BATTLE IN FULL SWING

Immature male Ruby-throated Hummingbird

It took me over an hour this evening to get this particular image I had in mind, a shot from the front side of one of our Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. Getting a sharp image from the side is a lot more predictable when they hover at a hummingbird feeder. I’m sitting only about ten feet away from the feeder, barely just above the minimum focus distance at 2.6 m of the SIGMA 150-600 S lens. The depth of focus is very shallow, just about 5 mm with the lens wide open at f/6.3. The hummingbirds are so darn fast and even if they hover for a second, the lens does not always obtain a sharp focus fast enough.

The stress level of our hummers has increased lately. We have probably about a dozen of them around here. Not that they only battle vigorously among each other for the best feeder, because we all know they like to “own” a feeder with this delicious sugar solution in it. No, here in our front yard they also have to fight off at least four different species of wasps that also like the sweet content of a hummingbird feeder. I can tell, the hummingbirds have a certain respect for the wasps. The young immature male in the photo above uses this little branch, I mounted just above one of the feeders, as his “guarding perch”. While the competition mostly buzzes above him and his eyes follow every move, he just got distracted by a larger wasp below him when the click was made. Unfortunately I didn’t have the wasp in my shot but the gesture of the tiny bird is priceless.

DEPTH OF FOCUS AGAIN

Northern Leopard Frog, Mississippi River, Mud Lake, Iowa

Here is another photo where the decision about the depth of focus (or depth of field, whatever you prefer) had an impact how this Northern Leopard Frog can be presented in its natural habitat. As you can see (without seeing me 😉), I was flat on the ground to be on eye level with the critter. You may also realize that the background is very busy and not very flattering. I started shooting with f/8 to have a little more than just the area around the eye in real sharp focus, but the clutter with sharp contours in the background killed the picture. The frog with its pattern did not stand out enough. The final photo was shot with f/4. Still not a great background but it is at least out of focus, much softer, and the Leopard Frog with its wonderful eye had a chance to shine.

Nikon D750, Nikkor 70-200mm / f4,   @190 mm, 1/1250 s, f/4, ISO400

ANOTHER SIGN OF SPRING

If there is anything I don’t like about March here in eastern Iowa, it’s the fact that we have so many gray days without any sun. Today was another one of those. The photo of the crocuses is from yesterday, when a little more light was available and no extra efforts were necessary to make the colors pop. For this picture I employed the Nikkor 16-35, f/4 and closed down to f/10 for more depth of field than in the photo of the Hepatica from yesterday’s blog post. As I always stress, I’m not a flower photographer, but with all the gray and brown from last winter on the ground a few colors don’t hurt and keep the spirit up on a day like this.

SERIOUS SIGN OF SPRING

Hepatica americana

No, the photo wasn’t taken in our woods this time but during a little hike that Joan, dog Cooper, and I took in the Mines of Spain State Recreation Area this evening. Hepatica Americana is the first wild flower that usually shows up and we found it below some rock bluffs in a more remote part in this park south of Dubuque, Iowa.

I wanted this kind of shot with a low depth of field. At 200 mm and f/5 only a couple blossoms are in focus, but it keeps the eye away from the dried clutter around the plant and that’s the way I like it.

SUMMER FUN

We had some summer fun with the grandkids in the backyard this afternoon. Beside “water battles” and other kids entertainment we watched our little House Wrens being fed by their parents, looked at butterflies, and collected acorns and other nature treasures. During a break this small dragonfly caught my eye. I believe it is a Four-spotted Skimmer, but I’m not sure.

I didn’t shoot the SIGMA 150, f/2.8 wide open but at f/4 it still had a very shallow depth of focus. By exposing strictly for the highlights the not so pretty background of our compost bin got thrown out and the dragonfly stands out nicely.

Nikon D750, Sigma 150mm / f2.8 APO EX DG HSM

BUSY BLUEBIRD PARENTS

Male Eastern Bluebird, Dubuque, Iowa

A couple days a go I received a call from my photography friend Kevin, inviting me for a backyard shooting at his house in the evening. A pair of Eastern Bluebirds were feeding their offspring, three little chicks in a bird box. Kevin builds nest boxes, not just for his land, also for public places like Swiss Valley. He had set up a nice perch near the nest and all what we had to do was waiting for the parents with some food in their bills. Almost every time they came with insects, larva, or spiders the bluebirds used the perch to observe the surrounding before they safely approached the entrance to the box.

