MEMORABLE MOMENTS

Wilson’s Snipe, Mississippi Valley, Green Island Wetlands, 12/22/2024

There wasn’t much going on here in the blog lately. We had family over here from Germany during the last few weeks and that took priority over photography efforts besides some shots that captured memorable moments of the good time we had together.

However, I still can’t get over that we found a Wilson’s Snipe in the Green Island Wetlands during a hike two days before Christmas and that’s why I came up with another photo from this series of shots.

So here is a little more input about the shooting conditions. It was a low light situation shortly before sunset. The bird was mostly probing with its long bill in the mud below the edge of the thin ice. I needed some speed to freeze the fast movements and cranked up the ISO settings to 10000 (yikes!!) but also used the technique of ”peak of action”, the brief moments when the snipe stopped and lifted the head out of the water for a second or so. I also was hiding behind some grass that swayed in the wind, leaving only a small gap for a clean view at the bird. I finally cropped the image so the grass was kept out of the frame.

Well, the other family members stood and waited in a respectful distance, watching my excitement about this bird and the efforts to get a shot. It was a memorable moment in any way and this photo will always remind me about just that.

Nikon Z6II, Nikon NIKKOR Z 600 f/6.3 VR S,    @ 600mm, 1/800 s, f/6.3, ISO 10000, image cropped

LUMINOSITY UNDER WATER

Pacific Sea Nettle, Oregon Coast Aquarium, Newport, OR

It’s tempting to just follow the actual time line and post only the photos that reflect what’s going on at the moment of publishing. I would follow the ”journalistic path” of the blog but many photos I create, especially those on the more artistic side, would fall under the table and never ever being shared with you.

Today’s image of a Pacific Sea Nettle is one of my favorites from our recent trip. It’s not wildlife and it was all about dealing with the circumstances of shooting through the thick glass in the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, Oregon.

I pressed the lens tightly against the glass of the aquarium and the rest was done by the lighting source of the tank above the water level. A few years ago I would never ever had dreamed about using a sensitivity of ISO 16000 for a photo. Now, with the great handling of high ISO settings in mirrorless cameras and much better noise reduction features in our software, this is just a matter of employing all these tools. Don’t take me wrong, I still believe shooting with the lowest ISO settings as possible is the best way to go for a high quality image. This time ISO 16000 allowed to expose at 1/640s at extremely low light conditions and to get this pulsating jelly fish still sharp in the frame.

A public aquarium tries to tell the story about the life under water for a certain habitat, that most of us aren’t able to see in their life time. When I take a shot like this I try to keep any men-made items out of the frame and hope to continue their story telling.

Here in Dubuque, Iowa we have the Mississippi River & Aquarium, one of the best in the country, and practicing many times before at their beautiful fish tanks made it easier to nail down the photo I can present for you today. I hope you enjoy it!

DEALING WITH HIGH ISO SETTINGS

1/40s, ISO1600

There were many ways to escape the summer heat during the weekend. Since we had the grandkids in town a visit in the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium was one of the options. We went there actually twice… It’s such an interesting place that has many things to offer for people of all ages and although we have been there often before, there is always something new to see and to learn.

1/125s, ISO 4000

I in particular enjoy all the big aquariums with displays of different habitats in the Mississippi River and about the marine life along the coast lines of North America. It’s always a challenge to shoot through the thick glass under low light conditions. Fish usually do not stand still and to freeze the action my ISO settings were between 1600 and even 10000. These high ISO values pump up the amount of digital noise in the photo to a level that just doesn’t look good anymore.

1/200s, ISO 4000

The Nikon Z6II handles digital noise much better than any DSLR camera I have ever owned, but in that range some noise removal needs to be applied in post process. Thanks to noise removal software that is powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) we can enjoy some amazing results these days. Adobe Lightroom is the first software for most of my editing and it has a pretty good AI powered Denoise feature built in. However, I still prefer Topaz DeNoise AI, which has more choices about how the final noise removal is done.

1/160s, ISO 4000

All images: Nikon Z6II, Nikkor Z 24-70, f/4 S

ICE STORM (THE UPSIDE)

We are still dealing with the outcome of a big ice storm with freezing rain that hit us last night and today. I probably could host a bob sled race here in our drive way…😉  With all the negative impacts it brings for the people it also comes with a certain beauty. Nobody likes icy roads, electrical power lines down, or falling trees, but the glass-like look of tree branches bares some photo opportunities. A small adjustable LED light, set to 5000 Kelvin, was used to bring out some colors in the yew bushes that grow in front of the house.

