Winter Photography

All posts tagged Winter Photography

Tuesday ~ March 03, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on March 3, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

March-01-20152A

Happy Tuesday!

“It’s a post in the ground, in the snow.  Why take a picture of it?”  I could not answer her because I really didn’t know other than to say it was interesting to me and for me spoke to the desolation and cold of Winter.  How’s that for high brow? 🙂

Busy day yesterday with no time for photography.  Celebrated my good friend’s birthday with lunch at the Mexican restaurant.   I love Mexican food and I always have the taco salad, the problem is I usually eat too many chips and I also eat a good portion of the bowl, which plays havoc with my blood sugar the next day.  😦

Not to worry it’s still well below what the minimum acceptable level is it is just high for me.

March-01-20152B

Final image from our Sunday photo run.  This old railroad bridge is fun to take images of.  I did this from the Illinois side of the river.  You can walk up close to it on the Iowa side and in fact walk on it if you like (not recommended.)  This is the bridge I was trying to get some aerial images of when I lost my Phantom.  If you didn’t see that post click here. 

That’s it for today.  Hope you enjoy your Tuesday.  It’s snowing here, which means an interesting commute.

Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Be careful and be aware.

Friday ~ May 16, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on May 16, 2014
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

My Favorite Tree

Happy Friday!  ~  308

No it didn’t snow yesterday but it still reminds me of Winter.  Cold, damp, and gray.  Enjoyable day yesterday with the employee training.  It is a lot like a retreat with a lot of high energy activity and some cerebral time as well.  The training was held at Camp Courageous, a remarkable establishment dedicated to helping people with challenges enjoy nature and all it has to offer.  It is a wonderful place to experience.

There are lots of trees and interesting things to photograph at the camp and so I intended to wander around the camp during the lunch break and capture some images.  Unfortunately around 10:00 a.m. it started to rain and it continued raining the rest of the day.  The staff at the camp always give our staff a tour of the camp and it is always enjoyed by everyone.  That got canceled as well.  I felt bad for the young campers as well because during the Spring, Summer and Fall the camp has so many fun outdoor activities.  They also now offer a Winter activity for their campers.

Why the above image?  Well, since I didn’t have anything current for this morning’s blog and as I was looking through some of my images I saw this one of my favorite tree that was taken March 06, 2014.  Not all that long ago and it is a reminder (not that we really need one) of the difficult winter we had and continue to have some remnants of yet today.

That’s it for today.  No pontification or profound thoughts to end the week.  Just a humble thank you for checking out the blog.  Enjoy your Friday and be careful.

 

 

Sunday ~ March 09, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on March 9, 2014
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

March-08-2014-1A

Happy Sunday!
I had one of the best Saturday’s in recent memory yesterday and had a lot of fun.  I had a 10:00 a.m. appointment with John the barber as I was getting pretty shaggy.  Jeanne decided to go with me as there was a little shop downtown that she wanted to visit.  Turns out it was closed so she just waited in the car and cleaned out her email files on her phone for the 20 minutes it took for my haircut.

Even though the sky was gray and therefore not the best shooting conditions we decided to go to the river and see if there were any wildlife hanging around.  I had mentioned to Jeanne that I was going to look for a Spring/Fall jacket and she said as long as we’re this close to Graham’s Clothing why not stop in.  I got a nice sport jacket for 1/4 its original price and a great casual jacket and when I started to pay Jeanne said, you buy lunch and I’ll get this. 🙂

Okay, now for the image above.  We were on our way to the river when I saw three eagles sitting on the old FDL Packing ground.  After much maneuvering we were able to get close enough to get this shot of one of the three juvenile eagles.  They were fishing out of the small creek that runs by that area.  I had the ISO set to 400 and shot most of these images at either 1/640 sec / 1/1250 sec depending on the light @ f8.0.  I used the Nikon D600 with the Nikon 80 – 400 mm V2 lens.  You can see it turns the sky almost pure white but that lets you see the detail of the bird’s feathers so it’s a trade-off.  You can click on the images for a larger version.

March-08-2014

We then went to the lock and dam to see what was going on there.  As we suspected there was almost no open water except close to the dam and that area was bordered by ice fishermen.  There was a lone eagle sitting in a tree, so we were ready to leave when the eagle took flight.  I got out and walked across to the fence.  Spread the strands of wires and stuck my lens through (I got a few scratches on my lens barrel)  to get this shot.  You’re worth the effort. 🙂

After this we went to the 16th Street basin where there were a variety of wildlife and I got some great shots (that I’ll share during the coming week.) I actually got one of my best eagle shots ever at the basin yesterday.

