IN THE BACKYARD STUDIO

Northern Cardinal

Yikes, another day without sunshine! Time again to do some shooting in the “backyard studio”, means putting the tripod on the balcony and waiting for birds who would use the nearby elm tree as a perch before they finally approach a bird feeder.

Northern Cardinals seem to stick together during the winter and since several weeks we have a conclave of about 25-30 that are attracted by our sunflower seeds. The trick is to stay put and let them approach you. If you make a sudden movement or any noise they will fly back in the timber and the waiting game starts all over.

Dark-eyed Junco

The Dark-eyed Juncos spend the summer up in Canada and when they disappear we know spring is not far away. Most of the time the juncos scratch on the ground, looking for seeds or droppings from a bird feeder. Those ground pictures are often not so clean and background can be a problem. Well, they need a break once in a while too and if they perch in a tree or bush you have your chance to get a photo of one of the most handsome birds.

Tufted Titmouse

I’m very happy to see so many Tufted Titmice this winter. I knew they had a very good breeding season last year here in our woods. The Tufted Titmouse is not as shy as some of the other birds. The problem with them is that they hardly stay in the same spot for much more than a second, unless they try to crack the shell of a sunflower seed. The titmouse holds the seeds with its feet and hammers relentlessly with its beak until the shell cracks open. The keeper rate for sharp pictures is a little lower than usual during that procedure… 😉

The overcast is not really bad. Yes, it mutes all colors but it also creates a soft ambient light. With the snow on the ground some of the light is thrown back at the birds from underneath. A little hint of flash, and I mean a real small amount of light, concentrated with the MAGMOD MagBeam flash extender makes all the difference.  

All images: Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, Induro GHB2 gimbal head, Nikon SB 800 speed light, MAGMOD MagBeam flash extender

THE SHORT MOMENT

Ruby-throated Hummingbird at a Tiger Lily

This immature male Ruby-throated Hummingbird is gleaning for tiny insects on the Tiger Lily in the garden. The lilies don’t last very long and a lot of things have to come together for such photo. Knowing that the time was perfect and the quality of the ambient light was right is one thing, but waiting for the moment for about an hour is the less predictable part. If you miss the two or three seconds the hummer spends at the flower, well, you may have to wait for another hour…

SUMMER AT ITS PEAK

Tiger Swallowtail

It is this short moment during the summer when flowers and butterflies look at their best. Today we had two Giant Swallowtails and two Tiger Swallowtails feeding in our patch of prairie and garden flowers. A light overcast made for a balanced ambient light and just a very subtle hint of flash was used to pronounce the colors of phlox and Tiger Swallowtail.

AT THE BARN SWALLOWS

I had again the pleasure to follow an invitation of my photography friend Kevin this evening for shooting at an old barn he owns at the edge of town. The main attraction is several pairs of Barn Swallows that have their nests under the ceiling and feed their offspring. I heard the young birds when parents arrived with food, but they were obviously still too little and we couldn’t see them. The barn doors are open and the building is surrounded by meadows, grassland, and some weed patches. With other words, there is an abundance of insects and enough food for the little birds.

This location requires a lot of thinking about the light. Shooting in the barn required a flash as the main light source. With the open doors light pours in also from the outside and the question is, how can we use flash and ambient light solely or in combination for telling a story about the swallows and their summer habitat?

The first photo was shot through the open barn door. The swallow sits on an old rusty gate and the only light source is the low sitting sun. The trees behind the meadow are far away and provide a lovely soft background.

This bird sits on another one of the open doors. The grass in the back is in full sunlight and makes for a good background as well. A hint of flash takes care for the dark side of the swallow inside the barn.

Same location as photo #2 but for a brief moment the sun was hidden by a cloud and I chose a much shorter exposure time for the ambient light. The flash doesn’t overpower the bird and with 1/800 s I was able to nail the gesture the Barn Swallow made at that moment.

Kevin had photographed in the barn earlier this week already and today he tried to make a picture of a Barn Swallow with open wings, approaching a resting place. That is quite a challenge! He pre-focussed on a particular spot and waited for his chance but the birds did not use this place as often as earlier this week.

My thanks goes to Kevin for inviting me! I had again a great time!

STILL LIFE - OMA’S KITCHEN ITEMS

Oma’s Kitchen Items, 2020

My grandma was a really good cook and after she died 30 years ago I kept a few of her kitchen items in my possession and still use them. They bring up fond memories any time I look at them. I always liked the thick glass and how it feels in my hands. I know this sounds silly, but the aesthetics of these glass and metal items appeal to me. Since a very long time I was thinking about to make a photo of these kitchen items. This idea got propelled when I finally saw the photo Still Life, San Francisco, California, c. 1932, in Ansel Adam’s book Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs  some time ago. It shows a couple glass bottles, two eggs, and also the same kind of egg slicer that I have from my grandma. No, I didn’t want to copy his arrangements but his photo gave me pleasure about how the light falls on and around his items. Adams writes, …very rewarding effects are possible with available light in the studio, whether from natural skylight or window light, or from existing artificial sources.

