FIRST ONE OF 2020

National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium, Dubuque, Iowa

I hope you were able to start the new year with something interesting and exciting. When our grandkids are in town a visit of the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium in Dubuque, Iowa is always on the agenda. It is one of the best places for education and entertainment, and this is valid for every age.

This first photo of the year was made at 70 mm, 1/320 s, f/4, and ISO 6400 through the thick glass of one of the seawater aquariums. Not my usual kind of photography but it always powers me if light and colors have something to offer. I hope 2020 will be a good year for all of us. I look forward to see your pictures and share visual stories with you again.

OUR WOODPECKER TREE #1

Male Yellow-shafted Northern Flicker at “Woodpecker tree #1”

Nature is always in a state of change. We were out of town over the weekend and when we came home yesterday we found one of the elm trees in our front yard on the ground. We knew this would happen one of these days. The tree was heavily effected by the Dutch elm disease, had more and more bare branches every year, and eventually the roots died.

This elm was an important tree for my photography. I always called it “Woodpecker tree #1”. Its location was perfect for shooting six of the seven woodpecker species that spend time in our woods but many other birds used it as well for approaching the bird feeders in the front yard.

Well, it’s not the end of the world, although I’m a little sad. A young oak tree nearby is growing fast since a few years and may take over the role as the new “Woodpecker tree #1” 😊

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2019 #16 - ICE FLOES

Lock & dam #11, Mississippi River, Dubuque, IA

Going to the same places over and over again and coming back with a photo that tells a story a little different than the last one can be a challenge. Even more true if the sky has nothing to offer, either being plain blue, hazy, or just gray.

A week ago I stopped briefly at the lock & dam #11 in Dubuque, Iowa. The commercial barge traffic is of course closed for the season. A photo with the closed miter gate in the foreground and the ice slowly drifting down the Mississippi would have told this story, but something was missing. When the man in his bright overall crossed the lock on top of the miter gate, I knew immediately I had a better shot. The person gives the eye something to hang onto and to return to after the rest of the image is explored.

Mississippi River, John Deere Marsh, Dubuque, IA

The second photo is from today. It was taken at the end of the dyke at John Deere Marsh, just about three mile upstream of lock & dam #11. The dyke reaches deep into the Mississippi River, all the way to the main channel, and during the barge traffic season you can watch the boats coming by very close. Compared to last week not much has changed. Ice still floats down the river, gets jammed at some places, and breaks loose again. The sky was again nothing but boring. Without any boats there is really not much that would give a photo across the water much scale, except for this marker. The story is the same in both pictures (river not frozen over yet, floes coming down the river, no snow on the ground…) and the marker on its little island is just my anchor point.

Nikon D750, Nikkor 70-200mm / f4

MEMORABLE MOMENTS 2019 (2)

Competitive moves

Most nature photos can easily live without any additional words. This one definitely could. I still like to call it ”Competitive Moves”. The month of May is usually the time with lots of new wildlife photos for me. Many birds arrive in the Upper Mississippi Valley for breeding and feeding their offspring during the summer. The Great Egrets find plenty of food in the wetlands and watching their mating approach and competitive behavior is always a great pleasure. These egrets were part of a large congregation and getting close to them with my “mobile blind” was a real treat. Oh yes, another memorable moment this year.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS

Greater White-fronted Geese, Mississippi Valley, Green Island Wetlands, Iowa, March 2019

When the year comes to an end I like to browse through my picture library and recall the good moments I was able to capture over the last twelve months. What did I learn, what did I miss? Sometimes I find a decent photo that didn’t draw my attention right after it was taken or shots get deleted because with hindsight I find that they are not that great.

One evening in mid March I was finally able to watch thousands of Greater White-fronted Geese flying in for the night in the Green Island Wetlands at the Mississippi River. They were on the way to their breeding grounds up in northern Canada. Before they landed the birds circled around and with the setting sun in my back, gave me the chance to make some clicks. Other years I missed this spectacle because I wasn’t there at the right time. I love moments like that, when things in nature come together, not just for a good photo but for a lasting memory.

Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S,   at 600 mm, 1/1250s, f/6.3, ISO200

AUTUMN IN MINNESOTA #14 - WILDLIFE ENCOUNTERS IN LOW LIGHT

White-tailed Deer, Bear Head Lake State Park, Minnesota

I have never been a friend of shooting wildlife with an ISO setting above 250-320. But when you walk out into nature early in the morning or during a day with low light due to overcast, you have to rethink your ideas. The higher the ISO, the lower the resolving power, the more noise in the image, and the lower the dynamic range. But at the other hand, a sharp photo with a higher ISO setting is still better than capturing a blurry picture because shutter speed is too slow as a result of having the ISO settings in the basement. This is in particular true if a very long focal length is employed while handholding the camera. There is a limit where Vibration Reduction or Optical Stabilization, as SIGMA calls it in their lenses, may help you to get a sharp image. The well-disposed viewer of a photo on the web, in a blog post, on Instagram, or any other social site may not see much of a difference, but the real quality bar for a good photograph is the ultimate print.

