Today the first step of the project was to bring down 9 striker-less bells lowered from the top of the Mahanay Bell Tower and load on a truck to be sent to the Verdin Company in Cincinnati to install the strikers. The 15 other bells that were previously on display in the courthouse will also make the trip to Cincinnati. This was all made possible with multiple grants and fundraising efforts to a total project cost of $440,000. 18 new bells will be casted to bring the total bell count to 33 which is a full carillon and will be one of four in the state.
The follow are pictures and videos of the projects first step. You can see two workers on the top of the tower taking down the bells. It got pretty windy as the day went along.
Here are some videos flown with my drone.
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Along with the pictures I took I captured a fews videos.
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We decided to wake up early and this was the sunrise treat we saw as we were leaving Winona, MN. The sun was rising over the mighty Mississippi river.
The follow pictures were taken walking around Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
The following photos were taken the following morning after a frost came through. I used my macro lens to capture all of the ice particles.
My last image from the Wisconsin trip, a nice yellow for the Green and Gold Packers!
This photograph was taken in Winona, MN, in February after they just received a nice fresh snowfall. The whole week leading up to this day was cloudy and overcast but this morning it was bright blue skies. I drove around the countryside stopping and taking pictures and also took some out of the sunroof. This photograph was my favorite from the day. Here is the link to the blog write up with more photos.
The reason for this photograph making the list is this was my first crack at shooting with a new Canon 100mm 2.8 macro lens. It has been fun learning to shoot with a macro lens and I really like the starburst in the lower lefthand corner. Here is a blog post with more macro shots.
This shot was taken at the Ram track meet in early spring as Roman Phillips broke the school record for the 100mm dash. Here is a link for the rest of the photos.
I like making montages when I can and a pitcher's throwing motion is an ideal one. This one was taken of Marissa Promes during a game against Nevada. The Ram girls' softball team had their best finish in school history by placing 3rd at state. It was a great season for them and fun to follw. Here is the photo album with the rest of the pictures.
In June we went to Mexico for a friend's wedding and this was my favorite image from our trip. The dock provided a great spot for a lot of great photos. Here is the blog post describing our trip.
These two photographs were taken during the 4th of July in Waterloo, IA. The following picture was taken using a flash and sparklers. It took us awhile to get the timing right but I think it turned out pretty cool. Here is a link to the other firework shots.
This is the first time I got this image up on my website or Facebook page but it was incredible. We were actually coming back from Waterloo after the 4th of July and some really bad storms were going through the state of Iowa. We actually had to go a different way home because of an accident and so we came into Jefferson from the north and it was perfect timing as the sun was setting. This was a huge storm and later produced tornadoes around the Des Moines area. Timing is everything!
I was lucky enough to make it up to Alaska this year to go fishing. We went to Elfin Cove which is roughly a 30 minute float plane ride west of Juneau. We had a day in Juneau to spend and this photo was taken on the hiking trails near the Mendenhall Glacier. The bottom image of a whale was taken while we were fishing. It was quite the sight watching the whales spash around in the water. Very powerful animals.
In August my favorite band 311, came to Des Moines for a concert. I have been lucky to have a great relationship with 311 and have received press passes to photograph their concerts. These two are my favorite from that night. The top one was of Chad Sexton their drummer. Usually it is really hard to get good photographs of him as he is in the back. The bottom image I like because of the guy crowd surfing. Here is the blog post with more images from the concert.
In September I had a conference in San Francisco so I took my camera with me. San Francisco is one of my favorite cities in the US. I got up early in the morning to take pictures and this was my favorite one with a slow shutter speed causing the waves to be blurry and the bird standing still. Here is the blog post with more images.
In October I went on a fishing trip with my father on the Rogue River in Oregon. I took my GoPro camera with me to get some great shots but one of the places we stayed at had this old truck. I walked by it and I stopped in my tracks with the reflection of the truck on the pond. I knew I had to go back and grab my camera and this was the result.
Also in October my cousin got married at a wonderful outdoor garden in Texas. As the sun was starting to set I set up my camera and had a slow shutter speed and captured a great scene with the waterfall and I especially liked the color in the sky.
Fall is my favorite time of year because the leaves start to turn colors. I always try to get out and get some fall color shots. This one was my favorite from 2014.
