BRAVING THE THUNDERSTORM

Great Egret, Green Island Preserve, Mississippi Valley, Eastern Iowa

When I left home for the wetlands today I knew already that a thunderstorm would cross the area this afternoon. Later we had even a tornado warning but finally the thunderstorm and rain came with moderate wind and not much lightning. During the storm very few critters are visible but nothing seemed to bother the Great Egrets. Three of them perched on some trees above the water surface in one of the lakes of the Green Island Wildlife Area. If I wanted to tell a story about the bird, braving these weather conditions, the rain had to be visible. Usually this can be done by slowing down the exposure time and with a dark background, which highlights the falling rain. The wooded banks of the Mississippi Valley are perfect for such a backdrop. The rain came finally down so hard, it wasn’t really necessary to shoot with a slow shutter speed. This photo was made at 1/640 s, ISO 800, fast enough for a sharp image at 600 mm focal length and still rendering blurred rain across the image.

OUT WEST #20

Osprey, Lamar Valley, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

It is always exciting to see a nest with a raptor on it, like this Osprey, especially if we can be on eye level with the bird. The nest site was across a narrow part of the valley, not far from the road and a pull out parking lot. Other people stopped and took pictures but the bird seemed not be bothered by it. The Osprey was eating but liftet its head from time to time. The problem here in the Lamar Valley was the distance. I had the camera in DX mode, which narrows the angle of view for the 600 mm lens to the equivalent of a 900 mm lens but at the end still cropped the photo to make it work. The details and sharpness suffer but I still like the environmental, story telling aspect of the picture.

OUT WEST #3

Bighorn Sheep, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Most people who come to Badlands National Park may never see much wildlife because they stay on the Badlands Loop Road that leads through the park between the Northeast Entrance and the town of Wall and leave the car only at one of the numerous overlooks. It helps to know a little bit about the biology of the critters and birds to find locations where the chances to see and photograph them increases exponentially. However, Bighorn Sheep can be seen sometimes along the road and if that happens a traffic jam is often part of the game. Some of the Bighorns wear radio collars so the different groups can be tracked by the park staff for research or wildlife management purposes.

I have mentioned often in the past that I’m not an eyeball photographer. Most of the time I prefer the environmental photo of the animal that tells a story about the habitat the critter lives in. Quite often I zoom out and decrease the focal length of the lens below 600 mm in order to get the shot I have in mind. The Bighorn Sheep can move fast, sometimes they come too close (no, you don’t want to be there for your own safety if a big old ram comes right at you) and a moment later you wish a lens with even longer range is attached to the camera…

THE STORY ABOUT AN “ORDINARY”

Red-winged Blackbird, Green Island Wetlands -------   

I’m still smiling about my first sighting of a Short-eared Owl yesterday and just a few days ago I finally made some pictures of a pair American Black Ducks, as the avid reader of my blog may recall. It looks like I have already a good bird watching year. But more often we come back from a trip with photos of wildlife that is native to the area, stays all year long, or shows up in large numbers for the breeding season. Canada Geese, Ring-billed Gulls, Mallards, and of course the Red-winged Blackbirds belong into this group here in the Mississippi Valley.

So, how can we make the photos of the ordinary creatures special? First, they have to be sharp. If we don’t nail sharpness at least on the eye of a critter we can try it again and again. The “ordinary” birds are a great subject to improve our shooting skills. Second, light and color should play a role. Nobody wants to see, not even on Facebook, a photo of a gull, sitting still on a sheet of ice that reflects the gray from an overcast sky. This rule can be broken if there is a good story telling gesture involved. Gesture is the third ingredient to make an image of a bird that everybody knows more interesting.