We sat comfortably in lawn chairs behind our tripods, had good conversation, and clicked away when the action took place. The low sun provided relativ soft light and it was not necessary to use any flash for color boost or to fill in the shadows.

Female Eastern Bluebird

Eastern Bluebirds are some of the prettiest birds we have here and they are very photogenic. The blue of the female’s wing feathers is a lot paler than the male’s but both parents put the same efforts in to find enough food for the chicks.

Food supply in abundance

This was the shot Kevin and I were hoping for, both adult bluebirds with food in their bills on the perch at the same time. It happened only once this evening but we used this opportunity. I usually shoot with the long lens wide open at f/6.3 but here I had it set to f/8. This provided of course still not enough depth of field for having both birds in sharp focus. The focus was on the male at the top but the photo summarizes the story of this evening.

It is always fun to shoot together with Kevin and I’m thankful again for sharing a great photo opportunity.

SUGAR MAPLE FLOWERS

As predicted, the snow from last Saturday melted away yesterday very rapidly. Despite some frost during the night, it looks like all plants, shrubs, and trees survived the drop in temperature without much damage. The flowers of our Maple Tree in front of the house looked beautiful this evening and when the setting sun created some magic light, I had to get the camera out and capture it. Over the years I took many photos of maple leaves in gorgeous light during autumn, but I don’t think I ever told a story about this maple tree in spring.

So what were the choices in order to make this click? I could have had every maple flower in focus, or at least nearly sharp, by closing the aperture down and have more depth of focus. The price to pay would have been the increase to a very high ISO value and as a result the introduction of a lot of noise in the picture. Instead I chose to shoot wide open (f/4 @ 1/640 s, ISO 400, and 200 mm focal length). Only a few maple flowers are sharp but capturing the mood of this scene and separating the subject from the background was in my humble opinion the better choice.

KEEPING THE SKY OUT OF THE FRAME

Canyon of the Blackwater River, Blackwater Falls State Park, West Virginia

In search for fall colors we came across many different situations and they all raised the question, how to tell the story with one photo? At Pendleton Point, overlooking the Canyon of the Blackwater River, it was clear that the gray sky had to stay out of the frame. After a rainy night and a day with heavy overcast the saturation in the leaves was perfect. The polarizer helped to minimize glare on leaves and the water of the river. A light fog from low moving clouds in the canyon made for a great autumn mood. I focused on the bottom of the canyon and shot relative wide open (f/4) to keep the speed within a range I can handhold with the Sigma 150, f/2.8. Depth of field was no concern without a foreground in the frame.

Nikon D750, Sigma 150mm / f2.8 APO EX DG HSM, @1/200 s, f/4, ISO 400,   B+W F-PRO Kaesemann High Transmission Circular Polarizer MRC filter,

SUN IS OUT, FINALLY

Nikon D750, Nikkor 16-35mm / f4

A very chilly morning today after a relative warm Christmas but for the first time this weekend the sun came out and the sky cleared. We are in Cherokee in northwest Iowa and spent the weekend with our family. A daily habit is a walk around Spring Lake, located in a nice park of the city. 

The Nikkor 16-35, f/4 was on camera and choosing f/16 created the sunburst effect and depth of field throughout the whole image. The photo doesn’t have a clear subject but the long shadows of the trees on the ice triggered my desire to make this picture.

GOING FOR THE GRAPHIC

We move rapidly into the second half of summer and many plants and wildflowers loose already their lush color and started drying up. I wanted to make a photo of this fern since quite some time because its shape and pattern fascinates me. It has a bold graphic and I like to see it on my office wall. I had a first try a few days ago already but didn’t like my results. But today I realized I was almost running out of time because many of the ferns down in the Little Maquoketa Valley started loosing shape. 

The Carl Zeiss Distagon T*, 35 mm, f/2 ZF with its manual focus is a great lens for this kind of photo. Closing it down to f/16 gave me enough depth of field for all leaves being in focus, even the ones in the second and third layer behind the front. Exposure time dropped to 1/13 s and therefore it was important not having any wind. I shoot more than 99% of my photos by using the viewfinder for composition and focus. Because the camera was low on the tripod and with only manual focus it made sense to use the screen in the back of the D750 instead of the viewfinder. It’s hard to break old habits but I actually liked it this way. It allowed me to keep my eye glasses on the whole time (I usually take them off while shooting through the viewfinder). This would not work with a moving critter and most of my wildlife photography but I start reconsidering how I may photograph landscapes in the future. I believe it makes me more thinking about composition, about what is in the frame and what is not…