VISIT DURING ”MOON WHEN THE GRASS IS UP”

View from Sage Creek Rim Road at sunset, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

The month with daylight longer than in any other one comes slowly but surely to an end. The Sioux called this period of time ”Strawberry Moon”, ”Moon of Making Fat”, or ”Moon When The Grass is Up” (source: Saga of the Sioux, by Dwight John Zimmerman). The visit in Badlands National Park, one of my favorite places to be, was certainly a highlight in June for me. In my younger years I read a lot of books about the Native Americans that called this place home. Their stories about dealing with all aspects of nature, surviving in all kinds of weather, and hunting for bison and other wildlife to make a living have always fascinated me. The tragedy how they were conquered by white people still touches me and this is one of the reasons why I feel very emotional when I’m out west in these places. This time I finally was able to visit the site of the infamous Wounded Knee Massacre, just south of Badlands National Park.

Although more than 130 years ago there was certainly no road here on top of the Sage Creek Rim, but I’m sure the view to the southeast wasn’t much different for a hunter or warrior who came up here.

WARM LIGHT, FRIGID WATER

Baltic Sea, Zinnowitz, Germany

It was a great day back in May this year at the Baltic Sea on the island of Usedom. Our family celebrated my moms 85th birthday and after dinner some of us went out for a walk on the beach and to enjoy the sunset. Of course I took the camera with me and had just started to capture the reflections on the sand when these kids stormed the beach and entered joyful the frigid water of the sea. I believe they belonged to a youth soccer team and were in a training camp nearby. I couldn’t ask for better actors in a scene like that. I underexposed up to two f-stops, having the kids sharp and just as a silhouette, still maintaining some color in the sun, and also capturing the glow on the water.

I can tell you, these girls and boys were brave. Most people made their walk on the beach in a warm coat or jacket…

Nikon Z6II, Nikkor Z 24-70, f/4 S,   @ 62mm, 1/1250 s, f/20, ISO 1250, image slightly cropped

STILL LOVE THE RED FILTER

Approaching thunderstorm, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

If you camp out west in a small tent it is mandatory to have always an eye on the weather. This approaching thunderstorm turned out relatively harmless. It came with a little bit of lightning, not even close, and some rain for the night. Letting this opportunity to make a photo pass by was not an option. The question was, how to capture the drama in the sky?

Back in the days of black & white film a red filter in front of the lens was the way to go. We made the click and then waited for the results until the film was developed. Today with a mirrorless camera things are a lot easier. While shooting always in RAW format, all what it takes is to set the camera to B&W and include the settings for a red filter (or any other setting you may have in mind). In the viewfinder or on screen in the back of the camera we can then evaluate the results immediately and decide if it matches our vision for the final image. If not, we can always revert to the color data embedded in the RAW file and let our creativity go in a different direction.

The results for this photo match pretty much the settings I had used already in the camera. I like the drama a red filter can produce. Very little is tweaked in post process on the computer at home. The landscape doesn’t take the stage, just gets a hint of light, while the clouds are clearly the subject that tells the story of this evening ten days ago in the Badlands.

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.

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2023 #5 - ABOVE FLOOD STAGE

The good news first, the water level in the river fell slightly today.

While I was out of town last week the water level in the Mississippi River kept rising and was at its peak yesterday. The gauge is located at the Lock & Dam #11 in Dubuque, Iowa and some of the numbers from there are quite impressive. The flow from yesterday was 263730 cubic foot per second, which is equal to 7.4 million liters of water that pass through per second! The gauge was at ~23 ft (7 m), which is about 13 ft (~4 m) above historic normal stage. The river reached its flood stage of 16 ft in Dubuque on April 20.

Riverwalk, Dubuque, IA, Not much space underneath the old Railroad Bridge was left.

They had a lot of snow up north in Minnesota this winter and floods are a normal occurrence during spring time. All flood gates in Dubuque were closed but several areas north and south of town (i.e. Mud Lake Park or Finley’s Landing) are under water.

