MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2022 #1 - WINTER AT A CONFLUENCE

Little Maquoketa River, only a few yards away from meeting the Mississippi River. Nikon Z6II, Nikkor Z 24-70, f/4 S,   @ 70 mm, 1/200 s, f/11, ISO 100

You bet, I will post my little photo stories from the mighty Mississippi River here in eastern Iowa, or from the Wisconsin or Illinois shore on the other side, again in 2022. Today’s photo was made during a really late “lunch walk” with our dog Cooper. At 2PM the sun is already getting low during this time of the year, creating shadows and reflections that would not be there any other time. John Deere Marsh, the wetland preserve behind the big Deere factory, north of Dubuque, Iowa, was mostly created by the powers of two rivers, the Mississippi and the much smaller one that has carved out the valley below our house, the Little Maquoketa River. The image was made just a few yards/meters away from the confluence of these two streams. We love to paddle the Little Maquoketa River upstream with our kayaks during the summer. Here, near the confluence in the Mississippi Valley, it is twice as wide as it is below in the valley of our residence, only a few miles west. The river is mostly calm and just a wonderful place to be at any time of the season. I know, “high noon” and the hours around it, are not a great time for landscape photography. Quite often I do the “noon walk” with Cooper without even taking the camera strap off my shoulder, but sometimes there is a click to make, as it was today…

NATURE CLICKS #472 - NORTHERN LEOPARD FROG

Northern Leopard Frog, Mississippi River, John Deere Marsh, Iowa

I will still post a few more photos from our trip in August / September but today it’s time for a picture I shot this week. It became a habit to take our little dog Cooper for a walk to one of the nature places in the neighborhood during my lunch break. This week I was twice in the John Deere Marsh, a wetland and marsh area at the confluence of the Little Maquoketa River and the mighty Mississippi. The birds didn’t cooperate on Wednesday and as we returned back to the parking lot I only had made one click of some American Coots, who slowly migrate south at the moment and spend some time in this area.

The discovery of a Northern Leopard Frog, nicely sitting on a weathered log that obviously was left from a flood of the Mississippi River some time ago, made up for the lack of birds. The blurred reeds in the background give a sense of location and the weathered, partly black and partly bleached driftwood makes some contrast to the warm colors of the Leopard Frog. Went back to the car with a smile on my face…

Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, @ 600 mm, 1/500 s, f/6.3, ISO 320

AT THE CONFLUENCE

The Wisconsin River meets the mighty Mississippi. Pikes Peak State Park, Iowa

One of the best places here in eastern Iowa to have a great view over the driftless area, the landscape that wasn’t shaped by the glaciers, is Pike Peaks State Park. Here, just above the confluence of the Mississippi River and the Wisconsin River you get the idea what a gem the area is we live in. When we have visitors from Germany, we always try to make Pikes Peak State Park part of the program (Hallo Claudia, Susanne & Andre St. 😊). I have shot here several times before over the years but never managed to tell the story of this great vista with just one photo.

This Sunday was a gorgeous warm winter day. Joan and I took our little dog Cooper for a ride and a short hike in the woods of the state park. The blue sky didn’t make for a lot of drama, but with the low sun behind us it was ideal for a panorama photo. I turned to a six-shot pano, trying to bring this great view all together in just one image. No tripod, just hand-hold upright clicks, with about 20-30% overlap and then simply assembly in Adobe Lightroom, using its panorama function. The result is a photo with almost 17,000 pixel on the long side, which would allow to print it 1.5 - 2 m wide without loss of detail. The small version of the picture here in the blog doesn’t do it much justice, but if you click on the photo and use the full real estate of your computer screen, you may get why I’m happy about the outcome of this probably 150 degree view.

FIRST FALL PHOTOS

We pitched our tent in Wyalusing State Park, Wisconsin this weekend and were rewarded with wonderful and sunny fall weather. Located at the confluence of the Wisconsin and Mississippi rivers, the bluffs and valleys of Wyalusing belong to the same drift-less area we call home. The leaves just started to change colors although many are still green. The air was crisp and clear, other than the haze we see often during the summer, and this gives the light a different quality. I wanted to challenge myself and took only one prime lens with me during our hikes in the park, the SIGMA 150/ f2.8. My older version of this lens is a little slow with focus, but this doesn’t play a big role when hunting for light and colors in the woods is the goal.