It’s been a while since I posted as I have had several things going on that have occupied my time and mind.
My photography showing at the Maquoketa Art Experience is now on display and there is a “Meet & Greet” this Sunday May 06, 2018 from 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm.
The Have Studio Will Travellogo above, is my venture into a small sideline business of corporate photography. I have all the equipment and experience to make successful corporate head shots, marketing materials, and product photography.
Still some work to do on the legal end of things and I need to get my website up and running, but I’ve ordered business cards. 🙂
I have two images, a short video, and a long story for today.
For my Friends on Facebook {Click Here} if you want to go directly to my Blog Post.
Yesterday was the culmination of a month-long project. I never imagined how much was involved in the project in both time, work, and money.
I have close to 80,000 digital images on my computer and back up hard drives. Out of those I have probably printed no more than 20 over the last 18 years as the bulk of my work has been posted digitally.
About a year ago I was offered the opportunity to present my photography work at the wonderful Maquoketa Art Experiencein Maquoketa, Iowa. It is truly a remarkable place and if you are in the area you owe it to yourself to pay a visit. They have learning experiences and workshops for young children through senior citizens and allow artists the chance to show their work to the public.
So my showing was originally scheduled for December 2017, which gave me seven months to prepare. Being a chronic procrastinator I didn’t do anything about it and was notified in October that my showing (because of a scheduling conflict) was being moved to May 1, 2018. Even more procrastination followed plus retirement and then I received an email with a notice of the scheduling of my showing and when I needed to have my work to the Art Experience. PANIC!
I spent hours looking through those 80,000 images trying to pick a wide representative range of my work from wildlife, landscape, portraiture, farm scenes, and of course trees. I visited the Art Experience to see the layout of where I would be presenting and went to the wrong section of the building. The photographer, that was currently displaying had 47 images. Wow, I thought, that’s a lot of printing, matting, and framing not to mention the expense involved.
A commitment is a commitment so I started the process. I selected 43 images and sent them off to be printed. Then I shopped for and purchased 45 frames and matting materials. UPS was delivering boxes almost every other day. 🙂
All that “stuff” had to be un-boxed and unwrapped and then assembled. It was a daunting project to say the least. Our dinning room table became my storage space and the breakfast counter my work space. Jeanne was very supportive and put up with all the materials without complaint.
I got everything done and ready to transport so I sent an email to my contact at the Art Experience telling them I had 43 images to show. I received a reply the next day which stated, “You have too many photographs, we don’t have room for that many.” Ugh! Now what.
To shorten the story, the wonderful folks that make the Are Experience work said to me, bring what you have and we’ll make it work. WOW! They were so gracious and helpful I was very moved. One of my friends, who volunteers at the Art Experience came to my retirement celebration and told me that they had it all planned out and bring all my images. I was very happy.
So yesterday I loaded up the car and took my work to Maquoketa. Ted, Dick, Wayne, and Helen helped me with the hanging, wiring and placement of the images. We worked for four hours getting it ready. It was a fantastic experience that I will not forget. Wonderful people.
I have a 38 second video below if you want to see the work in progress.
Three images for today. I know, this is a ring-billed gull. I’ve only posted about a hundred images of them on this blog. So here is one hundred one. 🙂
Jeanne and I went to the river Saturday waiting for time to go to the reception. There were some folks throwing bread to the gulls so it made for good practice trying to capture a sharp images of these small birds who are very quick in their change of direction.
I like this image because it reminded me of trying to get a group shot of people. Someone is always looking the wrong way or has their eyes closed. The little guy on the right is just not paying attention to his pose and is more interested in the camera.
At the 16th Street Basin we found these pelicans sunning themselves on a concrete wall. While the the others rest and relax there is this guy keeping his eye out for trouble. I snuck up on them and only shot a couple of images so I didn’t disturb them.
This is my beautiful daughter Angie. She was a bridesmaid in a wedding yesterday. If you’ve followed my blog for any length of time you know that I dislike weddings for a variety of reasons.
I went to this one because growing up Megan (the bride) was one of Angie’s closest friends and she was like a second daughter.
I will admit it was a wonderful ceremony. Then we had two hours to kill before the reception so Jeanne and I went to the river just to see what was going on. I got some great (I think anyway) images that I’ll share tomorrow.
Ben and Angie together at the reception. It was held at the River Museum, which offered a unique venue. Lots to see while waiting for dinner to be served. We were at a table with people who knew each other but we didn’t know. That always makes for an interesting dinner. 🙂
This is the intricate hair do that the stylist gave Angie. I won’t repeat what Austin said to Angie when she stopped by the house. 🙂
Today we celebrate Austin’s third birthday. It was actually yesterday but the celebration is this afternoon.
Today I have three images of three of my favorite women.
