A FAVORITE SUBJECT

Railroad bridge across the Mississippi between Sabula, Iowa and Savannah, Illinois

Almost any time I drive south from the Green Island Wetlands to the little island town of Sabula, Iowa, in the middle of the mighty Mississippi River, I take a picture of the railroad bridge that crosses the big river. It is one of my favorite subjects along the river.

According to the bridge documentation on historicbridges.org , this is an unaltered example of a historic railroad bridge over the Mississippi River. Nearly all the historic railroad bridges on the Mississippi River are at a general risk for demolition or severe alteration. The bridge has a variety of pin-connected truss designs, and most noteworthy has a 365 foot (111 m) swing span. The engineer in my blood gives me always a great pleasure to look at this wonderful bridge and I see it almost as a duty to capture this interesting piece of our historic heritage whenever I have a chance. I’m afraid the day will come and “new economists” will win the claim that it is less expensive to built a new bridge than rather preserve the historic structure and find the money to built a parallel solution that can keep up with increasing loads and traffic. The old road bridge, 2.8 miles up the river, was blasted away not very long ago and is lost forever. I think my worries are not unreasonable…

Photographically it was not a big challenge, although with a blue sky it is easy to make a boring picture. A few flurry clouds and using the highlights on the turbulent water in front of me brought some dynamic into the frame. The color contrast between the bridge and all the blue does the rest…

REFLECTIONS - PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION AT THE DUBUQUE MUSEUM OF ART

During opening reception

I start today’s blog post with a quote from the exhibition brochure:

REFLECTIONS is the 7th consecutive photography exhibition by the Dubuque Camera Club at the Dubuque Museum of Art.

Reflections may be discovered in landscape, nature, still life, architecture, and portraiture. Twenty club members used digital photography to interpret this year’s theme. Each photographer brings an individual viewpoint to the click.

Qualities such as composition, color and vibrance, mood, symmetry, or choice of subject come into play to make a photo meaningful for the photographer, and hopefully, for the viewer. You are invited to reflect upon this selection of photos from our club members.

Tonight was the opening reception, which had a nice turnout. I had a picture in last year’s show and I’m proud to mention that again one of my photos is on display in 2019. You can see the photos through November 10, 2019. Here is a hint for the budget minded. Thanks to a sponsor admission to the museum is free every Thursday during 2019. If photography is not the only thing you like, the DMA has a couple other exhibitions at the moment. Visit their website for more information http://dbqart.org


AGAIN: 10 OF SOUL (PART 2)

Hard to believe it was already five weeks ago when the band 10 OF SOUL from Minneapolis, MN was in town, playing a concert for the “Dubuque and… All That Jazz!” concert series. I promised to show a few more photos from this great event. Well, it took me a little longer than I thought, but here is finally my second post with portraits of the musicians. If you missed the first post back in August with more details about this concert, here is a LINK that will open it for you. 

FROM THE ARCHIVE WITH A NEW APPROACH

John Hancock Center, Chicago, 2012

We are in the middle of a rainy and gray Sunday. Time to read, watch some photography lessons, or work on images. I pulled this photo from my photo library this morning. This shot of the John Hancock Center in Chicago was made already during summer 2012. The Nikon D300S and the still well trusted Zeiss Distagon T* 2/35 ZF with manual focus was the equipment of choice at that time. The intend with the original photo was always a black & white version but at the end it looked kinda flat. Probably one reason I never showed this image here in the blog. Today I tried a new approach and gave the photo some kind of fine art look. I just learned this technique over at kelbyone.com in their latest course. I always liked architectural photography and have a deep admiration for the masters of this genre. Maybe it’s time to do more of it myself…

AGAIN: 10 OF SOUL (PART 1)

People know me maybe as a nature photographer, and I guess my love for music and performance has been in the second row, at least here in the blog. Last Friday I couldn’t resist. Dubuque hosted again “Dubuque and… All That Jazz!”, a concert series that takes place downtown once a month during the summer. Great bands , well organized, and a good way to finish the week. The act last week was 10 OF SOUL from Minneapolis, MN, a band I had photographed already in 2014 and 2015. Eleven musicians played soul, funk, and blues. The crowd enjoyed their performance very much, many people danced and it was a great party atmosphere again.

