AFTER THE SNOW

Sycamore and fog, Little Maquoketa Valley, Iowa

The snow we got the week before Christmas melted or was washed away by the rain we had lately. Today, on the way back from Dubuque, we stopped briefly down in the Little Maquoketa Valley below our bluffs. Fog had started to develop on the valley floor and with the American Sycamore tree (German: Westliche Platane) standing out at the other side of the valley, I knew I had an image I wanted to make since a long time.

Nikon Z6II, Nikon FTZ adapter, Nikon Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm, f/4,  @ 200mm, 1/200s, f/4, ISO 5000, RAW processed in Adobe LR Classic with denoise in Topaz Photo AI

A FOGGY DAY

It has been much warmer the last few days and with still plenty of snow on the ground the fog was hanging between the trees this morning. The cedars in the background mark the edge of the rocky bluffs and the Little Maquoketa Valley below was not visible at all.

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2024 #1 - JANUARY, ALREADY UNUSUAL

Mississippi River, Bellevue, Iowa

Of course, I will continue publishing photos right from here, the Upper Mississippi Valley, and will try to tell the story about this beautiful place with my images again in 2024! I will hopefully let you participate how seasonal changes at the big river may appear and how climate change effects the nature I try to photograph. I’m much aware, I may end up with photos that are sometimes totally different than during the last twenty years, taken at the same time of the season.

It is tempting to let the shoreline cut through the image right in the middle of the photo and make it an artsy-fartsy image, mirroring the landscape, but it was more important to me to make it a photo of the day and as I really saw it.

So here we are, January 6, 2024, and the main channel of the Mississippi River is completely free of ice. There is a little snow dust in the woods, but that’s about it for winter so far! Well, we now have a snow storm in the forecast for early next week but, maybe I can now finally put the swimming trunks away…😉

However, it makes me happy if you follow again the MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES in my blog and as always, let me know your thoughts about any photo you see. Your opinions are highly appreciated!

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2023 #11 - A TOUCH OF MELANCHOLY

Mississippi River, John Deere Marsh, Dubuque, Iowa

I guess I’m finishing my Mississippi River stories of 2023 at the same location where I started them this year, at the end of the dyke that protrudes far into the river, near the big John Deere factory north of Dubuque, Iowa. It’s the fog that tells today’s story. Cooler water comes slowly down from the north while the air temperature is way too warm for this time of the season. With almost no wind today there were no ripples on the water and the fog had a chance to stay in the valley. Some thin sheets of ice had piled up on a mud bank lately, but it was the only white spot around. The scene had a certain melancholy and proofed what I have said often before, the Mississippi River is never twice the same…

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2023 #2 - DARK ICE

Mississippi River, John Deere Dike, Dubuque, Iowa

Here is another photo from the first day of this year. When we walked towards the end of the almost a kilometer (0.6 mi.) long dike at John Deere Marsh the scene was constantly changing. The main channel of the river lies right in front of you and the Wisconsin side is about 1.4 km (0.87 mi.) away. The fog above the ice was in motion and a few remaining snow drifts made for a crazy pattern on the dark ice.

Nikon Z6II, Nikkor Z 24-70, f/4 S,   @ 31mm, 1/100s, f/8, ISO 320

OZARK MOUNTAINS (7)

Pines in the fog, Petit Jean State Park, Arkansas

The majority of time in the Ozarks we had blue skies and sunshine, but the few days with clouds, rain, or fog were actually the ones I enjoyed a lot more for photography. It seemed like we had to wait all summer long for the mood a foggy landscape can provide and that I like so much.

This meadow in Petite Jean State Park, Arkansas was actually an overflow campground, probably used in the summer when camping space in such a popular location is in high demand. Well, at his time of the year nobody was there and these wonderful pines, hugged by the fog, were just the right subject for a photo. Color’s didn’t play any roll and selecting black and white as my medium was a choice quickly made. A campground usually comes with some men-made facilities, like electrical outlet boxes, water faucets, or garbage containers. There were a few of these items visible between the trees in the background, but for such items, that just do not contribute to the photo, I don’t hesitate to use tools for content-aware replacement in Adobe Photoshop. What you won’t see in any of my nature images is sky replacement or any manipulation that changes the context of the subject.

HOARFROST

Oaks, near Balltown, Iowa

I haven’t counted the days recently when we had a gray overcast, I just know it is always too many during the winter. But today was different. Some dense fog hugged the landscape and as a result we had hoarfrost clinging to trees and shrubs. All what we had  to do was go out and capture the beauty with the camera…

Near Bankston County Park, Iowa

Bankston County Park, Iowa

JUST LOOK FOR THEM

Little Maquoketa River Valley, Iowa

This photo was taken more than three weeks ago, down in our valley where the Little Maquoketa River meanders through the fields and meadows towards the Mississippi. I love the moody side of fall, with some leaves still present and fog hiding much of the clutter between the trees. The corn at the bottom of the picture was still waiting to be harvested, which by now is all done. On a gray day like this it is a much bigger challenge to tell a visual story about the season than with bold fall colors all over. It can happen I go home with still an empty memory card in the camera but sometimes the subtle things in the background make the image, we just have to look for them…

FOLLOWING A TRADITION, BUT YET ANOTHER PICTURE

Reflections in the fog, Spring Lake Park, Cherokee, Iowa

If only sunset pictures or a rain of colors is on your mind, this one is not for you!

