BALD EAGLES IN ABUNDANCE AND AN EARLY RETURN

Bald Eagle, Mississippi Valley, Green Island Wetlands, Iowa

Yesterday I received a message from a friend that the water was open down at the Sabula - Savannah bridge that crosses the Mississippi River and both sides of the road that leads to the bridge were filled with eagles. As wildlife photographers we have to take the opportunities when they occur and as the ice on the river disappears, many eagles quickly move upstream. I went down south this morning and the first chance came already while driving slowly through the Green Island Wetlands. There is a big solitary cottonwood tree next to one of the dikes and this adult Bald Eagle just posed nicely against a blue sky and the unavoidable clutter of small branches. This tree has served many times as a perch for eagles and other raptors over the years but it is in bad shape and might be gone sometime soon. I moved with the camera so the white head of the bird was in front of one of the bigger branches.

Bald Eagle, Mississippi River, Sabula-Savannah Bridge, Iowa side

Down near the Sabula - Savannah Bridge were still dozens of Bald Eagles. The downside is you can’t stop and park your car along the road that connects the Sabula island with the actual bridge, except for a small pull-out right at the bridge. I was lucky, one eagle had perched within the reach of my lens and this time against a clean background. Later I had some other opportunities but this was my favorite shot.

Sandhill Crane among Trumpeter Swans, Green Island Wetlands, Iowa, February 11, 2024

Hours later, on my way back home, I made another round through the Green Island Wetlands and had an interesting discovery. The ice where nine Trumpeter Swans rested earlier had melted and they were foraging in the shallow water of a flooded field. Among them was a solitary Sandhill Crane, searching for food as well. It moved with the swans and seemed to take advantage of whatever was stirred up while they swam slowly across the water.

At home I checked my digital photo library, going back to 2007, and can confirm, February 11th is the earliest I ever saw a Sandhill Crane here in eastern Iowa. Seeing them in March is not uncommon but this early was my first time. Other birders may have made a different experience and I like to hear from you about your observations in this area.

RETROSPECTS 2023 - #4

Juvenile Bald Eagle, Mississippi River, at Savannah-Sabula bridge, February 2023

It looks like only for the second time in twenty years we will not have any snow on the ground for Christmas. Snow is a great reflector of the light and can be very beneficial for our story telling about wildlife. In January / February the Mississippi had some ice cover but not as much as other years. Open water often attracts large numbers of Bald Eagles. I found a good spot near the Savannah-Sabula bridge down south for watching the eagles catching fish.

I made the click at the third attempt of this young eagle to pick up a small fish it had dropped on the older and snow covered ice earlier. The light was nicely reflected at the bird and I also liked the reflection of trees on the thin new ice in the background.

GOING FOR THE DRAMA (NOT THE BRIDGE)

Rain front moving in over Iowa, Mississippi River, East Dubuque, Illinois

Last Friday evening I went across the Mississippi River to East Dubuque, the northwest corner of the state of Illinois. Over on the Iowa side a rain front moved in and started to cover already partially the low sitting sun. It is tempting to have only an eye for the Julien Dubuque Bridge that connects both states but there was more to consider as the subject for this photo. I was intrigued by the reflections on the water and the drama in the sky above. The bridge as a silhouette still holds the picture together and all lines, from below, above, and from the sides of the image converge near the brightest spot.

I started out shooting in color mode from different angles and distances to the bridge but non of the shots held the drama I saw as a possibility for the final photo. My monochrome settings in the Nikon Z6II apply the effect of a red filter. It gives extreme contrast, darkens the sky and makes the clouds really stand out. Seeing the effect right in the electronic viewfinder or on the camera screen gave me a good direction how I wanted to compose and how my exposure would effect the drama in the scene. Finally, later in post process at the computer, I reduced the effect of the red filter by lowering the contrast a little bit, and making it more looking like an orange filter was used.