How can the story about all this be told with our photos? I decided to include at least some green in the picture. It’s easy to document the flooding and the high water level, but I thought it was also important that the colors in the trees say ”spring”, even if they are on the other side of the river.

Mud Lake Park, 4/24/2023, Campground, parking lot, boat ramp, and playground were already flooded a week ago.

RETURN OF THE COLORS

Many of the wildlife photos we create in the wetlands along the Mississippi River can help to tell the story about the arrival of spring in the valley. A lot of birds are in their breeding plumage and some species are seen only during spring migration, when they use the Mississippi Valley on their route up to the arctic tundra. Snow Geese are a good example. But how about the vegetation? Well, the dried-up reeds and grasses from last year still dominate the landscape and frankly spoken neither look very photogenic, nor do they help to say, look spring is here. But we can turn around and look at the slopes below the rocky bluffs that mark the edge oft the valley. The fresh green in the trees wasn’t there a week ago and the bottom below the trees is covered with thousands of wildflowers. People that live in warmer areas year around and do not have such long and often gray winters may not fully understand why we long so much for those signs of spring. Yes, I love winter too, but it’s a great time when the colors return to the valley!

AFTER THE ADVENTURE

A day comes to an end at Green Island Wildlife Area, Iowa

Shortly after my little adventure with the Striped Skunk in the Green Island Wildlife Area last weekend the sky turned into some color. I went for a compressed view, left the Sigma 150-600 on camera, pulled the zoom back to 230 mm, and set the white balance to 6750 Kelvin. The nesting tunnel was placed almost dead-center as an anchor point and reminder that this is a managed wildlife area. I forgot to look if there was a Canada Goose in this particular nest but I remember that many of the nesting structures in the wetlands were taken, fiercely defended by males and females. Good way to end a day in the Great Outdoors!

RETRIEVING MEMORABLE MOMENTS

Fall colors at a bridge across the Rio Grande del Norte, New Mexico

A lovely email we received today from friends in Montana, whom we met during our trip through New Mexico in 2021, made me dig out this shot. This bridge across the Rio Grande del Norte in ”killer light”sums up the essence of this road trip. While during the height of a day, when most traveling takes place, colors and light may not always be flattering in the rocky canyons of New Mexico, but the hours around sunset can reward you for a day with nothing but a bald blue sky. Well, right now we don’t care if it is a day with just blue sky, we are longing here for some spring colors and warmer temperatures…😉

THE EARLY MORNING BIRDS

Early morning at the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve, Huntington Beach, California

During all my visits to the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve at the Pacific Coast in Southern California over the years it always paid off to arrive early in the morning before sunrise. First, you find a place to park the car in the very small parking lot, but more important, nothing beats the warm morning light for making pictures of birds in the wetlands if the sun shows up. This wetland is a nature gem and is surrounded by the Pacific Highway on the ocean beach side and oil wells, local roads, and expensive residential homes on all the others. A weird and somehow noisy place that faces many environmental challenges but with an abundance of wildlife.

Northern Pintail

This photo of a male Northern Pintail was made exactly at the time of sunrise but a band of clouds prevented that the story could be told that way. No warm light on this beautiful duck. Still one of the best looking ducks with a tail that gave this bird its name.

Horned Grebes in their winter plumage

Twenty minutes after sunrise time the clouds gave way and these Horned Grebes in their winter plumage were busy diving for food under water. They are much more impressive in their breeding plumage during the summer, but hey, look at this eye standing out in the killer light of an early morning! I had to make the click.

Bufflehead

I have photographed the male Bufflehead many times before here in the Upper Mississippi Valley during migration time in March / April, but never in such warm light and often not as  close to the bird as I wanted and as it is possible in the Bolsa Chica Wetlands.

LOOKS FROM A FAIRY TALE

Everybody could have made this kind of a photo here in our region today. Most of the tree branches had a thick ice cover after the ice storm during the last couple days. To include the sunburst the aperture of the lens is closed down to f/18 - f/22 and you can zoom with your feet until you have the desired position for the sun in the viewfinder. I drove a bit around today, hoping to catch some of the beauty nature provided for us, but at the end the photos I liked the best came from right here on the bluffs above the Little Maquoketa Valley. Our oaks were still covered with ice this afternoon but these ”looks from a fairy tale” disappeared rapidly under a powerful sun and with the help of some wind.