The second photo was made on the balcony already last night when the ice cover was still growing. The power of two LED lights, that we use to illuminate the deck if necessary, comes from behind the camera. All the boards overhead that support a climbing vine plant  had this gallery of icicles. I shot this with ISO 10000, something I have never done before. The Nikon Z6II does a very good job for noise reduction in general, but of course at ISO 10000 there was noticeable noise in the picture. Since a few months I use Topaz DeNoise AI in my post-processing workflow whenever necessary for an image. The noise in this photo was most visible on the illuminated boards in the background. I’m amazed about the results, even at such a high ISO level, with no noise left and the icicles remained sharp and unaffected.

NATURE CLICKS #522 - BROWN SNAKE (STORERIA DEKAYI)

Brown Snake, Little Maquoketa River Valley, Heritage Trail

It was getting dark when we returned to the car from a little walk with our dog Cooper this evening. We had chosen a quiet section of the Heritage Trail for our hike, a little bit up in the valley, to keep the dog away from any firecracker noise that is part of the celebrations for Independence Day. Most dogs do not like this kind of noise…

Joan discovered this small Brown Snake on the trail. They are a nonvenomous species and prefer woodlands like we have them here in eastern Iowa. Years ago we had no problems finding this and other species in our woods but during the last few years we hardly see any. I wanted to document this not so common find and cranked up the ISO to 2500 and still shot only with a shutter speed of 1/30s. This is when vibration reduction in camera or lens becomes a useful feature. It helped that the snake went into a defensive pose while we took a few pictures. We kept the stress to a minimum and guided the critter off the trail with a stick. Luckily nobody came at the time of dusk anymore, but a bicycle accidentally driving over it wasn’t a good perspective for this beautiful Brown Snake…

NATURE CLICKS #511 - CEDAR WAXWING

Cedar Waxwing, Nikon Z6II, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, FTZ adapter,  @ 600mm, 1/800s, f/6.3, ISO800, DX crop

I shot this photo yesterday morning, just before I went on my hopefully last business trip for this year. There is only one big reason why a few Cedar Waxwings show up at our heated bird baths during this time of the year. We must have a good crop of juniper berries on the red cedar trees here on top of the bluffs above the Little Maquoketa River Valley. Most of the time the waxwings are in company with a number of American Robins. Both bird species love to eat the berries and between feeding frenzies they drink a lot of water. Last winter we haven’t seen a single Cedar Waxwing here, because there was obviously not enough juniper berries available. It is so good to see this beautiful bird back again!

I’m very impressed how good the new Nikon Z6II deals with luminance noise from shooting with higher ISO settings. With my older cameras I would not stretch the ISO settings up to 800 in my bird photography. I always found the necessary noise reduction in post process would remove way too much detail in the bird’s feathers. With the Z6II it becomes a totally different game. It allows shooting in low light, as we had yesterday morning, and a sharp image with all details still intact becomes more likely under these conditions. Another reason I wanted the Z6II. 😊

MEDICINE ROCKS - FINALLY THE MILKY WAY

It wasn’t until almost the end of our trip that it was possible to make a night picture that included the Milky Way. We had many clear nights and light pollution by human-made light sources was very little most of the time in the Dakotas and Montana. But it was the moon that came up every night, bright and beautiful, that cancelled every effort. Finally at Medicine Rocks in Montana we were able to see and capture a little more of the universe we live in. I tried exposure times between 15 and 30 seconds and ISO settings from 3200 to 6400. Only for a few shots I went vertical with the camera but at home, in front of the computer screen, I found that these photos work actually better than all the images in landscape orientation.

Nikon D750, Nikkor 16-35mm / f4, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, RRS BH-55 ball head, Vello cable release,   @16 mm, 20 s, f/4, ISO6400

AUTUMN IN MINNESOTA #14 - WILDLIFE ENCOUNTERS IN LOW LIGHT

White-tailed Deer, Bear Head Lake State Park, Minnesota

I have never been a friend of shooting wildlife with an ISO setting above 250-320. But when you walk out into nature early in the morning or during a day with low light due to overcast, you have to rethink your ideas. The higher the ISO, the lower the resolving power, the more noise in the image, and the lower the dynamic range. But at the other hand, a sharp photo with a higher ISO setting is still better than capturing a blurry picture because shutter speed is too slow as a result of having the ISO settings in the basement. This is in particular true if a very long focal length is employed while handholding the camera. There is a limit where Vibration Reduction or Optical Stabilization, as SIGMA calls it in their lenses, may help you to get a sharp image. The well-disposed viewer of a photo on the web, in a blog post, on Instagram, or any other social site may not see much of a difference, but the real quality bar for a good photograph is the ultimate print.

The photo of this White-tailed Deer, up in Bear Head Lake State Park, Minnesota was shot at ISO 800. To make it clear, it wasn’t a difficult shot. As I wrote here in the blog before, the deer near a campground are not tame, but they are used to people and don’t run away as soon they see a human. Staying in or near a campground is a safety strategy that at least works during the camping season. Their predators, like wolves, avoid these places.