Don’t take me wrong, the bridge is a nice subject for a picture, but this was all about the drama in the sky and its reflection on the Mississippi River.

BRIDGES ACROSS THE RIO GRANDE

Taos Junction Bridge, Rio Grande del Norte National Monument, New Mexico

Our first campground in New Mexico was right next to the river in the Rio Grande Gorge, which is part of the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument. The Monument includes 245,00 acres (991 km2 ) of public land, and was designated by Presidential Proclamation in 2013. The Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, northwest of Taos, NM, is the fifth highest bridge in the US (650 ft / 198 m). The design of this truss bridge is by far more impressive than the much smaller Taos Junction Bridge near our campground, but one evening the light on bridge and trees was just gorgeous and much better than what we had at the more famous one.

Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, near Taos, New Mexico

At this point the National Monument is very small and includes only the Rio Grande Gorge

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2021 #9 - TRAFFIC ROUTES

Black Hawk Bridge across the Mississippi River, Lansing, NE Iowa

While returning from a business trip last night I had to stop at the Black Hawk Bridge that crosses the Mississippi River in Lansing, Iowa. The light on the scene was just too good to be ignored. The website historicbridges.org describes this wonderful cantilevered truss design of the bridge as following: This bridge is among the most unusual and significant large scale cantilever truss bridges in the country, on account of its excellent historic integrity, relatively old age, increasing rarity, and unusual design.

It is a photo I always wanted to make while driving through the town of Lansing or across the bridge several times each year. Yesterday the time was right. No, I wasn’t standing on the railroad tracks, just right next to them, but using a wide angle, 16 mm focal length allows to include the tracks in the photo and make them part of the storytelling about traffic routes in the Mississippi Valley. Sure, it would be nice to have the real warm light just before sunset for a photo like this, but due to the steep bluffs that form the Mississippi Valley in northeast Iowa the sun sets almost an hour earlier on this side of the river. 

LONG SHADOWS ON ICE

Mississippi River, Dubuque, Iowa

The railroad bridge in Dubuque across the Mississippi River has been my subject many times before over the years. Usually I like to get a little closer to the bridge and have a more compressed effect, but the fast moving clouds and constantly changing light made me aim for a different kind of image last Sunday. Joan pointed out the long shadows of the arches on the ice and I reframed what I saw in the viewfinder to have them all in the photo. Snow and ice are melting rapidly at the moment and I’m almost sure the same picture can’t be made for a while…

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2020 #5 - MAKING SPEED VISIBLE

Wisconsin bridge, Mississippi River, Dubuque, Iowa

Dubuque has three bridges across the Mississippi River. The photo shows the highway bridge to the state of Wisconsin. The two other ones, connecting Iowa and Illinois, have been in my viewfinder quite often in the past. This one not so much. I went there last weekend to practice and experiment again with my graduated neutral density filters. Our vacation trip is coming up later this month and I like to be prepared for some new landscape explorations.

A lot of traffic on the river, with most boats slowly cruising and people enjoying a hot and sunny evening. We know there is always an exception and the approach of this very fast speed boat was announced by its roaring engine well before it came in sight.

I wasn’t interested in the details of the boat but wanted a long exposure to have a blurred trail, making the speed somehow visible to the viewer, while bridge and even background remain sharp. The darker part of the 3-stop GND filter was pushed all the way down in the filter holder to cover more of the frame, ISO 50 prolonged the exposure time a little more, and by using an aperture of f/20 I ended up with 1/4 of a second. Needless to say that the camera was on a tripod and focus was obtained manually by pre-focussing on the center of the bridge. The water in the foreground had some turbulences that were slightly blurred in the photo, making it a bit more interesting without distracting too much.

