Deciduous forests without their leaves are not always the prettiest thing to photograph, except after a storm that makes the snow cling to trees and branches. Suddenly all kinds of lines and shapes are revealed and we are reminded how beautiful winter can be. All photos were made just in the neighborhood, here on our ridge above the Little Maquoketa River Valley. I hope you enjoy!
All images: Nikon D750, Nikkor 70-200mm / f4
Moonrise over the Mississippi, Mud Lake, Iowa
Today’s photo was several years in the making. I had this shot in mind for a long time but quite a few things had to be true for this image. First I wanted the Mississippi River with an ice cover and with a fresh layer of snow on top. Of course, I needed a full moon and time of sunset and moonrise only a few minutes apart from each other. It was important to me to have a little glow on the rocks of the Wisconsin side of the river and also still some light left that filled the valley and gave the snow some structure. And last but not least it required a clear sky to make it all happen. As a bonus this evening there was no wind and the temperature was balmy -10 ºC / 14 ºF. What I didn’t expect, but really like, is the fact that the moon lightened the snow patches on top of the bluffs and make them stand out.
I have scheduled and tried this shot several times before over the years but quite often clouds were in the way or something else didn’t work out. At one time a few years ago I showed up a little bit early at bitter cold temperatures. Some moisture must have built up in the camera and about when the moon showed finally up over the horizon line, the shutter mechanism was probably frozen and the camera failed to do the job. Back home and after bringing the camera slowly back to room temperature and let it dry out, everything worked just fine again. I learned my lesson and today I made sure the camera didn’t undergo any sharp temperature changes (like from heating in the car) before the actual shooting.
Here is an app for your phone I can highly recommend for an event like this. The Photographer’s Ephemeris (TPE) is a great planning tool and shows you exactly on a map where the moon or sun will rise or set and when the time is right to be ready for the shoot.
Nikon D750, Nikkor 70-200mm / f4, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, RRS BH-55 ball head, Vello cable release, @200 mm, 1/8 s, f/8, ISO100
Badlands National Park, South Dakota
In a blog post last year I called the mountain on the left hand side the ‘Winking Mountain’. I don’t know if it even has an official name but I thought that name would fit… This is another picture I made in Badlands National Park during our vacation trip in 2020. It was made from a different vantage point, that includes the mountain, but doesn’t make it the central subject of the photo.
When you are on a road trip you can’t always be choosy about the time at a particular location. This was late morning and the colors were already kinda soft. Darkening the sky brings the clouds to our attention and gives the scene a bit more drama. Finally working on the contrast with the highlights and black sliders in Adobe Lightroom allowed me to create the photo I had in mind while looking through the viewfinder.
Mississippi River, Lock & Dam #11, October 11, 2020
It was the beautiful colors of the leaves we had last October that were my most photographed subject last fall. One opportunity was a shooting together with other members of the Dubuque Camera Club at Eagle Point Park in Dubuque, Iowa. I’m pretty sure nobody came back with an empty memory card that day. I showed some photos from this event before but here is a picture that hasn’t been published yet. Below the park is lock & dam #11 of the Mississippi River. You can’t see the lock in the foreground but I like how the winding road leads the eye away from the dam and into the colorful hills on the Wisconsin side of the river.
Oaks, near Balltown, Iowa
I haven’t counted the days recently when we had a gray overcast, I just know it is always too many during the winter. But today was different. Some dense fog hugged the landscape and as a result we had hoarfrost clinging to trees and shrubs. All what we had to do was go out and capture the beauty with the camera…
Near Bankston County Park, Iowa
Bankston County Park, Iowa
The Castles, Slim Buttes, South Dakota
Now we have entered the new year and I’m still not done with my photography ‘Retrospects’ for 2020. So here is another one. 😉
The Castles, a grouping of steep-walled, flat-topped buttes rising 200-400 feet above the surrounding prairie, was a place we revisited during our trip through the Dakotas and Montana. The photos taken during the day were ok, but it was that one evening we camped there I was looking forward to. The colors of the sandstone remnants came to life during the hour before sunset and the moon above the rocks is a bonus that makes up for the missing of any clouds. It was another good photography moment in 2020…
I do not like to end the year without another ‘Mississippi River Stories’, as always, coming from the stretch of the river that borders Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Illinois. Although I have been at the river more than any other year, sadly my blog did not reflect that in 2020.
Mississippi River, Beach at Finleys Landing, Iowa, December 26, 2020
I took our dog Cooper yesterday to Finleys Landing, a small marina and county park that includes a beach, very popular during the summer. This time we had it for ourselves. No snow this Christmas, but the cold temperatures we got a few days ago froze parts of the Mississippi in high speed. You may look at these images and think this was the result of several weeks, but fast dropping temperatures and the immense force of the mighty Mississippi created this landscape of ice sculptures. You literally can hear how the big river changes its shape every minute…
The Nikkor 70-200, f/4 was the second most used lens this year, just hardly defeated by the SIGMA 150-500, my primary wildlife lens. I love the 70-200 and I’m pleased how it made its way into my landscape photography. It really helps to tell a story between a detail shot, like in the the first image, or a scene that gives a sense of location, as in the second photo.
Whitewater Canyon Wildlife Management Area, Eastern Iowa
Our little Christmas hike this year led us to the bottom of Whitewater Canyon here in Dubuque County. Almost all snow had melted away before the holiday but pretty cold temperatures were responsible for some built up of ice at Whitewater Creek. I like how the curves lead the eye into the background, the only spot that still had some sunlight, while the warm reflections on the ice and water bring you right back.