I have shot handheld at 500-600 mm focal length, 1/60 s, ISO 200 or even lower, but I also have deleted a lot of pictures with this kind of settings. Practice is always the key to success for sharp photos but sometimes a higher ISO can save your butt.

Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, Induro GHB2 gimbal head,   at 490 mm, 1/320s, f/6.3, ISO800

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2019 #12 - GREEN HERON

Green Heron with prey, Mississippi River, Mud Lake, iowa

Sometimes it is not possible to shoot with a low ISO setting if you want to capture what is in front of your eyes for just a brief moment. The moment can be as great as it gets, if you don’t have enough light, increasing the ISO setting in camera might be the only choice. I’m a big advocate for using the lowest possible ISO in order to have as much detail as possible. For my wildlife photography ISO100-200 is the standard, sometimes up to 400, very seldom beyond that.

Yesterday evening I took the Nikon D750 with the 70-200, f/4 with me while going for a walk down to the Mississippi River with our dog Cooper. When I saw this little Green Heron, who had just caught something and posed nicely on a piece of drift wood, I knew that 200 mm was really not enough focal length and light was critical. I still gave it a try, cranked up to ISO1600, and made the click. I shot in DX mode (with just part of the sensor), which already limits the amount of pixels to play with and still had to crop the image a little bit in Adobe Lightroom to make it work. The image needed of course more noise reduction than what is usually applied. With every little bit the noise reduction slider was moved to the right, more details in the bird’s feathers went away. I think the photo still tells the story of that moment down at the river and it works somehow here on the website, but making a nice print for the wall…? I guess not.

BEE BALM, HUMMERS LOVE THEM!

Male Ruby-throated Hummingbird at a Bee Balm

Maybe I have a few days to make a photo like this, maybe not. With flowers you never can predict one hundred percent how long they last. A heavy thunderstorm can bring a quick end to their beauty. The Bee Balm is blooming right now in our front yard and it seems we have more flowers than ever before. Bee Balm is a favorite of the hummingbirds and making a good click while they hover around the flower or drink nectar from its blossom is always a great challenge but also a lot of fun. It takes some patience to be successful. This evening I had periods of time when no bird showed up for 10-15 minutes, instead they preferred one of the hummingbird feeders hanging from the roof of the porch. This is understandable because the resources of each flower are obviously limited. I tried a little trick I learned from other wildlife photographers and sprayed some hummingbird food into the blossom, but I don’t think that has increased the frequency of their visits to a particular blossom. It is the same mixture (4 parts water + 1 part sugar) that we use for our feeders.

This evening I experimented a lot with different settings for exposure and flash compensation and even with some higher ISO settings than I usually apply. Yes, it is a little easier to freeze the action of a hummingbird with a higher ISO setting (today up to 1250) and therefor much faster shutter speed, but I still like the rendering of details much better if the ISO value stays low (100-400).

Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, Induro GHB2 gimbal head, Nikon SB 800 speed light, MAGMOD MagBeam flash extender,  @ 600 mm, 1/400 s, f/6.3, ISO 1250,

TWO WAYS TO TELL TONIGHT’S STORY

Canada Geese, Mississippi River, Mud Lake, Iowa,

Nikon D750, Nikkor 70-200mm / f4, @70 mm, 1/1250s, f/6.3, ISO800

During my recent presentation at the Dubuque Camera Club about storytelling in wildlife photography I stated to take the camera with us, wherever we may go. I’m sure glad I did tonight when I took Cooper, the dog, down to the Mississippi River for a walk. The sun had disappeared already behind the bluffs, light was fading away fast, and I thought there wouldn’t be much to photograph. And boy, was I wrong! Hundreds of Canada Geese crossed the river in groups, flying towards the setting sun.

There were at least two ways to make a click and tell the story, and I tried to accomplish both. In the western sky was the glow of the setting sun with some hazy clouds, and to the east, over the river, was the moon. The shot aiming the lens at the sunset was indeed predictable. The geese fly in V-formation and I wanted to bring that somehow in connection with the clouds and the sun light.

Nikon D750, Nikkor 70-200mm / f4, @70 mm, 1/500s, f/5, ISO800

The other photo, with the geese flying “through” the moon, required a little bit of luck. Many flocks crossed the Mississippi this evening and I just waited for the right moment. You can’t really pan with the camera, follow the flock, and shoot with a slower shutter speed in order to keep the ISO low and the digital noise out of the picture. This would result in an even more blurred moon. I had to set ISO to 800 for maintaining a shutter speed of 1/500s. Not that this one is perfect, but it was pretty much how I saw it with the thin layer of haze in front of it.

IT TOOK ME 11 YEARS!

