LET’S USE THE CLOUDS

August 10, 2023

I shot this industrial structure in the historic Millwork District of Dubuque, Iowa four years ago already and it did draw my attention again during the Millwork Night Market about a month ago. This time we had more drama with some dynamic clouds that made me set the camera to Black & White mode. I wanted to replicate a retro look for this photo and mimicked a red filter in camera already for a high contrast look. It’s the time of the year with a lot of moisture in the air and with it come the clouds. Well, let’s just use them! It begs the question, what is the subject here, the metal structure or the clouds? You tell me…

’WORK NIGHT’ WITH THE CAMERA CLUB

April 18, 2023

Monday evening we had a ’Work Night’ during the meeting with the Dubuque Camera Club. The club has acquired a set of three continuous LED lights and the members had a chance to try them out and play with different functions, color temperatures, and settings. It was a lot of fun and very interesting to see all the different approaches to work with a few items that some members had provided for this shooting. We can now use these lights for our own little and bigger projects.

The hourglass above is placed on a reflecting plate and was my favorite subject. At a serious product shooting you normally would avoid the reflections of the light sources on the glass walls, but I thought it added an interesting artsy-fartsy effect.

The RUBIC cube was also very popular. The star effect on the glass plate is the reflection from an umbrella that was mounted in front of an LED light. The key for this shot was to hide the knob in the center of the umbrella behind the cube. The black & white version is actually the same photo as the color image above. I played with different B&W filters in Adobe Lightroom and was once more amazed how different the photo was rendered with each filter effect, even without any changes of exposure values. Back in the days I shot a lot with black and white film, but now, many years later I just start to understand what it really can do for my photography.

It was an interesting evening and interacting with the other members of the club during the shooting was a lot of fun. Thank you to Ron Tigges for preparing this and the set-up!

All images: Nikon Z6II, Nikon FTZ adapter, Nikon Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, RRS BH-55 ball head,

WINTER IN THE VALLEY

February 10, 2022

Little Maquoketa River Valley, Eastern Iowa

Last Sunday we used the Heritage Trail for a hike into the Little Maquoketa River Valley, not far from home. A couple miles from our starting point the steep limestone rocks bordering the valley give way to a more open slope. The Sundown Mountain Resort, with lifts and snowmaking equipment, is only a quarter mile to the right of this image. During the summer cattle graze in this part of the valley and in the woods along the trail we can find good spots for bird watching.

Sun and wind had eroded the hillside quite a bit already and I should have visited the valley a week earlier when we still had more snow on the ground. I liked how a snow mobile trail crossed the slope on the other side of the river and how the long shadows of the trees fall on the hills. This is by no means a perfect landscape photo, but it gives me some ideas what can be done with more snow on the ground and in the trees. The forecast says we still have plenty of cold weather ahead this month but I’m not so sure about a good snowfall followed by a sunny evening with some clouds. I may have to wait until next winter saison…

Nikon Z6II, Nikkor Z 24-70, f/4 S, @ 70 mm, 1/400 s, f/13, ISO 100

LATE FIND

January 15, 2022

Streamlining and maintaining my photo library is always an ongoing project, especially during winter time. Some of our images just beg to be processed and we publish them immediately, and that’s great. Others need some time before we discover the potential of the image. And last not least there are always photos, mostly older ones, that can’t hold the quality standards I have today and will just be treated with the delete key of the computer keyboard.

With today’s photo I go back to 2020. Medicine Rocks in eastern Montana was a mesmerizing place to pitch the tent and inhale the feeling of the beautiful Wild West. It has been a sacred place for native people since hundreds of years and it bothers me how some individuals disrespect the fact and carve, whatever they want, into the soft stones of Medicine Rocks. I usually never alter the context of my photos, but here I admit, the stupid carving of a name into the rocks was eliminated while processing the final image.

It was a beautiful evening and the setting sun put a nice glow on some rocks, while others were already in the shade. In one of my blog posts about Medicine Rocks from October 2020 I posted already a color version of this image. So this is clearly a “group 2” picture, because I needed some time to discover the potential for a black and white version. You may not agree but I like it actually better.