We had a light lunch at home because the kids called and wanted to stop over for some DQ.  Ben had not been able to see the Phantom fly so we flew both of them (not at the same time.)  I won’t bore you with the video.  It’s our same neighborhood and I just basically went up flew around a little and then landed it.  No crashes on either Phantom.   🙂

After that a nice nap and then we did a little more shopping.  Had dinner at McDonald’s,   😦

I know, McDonald’s,  but everywhere we wanted to eat there was a 25 / 60 minute wait.  We don’t like to wait.  So there was more to the day then my brief synopsis but it was a very fun day spent with my best friend and we got to see the kids and grand kids so it doesn’t get much better than that.

Oh then we watched Gravity on Mediacom’s on-demand feature.  Spent $4.99 for a movie that I would have really hated to spend $25.00 for at the theater.

That’s it for today.  If you have time check out the blog this week.  I will have some (I think) nice images for your viewing pleasure.  Thanks for stopping by, enjoy your day and be careful.

Tuesday ~ March 04, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on March 4, 2014
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

Just a lone windmill

Happy Tuesday!

Not much in the way of an image today.  No spectacular winter scene, nor a great eagle on wing with a fish in its talon.  Nothing like that, just a lowly windmill catching the fading sunlight of another cold winter’s evening.  It’s all I have for you today.

Thanks for all the well wishes about my crash on Sunday.  The Phantom is in good condition and I  have already installed new propellers on the copter so if the weather ever warms up it will fly again.  There are other trees out there to smash into and they are just waiting for me.   🙂

It is amazing how this weather is having such an impact on most people’s moods.  Every conversation I had with people yesterday there was at least one negative comment about this  @$^&^ winter.  Like it or not the weather does play an important role in the attitude we have.  The good news is that at least yesterday the sun was shinning and that is a source of energy that we can tap into.

Okay, that’s all I’ve got for today.  Hope you enjoy your day.  New snow from last night so the drive in should at least be pretty this morning.  🙂

Thanks for stopping by and be careful.

Saturday ~ March 01, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on March 1, 2014
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , .

Horses

Happy Saturday!

I was in Cedar Rapids yesterday doing my HR thing.  I always take a camera with me just in case.  I don’t know if it was because I was looking for things or if there was another reason but I saw more hawks yesterday than I can ever remember seeing on a normal day.

There were a couple of shoulder rumbles, honking of horns, and I think someone wanted me to see one of their fingers as I would see a hawk and try to find a place to get off the road.  I did end up firing off several shots but I didn’t have a telephoto lens with me so none were very good.  😦

On the way back to the office I saw these two guys.  Okay so I was desperate for something.  Still I like to capture horses, especially in a wintry background.

Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your day, watch the snow and be careful.

Friday ~ February 28, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on February 28, 2014
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , .

Beautiful Sunset

Happy Friday!!!! 

Another day closer to warmer weather.   I talked with my dear Friend Dave, who is wintering in Florida, yesterday.  He was sitting on his deck enjoying a beverage and soaking up the sun.  He said it was a bit nippy and only around 78 degrees.  As I looked at my computer monitor and the little weather app said -6 I told him I hated him.  🙂

I have to travel today so I’ll take my camera and hopefully find something interesting to take a picture of.  Sounds like the weekend (weather wise) is going to be a real challenge.  The Phantom fleet will be grounded yet another weekend.  My list of things to video and photograph with them is growing.  Hope I get to do them all.

This is one of the last images I took of the sunset last Tuesday.  The sky with some nice clouds was just so pretty combined with the orange and red colors of the sunset. A nice image to end the week with.  I have a few things to work on this weekend so it’s doubtful if I’ll get much photography in.  But then again you just never know.

That’s it for today.  Thanks for stopping by the blog.  I appreciate you and your helpful comments.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

 

Thursday ~ February 27, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on February 27, 2014
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

Just another barn

I don’t know what it is about my barns that fascinates me.  When I’m out looking for images to capture I do not go looking for barns.  Perhaps it is that during my formative years I worked on farms and spent a great deal of time in these barns.  Who knows.  I just know I enjoy photographing them and they always seem to draw my attention as I’m driving down the road.  There’s been more than few times that I’ve done a u-turn and headed back the way we came.  Jeanne will usually say, “You saw a barn didn’t you?”  🙂

These images are from Tuesday evening when I took an alternative way home.  It was the golden hour and most of the time it doesn’t really matter what you put in front of your lens if the light is right.

Old shed

I’ve photographed this old shed before.  I think a couple of years ago in the summer time.  It sits in a valley and I just like the way it looks when sitting on the hill overlooking the valley.  I was looking though some of my archives but stopped after a couple of years not finding this structure.  I know I photographed it, perhaps in 2010.
desolate road

Toward the end of my photo session Tuesday I was heading west on this county road.  Talk about a feeling of desolation.  The temperature was 3 above and the wind was blowing 20 – 30 mph.  I’ll be honest, I didn’t get out of the car to shoot this.  I stopped the car and stuck my hand / camera out and took a number of shots hoping to get one good enough to share.  My fingers were numb.  🙂

That’s enough rambling for one day.  Thanks for stopping by.  Hope you enjoy your cold day.  Be careful.

