take the principles you’ve learned over the years and apply them whenever possible and hopefully come up with a good exposure from time to time. 🙂

That’s it for today.

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

Tuesday ~ September 20, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on September 20, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

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Happy Tuesday!

I have four images for you today.  I had one goal in mind yesterday as I set out on a photography run.  I wanted to capture an image of a Monarch Butterfly.  Question was where do I go.  I thought about the butterfly garden at Bellevue State Park. I also thought about the Dubuque Arboretum and reasoned I might find some butterflies there.  Finally I decided on the Arboretum thinking that if I didn’t find any butterflies I would at least have some pretty flowers to photograph and I wouldn’t spend two hours in the car driving.

As you can see from the first image I did find some Monarchs.  They were not very cooperative however.  I have about 400 images of them with their wings closed tight.  This was one of the few I captured with an open wing.

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I saw this little guy when I first arrived at the Arboretum.  There are lots of them around and they are constantly scurrying from one flower group to another.  I tried unsuccessfully several times to make some more images of them but they are quicker than quick and I was never ready to press the shutter at the right time.

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Lots of bees and other insects working on the flowers.  Although the sun was behind some clouds it was very humid and uncomfortable at the Arboretum as there wasn’t any breeze.  Still it was enjoyable and I had the whole place almost to myself.  Only a few people were walking through the gardens.

I never get tired of photographing flowers.  Even though at this time of year they are looking a little worn.  I watched one lady with her small camera and a note-book photographing flowers and then writing details about her capture.  I’m just not into that.  I love to take images of flowers but honestly I really don’t care what kind of a flower it is.  🙂

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That’s it for today.  Back to work today so you may see more flowers tomorrow. 🙂

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

Tuesday ~ August 02, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on August 2, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

August-01-2016

Happy Tuesday!

I will take a brief hiatus from my Nashville trip to show you some images I took yesterday.  Jeanne and I did a photo run after having lunch at one of our favorite restaurants in Dubuque.   We always tend to gravitate to the river and after visiting the 16th Street Basin we went down to the river.

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Had some fun photographing some Ring-Billed Gulls and then we went up to the lock and dam.  We made all the normal rounds and finally stopped by A. Y. McDonald park where I found these wonderful flowers.  I really enjoy photographing flowers but I had the wrong lens for doing so.  Well there wasn’t anything I could do about that so I just used the lens I had and it seemed to work very well.  Any port in a storm as it goes.  🙂

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I’m spending a large amount of time reflecting on my experiences from last week.  Many thoughts and emotions to sift through and distill.  It definitely had an impact on my thinking and my way at looking at photography.  The final result is still to be determined.

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

Monday ~ May 23, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on May 23, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

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Happy Monday!

I have some wildflower images for you today from my Friday shoot.  There was not an abundance of wildflowers where I was but I did see some on my journey.  It was pure luck to capture this bee headed for the flowers as my attention was directed to the flower.

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I keep reflecting on the peaceful feelings I had while walking through the area.   Occasionally I would hear a bird singing and so I would stop and make no motion other than just slowly look around.  Many times I would find the bird who was making the sounds and I was able to photograph him before the sound of the shutter spooked him.

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I know, it’s a plain ole dandelion.  But they like all God’s creations have beauty as well.  I plan to get back out among them again today.  I won’t go to the same place but will search out some more images for you.

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