landscape photography

All posts tagged landscape photography

Thursday ~ 08-22-2024

Posted by Dave Updegraff on August 22, 2024
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , , .

Welcome

When we first moved to Dubuque I can remember if you were on highway 151 N you could see a lighted cross amongst the trees.  Never really thought much about it and as time passed you could no longer see the lighted cross.

With the completion of the Southwest Arterial I became aware of this awesome Cross that stood out above the trees.  It was a large structure.

About THE Centennial Cross

History of the Cross

The Centennial Cross was constructed in 1937 to commemorate the Centennial of the Archdiocese of Dubuque. The blue cross overlooks Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Key West, IA – just South of Dubuque. It has been a symbol of Christian faith for over 8 decades!

A New Cross

Over the years trees had grown tall enough to block the lights on the 75′ Cross making it hard to see. In addition, the Cross’s neon bulbs were fragile and broke easily. We have added a new concrete footing and erected a new steel cross that is 137′ tall with LED lighting on 2 sides.

After seeing this beautiful cross I wanted to know if it too lit up like the old one did.

So one evening Jeanne and I took a drive on the arterial after dark and was delighted to find it did indeed light up.

Remember you can click on any image to enlarge it and see more detail.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Tuesday ~ August 20, 2024

Posted by Dave Updegraff on August 20, 2024
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

Welcome!

Believe it or not I have wanted to get up close and personal with this barn and the other farm structures at this property for over six years.

You need to  understand that I will not go on someone else’s property without permission no matter how bad I want to photograph a structure or person.

So I stopped at this farm several times in the past and knocked on the door and rang the bell but could never raise anyone.  So I got back in my truck and left without any images.

But today was different.   I was able to meet the owner of the property and got permission to photograph the barn and other structures on the property.  I was able to take my time and photograph the way I wanted to.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Thursday ~ August 15, 2024

Posted by Dave Updegraff on August 15, 2024
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Welcome.

The Naked Tree

Trees have long held a special fascination for me, especially when they have lost all their leaves.  You really get to look at how interesting the tree really is without its cover of its leaves.

Unfortunately when a tree is naked in the summer months it means that it has died and more than likely will ultimately be chopped down and used for other purposes.  This is sad for me because some of the trees in this post are, to me, just beautiful.

I chose to show them in black and white to emphasize their character against the fully leafed trees.  It lets them stand out better.

I have photographed the first tree in this post many times.  It used to have beautiful summer leaves and then one year about 3 years ago it died and it is in a place where the owner has not cut it down.  I hope it remains as a testament to its once glorious past.

I’m not sure this is classified as a tree or just an out growth of some other plant.  I choose to call it a naked tree and it is located at A. Y. McDonald park near the river.

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

Saturday ~ July 27, 2024

Posted by Dave Updegraff on July 27, 2024
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Welcome

Today I have a potpourri of images taken a few days ago, while trying out a new lens.  There  is no continuity to the images other than to say they were mostly captured at the lock and dam 11.

Overall I was very pleased with the new  lens.  It is the 160 – 600 mm from the Z series of lenses.  

I am still trying to learn the Z system of mirror-less cameras and lenses.   Although I am excited to learn this new system I have to confess that on a very recent “head-shot” assignment for a client I went back to my Nikon D5 with the 70-200 mm 2.5 lens. I must say that it was the best head-shot session I have ever shot, requiring only two of the 120 + images to be retouched.

After that experience it may be some time before I totally trust the Z system of Nikon cameras and lenses.

So overall, with this small test of the lens I was happy with the results.  There were about 50 images of various lengths and subject matter that I shot but most were just to test the sharpness of the lens.  I was very happy with the results.

Enjoy your weekend and be careful.

Thursday ~ July 18, 2024

Posted by Dave Updegraff on July 18, 2024
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , .

Welcome

Every so often I like to photograph flowers.  The rich beautiful colors they offer are like a magnet to me.

I drove out to the Dubuque Arboretum last week in hopes of photographing some flowers.  From my vantage point (my vehicle) it didn’t seem to have the color vibrance I was looking for.

Perhaps if I had taken a stroll to some of the flower beds my impression may have been different.  Considering the fact that I have some challenges with walking very far contributed to my assessment.