I waited until it almost got dark before I took the camera out of the bag. No dealing with buildings, antennas, or wires in the background this way. Other years in the past the SIGMA 150, f/2.8 was used but last Friday I had the Nikkor 70-200, f/4 on camera. Yes, this costs a full stop of light, but I really like the versatility, and looking at the metadata at home revealed that almost every focal length between 70 and 200 mm was used this evening. I shot the lens wide open at f/4 the whole time and just changed my exposure compensation according to what scene I had in the viewfinder. The light intensity and color changes constantly during a concert, depending how crazy the guys behind the mixer work. I prefer to process the images in black & white for my concert photography. It appeals to me more than a crazy color mix due to ever-changing spot lights.

Special thank you to the members of the band for letting me shoot from every direction, including the backstage area!

Six photos today and maybe a few more later this week of this great music event…

DITCHING THE COLORS

When I go for a walk I try to make it a habit to look for light and subjects that may benefit from a certain way the light touches them. This corner of the historical Star Brewery in Dubuque found my attention. It was a colorful picture with red and orange brick stones, a blue staircase, and greens and yellows from the tree, plants, and flowers. But I had this imagination of a black and white photo with some contrast when I looked through the viewfinder. The blacks suppress all the not so important elements and the highlights bring out the graphic impact of the staircase. It is the image I had in mind.

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

THREE LIGHT SOURCES

Staircase, Meissen Cathedral, Germany

The Meissen Cathedral has many interesting architectural details. When I was ready to leave one of the chapels and stepped into this spiral staircase, I knew immediately I had a picture. The light that came through the small window and from the room behind me was complemented with light from a small lamp in the staircase. The mix of daylight and incandescent light from the bulb were actually well taken by the camera (white balance was set to Auto), but I knew only the development of the photo in black & white will do justice to the subtle impact of all three light sources.

OLD ARCHITECTURE

Alley in Meissen, Free State of Saxony, Germany

Ever since I live in North America my appreciation of interesting medieval architecture has grown. I grew up downtown in the German city of Bautzen, which is over 1000 years old. Being surrounded by old castles, towers, buildings, and structures, built 500-600 years ago, makes you not think much about it all the time.

During our recent visit in Germany we spent time in my home town Bautzen, in Dresden, Berlin, and also made a day trip to Meissen. This old city is even older than Bautzen and is the home of the famous Meissen porcelain. Here is a link for people that like to dig deeper: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meissen 

Old towns like Bautzen or Meissen, built around castles on the rocks above the river banks, don’t have many straight lines. The play of light and shadows can be very complex and a rainy day with less contrast seemed to be a good time to capture the character of the narrow cobbled streets. I like how the reflection of the sky on the cobblestones leads the eye into the picture, the only one I was able to make without people in the frame. This city attracts a lot of tourists…

Sure, I could post “candy-colored” photos of the Albrechts castle, the Meissen cathedral, or many other places, as you may find them in the latest travel brochures, but working in black and white is the way I like in order to hide the modern touch of life better and tell the story of this old architecture. I have a few more, so please stay tuned if this is your cup of tea…

DRESDEN - FRAUENKIRCHE

A couple pictures from our trip to Germany earlier this month. One of the world-famous landmarks in the city of Dresden, the capitol of the German state of Saxony, is the Dresdener Frauenkirche. The Baroque church was destroyed in the bombing of Dresden during World War II. From the time of my childhood I still remember the ruins and pile of rubble that was left as a war memorial for almost 50 years. If you like to read a little more about the history of this wonderful church and its restoration between 1992 and 2005, here is a link you may want to use: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dresden_Frauenkirche

