I made five clicks for this Tree Swallow last weekend in the wetlands,. None of them is really bad but I chose this one for the blog today. It is this little gesture of rounding the chest, tilting the head, and somehow looking into the lens that was pointed at it that made the difference for me. The photo was cropped in post from over 6k pixels on the long side down to a little more than 4k. This is about the same perspective I would have gotten with my old DX-camera, the Nikon D300s or by shooting in DX mode on the D750. I really try to shoot in FX mode whenever possible, means full frame, but in this matter I just haven’t been able to get closer to my subject. So what’s the deal? I can’t print it on paper at least 20 inch long without loss of detail. It’s OK for the blog here, but it will not stand in the world of high quality images. Does it matter? It does for me, because I like the photo because of the gesture the Tree Swallow shows off. So what’s the remedy? I need to go out and try it again…
DISTURBING FACTS
Everybody likes to see pictures of new born or young animals and nobody wants to hear really about the death of a critter. This is quite normal. If you are in the great outdoors all the time you will develop a pretty good understanding about the cycles of life. And sometimes you come across a story that makes you more than wonder, shake your head, and leaves a feeling of sadness.
Yesterday in the Green Island Wetlands I saw a large Northern Water Snake lay on the gravel road that goes across the area. I stopped the car and walked up to it with the camera in my hands. These snakes are harmless, non-venomous, and usually flee rapidly when approached. The road has water on both sides and so the presence of a water snake isn’t a surprise. The size and dark color told me that this was a beautiful full grown adult. This one was not moving much, just looked like it would take a sun bath. I made a few clicks from different angles while slowly approaching the snake. Suddenly the snake turned on its side, curled up, opened its mouth, and acted like it was under extreme pain. Four minutes later the snake was dead. Some snakes feign death if attacked but the Northern Water Snake isn’t one of them. I moved the body off the road and checked it two hours later. It was definitely dead.
I understand that some people do not like snakes, for whatever reason, but I really hate the thought that someone drove over it on purpose. I couldn’t see any external injuries but assume that the critter died from internal damage, caused by a car that drove over it...
LEOPARD FROG AND SUMMER MOOD
Hi friends, I’m back from Sacramento, CA where I spent the week on a business trip. There was no time for photography (explains the week without a single blog post) and finally I arrived a day late because of weather issues in Denver. Good to be back home and having the weekend for what I love to do the most, being in the great outdoors and using the camera.
There is a lot going on here in our woods and yesterday I did some bird photography. But let me start with a couple of my favorite pictures from today. Both images were made in the Green Island Wetlands. Because of last week’s rain the water level in the Mississippi and the wetlands is higher than normal. Except for the Canada Geese, who already escort their offspring, you can’t see much of the waterfowl. The grass and reed is tall and hides the ducks, coots, and mergansers pretty good.
I like to make the shot with some gesture of the critter but the Leopard Frog isn’t known for cute gestures ;-) It just sits and waits probably for an insect to come by. Well, how do we make an image of the frog work anyway? We have to lay down and meet the critter at eye level. I tried this with two other frogs before but they didn’t like my presence and jumped into the taller grass. For this one I went down and crawled slowly towards the frog until I had it at a focal length of about 300 mm. It makes for a more interesting picture and it blurs the otherwise very busy background nicely
I like the summery mood of the second shot. Everything is lush and the duck weed and algae amplify the green and yellow colors of this very humid day. The reflections on the water are my subject, even if this is not so obvious since this is not a very strong one, but the sharpness will lead the eye. On a side note, I did not realize the Great Blue Heron in the background on the right while I made the photo but I think it adds to the peaceful scene. More to come…
SAME BIRD, DIFFERENT LIGHTING
About a week ago I already showed some images of the Ruby-throated Hummingbird here in the blog. It is the only hummingbird species that we have here in eastern Iowa. Those photos were made in the rain or at least with an overcast sky. I used the Nikon SB800 speed light for boosting the colors and for making these images of hummingbirds shine, despite a gray sky
Yesterday morning we had a blue sky with only a few clouds, the air was clear, and there was a quality of natural light that I just liked to use for my bird photography. As a story teller about nature it is most of the time important to me to give my images a sense of place. Shooting in the rain with low light requires a longer exposure if the background needs to be an important part of the image. The flash is used only for the colors and the muted sun is still the main source of light for the photo. Yesterday the sun was out and the colors didn’t need any amplification, hence I didn't use fill flash. It also allows to shoot with much faster speed, mostly between 1/640s and 1/ 800s. In comparison, During the overcast last week my exposure was mostly below 1/250s, and sometimes going down to 1/100s. I used “sniper mode”, means one picture which each release of the shutter button. But even then, shooting with faster exposure time has the advantage of a higher keeper rate. As you can imagine, having a bird as your subject, that is capable of producing up to 50 wing beats per second, may not always lead to a tack sharp photo… ;-)
ANY NEWS ABOUT THE HOUSE WRENS?
