I had some time to kill this weekend and so I decided to visit the river. On the way I noticed the Fourth Street Elevator so I took a detour and shot some images of the elevator. This is such a popular place in the Summer time but as you can see it is shut down for the Winter.
Later at the river it was cold and foreboding with the vast expanse of the water and nothing was moving for as far as the eye could see.
Enjoy your day and be careful.
Happy Friday.
Had lunch with my beautiful daughter Wednesday and afterward I wandered down to the river. Found this guy at the 16th Street Basin, which is unusual since they have cleared all the trees the wildlife once used for protection.
I took a lot of shots of him and he didn’t seem to mind. There were some Canada geese close by and a couple ducks, which I didn’t get any still shots of but I did take some video of the Heron and got the ducks and geese in the video.
I also ventured down to the river and captured this video of the small barge.
Enjoy your day and be careful.
I decided to drive down to the river yesterday hoping to see some eagles flying. I drove into A. Y. McDonald park and sure enough there was a bald eagle floating around the river just a few hundred feet away. By the time I got my camera set up and ready to photograph I couldn’t find him anywhere.
So I drove down to the river’s edge and found some Mallard ducks swimming near the boat ramp. Not wanting to go home with an empty card I photographed the female as she was swimming near the ramp.
Then this male duck started coming towards me (I was in my vehicle) and perhaps he thought I was going to throw some food to him. Many people do that. They drive down to the ramp and throw out bread crumbs and other food for the various wildlife that congregate there.
He finally came up close to my truck and looked at me like (Where’s the food?) Well I didn’t have anything with me so he was disappointed and went back to the water.
Enjoy your day and be careful.
Yesterday late afternoon I saw there were some puffy clouds in the sky and that is my favorite sky to photograph. So the biggest decision I had to make was where to go. Since I hadn’t been to the mines of Spain area in some time I decided to try that. Not a lot going on but I saw the soft rays of the sun catching the Julian Dubuque Monument and so I decided to take an image of it.
Continuing to walk through the area I found this view of the river from high up. No traffic on the river but I liked the way it was framed between the trees. Remember you can click on any of the images to see a much larger and more detailed image.
Another view of the river looking the opposite direction. I don’t go out on the river very often so I’m not really familiar with the different backwaters and when there is a division in the river like above.
It was getting late in the day and the sun was going down. Those beautiful clouds had disappeared and all I was left with was a plain sky. So I waited for 25 minutes until the sun finally went below the horizon to get this image of a family farm. It would have been so much better with lots of clouds in the sky.
Enjoy your day and be careful.
Today I am showing you the last three images of my leaf photo trip of a couple of weeks ago.
The image above was taken at Pikes Peek State Park. It has a wonderful look out designed for sight seers and it gives a magnificent view of the Mississippi River some of the back waters. If you click on the image to enlarge you can see barges waiting to be loaded and several fishing boats in the back waters.
Jeanne and I stopped in Guttenburg for lunch. the have picnic tables and benches the entire length of the river area (about a mile) as well as charcoal grills and a large walking path. They have really done a nice job.
This last image is from the park again. Just a massive area with a railroad bridge running through it.
That’s it for today. Hope to get some fresh images later this week. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your day. As always be careful and safe.
Happy Friday!
Just one image for today. I never get tired of going to the river and photographing barge traffic. If you look closely you will see one headed South and another barge waiting for him to pass by.
Click on the image to see a much larger version of it.
Enjoy your day and be careful.
Happy Wednesday!
Monday I had some errands to run and while I was going to be out and about I decided to take my camera along.
I was out for about three hours, mostly visiting the places where I have found good subjects before. Nothing going on there so I ended up at the river.
I love the way the sunlight enhances the rocks on the side of this cliff. This image was taken at Mud Lake. I’ve had some good luck at Mud Lake before but it was very quite on this day.
I also stopped at A. Y. McDonald park and saw this barge headed South. It was nice to see there was still barge traffic on the river.
Finally I stopped at the River Walk and saw the same barge going through the railroad bridge. The current must have been pretty strong as he needed this small tug boat to help stabilize the barges going through this tight space.
It was an enjoyable morning and I enjoyed looking for photography opportunities.
Enjoy your day and be careful.
Happy Friday!
Anyone who has followed my photography over the years realizes that I’m not an avid “birder.” I don’t study the critters migratory patterns or their habits. I just enjoy photographing any type of wildlife. In fact, I haven’t found anything that I don’t enjoy photographing whatever it is.