Over Christmas we went to the La Crosse Rotary lights in La Crosse, WI. This was the first time I went and was really impressed with all of the hard work that went into creating these really cool light displays. It was fun to try and capture some of the displays. This one was my favorite and here is my blog post describing the lights.
2014 was a great year that went by all too quickly. A lot of great things happened and I look forward to the new year ahead! I wish everyone a happy new year!
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The view from across the river.
The following are pictures taken the next morning after a fresh snowfall.
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The highlight of the night was Jordan Challen winning his 100th varsity victory. The following are some of the pictures from the night. Click here for the rest of the pictures.
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My wife and I flew into San Francisco and got to our hotel by 10pm Pacific time and ready for bed. The next morning we got up to try and photograph the Golden Gate Bridge at sunrise and took a cab to Baker Beach at 6:15am. I had grand visions of the Golden Gate with a bright orange sunrise in the background, but when I showed up Mother Nature had other plans.
My wife took this panorama of me while I was busy taking pictures.
After the "sunrise" photos we went for a long walk along the coast in pursuit of breakfast. We walked through the Presidio which was really cool, to the base of the Golden Gate Bridge, Crissy Field, Palace of Fine Art, Lombard Street, and final stop was the Powell Street cable car. Below is the map of our walk and cable car ride.
When we got on the cable car I took a hyperlapse video of the ride which is below. It was an experience riding hanging on to the handrail and it gets pretty close when another cable car passes you by.
Later in the trip we went to the free Cable Car Museum and were very impressed with learning how the cable cars work. My fun fact that I learned is that the cable wears out and needs to be replaced every 75-90 days.
The view from the back of the ferry boat over to Sausalito, CA.
Pictures from our winery tour.
Cindi went on a bike ride from San Francisco over the Golden Gate Bride, to Sausalito, Mill Valley and took the ferry from Tiburon back to San Francisco. Below is another hyperlapse video heading into Sausalito.
Her reward for an all day bike trip.
One of the nights we went on a boat ride around the harbor. We got a great view of the skyline and the Golden Gate bridge from the water.
San Francisco is such a fun city with lots of things going on. We look forward to when we can go back.
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One good thing about waking up for a pre 6:00am flight is you get to see the sunrise!
Somehow we got upgrade to a Presidential suite and this was our view from our room.
The last night we were there we dined at a special restaurant that served us a 12 course meal and was definitely a once in a lifetime experience.
This was probably the coolest part of the meal when they brought out smoked fish and smoked the fish inside of the bowl and then disappeared when they lifted up the bowl covering the fish. Very cool!
The view outside of the plane on the trip home.
The last morning we were in Mexico I got up early to try and shoot a time lapse using my GoPro camera. The sunrise wasn't the best but it was still fun to practice. Over 500 images were taken and stitched together in order to create this video. I love my GoPro and I hope to do more fun creative things with them in the future.
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As you can see in the upper right hand corner there were people sitting on the roof tops all along the main drag.
I loved this guy's 4th of July spirit with a painted shaved head and all.
This band was pretty good playing all of the festive tunes.
Even in the summer the locals are still thinking about skiing.
This little kid was pretty creepy.
After the parade was over everyone was heading to the BBQ.
This was probably my favorite shot. So I hope everyone has a happy 4th of July.
I really liked this photograph as it looks like I was up in the air with the plan even though I was on the ground.
On this one I was able to pan with the plan to create the blur in the background to show motion.
These three plans were fun to photograph as they were flying really close to one another.
The next photographs were from the end of the show were we got to witness a wing walker. This guy has been doing this for a long time and does not use any harnesses. It was pretty incredible watching considering some of the stunts they were doing.
This was the position he was in for take off and landings.
Doing some burnouts on the runway!
It was a fun afternoon for the entire family and I don't know who enjoyed the plans more, my son or me. I hope to shoot another air show again in the future.
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Then there was one
And he was off
A little back scratch on the tree sound nice.
This was my best picture of the fox as he came up the hill next to our house. He went by our house and crossed the street to the neighbors. Hopefully I will get to photograph the foxes again real soon.
And as promised here is the video!
The following are some of my favorite shots taken throughout the morning at the first exchange point. I got pictures of all of the first and second team runners. You can see the gallery by clicking here.