It was my first time that I had a chance to see the Frauenkirche from the inside. I didn’t bring a tripod with me on this trip but handholding the camera with the Nikon Nikkor 16-35 f/4 attached and utilizing vibration reduction led to some acceptable results. It wasn’t until the late afternoon that the gray overcast of this day finally broke apart. When the sun hit the historic silhouette of the city during late afternoon, it made me quickly forget all pictures I took earlier…

DIFFERENT TOOL

This shot wasn’t exactly intended when it was made during the very cold days we had last week. Two Downy Woodpeckers (out of actually ten!) had an argument about who can eat first at one of our suet feeders. It was made during the late afternoon, it was snowing, and light was fading away quickly. I shot at 1/50 s, nothing unusual for me even with the long lens, but that was definitely too slow for this outburst of energy between the two birds. Stories can be told in different ways and motion blur is one tool I like to explore more. I think I I like the outcome…

PAINTING WITH LIGHT

During the last few weeks I watched several KelbyOne online classes by photographer and Nikon Ambassador Dave Black about painting with light. That is something that has interested me since a long time but I have never tried it before. If you are not living in the Midwest of the United States you heard it at least in the media, it was really cold here lately, thanks to a polar vortex, and I guess long cold winter nights are perfect for starting such a new photography adventure.

I tell you upfront, it looks easy when you watch the video classes but I had more than 30 attempts before I had results that reflected what I had in mind. I wanted to keep it simple and used just the turntable and a couple of my favorite vinyl records as a background for my first lightpainting project. The light source was a LED flashlight with a very bluish color. I wanted a cold light for this photo but it was a little too much and so I countered it by setting the white balance in the Nikon D750 to 10,000 Kelvin. I attached a little snoot, made out of paper, to the head of the lamp in order to give the light more direction and not spill it all over the place while painting. The room was pitch dark, the shutter was open for 30 seconds at f/20 and I started painting. It takes a little while to find out how much light every element in the frame needs and at the end there is no two photos that look alike.

The learning curve is steep and it is easy to make mistakes that ruin the whole photo. Sounds like a lot of work, but it was instead much fun and a very satisfying process. The possibilities for painting with light are endless and I’m sure even after this polar vortex has weakened, there is another cold winter night waiting for me to start another project…

Nikon D750, Nikkor 24-120mm / f4, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, RRS BH-55 ballhead, @ 48mm, 30s, f/20, ISO100

“DE IMMIGRANT”

“De Immigrant” Windmill, Fulton, Illinois

Yesterday, at the turn around point of my trip along the Mississippi River, in the city of Fulton, IL, I stopped at the Dutch windmill that was built on a flood control dike. “De Immigrant” was fabricated by native millwrights in the Netherlands and shipped to Fulton, Illinois. It was assembled in 1999 and grinding of wheat, buckwheat, rye, and cornmeal started in 2001. It is a great attraction but the mill and the Windmill Cultural Center were closed for the season.

I arrived about 45 minutes before sunset and it was immediately clear that I had to use the warm sunlight on the backside of the mill for my photo. The color contrast between the windmill and the dark blue sky worked well, but the thin hazy clouds didn’t nearly create the drama as I finally found in the black & white version. It was important to have an eye on all the lines and geometrical shapes the wings, ropes, and structure create. I made other images, showing more of the windmill building, but this close-up shot at 24 mm made for a stronger picture, at least in my books…

If you like to read more about the windmill, here is a link: https://mississippiriver.natgeotourism.com/content/de-immigrant-windmill/mspe125a382cb0d9770e


OUT WEST #1

DIGNITY of Earth and Sky, Chamberlain, South Dakota

No activity for almost three weeks in my blog? Yes you guessed it, we were on vacation, a time I usually take a break from posting here in the blog. Joan and I, and of course our little dog Cooper, made an 18-day trip out west to the grasslands and mountains of South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana. If this is something that may interest you, stay tuned for the next few weeks. As I slowly work my way through all the pictures that were taken, I will try to tell a story with my photos of our journey, about the landscapes we discovered, and some of the wildlife we found.

