VIEWS ALONG THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI

Nikon D300s, Nikkor 24-120mm / f4

I have been asked by friends in the past to show more of the landscape that surrounds the Mississippi Valley. Well, here are a couple images that were made last Sunday during a trip along the big river.

The first one was taken from a popular overlook north of Guttenberg, Iowa. I have seen this peninsula in the river completely flooded several times before and I’m sure the most owners of these recreation homes do not keep any valuables on the first floor. With the rapidly rising temperatures the snow cover on the ice started to melt and I believe we are not too far away from seeing the ice on the river disappear. The Mississippi is here about 2 kilometers wide, just to give you an idea about the scale

Nikon D300s, Nikkor 24-120mm / f4

The second photo is made at Balltown, a small town up on a hill just a few miles northwest of our home. You can look deep into Wisconsin on the other side of the river. The limestone bluffs on the Wisconsin side are about 5 kilometers away from Balltown. I like to drive through the country side here in eastern Iowa, especially at this time of the year. It never looks the same to me and even if the fresh green is not out yet, it is just nice to see the snow go away

FUN WITH A MUSKRAT

Here is another little story of last weekend’s wildlife trip to the not so green Green Island Wetlands. This young Common Muskrat had just left its burrow for the first time after we had the last snow fall. I could tell by the only and fresh tracks in the snow that covered the ice of the pond and the levee I was on. 

It was real funny to watch. As you can see in the animation (made out of four pictures) it jumped almost like a fox that hunts for mice. Sometimes the musk rat disappeared completely under the snow and came back chewing on some plant material.

Earlier this winter I saw many traps, or at least the red flags that mark the location of a trap, along the shore of the lakes and canals. This one obviously survived the merciless greed for its durable and waterproof fur

VALID QUESTION AND MOOD OF AN OUTGOING WINTER

Nikon D300s, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM

A valid question to ask is what one finds out there in the Green Island Wetlands when everything is frozen and covered with snow? It’s a simple answer, it just needs a little more patience to find the critters during the winter. I don’t always come back with a good image, not even in the summer, but I never came back without seeing any wildlife.

Yesterday this beautiful Red-tailed Hawk soared above and finally landed in a tree just in front of me. I talked about the snow as a big reflector lately a few times and in this photo you can really see what I mean. The sun creates a nice catch light in its eye, but the snow below bounces the light off and makes the use of a speed light needless.

Nikon D300s, Nikkor 24-120mm / f4

On my way back home I paid a visit to the Mines of Spain, the wooded and prairie land just south of Dubuque. There wasn’t as much snow as here at home anymore but still enough to provide a nice color contrast to the almost golden looking prairie grass that swayed in the wind just half an hour before sunset. Love the mood of an outgoing winter… :-)

NATURE CLICKS #259 - BROWN CREEPER

I feel bad for every nature, wildlife, and landscape photographer here along the Upper Mississippi River who didn’t have a chance to be out shooting today. It doesn’t get any better during winter time as it was today. About 8˚C (46ºF) felt really great after such a long period with temperatures below freezing! :-) Although it melts rapidly there was still plenty of snow on the ground today, the best and biggest light reflector on earth for any camera owner. I was out in the Green Island Wetlands along the Mississippi River today but like to show you a photo first that I made earlier this morning in our woods.

The photo is not perfect, still too far away, but better than any picture I made before of the Brown Creeper. I have seen the little guy earlier this week and since this bird is on my mental list of “needs improvement”, I spent some time this morning to work on this task. 

Following the Brown Creeper isn’t so difficult, if you know a tree where it may return frequently. Point the lens to the bottom of the tree, because they always start their search for food (insects, seeds, nuts, suet) at the bottom, and then they creep and climb up along the trunk like a woodpecker. They use their stiff tail for support while climbing (source: iBirdPro app).

I have more little stories to tell, but this has to wait until tomorrow. So please stay tuned!

Best task

The avid reader of my blog may remember my photos and little stories about “Struppi’, a deer fawn that made herself home in the woods around our house for a while. Well, we have not seen her since we had the last snow storm, about ten days ago. This photo was made at high noon on February 23, 2015 from my office window.

