Had a fun lunch today with 7 friends from work. Some retired and some still working. Great time. On the way out of town I went by the “Duck Pond”, which now has a fair amount of water. I was surprised to see a group of pelicans floating around.
The were searching for food but I’m not sure if there are any fish in the pond. It hasn’t had much water this spring but maybe they had some luck.
This goose was just resting keeping a sharp look out on the pelicans. In years past I witnessed some dust ups between the pelicans and geese.
Nothing too exciting but I do enjoy photographing wildlife when the opportunity presents itself.
Fun day today. Had lunch with a couple of close friends in Maquoketa and I won the flip so I didn’t have to buy lunch. 🙂
Then as a bonus I headed out of town on the Hurstville road and at the “duck pond” two trumpeter swans were swimming in the waters. I haven’t seen trumpeters at the “duck pond” for at least three years. Remember you can click on any of the images to see a larger more detailed version of the image.
I wanted to capture an image of the two swimming together but they were each doing their own thing and didn’t take my directions.
I was in Maquoketa today for a meeting and a video shoot, that we had to reschedule. So after some visiting I headed home
The use to be there all the time when I first started shooting there but then they moved to a larger pond, which is difficult for me to get to.
So I was delighted to see this pair swimming in the over grown water of the “Duck Pond.”
Unfortunatly I only had my 400 mm lens so I couldn’t get some close up tight shots. However if you click on any of the images it will reveal a much larger and more detailed image.
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.
RotarI had a really great day today. I had been asked to present the program for the Maquoketa Rotary Club. It is a small club but filled with many dear friends. The subject I was asked to present was about drones.
I’ve been flying and sadly crashing drones since 2014. I love the hobby and as I said today the drone allows us the opportunity to make images that could not be made with a hand held camera.I have, unfortunately, drifted away from photography since my retirement but I plan to change that in 2024. In preparing for my presentation I went back into the past looking for images to support my presentation. I quickly discovered the enjoyment and wonder of photography as I looked back on the last 12 years. Photography has brought me so much joy over the years and with the added enhancement of aerial photography I feel like I can once again share my passion for making images.
I did not fly any drones today for a variety of reasons. Mainly because it was so damn cold. The other reason was that where I took these images did not lend itself to launching a drone.
So I hope you enjoy the trees today. I know you get tired of me telling you that you can click on any image and it will give you a much larger print with more detail. Beauty is actually in the eye of the beholder so if you like small images so be it.
As of September 20th I have been posting on the blog for 13 years. Jeanne often times will pick a year and month just to look back. I don’t do that because in the beginning I was pretty bad. 🙂
Okay, I know I just posted some fall colors a couple of days ago but that was in and around Dubuque. Tuesday I went to Maquoketa to have lunch with a couple of good friends and I decided to do some flying around the Hurstville, Iowa (close to Maquoketa.)
My original idea was to get some aerial images of the bridge to no where. It has been the subject of several of my posts over the years. It was a good idea in my mind.
The problem was, there were some very tall and thinks trees around the bridge. If you could hike back there or wade in the river you could get a nice shot of it. But because I had to fly high and was worried about the trees you just catch a glimpse of the bridge.
Take a look for it when you view the video below. It’s only 5 minutes long.
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.
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. 🙂
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.
Talk about déjà vu. It was a week ago that I posted images of the pelicans at the “Duck Pond.” I was in Maquoketa again yesterday for lunch with friends and I fully expected them to be gone.
However on my way out-of-town I discovered they are beginning to look like permanent squatters.
This guy paddled away from me when I first arrived but I just stayed on the observation platform for about 15 minutes and he swam very close to me and didn’t seem to mind the shutter clicking.
Many of the Canada geese are nesting now and they seem to cohabit pretty well with the pelicans.
There were pelicans flying in and leaving the entire 30 minutes I was there. Busy airport. 🙂
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