American White Pelicans - Mississippi River, Dubuque, Iowa, lock & dam #11
This photo is almost a week old and all what I can say is that my work duties kept me on the road, in the air, in hotels and printing shops, and finally from using my camera lately. American White Pelicans are among my favorite birds and if a shaft of light creates some magic on the Mississippi River, I can’t help but have to make the click.
There are cities in the state of Saxony that are even older than my home town Bautzen. Meißen is one of them and it was founded in 929. This view from the Albrechtsburg (Albrecht castle) across the Elbe River triggered my desire to make a panorama picture. Two images were merged in Adobe Lightroom, which took only a couple minutes, still unthinkable a few years ago.
Meißen is famous for its manufacture of porcelain. Meissen porcelain was the first high quality porcelain to be produced outside of the Orient.
Meissen, Saxony, Germany - Albrecht castle and towers of the Meissen Cathedral
Market at Meissen Altstadt
Bautzen, Saxony, Germany - St. Michael's Church
Hey, I’m back from my trip to Germany. It started with a wonderful time at family and friends in Dresden and my home town Bautzen, Saxony and ended with a long and exhausting trade show in Düsseldorf at the Rhein River.
Photography wasn’t much on my agenda this time, especially not in the second half of the trip, but I can never resist to make a few clicks in my old stomping grounds, the over 1000 years old city of Bautzen.
Bautzen, Saxony, Germany - Schloßstraße / Hintere Brüdergasse
Bautzen, Saxony, Germany - Schloßstraße with Mathias Tower and gate to Ortenburg castle
Dresden, Saxony, Germany
Spending time with my German family and friends is priceless. Yesterday we made a trip by train to the more than 1000 years old city of Meissen and returned to the capitol of my home state Saxony Dresden by paddle river boat. The famous skyline of Dresden was crowned by big thunder heads. You can’t ask for more as a photographer…
I just thought I let you know I will be out of the country for a little while. I’m not sure if I have much time to post here in the blog while traveling, but the camera goes with me and maybe I find a few interesting things… 😉
It took me 3 years and 12 days to make an image of the Red-headed Woodpecker again here in our neck of the woods. Today I finally saw an adult at a tree trunk, eying one of our suet feeders. At this time of the year the camera with long lens is always mounted on the tripod and ready to be used immediately. I didn’t get the shots the first time but the woodpecker came back a couple more times. The light was changing constantly from bright sun to slight overcast and back, and my index finger was switching between the button for exposure compensation and the shutter release all the time.
The Red-headed Woodpecker is supposed to be in our part of Iowa all-season but we have seen it only in May for short periods of time, the last time in 2013. All of the sources I use for identification and education about birds report a severe decline in the past half-century because of habitat loss and changes to its food supply. The good thing is, within the last two months we have seen all seven woodpecker species we had recorded before here on the bluffs above the Little Maquoketa River.
Female Baltimore Oriole
I promised you a few days ago I would show some more pictures of birds that have arrived here on the bluffs above the Little Maquoketa Valley. The Baltimore Orioles start singing beautifully already early in the morning but when they approach our bird feeders they chatter mostly loud. Both, females and males, love to eat from the halves of oranges we put out for them and also drink from our hummingbird feeders to gain strength after their long migration. Later in the summer, during the breeding process, they hardly show up again near the feeders. Their nests are usually high up in the taller trees and their diet consists of caterpillars, moths, beetles, ants, bugs, and aphids.
Male Baltimore Oriole
Female Scarlet Tanager
The Scarlet Tanager is a lot more secretive. It is not easy to make a photo away from the suet feeder, because most of the time they fly in very quiet and land right on the feeder. After their short meals they fly away immediately.
Male Scarlet Tanager
The American Toad (Bufo americanus) is one of the sixteen frog species that can be found in Iowa. They are abundant in the state, especially in forested areas. Every year we find a few in our yard, mostly in the flower beds or between ferns and shrubs.
Yesterday Joan called me down from my office while she was planting and doing yard-work. Usually the toads we saw in the past were a lot darker and more grayish but this one looked different. I put the Sigma 150 mm / f2.8 macro lens on the D750 and stretchedout in the wet grass on my stomach. Shooting this slow moving critter from above is really not an option for a decent image…
All images: Nikon D750, Sigma 150mm / f2.8 APO EX DG HSM,
The most interesting time in Las Vegas is at night, with all the lights, shows, glitter, and glamor. The strain of sensual perception is hard to deny. Joan and I had a great time the night before the wedding, just walking around, having a drink here and there, and shooting some pictures... I didn’t bring a tripod for proper camera support and wasn’t able to experiment with real long exposures, but I had fun chasing the light at night. It helps to use a lens with vibration reduction, and except for the picture with the light and water show in front of Caesars Palace, all photos were made handheld. Exposure times were between 1/4 s and 1/60 s and in most cases I took multiple shots, sometimes leaning against a wall to stabilize the camera. You can click on each image for best viewing.