IN ANTICIPATION

August 24, 2020

Little Missouri River, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota, 2015

In anticipation of our upcoming vacation later this week we are stacking camping gear, food, and photo equipment already. Yes, we will return to “Big Sky Country” again. Part of my preparation is to look at older images from previous trips. What did I learn from mistakes in the past, what do I want to photograph at locations where we have been before, and what new challenges can be mastered? Lots of questions going through my head. We know, some great landscapes wait for us again and there is no trip that includes South and North Dakota or Montana without really good wildlife watching.

This photo is from our trip in 2015 to Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota, a place we certainly like to visit again. I usually take a break from posting here in the blog but I hope you check in again and stay tuned.

BEATING THE MUDDY LOOK

July 23, 2020

Earlier this summer I saw this bunch of turtles warming up in the sun on a log in a pool near the Mississippi. The water had a brown color and the turtles looked a little muddy too. The reflections of dead trees and turtles created a pattern that I liked. I knew this could be worked out in a black and white version of the image and here is the result.

ON THE GOAT PRAIRIE

April 1, 2020

At Pohlman’s Prairie, Little Maquoketa River Valley, Iowa

Only about a mile away from our home is a 23 acre site of ‘goat prairie’, a remnant and variant of tall grass prairie, mostly found in the Upper Mississippi Valley on south-southwest slopes. It is a preserve here on top of the limestone bluffs in our valley of the Little Maquoketa River, just north of Dubuque, Iowa. Only a few more miles down, the Little Maquoketa meets the mighty Mississippi.

Last week Joan celebrated her birthday and due to the circumstances we all know about, we didn’t go out for a fancy dinner but made a short hike up the slope to ‘Pohlman’s Prairie’. Too early for wildflowers on the goat prairie but the view across the valley compensates for the efforts to make this little hike. The small patch of dry grass prairie is surrounded by Eastern Red Cedars. Actually an invasive tree, but nevertheless very pretty and its berries are a great source of food during fall and winter for several species of birds.

I always loved this spot on top of the bluffs and have photographed it many times before. With nothing but overcast, I thought a black and white photo would tell the story about this day at the end of winter the best. The dark cedars in the foreground frame the river and bridge. It doesn’t matter that there are no leaves out yet, the trees on the other side of the valley are out of focus but give a sense of place. Not a photo for the next local touristic brochure but I have enjoyed making it and it pleases my sense for landscape photography.

DITCHING THE COLORS

July 22, 2019

When I go for a walk I try to make it a habit to look for light and subjects that may benefit from a certain way the light touches them. This corner of the historical Star Brewery in Dubuque found my attention. It was a colorful picture with red and orange brick stones, a blue staircase, and greens and yellows from the tree, plants, and flowers. But I had this imagination of a black and white photo with some contrast when I looked through the viewfinder. The blacks suppress all the not so important elements and the highlights bring out the graphic impact of the staircase. It is the image I had in mind.

Nikon D750, Nikon Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm, f/4G ED VR

FOLLOWING THE CURVE (PART 2)

July 2, 2019

If this looks familiar you must have visited my blog a few days ago. Today I tried the same image as a black and white version. I had this in mind when I took the shot but later at home, in front of the computer screen, the play with the color contrast appealed to me as well. Now, with both versions on hand, I think the monochrome version supports the graphic impact of this photo better. The Z-shaped curve of the clouds and the edge of the field are better pronounced.

As much as I like the relativ new B&W presets in Adobe Lightroom Classic, for the finishing of this image I used the well trusted NIK Silver Efex Pro 2. In Lightroom I started with the same Camera RAW settings as for the color version, opened the photo as a Smart Object in Photoshop, and finally applied NIK Silver Efex Pro 2 as a filter. I still love the way how global and local adjustments interact with each other in any program of the NIK Suite. The final touch was made with a subtle dodging and burning layer in PS, mainly in the lower half of the photo.

OLD ARCHITECTURE

April 13, 2019

Alley in Meissen, Free State of Saxony, Germany

Ever since I live in North America my appreciation of interesting medieval architecture has grown. I grew up downtown in the German city of Bautzen, which is over 1000 years old. Being surrounded by old castles, towers, buildings, and structures, built 500-600 years ago, makes you not think much about it all the time.