I hear the photo-purists saying, Andreas, why didn’t you move a little to the side to get the swaying dried up plant out of the frame? Well, I did, I moved the “mobile blind”, as I call my car, a couple feet back. It was all good, sharpness, light, and color. The only thing missing in all the other shots was the great gesture of the male Red-winged Blackbird, when he spread his wings, called, and told all competitors around, this is my territory! For my friends in Germany and those who are not familiar with blackbirds, the appearance of this species in late winter and early spring is a good indicator that the warmer season will arrive soon. They are here probably by the millions. The males claim a territory and wait for the arrival of the females. This picture may not make it into a field guide about birds but I think it tells the story about what’s going on out in the wetlands, at the Mississippi River, and along the roads here in Iowa…

Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sports Lens, @ 600 mm, 1/400 s, f/6.3, ISO 200

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2018 #01 - SNOW COVERED

Mississippi River, Mud Lake, Iowa --------       

Of course in 2018 I will continue my story telling about wildlife and nature in the Mississippi Valley with some photos. It still fascinates me that the big river is never twice the same, no matter how often I drive down to the valley and visit even well known places. This evening it wasn’t as cold as during the last week and daylight lasts a lot longer already as in January.

Canada Geese, Deere Marsh, Dubuque, Iowa

The ice on the Mississippi has a solid snow cover at the moment but this can change very quickly. Nothing is static at this river. There was a spot with open water south of the Deere Marsh today and hundreds of Canada Geese used it for feeding and resting. It was a constant coming and going and I had some good opportunities to practice my panning technique.

Mississippi backwaters at Deere Marsh, Dubuque, Iowa

I only took the Nikon Nikkor 70-200, f/4 lens with me today and it was a good choice. I acquired this lens mainly for my landscape photography but it will definitely be used for wildlife as well. I love how I can now separate a scene from surrounding and distracting elements. This is where I often have seen the limits of my Nikon Nikkor 24-120, f/4. The 24-120 is a great “walk around lens” but the maximum focal length of 120 mm is quite often too short for separation. Well, I can hear you, why don’t you zoom with your feet and get closer? This is a valid question but in a terrain with natural barriers, like water between the camera and the subject or a canyon just below my feet, a longer focal length is sometimes the only way to exceed these limits. And no, I’m not a fool and walk out onto the ice of the crazy river…😉

All images: Nikon D750, Nikon Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm, f/4G ED VR

WINTER AND ITS LIGHT

Red-bellied Woodpecker -----------    

I was determined to get the camera on a tripod and practice some bird photography this weekend, but got a little frustrated on Saturday because a gray overcast and dull light just didn’t lead to any satisfying results. Of course, pilot errors played a role in the game as well… 😏

This was different today. We got some snow overnight and the sky cleared finally this morning. I call this ideal conditions and have written here in the blog before how the reflecting light from the snow can help with exposure and story telling.

The male Red-bellied Woodpecker is pretty, no matter what, but throwing a hint of bundled light through the MAGMOD MagBeam flash extender ( http://www.exnerimages.net/blog/2017/3/30/gear-talk-magmod-magbeam-wildlife-kit ) makes the red on his head just popping. I shot this with 1/160 s, more than fast enough for a sharp image and slow enough to make the falling snow part of the story telling in this image.

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.

SURF’S UP

Lake Michigan, White Dunes State Park, Door County, Wisconsin

When the waves crush into the shore of Lake Michigan it’s time to get the tripod out and have a great time behind the camera. Yesterday was without any doubt one of the best days for shooting the surf. As long as you manage to stay safe and keep the photo gear dry, there are no limits to try out techniques and experiment with exposure times and different camera settings. No photo will ever be the same, even if several shots were made within a second or two. The difficulty starts in front of the computer screen, where the decision needs to be made what images tell the story the best…

FALLEN BIRCHES

Fallen birches, Cranberry Wilderness, West Virginia ---------------

It’s easy to get lost and post , write, or reflect only on the great vistas and “standard views” the travel and photography websites suggest for a particular area. Sure, story telling is always important, but sometimes it is the subtle view of a detail that extracts the essence of a landscape and makes it finally a fine art print. This photo of fallen birches merges into these thoughts…