We got up at 4:30am to be ready to go at Bullhead Farms at 5:15am. The first group left downtown Jefferson at 5:40am. This is the picture of the sunrise that morning.
Part of the volunteer crew.
Alan being the spotter for when runners come racing in and using the bullhorn to let the teams know who is arriving.
The first runner of the day.
Lots of high 5's were given out throughout the day
Since this was the first exchange point and early in the morning, there were a couple of "missed" exchanges from the first runner to the second runner. This runner was disappointed that his partner wasn't anywhere to be found.
There were a lot of good costumes throughout the day, here we had pirates.
ISU runners.
This was my favorite group that was dressed up....the chain gang.
This guy reminded me a lot of Reno 911.
Superman undies!
Dorthy
Time to go batman!
Local runner Mike Palmer with the Incredible team.
It turns out there was another chain gang with the same outfits.
I thought it was ironic that there was a police team followed by the criminals with the chain gang running after them.
It was an early morning with a few missed rain showers but all in all this was a lot of fun. The runners were all really courteous and nice. The Market to Market staff put on a great race and are extremely organized. The put the fast runners at the end of the starting groups so everyone would finish roughly the same time. From the runners I have talked to they said that it was an all day event leaving in the morning and making it to Des Moines late afternoon/early evening. It was a fun day and if you want to view all of the photos you can see the gallery by clicking here.
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P-Nut getting some air time!
The view from top of Red Rocks in Denver, CO. By far my favorite venue to watch a concert underneath the stars.
A little Beautiful Disaster jam time.
SA was almost pointing at me on this one.
Applied Science drum core! One of the best parts of the show.
This was pretty cool to see Tim give a big smile and wear his Omaha shirt as he first came out for the hometown Omaha crowd.
I hope I will get the chance to photograph more 311 shows in the years. They have definitely influenced my life and my outlook on life with their motto, "Stay Positive and Love Your Life!"
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I love the 3 starbursts in this shot. I was trying to get the sun shining through the ice but I didn't realize I captured the starbursts until I downloaded the pictures. Definitely one of my favorites.
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This one was taken right outside of my in-law's house in Winona. Then I started up Highway 17 towards Witoka.
I thought my lens was distorted but I think the tree actually was crooked.
All of the trees look like they were frosted but it actually heavy wet snow that stuck to the trees and then was frozen on due to the extremely cold temperatures.
Here you can see the hood of the car as I was taking these pictures out of the sunroof. Yes it was really cold (10° and going 40mph) but the shots made it worth it. All of these were taken with a 12-24mm wide angle lens so I could include everything in the scene.
Here I held the camera back and behind my head with a 12-24mm wide angle lens in order to view my view from the inside of the car.
After I ventured off the main road I started to take some back country roads. It got a little sketchy as the roads were not plowed but I was glad I had all wheel drive to get me through the snow.
Probably one of my favorites as this area were tucked back in a valley so the trees were all untouched and having the barn in the frame definitely helps.
All in all I drove over 50 miles and had a great morning photographing the beautiful scenery. If we would have know how bad the roads were driving up from Jefferson we would not have made the trip but I am sure glad that we did because got some great shots.
]]>The famous Las Vegas sign was pretty popular but the line moved quickly. Next time I go back I would like to try to take this one at night.
The following are night shots that I took while walking around for two hours from midnight to 2am. There were still a lot of people out but the car traffic had died down.
The red streaks from the cars' taillights were a fun challenge to capture.
I really like this one as it shows the headlights from the car only illuminating certain spots of the Las Vegas Boulevard.
My brother-in-law booked us an exciting afternoon driving these beauties around Las Vegas and Lake Mead area. It was a Dodge Challenger, Chevy Corvette, and a Shelby Mustang. We all took turns driving each of these amazing muscle cars.
The Shelby Mustang was by far my favorite and it was a little scary on how much power this car had (700 horsepower)!
The only sunset picture I had taken from our hotel room.
Hopefully I can come back soon and take more pictures on and off the strip.
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The following pictures were taken at the hotel after a little rain shower. It was nice to see some flowers after coming from the middle of winter in Iowa.
Also at the hotel they had a very nice Christmas display with all of the decorations.
The final sunrise of the trip.
I thought this was an interesting composition of the sailboats at the marina.
The trip was great and I can't wait to go back someday.
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