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
I have quietly started a new little project, called ICY ART. I don’t know yet where I’m heading with this one, but for now I like to show some of the results here on my website. The idea to photograph frozen water as a natural appearance came already several years ago but I have not pursued it seriously until recently. I’m in the great outdoors almost every day, sometimes only for a few minutes and sometimes for a whole day. I like the idea that nature alone is the sculptor and light can reveal or conceal shapes, colors, and reflections, sometimes just depending from what angle we look at the subject. If you like to see what made it into the ICY ART collection so far, click on the photo above and it will take you right there.
After four really gray days in a row I had enough and I’m reverting to earlier this week when we were greeted in the morning with an accumulation of rime ice on every branch and twig in the trees. The photo below was made shortly after sunrise and the timber below the house showed a glow like the entrance to the palace of the Snow Queen.
About an hour later the sky had an incredible deep blue color that contrasted perfectly with the rime ice and when I saw an airplane approaching, I knew there was another photo opportunity…
Mississippi River, Finley’s Landing, Iowa
I wish all of you a happy and successful year 2021! I start the new year with this photo from the collection SHAPES IN ICE. I thought the gas bubbles frozen in the ice were picturesque or at least very interesting.
Nikon D750, Nikkor 70-200mm / f4, @ 200 mm,
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.
Middle Fork Little Maquoketa River, Bankston County Park, Iowa
Here in eastern Iowa we have a good number of small creeks and rivers. They all have one thing in common, their water ends up in the Mississippi River. Unless it has rained heavily and a lot of runoff from the fields comes down the valleys, their water can be crystal-clear. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) stocks some of the creeks with trout at times and people like to come for fishing.
The Middle Fork Little Maquoketa River is such a stream. Last weekend a little bit of light got reflected by the rocks at the bottom and made for some color contrast to the thin ice at the river bank.
Little Maquoketa River, Iowa
Time to calm down after last Friday’s excitement about birds and wildlife. We don’t have any snow on the ground but temperatures have ben below freezing at night and hoar frost and ice started creating natural shapes along the shores of our rivers and ponds. Let’s see if we can find some light there…
I’m not known as a “people photographer” but when these two young runners passed by I had to make the click. This was a month ago and I walked with our little dog at sunset on the Heritage Trail in the valley below. Due to the wildfires in Colorado, Montana, and California the sun had this hazy, almost dirty appearance and made for interesting back-light on the leaves and logging equipment in the background. While I was still debating with myself if this would be enough for a picture, the girls entered the scene. And suddenly I had a photo that made sense…
Hard to believe that was already a week ago. The Dubuque Camera Club had invited to a little photo walk at Eagle Point Park in Dubuque, Iowa. The park is high up on the bluffs above the Mississippi River and lock & dam #11. It is tempting to shoot only the great vista across the river, but with the low sitting afternoon sun I thought the fall details in the park deserved our attention as well. There is a small pond, built from big limestone rocks and that’s where I found the most inspiration.
It was an afternoon well spent, with good conversation and I can’t imagine that anybody who participated didn’t have fun shooting the colors and light of autumn.
Turkey River, near Motor Mill, Iowa
The five photos I show you today don’t need a lot of text. Gorgeous weather and fall colors probably at their peak last weekend in Northeast Iowa. We pitched the tent for a night at Motor Mill along the Turkey River. Finding the colors wasn’t the problem, finding a way to let the light tell the story is the challenge that is left to us…
As always, a click on each photo gives you an enlarged view.
Mississippi River, Mud Lake, Iowa
Visiting the Mississippi River during the hour before sunset can always lead to a good surprise. A couple days ago we took our dog Cooper down to Mud Lake, one of his (and our) favorite places. The rain cloud you see in the second image moved in quickly from the northwest. The rain drops started falling and we rushed back to the car. Suddenly a full fledged rainbow appeared right over the big river. Who cares about a few drops, but the dilemma was that I had the Nikkor 70-200, f/4 on camera, too long to capture the full rainbow while it lasted. The compromise was to shoot one end in tall orientation as you see it here.
I was hoping for more, ran back to the car and changed lenses quickly. The Nikkor 16-35, f/4 has everything what it needs for a full rainbow, but the cloud had moved on to the southeast and with it what was left of the rainbow. Still one of the occurrences that will be remembered on the positive side for this crazy year…
Sky after sunset just outside of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota
Hi, we are back from a trip to the Grasslands and Badlands that stretch from South Dakota into North Dakota and eastern Montana. Our tent was pitched most of the time in remote locations with no or very few people around, making social distancing easy. We watched lots of wildlife, small and big, and enjoyed some “Big Sky”. As time allows I will post some photos that hopefully tell stories about all this during the next few weeks and I’m glad if you find the time again to stop in here in my blog to read about nature and photography.
Found in a marshy area at the Little Maquoketa River Mounds State Preserve near Dubuque, Iowa
Also known as the Blue Dasher or Blue Pirat, this dragonfly stands out in the green grass or between the reeds of a marsh. Its wings are quite damaged and I wonder if that is from interacting with other dragonflies or from being the victim of a hungry bird? In this warm and often humid weather the Swift long-winged Skimmer has no problem to “hawk” its food, holding the legs in a basket shape and grasping mosquitoes and other small insects. The chance for the photo comes when they are perching on grass or small branches. Quite often the dragonflies return to the same perch. All what it takes is a little patience.
Going for the sun
Earlier this summer I saw this bunch of turtles warming up in the sun on a log in a pool near the Mississippi. The water had a brown color and the turtles looked a little muddy too. The reflections of dead trees and turtles created a pattern that I liked. I knew this could be worked out in a black and white version of the image and here is the result.
Tiger Swallowtail
It is this short moment during the summer when flowers and butterflies look at their best. Today we had two Giant Swallowtails and two Tiger Swallowtails feeding in our patch of prairie and garden flowers. A light overcast made for a balanced ambient light and just a very subtle hint of flash was used to pronounce the colors of phlox and Tiger Swallowtail.