WAYS TO TELL THE STORY

Ruby-throated Hummingbird -------

The number of hummingbirds has suddenly increased and this is a sure sign that another generation has left the nest and tries to make a living between hundreds of flowers and our hummingbird feeders around the house. Some photographers aim to freeze every feather and shoot with extremely short exposure times. I’m in the other camp, I prefer to tell the story of constant, very fast movement and I let the blur of the wings just doing that. Both ways are valid and just the result of different story telling efforts. This image was made with an exposure time of 1/1000 s. Not really slow, although still not fast enough to freeze the wings, but just the way I wanted it.

THE TWO ASPECTS

Female Orchard Oriole  --------  

I have mentioned many times before how important the story telling aspect is for me in my wildlife photography. I prefer the environmental picture of an animal over the close up view. There is nothing wrong with a close up view, it is just not my personal preference. How the female Orchard Oriole gleans little insects from underneath the fresh leaves in the light of the morning sun is such an example. The photo is pretty much straight out of camera, no crop, just a slight correction of the white balance. The fall off from the lens around the edges works for this image, so I left it as it is.

On the other hand I love when a photo has an artistic appeal. To be honest, I didn’t realize when I pressed the shutter button for the second photo that the shape of the oriole’s head is perfectly framed by the fork of the cedar branch. To pronounce this effect even more I cropped the picture on top and left hand side and removed a story telling element in the lower right corner. Yes, there was an orange half and the story was actually about how the orioles approach this source of food at our feeders. My final version of this photo the more artistic approach doesn’t need the orange. It works perfectly without it.

In a perfect world both sides, the story telling and the esthetic aspects come together. These are the rare moments because nature isn’t always predictable, but aiming for them will stay on my agenda.

Male Orchard Oriole

NATURE CLICKS #362 - SANDHILL CRANES

Green Island Wetlands, Iowa ------

I read and heard from two different sources that in the Green Island Wetlands more than 100 Sandhill Cranes have been sighted during the last few days. Without any cloud in the sky today I was hopeful to have some nice warm light in the evening and since we still have some snow on the ground these were promising conditions for some shots. Shortly after my arrival in the wetlands I discovered about 25 cranes, scattered at different locations but not far from each other. That was already the largest number I have ever seen in Green Island. You can’t chase the cranes and try to follow them, and so I parked my ‘mobile blind’ on the west side of the wildlife refuge, with the sun behind me. I was hoping the cranes would walk in my direction and come within range for a decent image. And that’s what exactly came about. The group gathered and with every minute getting closer to sunset other Sandhill Cranes flew in and joined the group. My head count was probably not 100% exact but I had about 70-80 cranes. 

I talk quite often about visual story telling I like to accomplish with my photography. Today was such an exciting evening when it all came together. The snow covered hillside in the background, the powerful sunset, and the appearance of the largest number of Sandhill Cranes I have ever seen, this was all part of the story about the wonderful time during bird migration between winter and spring.

NATURE CLICKS #345 - CEDAR WAXWING IN THE RAIN

Lake Superior Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada -----------

Here is the question, what do you do if it rains out in the wilderness? The only answer I can give, take the camera with you, otherwise you will miss some of the best story telling shots. This Cedar Waxwing was the only one we saw during our trip around Lake Superior. It looked a little bit pitiful with its wet feathers on this gray and misty day, but the waxwing is such a pretty bird and I had to give it a try.

Using a flash light for enhancing the colors was not really an option in the rain. No matter how much the flash power is dialed down, it is difficult to go without unwanted reflections. Handholding the D750 / 150-600 combo and following the fast moving bird required a much higher ISO setting than I like to use for my wildlife photography. The photo was made at 1/200 s, f/6.3, and ISO800. This was obviously enough for a proper exposure and still slow enough to show the rain as small strings in the background. The rain drops on leaves and twigs and the wet shimmer on the waxwing’s feathers are all story telling elements that are important for this photo.