Nikon Z6II, Nikkor Z 24-70, f/4 S,   @ 60mm, 1/500 s, f/22, ISO 100

SHOOT IT NOW

Clouds and sunset over the ridge, Saint Donatus, Iowa

If there is one thing I would list above everything else I learned from studying the work of some well known or famous photographers over the years, it’s the advice, shoot it now.

Driving home the fifty-minutes-drive from the Green Island Wetlands to our home north of Dubuque, Iowa around or shortly after sunset can lead to interesting views, including clouds and of course the sun itself. The photo was made last Saturday and I pulled the car off the highway to make the click. I loved the patterns of snow below the wooded ridge, all framed by the clouds and the remaining light of the sun. It’s a private residence and the house on the slope is even in the picture, but underexposing the photo just for the highlights keeps the picture out of unwanted distractions.

A day later I drove home from the wetlands about the same time. There was again light from the setting sun, fewer clouds, but the sky was still worth a consideration for a photo. So what was the difference? Well the white stuff was almost gone and none of the snow bands on the road or in the fields were intact. It was in my books not worth to stop, the picture was gone. I’m quoting acclaimed photographer Jay Maisel: Never go back. Shoot it now. When you go back, it will always be different.

ICE AND REFLECTIONS

Green Island Preserve, Mississippi Valley, Iowa

Today I was out for the fourth time this year in the Green Island Wetlands. Although it has been still cold during the nights, the warmer temperatures during the days have set the ice on the Mississippi in motion. There was a lot more open water than just a week ago and with it come the birds that move north to their breeding grounds. I saw several hundred Greater White-fronted Geese, Canada Geese, Trumpeter Swans, and lots of ducks coming through the Mississippi Valley after 4PM today.

The sun was hiding behind a thin layer of clouds and made for some interesting light. The puddles of water on the marshy fields started freezing again and reflected the light nicely. I had some shots of the birds already on the memory card and during a quiet moment changed the lens quickly and captured the landscape with ice and reflections. To keep the highlights intact the picture was underexposed by -2/3EV

Nikon Z6II, Nikon FTZ adapter, Nikon Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm, f/4,  @ 82mm, 1/320s, f/11, ISO 100

FEBRUARY SUN, LONG SHADOWS

Mississippi River, Green Island Preserve. Eastern Iowa

February sun with already long shadows from the trees at mid afternoon, over a well known and still iced over part of the Green Island Wetlands. The photo was taken from a small boat ramp we have used many times before to launch our kayaks. This is about forty miles south from our home and that short of a distance can make quite a difference how the weather impacts the landscape. Here they didn’t get by far as much snow as we did this week and a couple degrees difference in temperature can make the snow disappear much faster.

Before the Green Island preserve was separated from the Mississippi River by dikes, this was obviously all backwaters of the big river. I have photographed from this spot before and it is one of my favorite locations in the wetlands. Always liked how the lines of this channel move the eye to the horizon and how the trees follow this line.

While approaching the place I saw the cloud in the background moving fast towards the east. I was hoping it would have been a little more to the left, in the gap between the trees, but unfortunately I was too late. I’m still happy with the photo, telling the story about gorgeous winter days here in the Driftless Region of the Upper Mississippi Valley.

WINTER WONDERLAND RESTORED

The view into the valley wasn’t pretty during the last days, with the old snow from earlier this year almost gone. But a new thick layer of the white stuff poured on us again all morning. It was very wet snow and it did cling to the trees. “Winter Wonderland” restored, even if it was only for a few hours…

The deciduous forest here, without its leaves, bares a lot of distractions that often do not work for a photo very well. The chaos of branches is reduced by their snow cover, they stand out and it almost becomes a texture. Using black and white for the final image emphasizes the beauty that we saw today while looking at the trees above the valley below.