I think there is nothing wrong by having an emotional attachment to a particular critter, especially if it has been the “star” of a photo shoot or, like in this case, the subject of a photo story for several days. We have White-tailed-Deer in our yard every day, and of course, we look out for “Struppi” any time we see a deer. The little guy, that probably lost its mother earlier by a car accident, has not been here since I made this photo. Everything is just speculation, but we have coyotes around here (we can hear them howl more then we ever see them), the presence of a Red Fox, or the uncontrolled roaming of some neighbor’s dogs, it all could be a reason for not seeing “Struppi” anymore.

The photo may not mean anything for anybody else, but for us it is a fond memory, frozen in a few pictures during the winter of 2014/15. Photography at its best task…

VISUAL STORIES - COAST OF MAINE

I’m excited to announce that my latest photography project has been finished. It is called VISUAL STORIES- COAST OF MAINE and you can find it by clicking on the COLLECTIONS - tab above (or just HERE). The photos in this slide-show-like gallery are an excerpt from a book about the coast of Maine that I created already last year. I can tell you, it is the most difficult task during the whole process to downsize the number of pictures even more from an already existing project, like a book. The book is much bigger but I wanted to show you the essence of what we have seen, without making it too big. The coast of Maine is a wonderful place and has so many different things to offer. I want the photos tell the story about this great part of New England in the Northeast of the US, hence the title VISUAL STORIES. I hope you enjoy.

NATURE CLICKS #258 - NORTHERN CARDINAL

Nikon D300s, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM, tripod, gimbal head

I have another image from last weekend for you. The light was just too lovely to let it go without making a few clicks here in the woods. The big dead branch the Northern Cardinal had chosen as a perch doesn’t look very elegant but its diagonal position makes it acceptable for me. 

NATURE CLICKS #257 - BLUE JAY

I still like taking advantage of this great reflector on the ground, called snow (my friends over in Germany didn’t even know how to spell it this winter… ;-)  ). While working on other projects this weekend, it was easy to get back to the tripod ones in a while and work with the birds that enjoyed the sun as much as we did. I never got such great light on a Blue Jay outside of winter yet. It didn’t need any color boosting help by a flash light to make this photo. The Blue Jay is probably one of the most difficult to shoot birds that we have here. Any little bit of noise or sudden movement makes them fly away. I haven’t been as close as I would like, hence the image is slightly cropped. Room for improvement, as I call it…

PHOTO FUN WITH SNOW

It isn’t difficult to guess what kind of weather we have right now by looking at this photo of a Dark-eyed Junco. It snowed heavily since late morning today. The snow draws a lot of birds to the feeders in the yard and daylight lasts already a lot longer. Good time for a photo session in the “backyard studio” this evening! 

I played with longer exposure times to get some trails of the snow flakes and to catch as much daylight as possible for the background. Even if we are a little tired of winter already, but I still enjoy a moment like this and the opportunities it brings for some great photography fun. 

NATURE CLICKS #256 - HAIRY WOODPECKER

Nikon D300s, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM, tripod, gimbal head, speed light Nikon SB800, at 500mm, 1/250 s, f/6.3, ISO200

About three weeks ago I wrote that some of the critters we have here in our woods need a better representation in my galleries, means I like to make better images. The Hairy Woodpecker is one of the species that is here all year long but they are a lot more skittish than their smaller cousins, the Downy Woodpecker. Last weekend I was able to make a couple clicks of the Hairy and the photo I show you today will replace the previous one in the woodpecker section of the Bird Gallery - North America. Click HERE for a shortcut.

It’s hard to believe that my new website and blog are online since already a month now. I have not regretted the switch from GoDaddy and Wordpress to a Squarespace platform for the website. It has bought me a lot of time, time that I like to use for the creative process of my photography and for writing the content of this blog. I spare you with the “tech talk”, but if you like to know what else triggered the switch, send me a message and I can fill you in with the details (just in case you consider a change for your own website ;-)  )

THIRD YEAR IN A ROW

Today I don’t have an eye pleasing photo but it is, at least for me, an important documentary shot. The image is already a week old and shows that a Great Horned Owl is sitting on the abandoned eagle’s nest again, now for the third year in a row. In 2013 and 2014 the owls raised one juvenile each year and I was lucky enough to be there with my camera several times. If you like to see some of the pictures from the past, type “Great Horned Owl” into the search field at the sidebar on the left,  and all links to my older blog posts that talk about the owls will pop up immediately.