Yes, this is a valid question, especially if asked by someone who follows my blog for a long time already. The House Wrens returned during the first week in May this year again and we always wonder if these are the same birds that were born in one of our nest boxes.
The usual rituals happen as every spring. The males built first loose nests in every hole they can find and try to impress the females. Later, after the females arrive the air is full of love, the male wrens sing like crazy, and finally the female chooses a nest and will finalize its construction.
We have two identical nest boxes, each with two nest chambers. Usually there is one female in one nest box and it is either in the upper hole or in the lower one. This year things are a little different. The box closest to our house has two females and it seems there is only one male present.
A few weeks ago I have heard at least three males singing but since we can’t always follow what’s going on we don’t know the full story at the moment. Yesterday the female on the lower floor started feeding little baby House Wrens and the male brings food as well. The second female carries still twigs and grass to the upper chamber, which means it does not sit on eggs. The other nest box at the edge of our woods seems to be empty (we are not sure yet) and maybe the second female has lost its brood. There is a raccoon roaming around every night here and other predators are a possibility as well. Well, to answer the question above, yes, there are a lot of news about the wrens but it is fun to watch them as every year…
NATURE CLICKS #279 - SILVER-SPOTTED SKIPPER
I have been traveling again the last couple days but after I came back home today I still saw a small butterfly in the yard that I had seen already earlier this week. If you think identifying birds is difficult, you haven’t tried it with some of the butterfly species. My book says (Kaufman: Field Guide to Butterflies of North America) the Silver-spotted Skipper is the most easily recognized skipper across North America. Well, it took me a while to find that out… ;-)
This one was feeding on a cluster of blooming chives and was constantly in motion, but it didn’t care too much for my close presence. As you can imagine it took more than a few trials to find a composition where no crop in post process is needed and the background is smooth but still part of the story telling
DEEP IN THE BACKWATERS
Gorgeous weather yesterday and I used it for another long paddle tour. I explored parts of the Green Island Wetlands that I have never seen before. It is always amazing to see how many species this ecosystem can support. There is wildlife in abundance and even if someone doesn’t care for photography at all, you can’t escape the magic of this landscape.
It needs some navigation skills because it is easy to take the wrong turn or miss a passage between all the water arms and little islands. The advantage of using a kayak becomes obvious when you paddle through very shallow parts deep into the backwaters where no other watercraft can go without getting stuck.
Cooper, our little dog who shared the boat with me, and myself enjoyed the solitude. We didn’t meet another human or boat the whole afternoon. Yes, it takes some efforts to get out there and keep the equipment dry and clean, but at the latest, when we paddled slowly below a dead tree where a big Bald Eagle sat on a branch, I knew this was where I wanted to be…
HUMMINGBIRD DAY
Well, this is what I would like to call this Saturday. Three things came together today. First, I had time on hand to pursue a particular photography project, like shooting nothing but hummingbirds. Second, it was a rainy day. This was good for two reasons. It makes for great colors without extremely high contrast, and even more important, with the rain came lower temperatures. The hummingbirds have a very high metabolism and if it is colder they have to feed a lot more frequent. Hence their visits at flowers and hummingbird feeders happen a lot more often than during a hot day. And the third thing was my motivation to really go for the story that can be told at this time of the year about the hummingbird and to add maybe a few images to my bird portfolio.
I did the whole shoot in three sessions, spread out during the day. Uploading the first one to my computer made me reconsider, learn, and try it again with a different mind set. Gosh, I love days like this… :-)
NATURE CLICKS #278 - GRAY CATBIRD
This is not my first blog post about the Gray Catbird but I still have not made many photos of this species. It prefers low and dense vegetation and if there wouldn’t be its distinctive meeow-call we probably would hardly recognize its presence. Staying always on paved roads or trails is limiting the range of wildlife that we can get in front of the lens. Knowing a little bit about the biology and the preferred habitat of a bird or critter is already halfway of making the click. Sure, we get lucky sometimes in the middle of the road, but going into the woods or into thick brushes and underwoods may lead you to the picture you were waiting for since a long time.
NATURE CLICKS #277 - SONG SPARROW
We can talk about the Baltimore Oriole all day long, everybody would agree that this bird is one of the prettiest and most wonderful sounding song birds in America. The Song Sparrow may not win the beauty contest in comparison to the oriole but its singing capabilities are not far from those of the oriole.
The Song Sparrow migrates but I have seen them here in Iowa even during the winter down at the Mississippi River.
