MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2017 #5 - JOHN DEERE MARSH

Nikon D750, Nikkor 16-35mm / f4 -----------

Two photos today that can’t be more different from each other, but made within less than ten minutes in between. Daylight is considerable longer than a month ago and today “walking the dog” took me out to the John Deere Marsh, a dammed up wetland area right behind the Deere factory north of Dubuque, Iowa.

I have to admit , this was a tricky shot. I knew when I made the click the range of light would exceed 5 f-stops, more than what a camera like the NIKON D750 can lift. Strictly exposing for the highlights, there was still enough information available in my RAW file to romance this image without any loss within the circle of the sun. The shadows had still enough information at he bottom of the image to make it work and the fresh fallen snow in the lower right corner, tells the story of the season.

Nikon D750, Nikkor 16-35mm / f4

The Mississippi River has still ice for the most part , but where the current of the river is strong, the water has some open spots. There is a levee at the John Deere Marsh, reaching far into the main channel of the big river. To give you a perspective, the part of the river, north of J. Deere Marsh that you look at in this photo, is almost 3 km wide (~1.8 miles).

GREAT LIGHT BUT STILL ADDING SOME MORE

Red-bellied Woodpecker -----------

Winter is back here in eastern Iowa since a couple days. Time to put the best reflector nature provides for us to work. Yep, I’m talking about the fresh snow on the ground. The quality of light becomes very good for bird photography as soon a little sun hits the snow. The reflection from underneath the bird, even if they sit a little higher in a tree, makes the big difference to any other time of the year. In addition I’m testing a new flash extender that made it into my bag of tools. I’m not ready to talk about it today but might be soon. My flash extender of choice was the Better Beamer for many years (click HERE to see how it looks like). So why throwing more light at the subject if the overall conditions are sufficient? “Tree hugging” birds like this young male Red-bellied Woodpecker like to stay quite often on the shady side of the tree. I still can expose halfway correctly but a little hint of flash (and I mean a little hint) will reveal the beauty of all the colors in its feathers.

This is the tree I call “Woodpecker-Tree #1” in our front yard. A suet feeder is nearby and this tree is quite often the starting point for the birds approaching this feeder. The Red-bellied Woodpecker seemed to be in some competition today about the best spot with another woodpecker, a Northern Flicker. As you can see, it was all about display. Catching the colors and gesture was important to me to tell the story with my photo.

LUNCH-N-LEARN

Black-capped Chickadee ----------

Last year I have been asked by the Dubuque County Conservation to be part of a new program series “Lunch-N-Learn” for adults and seniors in the Swiss Valley Nature Center. Date and time were now officially announced and I like to invite those of you who live in or not too far from Dubuque, Iowa to join my presentation about nature photography. 

When: Wednesday, February 08, 2017, 11.00AM - 12.30PM

Where: Swiss Valley Nature Center, 13606 Swiss Valley Road, Peosta, IA 52068

The event is free but if you like to register for the catered lunch ($10) or want more information, please use the link below:

http://www.mycountyparks.com/County/Dubuque/Park/Swiss-Valley-Nature-Preserve-and-Nature-Center/Events/9396/Lunch-n-Learn.aspx

“Creating awareness by visual story telling” is the topic of my photo presentation. I will talk about favorite locations, the best times to find critters, how to approach wildlife, and how we can tell a story with our photographs to make other people aware about our natural treasures. It will not be so much about the technical aspects, like f-stop, exposure time, etc., but all about passion and the fun nature photography can create. Of course, I will try to answer any question someone may have after the presentation. I’m very excited and I hope you can join me February, 08.

 

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2017 #4 - WARM WEEK AT THE RIVER

I have two photos for you today. The one above is from earlier this week, taken at lock & dam #14 in Le Claire, Iowa. It seems it becomes more and more common that some pelicans stay here during the winter. In Le Claire, about 90 miles south from Dubuque, the main channel of the river is open and they can find apparently enough food.

Dam #11, Dubuque, Iowa

It was a gray and foggy day today here in Dubuque and not very inviting for any bird photography, but the temperatures were way above freezing. In the second photo you can see that the snow is almost gone around here. The ice was jammed above the dam, hence the fog in the background. What you don’t see is any Bald Eagles. Today was the annual “Bald Eagle Watch” but I felt bad for the visitors at lock & dam #11. I saw only two eagles on the ice and they were far away. The US Army Corps of Engineers had Brent, one of their Natural Resource Specialists, on site and he was answering questions and helped people with spotting scopes that were provided to watch the birds.

