NATURE CLICKS #285 - EASTERN TIGER SWALLOWTAIL

Nikon D750, Sigma 150mm / f2.8 APO EX DG HSM, SB 800 speed light

It seems that every year is slightly different from the one before if we look at the numbers of particular butterflies. In 2010, 2011, and 2014 I took many photos of the Tiger Swallowtail, while 2013 I didn’t get a single shot. The same is true for other species, one year we have them in abundance and other years we can hardly find them. This year is another good year for the Tiger Swallowtail. We have seen them quite often, and not just here on our bluffs above the Little Maquoketa River Valley.

It is not easy to make a sharp photo in the heat of the day. The butterflies are very active and change location constantly. The chances for a good shot are higher in the evening, when temperatures come down and the swallowtails spend more time on a particular flower for feeding. This beautiful female Eastern Swallowtail was very cooperative this evening and spent quite some time on our Purple Coneflowers. 

The combination of the NIKON D750 with the SIGMA 150 mm, f/2.8 macro lens is my preferred gear for this kind of photography. It is my first time that I shot a swallowtail butterfly in full frame (FX) and I enjoy the challenge to get physically closer to the subject. No picture will make it into the “keepers” if a crop would be necessary to make it halfway decent. Yes, we can talk about improving our photography all day long, but if we don’t do the most obvious, I think all talk is pointless…

NOISY GANG

I realized the chirping noise coming from one of the nest boxes in our front yard is a lot louder than usual as soon the first light of the day appears early in the morning. It’s the place where the House Wrens currently feed their second brood. Well, both nest chambers, first and second floor, have a nest and it looks like that two females and one male House Wren feed the offspring in both nests. As my photo proofs, the size of the meals gets quite big already and pretty soon it will be quiet around here again. 

We had wrens nesting every summer since Joan and I lived here. Providing opportunities to built a nest became mandatory for us and we have never been disappointed yet. It is a wonderful way to enrich your life! The House Wrens eat insects, lots of them, but there is not much we can do to support these efforts. Hanging nest boxes around our house has helped to make some birds coming back here after the winter every year. Each species that may use a bird house may have different requirements regarding the size of the box or how big the diameter of the hole has to be. Have a look what is in your backyard or on your balcony, study about the birds you see, and draw your conclusions. It’s easy, you can do that too!!

SAILING AND SOARING IN THE EVENING BREEZE

Nikon D750, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM, at 85 mm

The Mississippi River is a great place for all kinds of recreation and during the summer many people use it for fishing, paddling, or just running their speed boats. Seeing a sail boat with all sails set is not an everyday occurrence and the puffy clouds on the Wisconsin side of the river made for a nice background.

Nikon D750, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM, at 420 mm

The guy handled his boat actually very well in the evening breeze. The photos were made just below lock and dam #11 in Dubuque, IA and the river is here only about 400 meters wide.

Nikon D750, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM, at 420 mm

The soaring pelican may explain why I had the long lens on the camera during the little walk with our dog Cooper along the river. Unfortunately this was the only one we had within shooting range. Including part of a cloud was key for this image.

FROM GREEN TO GRAY

Nikon D300s, Sigma 150mm / f2.8 APO EX DG HSM

The Gray Treefrogs are able to camouflage themselves from gray to green or vice versa, depending on the substrate they are sitting. This one was about to change quickly its color  after I found it under the tarp that covers our kayaks. Making the picture with the frog hanging on the orange or blue plastic boats, well, this is not what I really like. Putting the frog onto a tree stump gives it a much more natural setting. Being fast is key because these frogs are nocturnal and like to hide again. The photo doesn’t necessarily tell much about its size. I was pretty close with the Sigma 150 mm, f/2.8 macro lens and with a 1:1 magnification ratio you can easily fill the frame with this probably about 35-40 mm long critter.

NATURE CLICKS #284 - INDIGO BUNTING

Nikon D750, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM

I wrote a few days ago about that we haven’t seen the same numbers of certain birds, especially warblers, as last year. This is also true for the Indigo Bunting, a regular summer resident here in Iowa. They usually visit our bird feeders sometimes during the summer but this year I have seen the species only once so far in the front yard.

This photo was made last weekend in the Green Island Wetlands and before I was able to locate the bird I heard its singing efforts , which sounds really beautiful. 

Blue is my favorite color but Indigo Buntings are actually black. It is the diffraction of light through their feathers that make them look blue and this explains why males can appear in many different shades from turquoise to black (source: iBird Pro app).

YOUNG BULLHEADS (DEHAZED… ;-) !!)

Nikon D750, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM

One of my goals with this blog has always been to show you the variety and beauty of wildlife we can find here in the Mississippi Valley, but I don’t think I ever published any image of fish yet. Last weekend I saw this swarm of young bullhead catfish at one of the boat landings in the Green Island Wetlands. I have never seen this before and thought it was very interesting to watch and finally like to share it with you.

The original RAW file had a certain glare from the reflection of the sky on the water surface and I was wondering if I could overcome it in post production. I don’t have an 86 mm polarizer that would fit my long lens and that may have taken care for this problem.