The photo of this White-tailed Deer, up in Bear Head Lake State Park, Minnesota was shot at ISO 800. To make it clear, it wasn’t a difficult shot. As I wrote here in the blog before, the deer near a campground are not tame, but they are used to people and don’t run away as soon they see a human. Staying in or near a campground is a safety strategy that at least works during the camping season. Their predators, like wolves, avoid these places.

I have shot handheld at 500-600 mm focal length, 1/60 s, ISO 200 or even lower, but I also have deleted a lot of pictures with this kind of settings. Practice is always the key to success for sharp photos but sometimes a higher ISO can save your butt.

Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, Induro GHB2 gimbal head,   at 490 mm, 1/320s, f/6.3, ISO800

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2019 #15 - ICE PILED UP

Mississippi River, Mud Lake

When I took our dog for a walk to the Mississippi River this morning I was almost tempted to leave the camera at home. It was just a gray and cold day. I hardly ever go without a camera to the river and I was glad I didn’t change my habit today. The photo was taken from almost the same spot as the one in my last post, which I called “Dynamic in the sky”. Well, there was no dynamic in the sky at all today, but the cold temperatures we had earlier this week, followed by some warmer weather, had broken up some ice upstream and a lot of drift ice was piled up. The river is about 2.2 km (1.375 mi.) wide at this point, but the Wisconsin side looks much closer due to the compression effect of the 200 mm lens. 

Another occurrence that had an impact is heat shimmer. The cold air above the ice is mixing with warmer air and makes it impossible to see the ice on the other side of the river really sharp. I shot this with f/8 and focussed on the piled up ice on the Iowa side of the river. A smaller aperture, like f/16 wouldn’t help a bit in this matter. 

Snow, ice, and a gray overcast don’t go very well together and in order to make this image work I left the white balance a little more on the colder side. 

Nikon D750, Nikkor 70-200mm / f4,   at 200 mm, 1/320s, f/8, ISO100

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2019 #14 - DYNAMIC IN THE SKY

Storm cloud over the Mississippi, Mud Lake, Iowa, June 2019

Here is another image from earlier this year. A thunderstorm had just passed our area and moved across the Mississippi River into Wisconsin and northwest Illinois. The storm was moving very fast and I made quite a few shots. The light and shape of the clouds in every photo looked quite different from the one before. I have photographed the Mississippi River at Mud Lake many times before and in every kind of weather. Rarely was I able to capture such a high dynamic in the sky.

TWO FROM THE BLUE RIDGE

Shenandoah National Park, Virginia, October 2017, Nikon D750, Nikkor 16-35mm / f4, at 16 mm

As always towards the end of a year I do some housekeeping in my image library and sometimes I find another photo that I think deserves to be published.

This photo was made during our last morning in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia a couple years ago. There are some great views from the Blue Ridge in either direction, east or west. Here it is the morning light that gives the landscape on the east side some depth and reveals the beauty of these mountains.

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

A few days earlier we watched the sunset at a different spot along the Skyline Drive. The staggered arrangement of at least eight mountain ridges, separated by the mist in the valleys, tell the story about a great evening on the Blue Ridge in Shenandoah National Park.

A FAVORITE SUBJECT

Railroad bridge across the Mississippi between Sabula, Iowa and Savannah, Illinois

Almost any time I drive south from the Green Island Wetlands to the little island town of Sabula, Iowa, in the middle of the mighty Mississippi River, I take a picture of the railroad bridge that crosses the big river. It is one of my favorite subjects along the river.

According to the bridge documentation on historicbridges.org , this is an unaltered example of a historic railroad bridge over the Mississippi River. Nearly all the historic railroad bridges on the Mississippi River are at a general risk for demolition or severe alteration. The bridge has a variety of pin-connected truss designs, and most noteworthy has a 365 foot (111 m) swing span. The engineer in my blood gives me always a great pleasure to look at this wonderful bridge and I see it almost as a duty to capture this interesting piece of our historic heritage whenever I have a chance. I’m afraid the day will come and “new economists” will win the claim that it is less expensive to built a new bridge than rather preserve the historic structure and find the money to built a parallel solution that can keep up with increasing loads and traffic. The old road bridge, 2.8 miles up the river, was blasted away not very long ago and is lost forever. I think my worries are not unreasonable…

Photographically it was not a big challenge, although with a blue sky it is easy to make a boring picture. A few flurry clouds and using the highlights on the turbulent water in front of me brought some dynamic into the frame. The color contrast between the bridge and all the blue does the rest…

BACK IN THE GREEN ISLAND WETLANDS

I had a little break from writing here in the blog during the last two weeks. Some other projects had priority this time.