It is a tradition for us to make a walk around Spring Lake in Cherokee, IA at Christmas time. We have seen this park and lake with great colors, blue or gray sky, and during very low temperatures in the past. This year was probably the warmest weather we have seen so far at this time of the year in Spring Lake Park. The ice on the lake and the old snow from some time ago make the viewer believe we had a white Christmas, but it was actually warm, slightly above freezing. Different than during other years was the fog on Christmas Day. In a lot of city parks we can find “items” that are a distraction, hurt the esthetic feelings, and last but not least, can ruin any photo. From the inescapable trash can to the ugly concrete park bench (that nobody uses because they are too cold on your rear end), Americans have sometimes a “great” way to ignore their best designers and landscape architects. I still think it is a nice park, but after retouching and cloning away distracting elements these thoughts became dominant.

Because of the fog, much color wasn’t part of the picture, but I made the photo anyway with having black and white in my mind already.

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,

NEGATIVE SPACE

The use of negative space as an element of composition in art has intrigued me since a long time time, I just haven’t really pursued it much in my own photography yet. If you follow my blog permanently, you already know that earlier this week I had some good moments shooting while the morning fog lifted after a rainy night. This photo was created just seconds before the scene cleared up. The trees in the background and their reflections on the water are still just a hint of slightly darker gray. The color version of this image isn’t much different, not indeed, but I didn’t like the kinda dirty looking yellow tint from the sun mixing with the fog. Heritage Pond is right beside the highway and can be busy with people fishing and other recreational activities at times. The photo may suggest it was shot at a location far away from civilization. Of course it was not, but for a few seconds it made me feel like it was…

WHEN THE FOG LIFTS

Here is another photo from my brief shoot yesterday morning at the Heritage Pond Dubuque. The ice in the foreground covers actually another small pond just north of the parking lot and next to the Heritage Trail. As the fog started lifting and the sun came through, all the gray seemed to disappear. Within a couple minutes the colors came to life, telling the story about that the days of winter may be already numbered. The hawk, sitting high up in the tree, wasn’t planned but became part of the story.

The ice on the pond doesn’t really reflect how warm it was here during the last few days. I saw 23ºC (73ºF) today on the thermometer and we are still in February. However, there is a “blizzard watch” for parts of Iowa in the forecast for tomorrow and things can still change back to ‘real’ winter quickly…

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2017 #4 - WARM WEEK AT THE RIVER

I have two photos for you today. The one above is from earlier this week, taken at lock & dam #14 in Le Claire, Iowa. It seems it becomes more and more common that some pelicans stay here during the winter. In Le Claire, about 90 miles south from Dubuque, the main channel of the river is open and they can find apparently enough food.

Dam #11, Dubuque, Iowa

It was a gray and foggy day today here in Dubuque and not very inviting for any bird photography, but the temperatures were way above freezing. In the second photo you can see that the snow is almost gone around here. The ice was jammed above the dam, hence the fog in the background. What you don’t see is any Bald Eagles. Today was the annual “Bald Eagle Watch” but I felt bad for the visitors at lock & dam #11. I saw only two eagles on the ice and they were far away. The US Army Corps of Engineers had Brent, one of their Natural Resource Specialists, on site and he was answering questions and helped people with spotting scopes that were provided to watch the birds.

He told me that there was more going on in the Grand River Center in Dubuque and so I went there next. Natural resource agencies and organizations had educational displays and information and there were also some activities for kids.

At one of the vendor’s tables I met with Ty Smedes, a well known nature photographer here in Iowa. I have seen him on TV and read some of his articles in the IOWA Outdoors Magazine before. We had a good conversation about many aspects of nature and photography. If you like to check out his work, here is a link to his website http://www.smedesphoto.com . I bought one of his excellent books and Ty was so nice to sign it.

LIFTING FOG

Rabbit Blanket Lake, Ontario Canada

If an area of rain-laden clouds moves out of the area overnight and the weather forecast promises nothing but sunshine for the next day, you better get out of your sleeping bag early and put the legs of your tripod in the sand wherever you have spotted a good photo opportunity ahead of time.

At Rabbit Blanket Lake in Lake Superior Provincial Park, Ontario we camped right next to the lake. When the fog lifted in the morning the clicks were made quickly, while the gorgeous light of the raising sun was present. You can’t start better into a new day…

 

WORKING AGAINST THE GRAY

Is there still some story telling in a photo if nothing but a gray overcast with fog, and as a result snow that looks gray, dominate the scene? At least I gave it a try last weekend during our annual ice fishing event with friends up in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. I was hoping for some great light moments, but they never came this time. One way to suppress the overall gray is to find some colors. The nicely stacked fire wood beside the cabin and a little bit of fresh snow draw the attention away from the gray sky.

In the second image negative space was used to depict the contour of the lake shore. In addition the dark spots of the slushy snow on the ice of Fay Lake tell the story of a gray and relativ warm winter day.