Nikon D750, Nikkor 24-120mm / f4, B+W F-PRO Kaesemann High Transmission Circular Polarizer MRC filter, Breakthrough X4 3-stop soft GND filter, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, RRS BH-55 ball head, Vello cable release,   @ 66 mm, 1/4 s, f/20, ISO50, manual focus

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2020 #3 - COLOR CONTRAST

American Lady, Mississippi River, Dubuque, Iowa

A mostly hazy and humid day ended for us with a trip to several locations along the Mississippi River right here in Dubuque, Iowa. Just as we stopped to enjoy a clearing wind breeze and to have a look at the Julien Dubuque Bridge, the “American Lady” came back from a river cruise. The warm light on bridge and boat made for a nice color contrast to the sky and its reflection on the water.

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2020 #1 - A FAVORITE VIEW

Bridge across the Mississippi, Lansing, Iowa

It feels good to do some normal things in these days of uncertainty. Means wrapping my thoughts around photography and writing a new blog post.

This photo was taken last Sunday. Joan and I made a trip along the river to the wetlands up in New Albin, Iowa’s most northeastern town at the border to Minnesota. Before you get there you have this beautiful view of the bridge that crosses the Mississippi in Lansing. It is one of my favorite views here in the Mississippi Valley. This time I used the upper balcony of the Driftless Area Nature and Education Center in Lansing. The slightly higher elevation allows to keep the road in the foreground out of the frame without zooming to much into the scene. I hope you enjoy.

A FAVORITE SUBJECT

Railroad bridge across the Mississippi between Sabula, Iowa and Savannah, Illinois

Almost any time I drive south from the Green Island Wetlands to the little island town of Sabula, Iowa, in the middle of the mighty Mississippi River, I take a picture of the railroad bridge that crosses the big river. It is one of my favorite subjects along the river.

According to the bridge documentation on historicbridges.org , this is an unaltered example of a historic railroad bridge over the Mississippi River. Nearly all the historic railroad bridges on the Mississippi River are at a general risk for demolition or severe alteration. The bridge has a variety of pin-connected truss designs, and most noteworthy has a 365 foot (111 m) swing span. The engineer in my blood gives me always a great pleasure to look at this wonderful bridge and I see it almost as a duty to capture this interesting piece of our historic heritage whenever I have a chance. I’m afraid the day will come and “new economists” will win the claim that it is less expensive to built a new bridge than rather preserve the historic structure and find the money to built a parallel solution that can keep up with increasing loads and traffic. The old road bridge, 2.8 miles up the river, was blasted away not very long ago and is lost forever. I think my worries are not unreasonable…

Photographically it was not a big challenge, although with a blue sky it is easy to make a boring picture. A few flurry clouds and using the highlights on the turbulent water in front of me brought some dynamic into the frame. The color contrast between the bridge and all the blue does the rest…

CAN’T DO THIS ONE ANYMORE…

February 18, 2018

On February 18, 2018 I crossed for the first time the new bridge over the Mississippi River between Sabula, Iowa and Savannah, Illinois. I thought it was interesting to see both, the old truss bridge and the new one, side by side and so I stopped and made a few clicks. Since around 10:30AM today the same picture cannot be made anymore because the old bridge was demolished and imploded with a big BOOM and clouds of smoke and sits now in the river. I read that cutting apart the remains started immediately and the pieces will be transported away by barges.

I didn’t really plan to publish this photo here in the blog. I was a little sloppy while taking the picture, not paying enough attention to the details around the edges and a different view point would have been probably better. After reviewing my photos on the computer screen I thought even about going back and shoot it again. Well, it is too late now…😏

Below are a couple pictures I took almost three years ago when I heard for the first time that the old truss bridge will be replaced. I even wrote a blog post about it. http://www.exnerimages.net/blog/2015/4/7/mississippi-river-stories-2015-5

It’s good to have these images!