Male Indigo Bunting
Before I post a few more pictures from our trip to Las Vegas I like to give you an update on more bird arrivals here on the bluffs above the Little Maquoketa River Valley. This morning I saw the first Indigo Bunting in our woods this year. This small blue looking finch is easy to identify. We don’t see very many up here on our ridge but down in the valley near the edge of the woods they are more common.
Female Rose-breasted Grosbeak
The first Rose-breasted Grosbeak showed up already two weeks ago. Now we can see several males and at least two females that use our sunflower seeds to gain strength again after their long migration from South America.
Other birds have arrived as well and I may show more photos later this week.
Male Rose-breasted Grosbeak -- All images: Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sports Lens, tripod, INDURO GHB2 gimbal head, Nikon SB 800 speed light, Better Beamer flash extender
I took a break from writing here in the blog for a week and there was a good reason for. Joan and I attended the wedding of Joan’s daughter Ellen and her husband Danny this weekend in Las Vegas, Nevada. No, I didn’t shoot the wedding, the wedding photographer they hired knew what he was doing and however his images will turn out, they will be better than what I can contribute to an event like that.
I haven’t been in Vegas since 19 years and of course, much has changed. It is still the city of endless fake to me but it also has a fascination that sets it apart from any place I have traveled to in my life. We had some time to explore the city and these are some of the photos I came up with.
It was a photographer friendly weekend in Las Vegas, with great clouds and even some rare rain. All what the lady at the wedding chapel had to say about it to me was, I don’t even own an umbrella…
Fake everywhere you look in Vegas. The indoor copy of the Grand Canal of Venice is fascinating but at the same time just mind-boggling for someone who was born in Europe…
You may used to see wildlife photos in my blog but all “wildlife” I can show you from this trip are the flamingos who had their own habitat in the gardens of our hotel… More to come, so please stay tuned.
Canada Geese, Green Isand Wetlands, Iowa
The Hooded Merganser wasn’t the only bird taking care for their offspring last weekend in the Green Island Wetlands. I saw several pairs of Canada Geese with little goslings, mostly between 2 - 4. The female goose incubates the eggs, but other than the mergansers both parents are involved in the care taking for the young ones. Canada Geese mate for life.
This family had just crossed the road in front of me, from one pond into the next lake. I know, butt shots are supposed to be rude but Ansel Adams said already, there are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs…
I saw the story in this photo when I made the click. One parent was leading the way, the other one kept an eye on me and made loud warning noises. Fill flash helped again to bring out the colors of the goslings and to overcome the gray of the overcast. There are only a few reflections of the sky on the water and the green of the algae infested water dominates the background. Many things came together in this image and that’s why I like it.
When I took the pictures of the Sora I posted yesterday a big smile was already in my face. A little earlier I watched this female Hooded Merganser, surrounded by six tiny feather balls. They were swimming in one of the canals parallel to the gravel road that goes across the Green Island Wetlands. The mother was pushing them and made sure all six little mergansers kept up with her. They goofed around a lot and sometimes mom had to stop and wait. Finally, pretty close to the end of the canal, the whole train stopped. They had reached obviously their nest site. As little as they are, it must have been one of their first excursions with the mother. So, where was the male with its beautiful crest and white patches? Well, as soon the female begins to incubate, the male abandons her...
It was another gray day without the sun coming out. I didn’t have high expectations when I went south to the Green Island Wetlands today. It was somehow on my mind that shooting birds against a gray sky or with water surrounded that reflects this sky will just not lead to any results, but I did it anyway. Oh boy, was I wrong!
Thanks to another birder and photographer, Tony Moline, I was able to have a first sighting of a Sora, a small rail. It isn’t really uncommon in North America but I have never seen one until today here in Eastern Iowa. The hint about their presence at Green Island came from two other birders from Illinois, but Tony made me aware where to look for this tiny shore bird. Thank you Tony!
The second picture was the last photo on my memory card today. I didn’t stop to work with this bird until the rain came down hard. I guess I got carried away… There were other observation in the wetlands earlier today and I may post about it in the next few days. So please stay tuned…
Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sports Lens, tripod, Induro GHB2 gimbal head, Nikon SB 800 speed light, Better Beamer flash extender
I haven’t made a single click since two days <sigh>, because an indoor project kept me grounded. However, I have very little regrets, the weather has been really miserable the last couple days.
More birds have arrived here. Our House Wrens sing already since 4/16, the Whip-poor-will was heard the first time during the night of 4/20, and a female Scarlet Tanager landed briefly at a bird feeder on 4/25. That is the earliest we have ever seen a tanager in our woods. Finally the first male Rose-breasted Grosbeak showed up last Thursday, together with two Ruby-crowned Kinglets.
While trying to catch the kinglet this male Northern Cardinal posed for me briefly in a tree nearby. It was already 6:30pm but I still wanted a little bit of daylight in the background. To make this happen I shot this in DX cropping mode at 600 mm (900 mm FX) with 1/80s. The flash is still used as a fill flash, but only to reveal the colors of the cardinal. Sure, I could “nuke” this with 1/250s, and it would be tack-sharp, but the background would have been totally black and the photo would scream nothing but “FLASH!!”
The cardinal is an all-year-around bird here on our bluffs but it was its pose and gesture that make this image work for me.