He told me that there was more going on in the Grand River Center in Dubuque and so I went there next. Natural resource agencies and organizations had educational displays and information and there were also some activities for kids.

At one of the vendor’s tables I met with Ty Smedes, a well known nature photographer here in Iowa. I have seen him on TV and read some of his articles in the IOWA Outdoors Magazine before. We had a good conversation about many aspects of nature and photography. If you like to check out his work, here is a link to his website http://www.smedesphoto.com . I bought one of his excellent books and Ty was so nice to sign it.

NATURE CLICKS #358 - GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL (1ST SIGTHING)

Mississippi River, L&D 314, Le Claire, Iowa ---------

Yesterday, on my way back home from Davenport, Iowa I stopped briefly at lock & dam #14 at the Mississippi River. As always, a few photographers were present and tried to make a great shot of a Bald Eagle. I was told the eagles were kinda lazy that day and just sat in the trees most of the time.

While looking for some ducks, mergansers, and pelicans I suddenly saw another photographer shooting very determined one big particular gull. He confirmed that it was a Great Black-backed Gull, a first sighting for me here in the Mississippi Valley. I had read in the IA-Bird Google group that someone had seen this species already a few days earlier and I was more than happy to add a few photos of this gull to my library. They breed in northeastern North America and Greenland but may wander inland to the Great Plains.

Plumage and colors indicate that the bird is in its 1st winter. According to all my bird guides the Great Black-backed Gull is the largest gull in the world and is very pugnacious, predatory, and opportunistic. I saw it fighting for a fish with a Common Goldeneye and that makes me believe every word I read about its feeding habits…

WEEKEND IN THE NORTHWOODS

It became a tradition in January that I meet with some friends up in the Northwoods of Wisconsin for an ice fishing weekend. Well, our fishing success was modest this year but the fun we had can’t be measured in numbers. Cold temperatures and more than a foot of fresh powder snow created a winter wonderland. The best time to get the camera out of the bag is usually around sunset but I tried a few other things this time as well…

QUICK MEAL

Common Merganser, Mississippi River, Le Claire, Iowa ----------

It often surprises me how big of a prey some animals are able to swallow in comparison to their own body size. The first image still shows almost the whole fish in the bill of this Common Merganser. The fish is dinner size for a human adult. The second photo was shot two seconds later according to my time stamp in the picture’s metadata. Nature is always amazing!

All images: Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sports Lens, tripod, Induro GHB2 gimbal head,

BALD EAGLE’S STORY, GOOD REASON FORE EVEN MORE AWARENESS

Living here in eastern Iowa and having Bald Eagles present all year long may dull our sense of appreciation for this majestic bird. But as real friends of nature we will probably never get tired of their presence. Not everybody is aware that this bird was almost at the brink of extinction not that long ago, but the time is luckily over when we had to make any possible shot to prove that the Bald Eagle is still among us. Instead we now can relax and focus on its sheer beauty and the stories our images may tell. Creating awareness about our natural history and heritage is what my photography is about. Seeing large numbers of eagles soaring above our heads doesn’t mean we have reached a safe heaven. There are many other critters and birds that need our attention, and your photos, yes, yours, may help to create awareness about the struggle for survival of a particular species that is confronted with shrinking habitat and / or global climate change.

NATURE CLICKS #357 - COMMON GOLDENEYE

Male Common Goldeneye, Mississippi River, Le Claire, Iowa

It wasn’t just the great light that got me excited, but also the fact that several Common Goldeneyes were among the waterfowl that competed for fish near the downstream exit of lock #14 at the Mississippi River last Saturday. This duck was on my “most wanted list” for a long time. Not that I have not seen them before, but I never got close enough for a decent photo. So this is really the first time that I’m able to show a photo of this beautiful duck here in the blog. Their breeding grounds are up in most of Canada while they spent the winter in much of the United States.