For now we can just wait and see how things turn out. The eggs are incubated for 28 to 35 days, mostly by the female. The Great Horned Owl lays between one and five eggs. 

My records show that last year we saw the owlet not before March 23 for the first time peeking out of the nest. I will check out the nest down at the Mississippi River again tomorrow and keep you posted as soon I have news.

DRAMA FOR STRUPPI

We continue watching a small group of White-tailed Deer coming to our house every day. During the last couple days it became more and more clear to us that our favorite little fawn “Struppi” (read my post from February, 18) is facing probably the tragic loss of its mother. She comes always alone and we had two dead deer laying beside the highway down in the valley earlier this week. The other members of the group do everything to scare her away whenever “Struppi" tries to join them near our bird feeders. 

Struppi

Last Wednesday I enjoyed a backlight situation, created by the very low sun, when I caught two shots of a doe hitting “Struppi” with its front leg and bringing the little guy down to its knees. When animals move I shoot mostly short bursts in ‘Continues shooting mode’ with 6 frames per second to maximize my chances for a sharp image. This time I got the two images that tell the story. 

Yes, some of you may say this is sad, or the other deer are mean, but this is just natural behavior for those animals. They all try to protect their food sources and want the best for their own offspring. “Struppi” seems to do fine, she is always the first one here in the morning and just because of that she eats probably more corn than any other deer… By the way, she took a little nap again today. This time right beside our old oak tree trunk in the front yard… :-)

WORKING WITH FLASH FILL

Nikon D300s, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM, tripod, gimbal head, SB800, at 420 mm, 1/250s, f/8, ISO200,

It was another day with plenty of sunshine but very low temperatures. We go through a lot of bird food at the moment but who want’s to blame the birds or the squirrels, who eat probably as much as the birds do. 

It doesn’t happen very often that a woodpecker poses like this and this Downy did it for only a few seconds. Most of the time we see their side profile or the backside. I wanted to make this kind of a shot since a long time and today I had my chance. I was glad that the flash light was on camera already. A right dosed flash fill throws in a little bit of extra light, just enough to give the feathers some structure and to reveal the subtle colors on the front side of this Downy Woodpecker.

STRUPPI

This is “Struppi”, which translates into English probably as “Scrubby”. I named this little fawn because of its fur, which looks thicker and fuzzier than at any other White-tailed Deer that visit us now every day. A group of 7 - 9 does and fawns made it a habit to show up in our yard since we have the snow on the ground and it became so bitterly cold. “Struppi" has a mind of its own. Sometimes it visits alone, away from the group, but I’m sure the mother is never far away. While most of the deer come around 4 in the afternoon, “Struppi" wants its lunch and checks out the area around the bird feeders already at noon. It isn't as skittish as some of the other deer and as you can see it even sticks out the tongue while I make the picture. Yesterday it took a nap for about an hour, leaning against a fence post and with its back towards the sun. Life is good here, even with temperatures way below freezing… ;-)

Finding light in the cold

The bitter cold last weekend, that by the way still persists at the moment, didn’t stop us to have a little hike down on the Heritage Trail along the Little Maquoketa River. It was about the time when the sun disappeared behind the ridge and the shadows started filling the valley. When I realized the reflections that developed on the ice in the river bed I saw my chance for a photo. I didn’t have enough reach with the 24-120 mm lens to isolate the scene as you see it here. A wire fence between the trail and the river prevented me to zoom in with my feet, means getting closer to the subject. The upper part of the slope was still in direct sunlight and so I made the click and cropped the picture in Lightroom. I hate to loose pixels, but if it makes the difference, having the shot or not, I can make a compromise. Can I? ;-)