During our recent visit in Germany we spent time in my home town Bautzen, in Dresden, Berlin, and also made a day trip to Meissen. This old city is even older than Bautzen and is the home of the famous Meissen porcelain. Here is a link for people that like to dig deeper: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki /Meissen

Old towns like Bautzen or Meissen, built around castles on the rocks above the river banks, don’t have many straight lines. The play of light and shadows can be very complex and a rainy day with less contrast seemed to be a good time to capture the character of the narrow cobbled streets. I like how the reflection of the sky on the cobblestones leads the eye into the picture, the only one I was able to make without people in the frame. This city attracts a lot of tourists…

Sure, I could post “candy-colored” photos of the Albrechts castle, the Meissen cathedral, or many other places, as you may find them in the latest travel brochures, but working in black and white is the way I like in order to hide the modern touch of life better and tell the story of this old architecture. I have a few more, so please stay tuned if this is your cup of tea…

ANOTHER WINTER MORNING

February 19, 2019

The skies had cleared yesterday morning and the air was crisp and clear. The snow still sticked to the trees on the ridge above our house. The branches of the little red cedar in the foreground were bent under the load of snow and the morning sun made for a nice contrast. Winter can be nice around here…

Nikon D750, Nikon Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm, f/4G ED VR, @70mm, 1/400s, f/8, ISO100

“DE IMMIGRANT”

December 10, 2018

Yesterday, at the turn around point of my trip along the Mississippi River, in the city of Fulton, IL, I stopped at the Dutch windmill that was built on a flood control dike. “De Immigrant” was fabricated by native millwrights in the Netherlands and shipped to Fulton, Illinois. It was assembled in 1999 and grinding of wheat, buckwheat, rye, and cornmeal started in 2001. It is a great attraction but the mill and the Windmill Cultural Center were closed for the season.

I arrived about 45 minutes before sunset and it was immediately clear that I had to use the warm sunlight on the backside of the mill for my photo. The color contrast between the windmill and the dark blue sky worked well, but the thin hazy clouds didn’t nearly create the drama as I finally found in the black & white version. It was important to have an eye on all the lines and geometrical shapes the wings, ropes, and structure create. I made other images, showing more of the windmill building, but this close-up shot at 24 mm made for a stronger picture, at least in my books…

If you like to read more about the windmill, here is a link: https://mississippiriver.natgeotourism.com/content/de-immigrant-windmill/mspe125a382cb0d9770e

OUT WEST #19

October 26, 2018

Bucking Mule Canyon and Waterfall, Bighorn Mountains, Wyoming

It doesn’t happen very often that you can look from the sky at a waterfall that drops down 550 feet (167m). The hike to Bucking Mule Falls in the Bighorn Mountains was worth the effort. Arriving at the overlook at the end of the trail it became clear that the waterfall wouldn’t be the best or only subject for a photo. We were there in the early afternoon and a moody color shot wasn’t within reach either. My brain switched into “black & white mode” and this photo with Bucking Mule Canyon as the subject was what I came up with.

OUT WEST #5

October 3, 2018

Back in “basecamp” at home and after a few days of business related travel, I like to continue my little photo series about our trip to South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana in September.

There are pictures in my mind I would like to shoot and I know some ideas may never materialize, for some others we may come close to our ideas, and ones in a while things unfold in front of us, just the way we have imagined a long time ago. This is one of those shots for me, an American Bison wallowing in the dust of the Badlands, South Dakota. When bisons roamed by the million in the prairies of the west and midwest a scene like this was surely nothing worth noting, it happened all the time. The dust clouds were probably a good indicator where single male bison were located and helped the native people of the region to hunt them.

The dust, the flying grass, and most important the sharp eye and horn as an anchor in this photo, make for great story telling. The photo was made about mid morning, the light was still decent, and the colors are warm. I still decided to make this photo monochrome, better said black & white. Why? Well, I had this picture in my mind a very long time ago….

Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, @390 mm, 1/2000 s, f/6.3, ISO 320