A GORGEOUS MORNING

Early morning in Badlands National Park, South Dakota

I took the tent and camping gear with me last week on the business trip, spent the weekend in the beloved Badlands, and will continue tomorrow morning with more business in the wonderful state of South Dakota. Badlands is definitely one of my favorite places to photograph wildlife and landscape and it is the national park I visited the most so far.

Saturday morning I was out of my sleeping bag before anybody else and way before sunrise in the small Sage Creek Campground on the westside of the park. At sunrise time not much happened because a big cloud stood in front of the big light source, but a little later it slowly moved away and the Badlands were touched by the soft and warm light of the morning sun.

THE FERAL HORSES

Feral horses, South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota

While driving on the Scenic Loop Drive in the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park many visitors try to see the feral horses that live in the park. Sometimes you can watch quite a few of them and sometimes you may not be lucky at all. We spent a little time with parts of the herd again this year. Feral horses are fun to watch and there is a good chance you get carried away and make way too many clicks (oh, is there such a thing like too many clicks…? 😉).

Of course you make your safety shots that will serve as a memory, but you want to make that picture that sets it apart from the rest. I’m talking about the photo that includes a nice gesture, a background that tells the story about location, and maybe a soft light, which is not always guaranteed. The horses often stood very close together and that’s nice, but I tried to find a position with the camera where I could separate individual animals, or like in this photo a foal with its mother.

Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, Induro GHB2 gimbal head,    @600 mm, 1/1600 s, f/6.3, ISO400

NATURE CLICKS #437 - BALD EAGLE

Bald Eagle, Mississippi River, Sabula, Iowa

This is pretty much straight out of camera, just the usual treatment of the RAW file including the sharpening process. The SIGMA lens was zoomed all the way out to 600 mm and by setting the camera to DX mode (using only a part of the sensor in camera) the angle of view for the lens is equivalent to a 900 mm focal length. There was no way to get closer to the Bald Eagle. I shot this from the “mobile blind”, my trusted Subaru, in Sabula, the only town in Iowa that is located on an island in the Mississippi.

It was about time to check out again my favorite wildlife watching areas, the Green Island Wetlands and the area around Sabula. I had to go that far south to have finally an animal in front of the lens. The only thing to mention from Green Island was the presence of a Sharp-shinned Hawk, who suddenly came out of the trees and crossed the road in front of the car. No Trumpeter Swans or any four-legged critter.

The sun had just started to come out from behind a thick layer of clouds, was still a little muted, and gave the scene a nice and soft touch. Sure, I would have liked to be a tad closer and a Bald Eagle on the ice without a great gesture is not the most exciting story. But there was open water and that means business for the eagle. Waiting for the moment to hunt for a fish is the biggest part of an eagle’s day and part of the story.

AUTUMN IN MINNESOTA #13

Sunset at the St. Louis River, just outside of Duluth, Minnesota

Jay Cooke State Park was the last campsite for one night at the end of our journey through the Northwoods of Minnesota. We had some snow and rain during the trip and shooting pictures of fast flowing water just seems to be a logic consequence. Well, I love to make photos of creeks and rivers. It is never boring and always a challenge.

I have talked here in the blog some time ago about a technique to make these kind of pictures without the use of a neutral density filter. There are sometimes situations where combining multiple exposures in one image, right in camera, is a valid solution. In particular at narrow and busy places, like famous waterfalls, with lots of visitors. Observation decks for example often vibrate and make any effort with a long exposure useless.

For this photo things were just great. At this time of the year, mid October, the low sun covers the river and the surrounding rocks with warm light for quite some time before it disappears behind the trees. With the Nikon D750 on a solid tripod I used the BREAKTHROUGH X4, 6-stop ND filter in front of the Nikon Nikkor 70-200, f/4 lens. For the final image a 5 second exposure at f/18, ISO 100 was used. Sure, some people like to see the water even silkier, it’s an unfortunate trend at the moment, but the wild St. Louis River, with its waterfalls and cascades, is not smooth at all at this place. The story of that evening was the combination of soft and warm light with the fast flow and turbulences of the river. If weather allows Joan and I will be back in the Duluth area very soon. Can you sense my excitement…? 😊