TGI Friday ~ February 21, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on February 21, 2014
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , .

Geese on the move

Happy Friday!

Last Sunday Jeanne and I were on our usual photo drive and we were coming down a country road when Jeanne said “OMG, look over there.”  I thought it must be significant because she is usually telling me to keep my eyes on the road.  🙂

So here were all of these white geese in a straight line (like lemmings) headed somewhere.  I just caught a glimpse of them and then we were by them.  After turning around twice, finding a place (the middle of the road) to park I got as close as I could.  Apparently I caused some real confusion in the ranks because some of the geese decided to turn around and go the other way and the other half didn’t get the message.  So there was chaos in geese-ville.  🙂

All ended well because the geese at the front of the pack seeing resistance from the group turned around and continued on their predetermined journey.

Old Shed

I have photographed this old structure (which is still in use) many times.  In fact it is on the Iowa Banker’s 2014 calendar for November.  Since I have taken so many images of it before and many of them I have posted here I decided to try a different processing style.  The more I look at it the more I really like it.  In fact if I may say so I really like it.

At around 11:00 p.m. last night I finally finished up the last of the portraits from the 2014 Maquoketa Chamber’s Gala.  If you have a little spare time and want to have a look just click on the “daveupdegraff.com ” link on the right of this blog and then click on the Gala link there.

Well that’s it for today.  I am so glad it is the weekend again even though the weather sounds crappy.  The weather will probably keep the Phantoms grounded again.

Enjoy your day.  Thanks for your support of this blog.  I will do my best to bring you interesting things to look at and think about.  Be careful.

Wednesday ~ February 19, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on February 19, 2014
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

A horse searches for food

Happy Hump Day Wednesday! 

A rather abbreviated post today because as usual I am running way late.  I’ve been working on the portraits I took at the Maquoketa Chamber Gala – 2014 pretty solid for the last few days and I’m getting close to being done but still have some more work ahead of me.  Each portrait takes about 30 – 45 minutes of processing, enhancing, compressing, uploading and posting to the website so the subjects of the portrait can download them to their computer and either print them at home or send them to a print facility like Wal-Mart, Snap Fish or some other printer.

I have 28 completed and another 12 to do.  On the whole I am very pleased with the results.  Like so many things I do not shoot studio portraits often enough to develop a flow and style.  I love to shoot portraits but it is a lot of work for me because in many instances the lighting is not quite right or the subject has some article of clothing out-of-place or any number of a hundred other things that have to be fixed in post processing.

I tried a new lighting set up on this shoot that I had seen on one of the on-line courses I have taken.  It worked great as long as people stood exactly on the mark that I had taped to the floor.  I didn’t always get them to do that as there were people behind them impatiently waiting to get their portrait taken and so if one of the couple would move too close to the light I got really bad hotspots and those (for me anyway) are hard to correct.  Granted if I had taken my time and insisted on people standing in the right place and not take the shot until it is perfect that would solve a lot of problems.  But I like to accommodate people so it was more of a one, two your through and on to the next one. 😦

Wait a minute, didn’t I say this was going to be a short post?  The image above was shot last night on the way home.  I saw this guy kicking at the ground trying to find something to eat through all the snow.  The light was perfect from the setting sun so I pulled off the highway onto the shoulder and grabbed this image.  I’m going to get killed one of these days doing that.  🙂

Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your midweek hump day and as always be careful.

Monday ~ February 17, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on February 17, 2014
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

A lone tree in the field

Happy Monday.  One of the advantages of working in the banking industry is that we traditionally recognize 9 holidays.  Today is one that is recognized by the Federal Reserve (President’s Day) so we get the day off.  Yea!!

Yesterday I looked at the thermometer and it said 31 degrees.  The minimum flying temperature for the Phantom is 24 degrees so I reasoned that it would be a good day to fly.  Well by the time we got to the little park that I like to fly at the temperature was around 22 on my car thermometer.   Naw, that can’t be right so I decided to fly anyway.  It was cold, really cold and the flight lasted only about 8 minutes I was out in the cold for about 25 minutes and I was a Popsicle.

I would like to show you the video from that flight (there is a lot of white in it) but I’m still trying to figure out the best way to edit the video.  I need to take more lessons.  😦

After flying Jeanne and I drove through the country looking for interesting subjects to photograph.  We found a few and I will share those with you as the week progresses.  I like this lonely tree sitting in the middle of a harvested field.  I hope you do too.

That’s it for today.  I’m not even halfway through processing the portraits so that’s what I’m going to be doing today.  Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your day and be careful.