Any time we head out west it is mandatory for us to stop near Chamberlain, South Dakota, just before we cross the Missouri River. New at this rest stop along Interstate 90 is the statue “DIGNITY of Earth and Sky”, dedicated September 17, 2016, and created by sculptor and South Dakota artist and laureate Dale Claude Lamphere.

“Standing at a crossroads, DIGNITY echoes the interaction of earth, sky, and people. She brings to light the beauty and promise of the indigenous people and cultures that still thrive on this land. My intend is to have the sculpture stand as an enduring symbol of our shared belief that all here are sacred, and in a sacred place.” Dale Claude Lamphere

Crossing the Missouri River, Chamberlain, South Dakota

It was our fourth time that we stood at this vantage point together, overlooking the Missouri River, and it is no coincidence that a truck with parts for another giant wind turbine rolls by. Many of them were on the road, telling the story about how the true decision makers in this country, the leaders in economy and business with a view beyond just local interests, understand the need for change in energy and climate policies.

Black-tailed Prairie Dogs, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Our first place to pitch the tent was at Sage Creek Campground in Badlands National Park, South Dakota, a campsite we have been before three times, and one of our favorite places to be. New was that the Black-tailed Prairie Dogs have now expanded their territory into the camp area. Sitting in a camping chair behind tripod and camera, having a beer or glass of wine, and shooting these funny critters in the killer light of the setting sun is a great way to start a vacation, at least in my books… 😊

THE FINAL MIX SHOW BAND

It has been already a week ago when these photos were created. “Dubuque- All That Jazz” is a free Friday night concert series, taking place once a month during the summer on Main Street, right at the clock tower in downtown Dubuque, Iowa. The sad part of the story is that I haven’t been there for almost two years, the good part is that I enjoyed it as much as any time before during the last decade.

The FINAL MIX Show Band rocked the place last Friday and their mix of R&B, Jazz Fusion, Blues, Hip-Hop, and Rock’n Roll was a solid performance, enjoyed by the kids as much as by the older folks.

Del "Saxman" Jones, Band Leader

The avid readers of my blog know me mainly as a wildlife and landscape photographer, with the occasional excursion into architecture or technical stuff with historical relevance, like airplanes or cars. To be honest, the only time I enjoy photographing people (beyond family memory photos) is when they are at creative work or during candid moments. That leads mainly to artists, musicians, sportsmen, etc.. Well, concert photography is right down this aisle.

The FINAL MIX Show Band started to play during daylight and making a “documentary click” would have been a breeze. I’m more interested to reveal the essence of the musician’s engagement during the concert and that’s why I started shooting only 45 minutes before the final chord. The quality of stage lighting was mediocre, to say it mildly (it was actually lousy), but shooting from backstage or any spot you like without security interference is absolutely priceless, and I will stop complaining right here!

On a side note, I was hoping to name every musician under each picture but the band’s website is obviously not in sync with their current cast. It doesn’t matter, it was a good concert and the band members were very cooperative during my humble attempt to create some art.

CASTLE HOTEL

Althörnitz castle hotel, Saxony, Germany

I have nothing new worth to show or talk about in the blog today but some of my faithful followers have asked to see a little more from our recent trip to Germany. As mentioned before I pursued photography not very seriously this time, nevertheless a few clicks were made.

This is Schlosshotel Althörnitz (Althörnitz castle hotel) where we stayed for my mom’s 80th birthday celebration. It is located in the southeast corner of Germany, the tri-state area between Poland, Czech Republic, and Germany. Some of the rooms are in a modern addition to the castle, that has been greatly integrated into the old structure. The big trees on the right allowed me to keep it out of the frame, although the integration of the new part into the complex is one of the best I have ever seen. The castle lies in the foothills of the mountains to the south (Zittauer Gebirge) and its setting in an old park makes it an architectural jewel. The oldest part of the castle was built between 1651 and 1654. It had many different owners over the years and it opened as a hotel in 1996.