Addie is eating solid food now and loves yogurt. I took a couple of images of her after eating but she would later kill me if I showed them. 🙂
Gabby got some jewelry and paste on ear rings from her other Grand Ma. She was having fun playing with them and getting all prettied up for Mamma Jeanne.
This is how Addie kisses her Mom. The picture speaks for itself.
I have never met a Blue Heron that I didn’t want to photograph. I can’t help myself. 🙂
I have three photos for today.
My great friend Mike and I had lunch yesterday and I was about 30 minutes early for our appointment (believe it or not) so I decided to drive a couple of miles to the 16th Street Basin. I was delighted to see a few Herons fishing there.
The deplorable conditions of the basin (junk wise) is something I have talked about before. I was overjoyed to see City Crews working diligently picking up garbage around the shoreline. I stopped and talked with one of the crew and told them how much I appreciated their work and she said that the city was committed to cleaning up the area. Later that afternoon I saw even more workers picking up trash.
I know this is a butt shot but like with herons I just have trouble passing up an opportunity to photograph a Goose. Besides my friend Betty loves geese. 🙂
I didn’t Photoshop out any of the garbage out of this shot. Normally I will work to get all the distractions out of the image but I wanted to give you an idea of just a small bit of the task ahead of the cleanup crew.
This is one of the coolest gifts I have ever received for several reasons. It incorporates my love of photography and my fondness for wine.
I retired from Ohnward Bancshares, Inc. on February 07, 2018 after 18 years. It was a wonderful journey and the organization, the owners, and the employees have enriched my life beyond description. I was the Chief HR Officer for the organization, which allowed me to interact with the majority of staff. There are friendships that I will cherish the rest of my days.
However, I have never enjoyed “being in front of the camera.” So when my boss said they wanted to have a celebration of my retirement I declined several times. Long story short we had said celebration last Thursday at the Maquoketa Art Experience. 🙂
It was an amazing evening and many of my fellow employees both past and present showed up to celebrate my retirement including many of the friends I have made in the community. I was overwhelmed, humbled, and emotionally grateful for all those who came and the sentiments they expressed.
I am ashamed to admit this, but I have attended numerous retirement celebrations over the years and it never occurred to me to buy a card or a gift for the retiree. So imagine my surprise when I received over 50 cards and gifts including the one above.
What make this gift so special for me is that it is from three former and one current employees from Cedar Rapids, all of whom made the trip to Maquoketa to attend the celebration and presented this guy to me. I was speechless.
So for two and a half hours I greeted friends and received their kind words. I didn’t get to spend the amount of time with anyone that I wanted to as there was always someone new to greet.
After the celebration ownership provided a wonderful dinner at the Decker House for Jeanne and I plus many of the senior management team. Lots of memories were discussed and then my Friend and Boss Al read a commendation the company had created and once again I was speechless. In addition to the wonderful plaque there was a donation to my favorite charity in Jeanne and my name. It just doesn’t get any better than that.
So there were many thoughtful gifts that I received that evening. Here is an image of some of them. I think I’m sensing a pattern here. 🙂
Thank you Al, Kendra, Abe, Brig, and the entire Ohnward Staff for an evening and experience I will never forget.
Last week I received a call from my friend Vicki asking me to join her and others for a lunch in Mason City to support long-time Rotary District Secretary John Last.
I hesitated a moment because I realized that Mason City is a 3 hour drive from Dubuque and then said okay. 🙂
In 2003 I was the District 5970 Web Master and held that position for five years. I worked very closely with John and built a lasting friendship with him. Vicki (right side of image) was District Governor for one of those years and Richard (left side of image) was also a District Governor. I served under 5 District Governors during my tenure.
We had a two-hour lunch and had a lot of fun reminiscing about the past.
John is being asked to retire from his District Secretary position. I won’t go into the details of the situation but I am disappointed in the way it was handled, which in my view is not the Rotary way.
It was a long day but I was glad to see Dick, Vicki, and John. It and they made the drive worth while.
Will Winter ever end? These bubble bottles were set out on the patio last Saturday for the Grand Kids. It was too cold to play outside and then this is what I found when I looked out the window. I’m sure tired of Winter. 😦
I have three images from Sunday’s session for today. For my Facebook Friends, you will need to click on the link to see all three. Also please remember you can click on any of the images to see a larger more detailed version of the image.
I was checking out A.Y. McDonald Park Sunday, when I came around a corner I saw a man (I could only see the top half of him because he was down on the boat ramp) throw what looked like a large bottle of pop into the river. I decided to investigate. He was actually working with his dog on retrieving birds and had a couple of training birds that he would throw for the dog to retrieve.
I thought the water looked awfully cold but the dog seemed to be having a good time.
A common red-winged black bird looking for food. Couldn’t help myself and had to photograph it.
Finally on my way out of the park there were several common grackles in a tree. I watched them for a while and thought this guy was getting ready to take flight so I tried to capture that moment. He was just shifting his position a bit. 🙂
