Theodore Roosevelt NP, North Dakota
We hope you all enjoy the holiday weekend. I won’t bother you today with a long story about the making of the photo or any other nature observations. This is just another image from our visit in Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota. The picture is the result of a very slow and careful approach to a herd of Bighorn Sheep. It was a lot harder to get the glass on them than it was in Badlands NP. I hope you enjoy!
We wish all readers, friends, and visitors of the blog and website a Merry Christmas and happy holidays.
Wir wünschen allen Lesern, Freunden und Besuchern des Blogs und der Webseite ein schönes Weihnachtsfest und angenehme Feiertage.
Missouri River, near Bismarck, North Dakota
The photo was made on our way home, just southwest of Bismarck, the capitol of North Dakota. There are reasons why getting up early in the morning may lead to a desired image. Pitching the tent next to the Missouri River made it a lot easier to be on site before sunrise. A few minutes later a beaver swam down the river. Those are the moments when you realize, being in the right place, at the right time, is not solely due to just having a lucky day…
Nikon D750, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM, tripod, gimbal head
This picture of an American Goldfinch looks almost like it was made with a flash light. I use flash quite often for color enhancement in my bird photography, especially in the winter, but this little guy was just hit by a shaft of light from yesterday’s late afternoon sun. Couldn’t resist to make the click...
American Bison, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota
No, we were not stupid enough to lie down in the prairie grass and in front of a full grown American Bison male just for making a photo from an interesting perspective. We rather used a drop in the terrain and repositioned our car several times for good perspective and background. Staying safe while shooting has to be first priority at all times!
A few days ago I “bothered” you with a black and white photo from a small part of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, called “Canonball Concretions”. I considered to post another picture of this wonderful geological formation sometime. So here it is, color contrast and interesting shapes! Stopping down to f/10 helped to get a decent sharpness for the foreground and the rock walls in the back. Don’t take me wrong, we loved the light on those eroded formations but a few clouds would have made it perfect. As always, we have to work with what is in front of the lens, not what we wish it would be with...
For those of you who like to know more about how the “cannonballs” are created, here is the link that will give you the answers much better than I can do: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concretion
Male American Kestrel
Just outside of the North unit at Theodore Roosevelt National Park we came across this beautiful male American Kestrel. What really made me happy about this shot was the fact that for the first time I was able to make a photo of this little falcon without a power line in the picture. Most of the time we see them perched on a power line, looking out for prey. There is nothing wrong with that, it serves the bird well, but having the kestrel perched on a branch makes for the better image...
This photo is a week old and there was no way to make something similar during the last few days. It is very warm here in Iowa for this time of the year (61ºF / 16ºC) and there isn’t even frost early in the morning.
The reeds down at the Mississippi lie flat from the snow we had in November and the hoarfrost and dappled light created the pattern I tried to capture.
Hands down, this is my favorite shot of a Black-tailed Prairie Dog. The little guy moved around with its mouth full of grass, obviously ready to add it to its winter hoard. I was thinking the whole time while following the critter with my lens, come on, stand up, and the prairie dog finally did me the favor. Even with the food in its mouth, it still participated in the Prairie Dog’s communication system. Who knows what they are talking about, but Prairie dogs have a big arsenal of calls and gestures to warn each other or maybe just to chitchat. We love watching these critters…!
Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North unit
The grasslands of the Dakotas are not a prime destination if you want to shoot nothing but fall colors. However, any time we saw a Cottonwood or any other tree that had some fall colors we stopped and tried to integrate it in a landscape photo. Nothing tells the story of fall season more powerful than the changing colors of leaves.
Nikon D750, Sigma 150mm / f2.8 APO EX DG HSM, SB 800 speed light
It took me 8 1/2 years to make this photo but tonight I had my chance. We didn’t have to go very far, just step outside the house and look at the big Maple tree right in front of it. The last time I had a Flying Squirrel in front of my lens was in June of 2007. It was a picture of the squirrel feeding at one of our bird feeders. Little did I know at this time about wildlife photography…
We knew that they have been around all these years. We still have big oaks, hickory trees, and maples here that provide food for them. Some of our neighbors have seen them more often but Joan and I just didn’t have another encounter since 2007. Flying squirrels are nocturnal, hence the flash light used for this image. I really like the picture because it shows the fold of skin between its forelegs and hind-legs that allow the squirrel to glide through the air up to 80 meters or more, from the top of one tree down to the trunk of another. It flies with its legs outstretched and the skin between its legs is used like a sail or parachute. In comparison to our numerous Eastern Gray Squirrels, the Southern Flying Squirrel is very small (200-255 mm / 7 3/4”-10 1/8”). Look into its big black eyes and you have to admit that its “cuteness factor” deserves 5 stars… 😊
South unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota
Sometimes it needs a different approach to extract a subject from its surroundings. Here it is clearly the cloud that is my subject, but by using a mid-range or wide angle lens this was not obvious. The cloud would have been a small band above the horizon. I zoomed in at 500 mm with the Sigma 50-500, usually my workhorse for wildlife photography, and suddenly the cloud really became the story telling element in the photo. Sure, this photo is about a mood, but without the interesting cloud it would have been just another plain sunset picture.
Juvenile Red Crossbill
There are little chances that we would see a Red Crossbill in our woods here, simply for the fact that their preferred habitats is coniferous forests. With other words, it was a first sighting for us and we found the birds in the Slim Butte area, located in the grasslands between the Black Hills, South Dakota and Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota. There were plenty of pine trees and we saw a female and a juvenile crossbill feeding on them. Their unique bill shape is perfect for getting the seeds out of the pine cones and make it easy to identify the bird. Red Crossbills show a great deal of variation in bill shape and voice and there is a debate over that this member of the finch family is composed of several different species.
The birds were on a feeding frenzy and in constant movement and the only way to keep up with them was to handhold the camera. Fill flash was used to overcome the harsh contrast and to show the colors.
Female feeding a juvenile
Nikon D750, Nikkor 16-35mm / f4, @ 16 mm, 1/200s, f/10, ISO 100
Although the moon is in the picture it wasn’t the light source for this image. The setting sun painted the rugged slopes at “Canonball Concretions" in Theodore Roosevelt National Park orange. It sure was a great color contrast with the steel blue sky, and I may show some color photo of this place sometime. I saw this photo in B&W already in my mind while pushing the shutter button, and I like the result...
Nikon D750, Nikkor 24-120mm / f4
Badlands are a type of dry terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded by wind and water. They are characterized by steep slopes, minimal vegetation, lack of a substantial regolith, and high drainage density. (source: Wikipedia)
What this classification doesn’t include is the beauty you can find in these landscapes. We spent a big part of our vacation this year in Badlands, in South, and as well in North Dakota. It is easy to get spoiled by some of the more iconic parks here in the United States, but we had some very stunning and almost unexpected moments in the Dakotas. This photo was made one early evening in the North unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Down in the valley is the Little Missouri River, shallow and always very muddy. At this time of the day it became a very essential part of the photo. Walked back to the car with a smile in my face...