April 5, 2015

‘ROMANCING’ A RAILROAD BRIDGE

Mississippi River, Swivel-Railroad bridge, Dubuque, Iowa -----

Some of my favorite subjects for architecture photography are the bridges across the Mississippi River. Unless it is a totally new subject that I haven’t shot before, there has to be a certain quality of light before I consider to take the camera out of the bag. This happened one evening earlier this month at the swivel railroad bridge in Dubuque. I had never made any close photos at the north side of the bridge and discovered just recently the access for this shooting location.

By the way, these bridges are a great subject to become familiar with new gear, like cameras, lenses, or teleconverters. Learning about depth of field, light fall off, sharpness, etc. in a controlled environment, but still with an interesting subject in front of the lens, is priceless (beats test shots in the backyard by far 😊).

This photo is another try to ‘romance’ my landscape photos with Macphun’s Luminar software. I still have a tear in my eye because the good old NIK collection is on it’s way out, but any time I gain more experience with Luminar I love it a little more. It is intuitiv for someone who has worked with Adobe Lightroom and NIK before, but I can see why it might be a little overwhelming in the beginning for someone who is new in post processing their images. There are a lot decisions that can be made how to process an image and I will be the first one to admit, overdoing it is very easy…

STABLE AND SMOKEHOUSE

Stable, Motor Mill Historic Site, Iowa --------

I was running out of time last night, hence my blog post with photos only. So here is a little more information that I found in the brochure of Motor Mill Historic Site.

The Inn at the town of Motor I showed you yesterday provided rooms and offered meals to farmers waiting overnight for their grain. The mill was finished in 1869 but was actually in operation for only 13 years. A farmer, Louis Klink, purchased the land in 1903 and farmed it for nearly 80 years. During that time the Inn served as a home for the Klink family.

My first image today shows the stable that is next to the Inn. It housed the animals of the patrons of the Inn. Native limestone from a nearby quarry was used to construct it. The hip-type roof was added in the early 1900’s when the building was changed to a dairy barn. We can still see the original straight roofline below.

Smokehouse and bridge

This building was long thought to be the icehouse. It was recently discovered that it was actually a smokehouse where meat was cured during the mid-late 1800’s.

The bridge in the back across the Turkey River is a 2012 replica of the 1899 pin-and-truss iron bridge, which had been destroyed by floods in 1991 and 2008. As mentioned in an earlier post, we have been at Motor Mill a couple years before and I had already seen the potential for some good photos at this location. Finally I got what I was hoping for. It is the light before and around sunset that really reveals the charm of these old structures.

So, what about the little bunny sitting in front of the smokehouse? Well, it was just sitting there, not the subject of the photo, but making the smile in my face even bigger that evening…

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2017 #2 - DUBUQUE RAILROAD BRIDGE

Nikon D750, Nikkor 16-35mm / f4 ---------

This is the railroad bridge over the Mississippi River in Dubuque, Iowa. The photo was made during a little river walk on the first day of the year with family and our grandkids. At the end of the bridge is the only railroad tunnel in Illinois, only a quarter mile long. I have tried this shot many times before over the years and never was totally satisfied with my results after reviewing it on the computer screen. This time most leading lines have some light that intensifies them and even the clouds point in the same direction. The shadows of the rivets on the right hand side of the bridge tell you exactly where the sun was located. A shot like this can only be made with the same outcome at this time of the year.

The bridge is almost 150 years old, still in use, and has been a favorite subject of mine any time I go on the river walk and since we live in the Dubuque area.

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2016 #9 - THE SHOT IN MY MIND

Mississippi River, Bridge between Dubuque, Iowa and East Dubuque, Illinois

I wished this photo could have been made an hour later, when the light was less aggressive, as it usually is closer to sunset. But I knew these puffy clouds would not last that long. The way the weather developed today the clouds were gone in the evening and shooting the bridge against a blue sky, well, as a tourist I would do it, but as a local I feel I can wait for my next opportunity. This picture was on my mind since a long time. I found the spot during the winter, when the light of the setting sun doesn’t hit the bridge from that angle. So I thought, I come back in the summer, and that’s what I did today…