I don’t even have a studio but I knew it was doable in our living room, with its large windows and high ceiling. Today was finally the day when this plan was put into practice. A gray overcast sky produced a very soft light, even more diffused by the tall windows on the left. I used black foam board as my backdrop and a couple white pieces to direct the light, either shading it off (left side) or using the board as a reflector (right side). For this photo I handhold an additional 22” white reflector for some extra light from above right. 

The boiled egg and the half lemon add some texture and life to the image. Oma’s kitchen items are older than me and using black and white for the final photo was part of the plan from the very beginning.

By the way, if you wonder what the kidney-shaped glass container on the left is, here is the story. My grandparents were operating a little restaurant and country side pub before I was born. A popular item on the menu in this part of Germany, the Upper Lusatia, was head cheese (Sülze), mostly served with fried potatoes or fresh baked bread, raw onion rings, plus oil and vinegar. I guess drinking beer with this food was mandatory…😉 This glass bowl was used as a mold for making the head cheese. After the jelly was cold and hard, the mold was flipped upside down on a plate and the other food items were added. My grandpa loved head cheese and I remember that this glass container was still used in their home when I was a child.

Nikon D750, Carl Zeiss Distagon 35mm f/2 ZF T*, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, RRS BH-55 ball head, VELLO wired remote switch,   @ f/16, 1 s, ISO100

A MERRY MILLWORK MARKET

I had a little break here in the blog and come back with some street photography. Dubuque had its ‘Merry Millwork Market’ during the last couple evenings. Joan and I went yesterday night to this mini- Christmas market in the Historic Millwork District. Let me go straight to the highlight 😉. It was the first time since I live in the US that I saw someone selling Glühwein. The mullen-spiced red wine is served on every Christmas market in Germany, something I have missed during the last fourteen years.

I thought the market was well done, taking place outdoors and indoors. There were a lot of local artists selling their artwork and it seems the character of the market fits the ambience of the repurposed warehouse buildings in the Historic Millwork District of Dubuque, Iowa very well.

I don’t know when I shot the last time with ISO 1250 and still hand held the camera at a shutter speed between 1/15s and 1/40s. Detail was not so important as it is in wildlife photography and I wanted to keep the mood intact by using only the ambient light.

TRYING TO STEP UP A NOTCH

Juvenile male Ruby-throated Hummingbird, near Durango, Iowa, 1/125s, f/6.3, ISO400

One of the goals I wanted to accomplish this year was to step up a notch with my hummingbird photography. The time is just right, we have probably at least a dozen birds buzzing around the house and the new generation is as aggressive as the old “bullies” in their pursue to “own” one of the feeders we provide.

I mentioned in my last post already that I started using a new light modifier, a small soft box that attaches to the speed light. It still maintains the same purpose, just to bring out the colors in the bird’s feathers. The ambient light is still the main light source for the pictures. But it takes more than a new piece of gear to make better images. First I analyzed photos made during the last few years and realized that I had very few that caught the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds during a special gesture. To make it clear, there is nothing a hummingbird does slowly and even preening is done in short intervals that last maybe a second.

1/100s, f/6.3, ISO400

This juvenile male was my main subject today. He often returned to the same branch above one of our feeders and allowed me really to work with him between the “high-speed chases” that went on all afternoon and evening. Many clicks were made, but after the sun disappeared behind the trees on our ridge, there was a brief moment when a shaft of warm light hit the hummer just perfect, and this became my favorite shot of the day.

Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, Induro GHB2 gimbal head, Nikon SB 800 speed light, Impact Quikbox Micro Softbox

CHARMING SWALLOWS

Barn Swallow

My photography friend Kevin invited me for a late morning shooting in his barn on the south side of Dubuque, Iowa today. The barn is actually the home of a couple horses but it also gives shelter to several Barn Swallows. While we watched one of them still sitting on the nest, others were feeding their offspring already. There was a lot going on and we had plenty of opportunities to experiment with our camera and flash settings in order to get some good shots. We both had a great time to work with the birds.

The barn has a few windows and the upper half of the doors were open, allowing some day light to enter the room. The challenge was to incorporate the ambient light while our speed lights were used to freeze the action without making the flash too dominant. I wanted to preserve the warm feeling and colors that we found inside the building and pair it with the charming gestures these beautiful Barn Swallows have shown to us. The current warm weather provides plenty of insects and it never took very long until the adults returned with a bill full of food for their nestlings. What a fun morning! Thank you again Kevin for this great opportunity!

SCARLET TANAGER AND THE AMBIENT LIGHT

The Scarlet Tanager is a very secretive bird but sometimes the males show up at our suet feeders for a brief moment. Usually they also disappear very quickly again after getting a few peanuts. It is not so difficult to make any feeder pictures but it takes a lot more to make the click while they are in the trees around our house. The thick and lush canopy of our trees here swallows up a lot of light and locking in the focus can be a challenge. As always in these kind of situations I use the speed light only for flash fill, for boosting the colors and not as my main source of light. This means to shoot with slow shutter speeds (1/60s for this photo). The ambient light plays a big role for the environmental portraits I’m aiming for in my wildlife photography and using the full power of the flash light would just not deliver the results I’m looking for. Not having every single feather of the bird tack-sharp is the small price I have no problem to pay in this matter.