NATURE CLICKS #276 - PURPLE MARTIN
Finding the Purple Martin is not a big problem along the Mississippi River. Most nest in colonies and use man-made birdhouses. Almost every boat landing, community, or park has them. We made another paddle tour in the Mud Lake area at the Mississippi yesterday and after the kayaks were loaded on the roof of the car I was able to photograph this species of the swallow family.
Although the availability for natural nest cavities has declined over the years, the increased availability of human-provided nest sites has a positive effect on population. The Purple Martin competes with European Starlings and, as in the case of Mud Lake Park, with the House Sparrows for nest cavities. They share the big birdhouse at the boat landing with the sparrows, but as you can see in the second image it is not always a friendly relationship between these two species
None of the photos would have worked very well without using fill flash. I just threw enough light at the birds to bring out the shadows and make the colors pop. It is a fine line and can be easily overdone.
THE MISSED SHOT
It all happened very quickly. During our paddle tour last Saturday in the Green Island Wetlands I saw suddenly three shore birds landing on a sand bank not far from the kayak. I raised the camera, focussed, fired the shot, and right after the birds flew away. No time for a second chance. The scene had everything that could have made a good photo but I blew it. These Semipalmated Sandpipers posed nicely in their natural habitat. The low perspective is what I’m looking for when I shoot out of the kayak, and the birds are mirrored in the water. So what’s wrong? Well, the focus is on the wrong bird, the one on the left. There is no way that all three could have been in focus because the two on the right are too far behind the left sandpiper. I know I focussed on the one in the center but somehow I didn’t nail it. The problem with the picture is that the eye wants to go first to the bright spots (in this case the two other sandpipers) and second to the sharpest.
I get over a missed shot usually very quickly but this one bothered me a bit. It was the first time that I saw Semipalmated Sandpipers in the Green Island Wetlands. As you already know I shoot a lot from my car in this environment, use it as a blind, and with good success, but nothing beats the low perspective of shooting from a boat. I guess I have to try again… :-(
A DAY ON THE WATER
Joan and I finally opened the kayak season yesterday (better late than never ;-) ) and spent several hours paddling in the backwaters of the Mississippi in the Green Island Wetlands. It is the time of the year when many birds incubate their eggs or have already young ones, like some of the Canada Geese. We had some wonderful wildlife encounters, like a mink swimming to shore, a Northern Watersnake, and lots of waterfowl, herons, and egrets. Not every sighting leads to a photo but it was just great to be out in the wild and enjoy the nice and warm weather
After the paddle trip we went on “bird patrol” by car to all the places in the wetlands that I visit frequently. We saw this Lesser Yellowleg foraging in the shallow water and it surprised us still seeing one of them since their breeding ground is in Northern Canada. I’m aware that my identification of a bird species can be wrong, this is especially true for shore birds, but in this matter I don’t have a better suggestion. Usually I have more images that I show here in the blog and even if they may not be always good enough to be published, but they help me quite often to identify a bird. However, if you read this and have doubts about any of my identifications, I will be very happy to hear from you
This photo of a Wilson’s Snipe was taken earlier this season, although we saw one yesterday evening. We are at the southern edge of their breeding range and so it is not a surprise to see them still around. More to come…
BALTIMORE ORIOLE AND JUST A LITTLE COLOR BOOST
I’m at a conference in Minneapolis and my photo editing capabilities are limited, but this picture of a male Baltimore Oriole didn’t need much work. Beside a little contrast improvement and the usual sharpening process not much has been done to the RAW file. The photo has been made yesterday in our ”yard studio”. All what it took was a cup of coffee for the photographer and some patience until the oriole settled down on a branch. I had the Nikon SB800 speed light with flash extender mounted on camera. It wasn’t the main light source but just enough to boost the colors of the bird slightly. Despite the overcast I had exposure compensation down to -1EV and flash compensation at -5EV (-3EV at the flash light and -2EV in camera). The tricky thing is not to get one picture right, but not to forget to make changes for exposure or flash compensation if the lens is pointed to a different direction with a totally different brightness and background. And with the birds showing up everywhere they want, the mistakes are made easily… ;-)
NATURE CLICKS #275 - ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK
It was a great day for bird photography today. We had a nice overcast all morning long, with even a few rain drops, but this made for a wonderful and soft natural light. No harsh contrast and highlights to deal with and in addition a very pleasant temperature.
I showed you some images of the Scarlet Tanager lately and I’m glad I did, because I haven’t seen neither the male or female during the last couple days
My focus today was on another bird that arrives here every year around the first of May, the Rose-breasted Grosbeak. The grosbeaks like to visit the feeders with sunflower seeds but it is not so easy to make a picture of the bird away from the feeder.
The Rose-breasted Grosbeak winters from central into northern South America. While I’m writing this blog post I just read that the female grosbeak is known to sing, unlike most songbird species (source: iBirdPro app). I have not been aware about this fact but will pay attention to it next time I watch them...