Female Common Goldeneye, Mississippi River, Le Claire, Iowa

NATURAL LIGHT AT ITS BEST

Male Common Merganser, Mississippi River, Le Claire, Iowa

I felt a little like an oddball among all the photographers that gathered yesterday in Le Claire, Iowa. Almost everybody there seemed to focus on one subject only, the eagles. This is somehow understandable and I’m happy for everybody that travels to Iowa to see a Bald Eagle, maybe for the first time in their life. The return of the Bald Eagle is a great success story in North America. However, only a few people realized that we had a great light situation coming up, very beneficial for every bird that swims on the water, as the sun got lower and lower in the late afternoon. The presence of hundreds of mergansers, ducks, pelicans, and other waterfowl on the water right in front of us was probably noticed by some, but only a few people took advantage of the high quality natural light. To make this a little more clear, the Bald Eagles sit quite often in a tree and not much happens for long periods of time. Everybody waits for them to get into hunting and fishing mood and if one the eagles takes off and soars overhead, the rattle of camera shutters is the dominant noise in the air. At the other hand, there is a constant battle going on between gulls, ducks, mergansers, and pelicans about the best fishing grounds and none of these birds come ever to a stand still. Combined with just gorgeous light from the low sitting sun we had an abundance of photo opportunities even if the eagles decided to have a break.

My observations from previous years proved that the Common Mergansers can be found always close to the edge of open water. A little further north ice had jammed up the Mississippi, but here in Le Claire, Iowa was enough open water and plenty of fish for them to have a happy life. I shoot birds quite often with the support of flash light to overcome the gray of an overcast and bring out the colors of their feathers. Yesterday, with this gorgeous natural light in the late afternoon I didn’t even think about to get the flash light out of the bag…

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2017 #3 - BALD EAGLES

Mississippi River, Le Claire, Iowa, Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sports Lens, tripod, Induro GHB2 gimbal head ---------------

The long-time followers of my blog knew probably immediately where I have been today after looking at this photo. Yes, a trip 90 miles south to lock & dam #14 in Le Claire, Iowa was overdue and the weather conditions were perfect today to shoot at this location along the Mississippi River. The river is not frozen over but there were always some Bald Eagles around, even if they could fish at many other places along the river.

I have been a little “rusty” for shooting birds in flight but I got a good share of photos with Bald Eagles soaring over the water and catching fish. However, my favorite photo of eagles today is the one above with this couple, shot at the moment of take off from a dead tree. While many photographers never point their lens at anything different than a Bald Eagle while they are at L&D 14, I used half of the time today to go for some other birds that were present, and that are usually a lot more difficult to get in front of the camera. But this is for another blog post. So please stay tuned…

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2017 #2 - DUBUQUE RAILROAD BRIDGE

Nikon D750, Nikkor 16-35mm / f4 ---------

This is the railroad bridge over the Mississippi River in Dubuque, Iowa. The photo was made during a little river walk on the first day of the year with family and our grandkids. At the end of the bridge is the only railroad tunnel in Illinois, only a quarter mile long. I have tried this shot many times before over the years and never was totally satisfied with my results after reviewing it on the computer screen. This time most leading lines have some light that intensifies them and even the clouds point in the same direction. The shadows of the rivets on the right hand side of the bridge tell you exactly where the sun was located. A shot like this can only be made with the same outcome at this time of the year.

The bridge is almost 150 years old, still in use, and has been a favorite subject of mine any time I go on the river walk and since we live in the Dubuque area.

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2017 #1 - TURN OF THE YEAR

Spirit of Dubuque, Ice Harbor, Dubuque, Iowa, December 2016  ---------

I didn’t want the old year let go by without a last visit at the Mississippi River. The “SPIRIT OF DUBUQUE” is put to rest for the season at the Ice Harbor in Dubuque. The afternoon sun made its colors shine and the paddle boat was reflecting on the ice. A few miles upstream at Mud Lake Park the ice got jammed, although the river is not completely frozen over due to the mild weather lately. The warm colors of the limestone bluffs on the Wisconsin side create a nice color contrast to the deep blue of the ice. By the way, we started the new year today with a walk along the river again. Winter can be nice here in eastern Iowa…

Mississippi River, Mud Lake, Iowa, December 2016

2017

Three trees at sunset, Lake Superior, Cascade River State Park, Minnesota, August 2016 ------------

To all my photography friends and buddies: May the light guide your steps again in 2017!

To all of you: WISHING YOU AN INTERESTING AND WONDERFUL YEAR 2017! 😊

2016 RETROSPECT / 8

Lake Superior, Split Rock Light House State Park, Minnesota, August 2016

The tour around Lake Superior during our vacation in August / September led to a lot of photography fun. At many places we stayed or just stopped I wished we would have more time. Sometimes I see the potential for a landscape image but a bald blue sky or heavy gray overcast makes me want to wait a few days until the sky comes up with more dynamic.

The water in this bay near Split Rock Light House in Minnesota was very calm and the light had a kind of mystic touch on this day in late August. Not very dynamic, but still appealing to me.