A new feature in Adobe’s Lightroom CC came to my help and it worked like a charm. LR has now a Dehaze slider. I read about its usefulness for landscape photography, doing just what it says, dehazing a scene. I thought that glare on the water is almost like a haze and so I gave it a try. This is pretty much all what it took, plus a little warmer white balance and lowering the luminance of blue and purple slightly.

I hope this was not too much gibberish for you, but as you know, I write for photographers, nature lovers, and friends and people that just enjoy looking at some wildlife photos. Thank you for stopping here!

THE JINX IS BROKEN… (MAYBE… ;-)

Oh well, it took me more than two months to nail down a picture of any kind of warbler. I’m scratching my head since a while , wondering why we did not see any warblers this year? If you take the time and look at my blog posts from last year in May you may find a big variety of warblers that stopped here, at least for a snack in the trees..

I’m glad to report that I saw a male Common Yellowthroat in the Green Island Wetlands today. Joan calls them “Zorro”, and there is no question about where she got the idea from. Doesn’t the male look like “The Zorro”? The Common Yellowthroat is one of the most beautiful birds we can find here and as you can imagine this shot made my day....

NATURE CLICKS #283 - CLIFF SWALLOW

When I started shooting with the Nikon D750 back in April I wrote here in the blog that I have to get physically closer to my subject in order to use the full potential of the full frame sensor. The Cliff Swallows built their nests out of mud below a concrete bridge that crosses the Little Maquoketa River down in our valley, just a few miles upstream. Getting closer to them requires some climbing over a rocky slope, fighting the way through tall weeds, and dealing with hordes of mosquitos. This is a challenge but these extra steps are necessary to fill the frame with the nest and its master architects, the Cliff Swallows.

All images: Nikon D750, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM, tripod, gimbal head, SB 800 speed light

There are several dozen nests under this bridge and the colony of swallows is feeding their offspring at the moment. It takes some patience to make the click if you focus on one particular nest. Sometimes the parents don’t return for several minutes. Taking the challenge of moving in closer and adding a little patience led to some rewarding images and great shooting fun today...

NATURE CLICKS #282 - MAYFLY

Nikon D750, Sigma 150mm / f2.8 APO EX DG HSM

Yesterday I saw the first Mayflies at Mud Lake down at the Mississippi. You remember, they emerge from the water as adults in often enormous numbers but have a very short life span, often not even 24 hours. I don’t think this is the “big hatch” yet but last night I saw at least a few hundred of them. I made the mistake only having the 24-120 mm lens with me, not exactly a lens for a macro shot. There was good light and only moderate wind but the lens prevented me from getting close enough.

I went back today with the SIGMA 150 mm, f/2.8, my favorite lens for this kind of photography, but I found only a few Mayflies. The wind blew a little stronger and wasn’t really photographer’s friend this evening. I believe Plato said ‘Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder’ but for me the Mayfly is just a beautiful looking insect. Beside that I’m fascinated by its biology and strategy for survival.

This was the shot I liked the best at the end, although there is room for improvement…

NATURE CLICKS #281 - EASTERN BLUEBIRD

Nikon D750, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM, tripod, gimbal head, SB 800 speed light

The moment when I saw the male bluebird hesitating and waiting I knew I was too close to its nest. There was a nest box a few yards behind me but I really thought it was not in use. I immediately backtracked away from the nest and let both parents feed their offspring. This picture of the bluebird with a grasshopper in its beak was taken later from the other side of this dead tree with a big bush between me and the nest. Both bluebirds used the dead birch as a perch before the approached the nest site. I wasn’t actually at Finley’s Landing at the Mississippi for the bluebirds this evening but had some hope to make a shot of the Belted Kingfisher. I saw the kingfisher several times but distance was too big for a decent photo. Coming back home with a photo of an Eastern Bluebird on the memory card isn’t too bad either, isn’t it?

NATURE CLICKS #280 - YELLOW WARBLER

Finally I made my first photo of a warbler this year. During migration time in May we have not seen any of them in our valley here, although I paid utmost attention to any movement in the woods. Spring 2014 was so much better and I don’t know really why. However, this evening I went to the Mines of Spain, the wooded area south of Dubuque, Iowa, and tried my luck there. Sure enough I saw an American Redstart and found this beautiful Yellow Warbler under the canopy of the trees in an area with heavy brush thicket. Using the tripod is not very practical between the bushes and trees and so I handheld the D750 with the Sigma 50-500 and SB800 speed light attached. The warbler changed location every few seconds and it is a lot easier to follow the bird without the tripod. Working this way requires some faster shutter speed and I had the ISO pumped up to 1000 to make the click at 1/320s, f/8. The flash was used very subtle, just enough to make the colors of the warbler pop.

THE LITTLE CHANGE IN GESTURE

Nikon D750, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM, tripod, gimbal head, SB 800 speed light

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

Northern Leopard Frog

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

Green Island Wetlands, Iowa

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

Male Ruby-throated Hummingbird

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

Female Ruby-throated Hummingbird

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… ;-)