MAKING THE DIFFERENCE

Black-capped Chickadee enjoying the last sun of a warm spring day

During my public presentations about wildlife photography I point out that shooting the local species, the animals we can find all year long in the area where we live, is a great starting point. It will lead earlier or later to success and encouragement for further advance with wildlife photography. Even with the most common cameras, the ones we have in our cell phones, good results are possible. With this endorsement comes always the remark, make a difference by photographing the local species in great light. Having a photograph of a very rare species in mediocre light is sometimes accepted for documentary purposes. But with the local species we should make a difference. Quite often we try to tell a story about animal behavior, about the season , about a certain gesture, or just about their beauty. Sometimes all of those together. A certain quality of light may draw the attention to a picture of a common species, the animal that everybody has seen a thousand times before, it will make the difference.

WORKING WITH THE LADIES

Female Red-winged Blackbird, Mill Creek Ponds, Eastern Iowa

If we want to talk about one of the most common birds here in Iowa, at least during the season without snow, it has to be the Red-winged Blackbird. They are omnipresent wherever there is open space. The males arrive a lot earlier in spring from the south than the females and everybody here knows this black bird with its striking red bar bar on the wings that gave this bird obviously its name. You may not agree, but I’m always intrigued by the beauty of the female blackbirds, in particular during breeding season.

A couple days ago I stopped at the Mill Creek Ponds in a side valley of the Mississippi River. The long time followers of my blog may remember that I have photographed breeding Trumpeter Swans many times before at this location, but to my disappointment no swans seemed to be there this year. As always, the blackbirds have their habitat between the reeds of the wetlands and around the Mill Creek Ponds. Of course plenty of male birds are there and defend their territories aggressively.

I really focussed on the female birds this time and tried to incorporate the reeds along the pond in the background. I believe photographing a common bird should include a certain quality of light, otherwise I won’t publish it. 6PM is still way before sunset, but this valley receives the last warm sunlight for the day a lot earlier. While the first photo is all about the beautiful plumage of the blackbird lady, the second one is all about the gesture.

I try to make it a habit to shoot the long lens with the 1.4 SIGMA teleconverter attached. Having 850 mm focal length on a full frame sensor camera makes it very desirable for bird photography. Shooting a lot more with this tool lately, my keeper rate went up quite a bit. I can afford to be choosy about what image to use for a blog post…😉

Nikon Z6II, Nikon FTZ adapter, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S,

1. photo:   @ 850 mm, 1/400 s, f/9, ISO 400

2. photo:   @ 850 mm, 1/640 s, f/9, ISO 400

GOING FOR THE COLOR CONTRAST

American Goldfinches, Maskunky Marsh, Iowa

Shortly after arrival at Maskunky Marsh last Saturday the rain clouds opened up a little bit. When I saw these two American Goldfinches in a dead tree, and in front of a dark cloud, I knew there was a picture opportunity. The distance was too long for a real detailed image but the color contrast wrote the invitation to make a click. The sun behind me just broke through the clouds and made the finches standing out nicely in front of this wall of dark rain clouds. What followed was nothing but photos of the gorgeous Yellow-crowned Night Herons. The American Goldfinch is a year-round bird here in Iowa, but as I have mentioned many times before here in the blog and during public photo presentations, don’t forget the common species! They need our attention and protection as well.

NATURE CLICKS #433 - PAINTED LADY

Our yard is the feeding ground for many different butterflies, including three different species of swallowtails. They are all here theses days but I still couldn’t resist to point my lens at one of the most common butterflies in North America and even around the world, the beautiful Painted Lady. Joan manages to grow a nice patch of Purple Coneflowers every year in the yard. The butterflies like them and they make for a nice background.

Although a little slow with focus, the 12 years old SIGMA 150, f/2.8 is still sharp as a tack and a macro lens I always have recommended. The newer models have OS (optical stabilization) and probably have faster focus, but I’m sure they are as sharp as the old one in my bag.

Nikon D750, Sigma 150mm / f2.8 APO EX DG HSM, @ 1/800 s, f/8, ISO 400

NATURE CLICKS #419 - MOURNING DOVE

Today was my presentation about STORYTELLING IN WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY, hosted by the Friends of the Mines of Spain, in the E.B. Lyon Interpretive Center, Dubuque, Iowa. We had a great audience and the questions at the end showed how passionate many people are about wildlife, conservation, and of course photography.

One of the topics I was talking about is how we can make better photographs of the common species. You know, the ones that are present most of the time and not so difficult to find. Well, we can look and wait for good gestures or shoot from a more interesting angle instead of pointing the camera down to the critter, but I think the most important point is to photograph the common species in interesting light. Light that really shows their colors or texture of fur or feathers.

Such a common species here is the Mourning Dove. We have usually between four and a dozen of them around here in our woods. They come to the bird feeders once in a while but most of the time they sit on a branch, expose themselves to the sun, and try to stay warm. Not really exciting action, but if they come close and there is some good warm side light from the low sun I can’t resist and have to make a few clicks of these pretty wild doves.