Remember you can click on any image to reveal a larger more detailed version of the image.
Wednesday I drove down to the river to see the rise in the river and was impressed by how high the river was. The people of Dubuque were smart so many years ago after a devastating flood of 1965 did a terrible amount of damage.
Many older residents of Dubuque remember the Flood of 1965 as one of the worst in the city’s history. Many areas of downtown Dubuque were under several feet of water, which resulted in damage or destruction of homes and businesses in the path of the floods. Only sandbagging efforts of local citizens kept the main highways open to keep traffic flowing.
Following the 1965 flood funds were sought from the Federal government for the installation of a flood-wall. This flood-wall was finally built-in the late 1960s. When the entire Midwest was prone to widespread floods in 1993 the flood-wall helped keep the city from experiencing serious flooding, while other cities – such as Davenport, Iowa – sustained major damage.
After that I decided it would be a nice drive down to Green Island. My last visit was less than productive and I had heard that a lot of the migrating birds were visiting the wild life preserve.
I was delighted to see many kinds of wild life in the preserve including the Buffalo Head in the top image.
I always enjoy photographing the Northern Shoveler. The canals at the preserve were full of water and many areas around the wetlands were flooded. The Preserve was full of wild life which I enjoyed the three and half hours I was there.
A pair of Northern Shovelers.
I’ll leave you with this Blue-Winged Teal. At first blush it looked like a small Canada Goose but once I got him in focus I could tell it was the Blue-Winged Teal.
I have many more images to share over the next few days if you’re interested.
Enjoy your day and be careful.
Happy Sunday!
I took a stroll up and down the Great River Walk (Dubuque) last week and made a few images of wildlife that I enjoy photographing. I have four images today.
This Great Egret was actually at the 16th Street Basin. Although the city has made an effort to clean the debris from the area it remains inundated with all sorts of garbage. I cannot believe the insensitivity of some with regards to this wonderful place.
You know, if you’ve followed my photography for very long, that I cannot pass up a chance at photographing a Blue Heron. The River Walk is high enough and just far enough to allow a great shot with a long lens without stressing the bird too much.
At one end of the River Walk is the barge staging area where they put together barges and load them up. I had to capture these gulls taking advantage of this temporary resting place.
On my way back I found this guy resting. So like the one before I had to take the shot.
Enjoy your day and be careful.
Happy Friday!
I’ve been AWOL from the blog for a couple of weeks and some of my readers have inquired as to the reason. There are four reasons and four images for today if you’re interested.
I use to build and manage websites for myself, my company, some not-for-profit entity, and some of our customers. At one time I was managing over 20 websites. However in the last few years I have eliminated all with the exception of three of my personal websites and they take little to no maintenance.
So, as the image above (a screen shot of my new website) would indicate, I’ve been busy trying to relearn new web authoring tools and getting things to work that didn’t want to work. I finally launched the site and my new business endeavor yesterday and I’m reasonably happy with the way the site turned out. I would invite you to click here to visit my new venture.
The second reason for my absence from the blog is that I have developed a higher level of laziness then I thought was previously possible. I imagined when I retired that I would have so much time to do all the projects and chores I have put off for years because of the very lack of time. Well it seems when I was faced with an abundant amount of time I have found many new ways to procrastinate and have become somewhat of a sloth.
Third reason is that I have been, for over 40 years, an avid gamer. With all this additional time available I have become immersed in several action and role-playing games. Frankly I’m having a ball playing a lot of very fun video games.
Finally the fourth reason is that I just don’t like hot and humid weather. It has been hot and humid here for the last few weeks and I just don’t like to go out and be that uncomfortable. I’ve taken a lot of on-line courses and doing a fair amount of reading so I’m keeping what little mind I have left active.
I never realized how wonderful retirement could be. I wish it paid better but I love the freedom to do whatever I want or don’t want to do. The stress relief is in itself a huge bonus.
I hope to keep active with my new photography business and have been contracted to do three jobs, but I don’t want to be so busy that it becomes work. I love photography and I still have the passion so I don’t want it to become a chore. I reserve the right to say no if I don’t like the opportunity that comes along.
I had lunch with a couple of very good (and old) friends yesterday downtown. Since it was just a short drive from the restaurant to the river and the sky was amazing I decided to go down and shoot some images. I was really more interested in the sky than anything but it was nice that I got there just as a barge was moving away from the lock.
Enjoy your day and be careful.
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