ALL LINED UP TODAY!

Brown Creepers, Little Maquoketa Valley, eastern Iowa

More snow this morning and a great chance to tell winter stories with our photos. To get some snow trails in the picture it was required to extend the exposure time at least to 1/160 seconds or even slower. This all worked well and it also helped to employ the Westscott FJ80 II speed light to overcome the deep gray sky and have a little bit of color bouncing back onto the camera sensor.

And then it literally got all lined up and I was able to make a photo I was hoping for since a long time, but never was convinced it would happen. I knew we have two Brown Creepers in our woods and I have seen them both at the same time before. Unfortunately never really close to each other. Either one always seemed to mind their own business. While focussing on woodpeckers that came to our suet feeders today I suddenly saw both Brown Creepers lined up on the log below a feeder cage. They normally move pretty fast up a tree but for a few seconds both birds had stopped and waited until a Red-bellied Woodpecker had left the food source.

The Brown Creeper is the tiniest bird we see here during winter time. With their fast action it’s not an easy task to have them in sharp focus. As you can imagine, this shot made my day!

Nikon Z6II, Nikon NIKKOR Z 600 f/6.3 VR S, Nikon Z Teleconverter TC-1.4x, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, Induro GHB2 gimbal head, Westscott FJ80 II speed light,    @ 840mm, 1/160s, f/9, ISO 200, image slightly cropped,

I WAS WAITING FOR THIS!

Female Red-bellied Woodpecker

You haven’t seen much new here in the blog lately beside my ”RETROSPECT 2023” blog posts, but today I had to take the camera out on the porch for some exciting bird photography. It is still warm, way to warm for this time of the year, but late morning it started snowing. The roads still remained clear but in the trees the white stuff accumulated a little bit. After all the gray weather and rain lately, this was a delight today! It also was another chance to work with the new speed light, the Westscott FJ80 II with a dome diffuser attached. As always, shortly after the camera on tripod was in place outside the door, the birds started to return.

The still young oak tree in front of the house, becomes more and more a hub for the birds before they fly over to a feeder. This female is one of three Red-bellied Woodpeckers that have their home somewhere nearby.

Female Downy Woodpecker

I’m trying to find out how many Downy Woodpeckers we actually have here in our woods. So far I have counted 7, but since they move fast between the front and back side of the building, I’m still wondering if there is even a couple more hanging around.

Female White-breasted Nuthatch

A couple of White-breasted Nuthatches are permanent residents up on the bluffs here. This female showed up alone today but quite often we see both birds and sometimes the male is stealing seeds from the female.

I used the Westscott FJ80 II speed light in manual mode for today’s photos. With its big display it’s easy to change the settings, eben without the use of my glasses. I’m very pleased how this new tool in my bag delivers . With the diffusion dome attached you can’t even tell that a speed light was used, since there is hardly any catch light in the bird’s eyes, but the colors of the feathers are revealed gorgeously. This is most prevalent in the photo of the Red-bellied Woodpecker.

As always, I try to tell a story with the photo and today it was all about the snow. To get the trails of snow flakes it takes about 1/60 s to 1/160 s. At that shutter speed not every shot is tack sharp while using a 600 mm focal length. Nevertheless, at the end the old rule applies, if the eye of the bird is not sharp, the picture ends in the virtual trash can, no matter if the snow trails look good or not…

BRAVING OUT ANOTHER STORM

Another winter storm hit the area again a couple days ago. I tried to capture a photo with some storytelling about and how the birds brave it out. It doesn’t really need much to give the viewer an idea. The snow covered branch and the snow trails in the background set the stage for this male House Sparrow. Shutter speed had to be slow to make a trail and here 1/50 second at f/8 was used to make the click. Some people don’t think it is worth their time to aim the lens at such an ordinary bird but I strongly disagree. They are part of our natural heritage and just because they are abundant doesn’t mean they are less important. And look at at this guy, isn’t he pretty?

AUTUMN IN MINNESOTA #8

Between seasons, Big Bog State Recreation Area (North Unit), Minnesota

The snow from the morning was melting away quickly when we entered the Big Bog for a second time. We had been there the day before (without snow) and were totally fascinated by this landscape and its plants. Before you enter the small part that is accessible of this 500-square mile peat bog you walk along a lake. The colorful leaves, mirrored in the lake, stood in a nice contrast to the white stems of the birches and of course the fresh snow. The clouds moved rapidly and a hint of blue sky added to the scene and made for a nice color contrast. A photo that tells the story of the changing season.

A mile-long boardwalk leads into the bog. It allows visitors to get a good look at the unique plants and wildlife and at the same time protects the fragile ecosystem below. The open-work plastic grates let sunlight reach the plants under the boardwalk. Without light, they would die, and a shallow water trench would form. It would take many years for the plants to recover.

This photo was made at the end of the boardwalk. Another shower of sleet and rain came down on us. I had the camera on tripod and wanted the snow and rain be visible as trails in the picture. The new 3-stop Breakthrough graduated neutral density filter was mounted in front of the 16-35 and prevented the burnout of the highlights in the clouds. I shot in aperture priority mode and at ISO100 and f/18 the exposure went to 1/40s, long enough to produce some subtle snow trails.

This grassy trench is the result of human efforts to drain the bog many years ago but this project luckily failed. I used the compression effect of the long lens and made this photo at 400 mm focal length. The light on the tamarack trees, whose needles had turned already yellow, caught my eye.

FINALLY THE CARDINALS

Male Northern Cardinal ------------

There is one bird I really wanted to make of some new photos this winter but had no opportunity until now. This changed today when we got some fresh snow fall and a conclave of Northern Cardinals occupied the elm tree in our backyard. Usually they show up not much before sunset and this is of course not a good time for aiming a lens at them. I just read that cardinals can live up to 15 years in the wild and now I wonder if there is any of them still alive who was already here when we moved in our house…

Female Northern Cardinal

Because the birds never sat in the same spot for more than 1-2 seconds I decided to shoot not in “sniper mode”, one shot at a time with the flash light and flash extender for better color rendition. I usually do that if we have an overcast but the snow reflected enough light to get some color and keep exposure between 1/100 s and 1/400 s. It is more difficult to shoot the long exposure but it renders a nicer background and the snow flakes look like trails as you can see in the photo of the female cardinal.

PHOTO FUN WITH SNOW

It isn’t difficult to guess what kind of weather we have right now by looking at this photo of a Dark-eyed Junco. It snowed heavily since late morning today. The snow draws a lot of birds to the feeders in the yard and daylight lasts already a lot longer. Good time for a photo session in the “backyard studio” this evening! 

I played with longer exposure times to get some trails of the snow flakes and to catch as much daylight as possible for the background. Even if we are a little tired of winter already, but I still enjoy a moment like this and the opportunities it brings for some great photography fun.