Nikon D750, Nikkor 70-200mm / f4, @130 mm, 1/125 s, f/10, ISO200
Petrified Forest National Park, January 2020
We are approaching the end of the year and this is always a time when I clean up my photo library and look back for memorable moments that made me push the shutter release button of the camera. In January I spent a weekend in the Painted Desert in northeast Arizona. Petrified Forest National Park lies at its heart and surprised with beautiful geological features and fantastic colors. I can’t wait to go back there.
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.
Trumpeter Swans flying in for the night, Green Island Wildlife Area, Iowa
It was about time to pay a visit to the Green Island Wildlife Area, a wetland at the confluence of the Maquoketa and Mississippi rivers. My last visit was back in September. I avoid Green Island during duck hunting season. Parts of the wetlands are closed for hunting but access is also limited for everybody else at that time. Beside that I don’t think it’s the best idea to run around and be an accidental target for those dudes who forgot their glasses at home…😉
Red-tailed Hawk, 1/125 s, f/9, ISO 400, @850 mm, Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, Sigma APO Teleconverter 1.4x EX DG
As expected late in the day several raptors showed their presence. I photographed a Red-tailed Hawk in the same dead tree before earlier this year, and it might be the same one, but this time the bird was already in the shade. I tried it with the 1.4 teleconverter, making it a 850 mm focal length. The result is less tree and more bird. I braced myself against the car window to get this shot.
Bald Eagle, 1/1250 s, f/9, ISO 400, @850 mm (DX mode: 1275 mm), Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, Sigma APO Teleconverter 1.4x EX DG
The compounding effect of flooding during the last ten years has left hardly any trees alive and this landscape has already changed dramatically. Who knows, this might be the last photo of a Bald Eagle on a dead branch of this particular tree. Well, the other trees around don’t look any different… Next year the tree is probably gone. To get this shot I pushed the “tools” and my abilities to their limits. Since the water was covered with ice for the most part the eagle wasn’t there for catching fish, but probably enjoyed the last rays of light yesterday evening as much as I did.
Trumpeter Swans, 1/400 s, f/6.3, ISO 400, @600 mm, Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S,
The sun gets out of sight a little earlier in the Mississippi Valley than what our phone apps may tell us. After patrolling the gravel roads in the wetlands for any kind of wildlife I returned to the dike for some “after sunset” shots but another lens change came first. Wave after wave of Trumpeter Swans flew in, crossed overhead, and probably landed on the ice of Blakes Lake on the east side of the wildlife area. This bird was almost extinct in Iowa at some point in recent history and seeing so many swans congregating during the winter warms my heart… (I didn’t count but I think it was way more than 100 birds)
Green Island Wildlife Area, Iowa
Finally between the calls of Sandhill Cranes and the hoots of a Great Horned Owl I was able to make the landscape picture that was on my mind. Apple’s Steve Jobs was famous for ending his keynote speeches and then turning around and saying “One more thing…” Well, I have one more too, but will show it in my next blog post. 😊
Little Maquoketa River Valley, Iowa
This photo was taken more than three weeks ago, down in our valley where the Little Maquoketa River meanders through the fields and meadows towards the Mississippi. I love the moody side of fall, with some leaves still present and fog hiding much of the clutter between the trees. The corn at the bottom of the picture was still waiting to be harvested, which by now is all done. On a gray day like this it is a much bigger challenge to tell a visual story about the season than with bold fall colors all over. It can happen I go home with still an empty memory card in the camera but sometimes the subtle things in the background make the image, we just have to look for them…
Little Missouri National Grassland, North Dakota, September 2020
When we drove by at this solitary towering sandstone rock on the way to the Elkhorn unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park in the morning, I saw some potential for a black & white image if some elements in the sky would be present. The unique shape of this rock drew our attention and how long it took for wind, rain, and snow to form it from sandstone that ones was a layer of sand on the bottom of a shallow sea, filled with abundant marine life.
While driving back from President Roosevelt’s former ranch in the afternoon a few clouds just moved through and we tried to take advantage of it. I remember that I had the camera slightly tilted to the right to give the grassy slope a little less presence in the photo. Other than climbing up the steep slope, it was an easy click to be made. In post process I applied a red filter B&W preset to make the sky darker and let the rock and single cloud stand out.
Little Missouri National Grasslands, North Dakota, September 2020
Some of the questions I wanted to find answers to during our vacation trip were, how can I make the dynamics in the sky at certain times part of my visual storytelling, or how can the fast movement of clouds be made visible in a still image? Therefor I have a lot experimented with neutral density filters. For example in the photo you see here, the Breakthrough 10-stop X4 ND filter extended a 1/40 s exposure up to 30 seconds at f/22. Much can happen in 30 seconds! The wind blew pretty strong that evening and it wasn’t just the clouds that were moving. As you can see, it also blurs part of the grass and the trees. First I thought that wouldn’t work well, but the rocks in the background become the anchor point for the eye. They are there since millions of years and as long as the tripod with the camera is not shaking, they will remain sharp. All the other elements, clouds, grass, sage brush, and trees show movement and let you hopefully feel the wind…
Little Missouri National Grassland, North Dakota, September 2020
Due to the Covid-related closure of all campsites in the National Park we camped in small national forest camps just outside of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Very few people, same landscape, same great sky… Priceless!