So as I was leaving Maquoketa yesterday after Rotary, I took the Hurstville road out of town, which happens to go by the wonderful lime kilns of Hurstville

The Master Gardeners had been busy with planting and tending to a wide variety of flowers, which were easy to get to without a lot of walking.

So, I stopped and captured a few images.  I saw a butterfly (that I could not identify), but he was too fast for me to get a good shot.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Wednesday ~ July 10, 2024

Posted by Dave Updegraff on July 10, 2024
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Welcome

One of the neat things about taking roads you are unfamiliar with is that you are apt to find really neat stuff.  Such was the case on our latest journey.

I hate to admit it but I couldn’t find this place again as we took so many different roads.  I would like to find it  again and spend more time with this truck.

Of course I’m very happy that I did find it in the first place.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Sunday ~ July 07, 2024

Posted by Dave Updegraff on July 7, 2024
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Welcome to my Blog

Jeanne and I took a drive Saturday and took some roads that were familiar to us and some that were not.  I like those best of all because we see things that we have never seen before.

I know that we are often called fly over land or nothing but corn.  So be it.  All you have to do is drive a little and you see broad expanses of beauty.

The hard part for me is watching the road while looking for something to photograph.  Jeanne has said for years that she would not be surprised to get a call that I’m somewhere in the country and in a ditch. 

What was a little unusual this day was the abundance of dramatic clouds.  Everywhere you looked you would see these billowing massive clouds and occasionally there was rain falling from them.

And then you step back and look at where you were standing and you see this beauty.

I’ll take this flyover land anytime.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Friday ~ July 05, 2024

Posted by Dave Updegraff on July 5, 2024
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Welcome to the blog.

Although admittedly I am a little late with my 4th of July greetings, I still consider it appropriate for as I write this blog there are any number of neighbors shooting off loud fire crackers.

I know you get tired of me telling you this but you can click on any image to reveal a much larger and more detailed image.

We had the “kids” and their families over for 4th of July lunch as they all had later evening engagements to attend.  It’s called. We’ll take what we can get and be happy about it.

I took numerous random images of the grand kids and perhaps I’ll show those at another date.  After everyone left I suggest to Jeanne that we take a drive down to the river to observe said river which at this time is at almost historic levels.

We also went to the lock and dam and it was shut down as the river was well over the flood gates and the lock was gated and closed to traffic.  There is also so much debris in the water that it is not safe to boat.

It was kind of weird walking around the river as it was well over the sidewalk but not a bother for the roadway.  There were a number of folks fishing around the dam but they had to share the area with some pelicans who were also fishing.

I watched one pelican stab at the water a number of times but unfortunately for him, he never caught anything to eat.

More images tomorrow.  I’ve been busy.  🙂

Enjoy what’s left of this day and be careful.

Monday ~ June 24, 2024

Posted by Dave Updegraff on June 24, 2024
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Welcome.

I had lunch with two wonderful friends today and after that we toured around Maquoketa for awhile and then I drove down to the dam.  It’s always interesting to visit the dam and you never know what you’re going to find.

The temperature at noon was about 91 so it was getting kind of muggy.  Don’t know how comfortable the fisherman was but if he was catching fish it doesn’t matter.

The river is still kind of high so there was a pretty good flow going through the dam.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Friday ~ June 21, 2024

Posted by Dave Updegraff on June 21, 2024
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Welcome!

I had lunch with two dear friends today in Maquoketa.  We ate at a place that I had known about for sometime but had never eaten there before.  It was great.

When I came out of the restaurant I was struck by the big puffy white clouds.  I hadn’t paid any attention to them before so I was happy to see them as this is one of my favorite kind of sky for photography.

A few months ago I did a video of a project called, “Together We Build.”  A wonderful project and at the time of the filming it was just steel beams and open ceilings.  So today we were able to take a tour of the nearly finished building and it is beautiful.

Then we went for ice cream at Moore’s.   And as usual they have a  wide variety of flavors to choose from.  I went with the strawberry flair, which was delicious.

On the way home I stopped at an area where I used to photograph a nice windmill against a dynamic sky.  The windmill has since fallen off but the frame work was still there so I used that to showcase the wonderful clouds.

Enjoy your day and be careful.