Barred Owl -----------

I bought my first digital SLR camera almost exactly 11 years ago. It took me that long to make some photos of a Barred Owl. It was sitting in one of the oaks at the edge of our woods this evening. This owl nests here every year and we can hear their distinctive call “Who, cooks, for-you, who, cooks, for-you, all” every night and sometimes even during the day. You can’t imagine how happy I am to have finally some images of this mostly nocturnal bird. I still haven’t figured out where the nest of the owl is, I just know it is very close. Last night, right after the bird had called again, I could hear some pitched noise just from outside my office window, obviously from a young bird. Actually I had another story and photos for you from today, not even less exciting, but the joy about this accomplishment prevailed.

Friends who follow my blog regularly know that I usually don’t set the ISO in camera higher than 200, and it is very rare that I exceed ISO 400. The noise reduction that is required with higher ISO in dim light comes with the loss of detail, and I believe detail is important for bird photography. Today was such an exception. I didn’t want to risk ending up with blurry photos only and so I dialed in ISO 800. The exposure was still as low as 1/125s, actually too slow for handholding at 600 mm focal length, but I guess turning on the VR (vibration reduction) helped to walk away with some pictures in focus.

Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, @ 600 mm, 1/125s, f/6.3, ISO 800

 

NATURE CLICKS #391 - SHORT-EARED OWL (FIRST SIGHTING)

Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sports Lens, @ 600 mm, 1/125 s, f/6.3, ISO 800, photo is cropped,  ------------   

It was about time for me to get back into the Green Island Wetlands this evening. Beside the “regulars”, like Canada Geese, Bald Eagles, American White Pelicans, Sandhill Cranes (10), Mallards, lots of Red-winged Blackbirds, and the Northern Harrier, I watched the first pair of Wood Ducks this year. I also met my photography friend Kevin, who is the one who convinced me to join the Dubuque Camera Club last fall, and we shared our recent observations, discussed locations, and of course photography. As the sun went down and we said good bye, Kevin discovered this owl sitting in the top of a tree at the edge of the wetland area. First I thought it was a Barred Owl. We have them around our house and can hear their distinctive calls every night really close, but since they are mostly active at night we hardly see them and so I’m not so familiar how they look in detail. A closer look into the books at home revealed that this is a Short-eared Owl. The yellow eyes and the black triangle around each eye made that clear. Barred Owls have dark eyes and a different plumage.

This is a first sighting for me and even if the photo is cropped and a little noisy I’m very happy. I rather crop the image and keep a safe distance to an owl instead of moving in and become a threat. The safety and comfort for the bird come always first.

NATURE CLICKS #389 - NORTHERN FLICKER (2 FORMS)

Male Yellow-shafted Northern Flicker --------     

The Northern Flicker is a woodpecker we see here mostly between October and May, although a few nest in the area. Their usual breeding range is further north in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and all over Canada. Their preferred diet is ants, other insects, berries, and fruits and it is not unusual to see them feeding on the ground. In the eastern and central part of the country the “Yellow-shafted” is common and the males are easily to identify by their black malar mark and golden yellow flight feathers and underwing linings.

Intergrade between Red-shafted and Yellow-shafted Northern Flicker

The “Red-shafted” nests in the western US and southwestern Canada. Their feathers are orange-red on the underside of their wings and the males have a red malar mark on their face. Last Saturday I saw for the first time a bird with a red malar mark near our house and learned quickly that intergrades between Yellow-shafted and Red-shafted are not uncommon. The flicker in the second picture shows clearly the red malar mark but has also the yellow feathers.

You know that I’m always raving about the great light for bird photography when we have snow on the ground. The first picture was taken yesterday while it was still snowing. A hint of flash in addition brings out the colors very nicely. Easy shot.

The second photo was made before the snow and with a gray overcast last weekend. In order to make this image, while the woodpecker was still on the tree trunk, I had to shoot through the glass door of our balcony. Understandably using flash for color improvement was not an option. I cranked the ISO up to 2000 (Yiiiks!) for this documentary shot and got at least a sharp enough image for posting here in my blog.

2017 RETROSPECT / 6

For my retrospect about the month of June I have to revert to one of the best wildlife moments last year. While leaving the Green Island Wetlands at the Mississippi River the evening of June 9th I discovered four young raccoons having dinner in a mulberry tree. I have written in detail about this encounter in the blog and if you like to see the photos and read the full story I posted back in June 2017, feel free to click the link right here: http://www.exnerimages.net/blog/2017/6/10/a-gang-of-four

We photographers can talk about the technical aspects of photography all day long or get lost in overanalyzing our pixels, but it is important to have some fun while shooting, even if the results are not more than a “learning experience” sometimes. The good results will come with the passion we apply to our own photography. Watching the young raccoons was priceless and the only way to make these images was to crank up the ISO setting to 640 due to the very low light. Not my usual style for wildlife photography, but who cares if the technical side of the photo is not perfect but the story telling aspect reflects the fun I had while taking the pictures.