DEALING WITH THE WIND CHILL (II)

A second round of photos from last weekend’s trip to the Northwoods of Wisconsin. Our friend Bryan built his cabin near this remarkable tree. I have photographed it, but never during a snow storm before. Actually I wasn’t really motivated to go out and wade through the deep snow to get the tree from this angle. Instead I just played with the camera and shot this image through the glass of a window. 

As mentioned yesterday already, no snow stuck to the trees for long due to the high winds, but I think with its toning and long shadows the photo still tells the story about a very cold winter day up north on the frozen tundra.

The question came in, “how was the ice fishing?” I guess, this picture tells it all. What you see is the black tip of the flag that goes up when a fish bites. The orange stick is just for safety, so no stranger drives over your fishing hole accidentally. The photo was shot with an iPhone 12 after I had already removed my three tip-ups from the ice. Our friend Doug had his fishing gear still out when I snapped the pic. We all cleaned the drilled holes in the approximately 15” (38 cm) thick ice quite often to prevent them to freeze over, but the drifting snow covered the depression and the tip-up within minutes. It was faster then I have ever seen it in 17 years of ice fishing fun. We had a few flags going up and it was never because of a serious bite, just triggered by the icy winds. Yield of the day, one Bluegill, caught by Bryan’s son Clayton with a jigging rod at a hole next to his truck. Experience means nothing while ice fishing… 😆

FOCUS STACKING, WITH FALL ON THE DOORSTEP

Joan and I used a gorgeous Labor Day weekend for some outdoor activities, including hiking in Wisconsin and paddling on the Mississippi River, but photography started right here at home in our backyard. The trunk of a fallen maple tree waits in our backyard to be sawn into pieces sometime, but right now it is the host for a beautiful cluster of mushrooms.

For the first time I employed the technique of focus stacking for the final image. I took three shots and each had a different focal point, in this instance the three groups of mushrooms. Back in post process the three images were merged and only the sharpest parts of each photo are revealed in the final picture. There are many different ways of doing this and you can find all ideas about it on YouTube. I prefer the manual way, hiding or revealing the part of each photo that matters for the final result by using the paint brush.

Tree fungus or mushrooms can be found at any time during spring, summer, or fall, but autumn is the probably the best time for this kind of a subject.

WINTER WONDERLAND LOOK

Today was the first day of real winter. It rained yesterday, and changed to snow during the night. The heavy and wet stuff clung to the branches of all trees and bent many of them down, some even all the way to the bottom. The photos were made in our driveway early this morning, still in my pajamas. You don’t see a driveway? Well, that’s one reason I took the photos…

It was still slightly snowing and the sky had an overcast, which means the snow would render just gray, if I would let the camera do its thing with White Balance set to “Auto” or “Cloudy”. Instead I chose “Day light” and that gives the whole scene a bluish tint at this time of the day. I dialed the intensity and saturation a little bit down in post until I had this “Winter Wonderland” look you see here.

OUR WOODPECKER TREE #1

Male Yellow-shafted Northern Flicker at “Woodpecker tree #1”

Nature is always in a state of change. We were out of town over the weekend and when we came home yesterday we found one of the elm trees in our front yard on the ground. We knew this would happen one of these days. The tree was heavily effected by the Dutch elm disease, had more and more bare branches every year, and eventually the roots died.

This elm was an important tree for my photography. I always called it “Woodpecker tree #1”. Its location was perfect for shooting six of the seven woodpecker species that spend time in our woods but many other birds used it as well for approaching the bird feeders in the front yard.

Well, it’s not the end of the world, although I’m a little sad. A young oak tree nearby is growing fast since a few years and may take over the role as the new “Woodpecker tree #1” 😊

THE LONELY SYCAMORE

Down in our valley at the Little Maquoketa River is a lonely Sycamore tree (Platanus occidentalis) that has intrigued me many times before. It seemed in all the years I never found the right light to make a photo telling the story about this unique tree with its mottled and flaking bark, that makes the tree standing out from any other one around. Today, an hour before sunset, Joan and I went for a walk on the trail in the valley with our dog Cooper. I don’t remember a year without any snow on the ground in January but this abnormal weather situation suddenly delivered the photo opportunity I had somehow in mind. I exposed strictly for the highlights to make the almost white bark standing out. This would have not worked with a layer of snow on the ground. Although the sun was very low already, the light is not really warm and I was actually thinking of black & white when I took the picture. But I like how the crisp light strikes the scene and only the corn stalks in the foreground pick up a little bit of the warmer light.

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

THE TREE AT GOOSEBERRY RIVER

Gooseberry Falls State Park, Minnesota ----   

While hiking up the trail from the waterfalls along Gooseberry River this tree and its roots, nestled into the rocks, caught my attention. On the way back the light was in my favor and I stuck the legs of the tripod in the sand and made the click. How about the waterfalls? Sure, some photos were made as well. Everybody does that. Sometimes looking away from the main attraction of a known location leads to a photograph that is special. At least it was for me at this time.