My records show that I haven’t been in the Green Island Wetlands along the Mississippi for almost three months. Some gravel roads in the wetlands are closed during the duck hunting season and I avoid the area during this time anyway. Well, today it was time to go back and see what’s out there. I was greeted by these two Trumpeter Swans, who flew across the water. They possibly joined another large group of swans that I saw later in a remote part of the area. It was too far away to count them exactly but 50 is probably not exaggerated. I hope we can see them sometime this winter at a closer distance.

The photo is not tack sharp. The Trumpeter Swans approached suddenly and very fast and I wasn’t able to get out of the car so quickly. The picture was taken from the car window and that makes it difficult to perform proper panning technique with the long SIGMA 150-600 S lens on camera.

This photo was a lot easier to make. The pair of Canada Geese posed nicely in the soft light of this afternoon. I waited patiently until the geese were very close together but did not overlap with their heads or necks. Canada Geese usually mate for life but they are gregarious and during the winter they gather and feed often in large flocks. There were larger numbers on the fields and grassland that borders the wetland on the west side. This part is actually a bird refuge and sometimes I wonder if the birds can actually read the signs…😉

All images: Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sports Lens

IT HAS TO BE SPECIAL

Downy Woodpecker

With the snow now gone bird photography needs a different approach again. I could use a flash for bringing out the colors, especially on a day with an overcast or in a low light situation, like at the end of the day. I have done that many times and it works very well in a lot of situations. The Downy Woodpecker is a bird we have in our woods all year long, many photos were made over the years, and making another image has to be special. Friday evening, when the sun sent its last rays through the trees, I realized how the soft light touched the old cedar tree in the front yard and the bird resting on it. When they hold a position like this there is usually a predator around, but other birds were present, so I think the Downy Woodpecker just enjoyed this shaft of warm light as much as I did. Yeah, that’s what I mean, it has to be special…

AUTUMN IN MINNESOTA #13

Sunset at the St. Louis River, just outside of Duluth, Minnesota

Jay Cooke State Park was the last campsite for one night at the end of our journey through the Northwoods of Minnesota. We had some snow and rain during the trip and shooting pictures of fast flowing water just seems to be a logic consequence. Well, I love to make photos of creeks and rivers. It is never boring and always a challenge.

I have talked here in the blog some time ago about a technique to make these kind of pictures without the use of a neutral density filter. There are sometimes situations where combining multiple exposures in one image, right in camera, is a valid solution. In particular at narrow and busy places, like famous waterfalls, with lots of visitors. Observation decks for example often vibrate and make any effort with a long exposure useless.

For this photo things were just great. At this time of the year, mid October, the low sun covers the river and the surrounding rocks with warm light for quite some time before it disappears behind the trees. With the Nikon D750 on a solid tripod I used the BREAKTHROUGH X4, 6-stop ND filter in front of the Nikon Nikkor 70-200, f/4 lens. For the final image a 5 second exposure at f/18, ISO 100 was used. Sure, some people like to see the water even silkier, it’s an unfortunate trend at the moment, but the wild St. Louis River, with its waterfalls and cascades, is not smooth at all at this place. The story of that evening was the combination of soft and warm light with the fast flow and turbulences of the river. If weather allows Joan and I will be back in the Duluth area very soon. Can you sense my excitement…? 😊

WATCHING MIGRATORY BIRDS

Sandhill Cranes, Mississippi River, New Albin, Iowa

Last weekend I made the two-hour drive along the Mississippi River into Minnesota. My destination was the Brownsville overlook, a place where ten-thousands of birds take a rest on their way to the south. Every November you have a chance to see thousands of Tundra Swans, who take a break on their journey from the arctic to their wintering grounds along the Atlantic coast from the Chesapeake Bay to North Carolina. Beside that this refuge in the river is a great place to see many Bald Eagles and ten-thousands of ducks.

Just before crossing the Iowa - Minnesota border I checked the road that leads east from New Albin, Iowa to the boat landing at the Mississippi River. This is usual a good spot for bird watching but it has been flooded for a big part of the year. The water had just receded and it was still quite muddy. To my surprise I heard the call and saw about two dozen Sandhill Cranes taking off and flying south through the Mississippi Valley. After all the snow we had, I thought they were long gone already.

Tundra Swans, Mississippi River, Brownsville overlook, Minnesota

The two overlooks along the road between New Albin, IA and Brownsville, MN are a popular destination at this time of the year. You can meet many like minded people that enjoy bird watching or want to make some pictures. Not always the best place for a great image, due to the distance between the birds and the overlooks, but always worth the trip, if you like to witness the wonders of nature and for feelings of pleasure.

There was educational material on display and a naturalist on site, who was happy to answer the questions visitors had. She told me that the first Tundra Swans were already here three weeks ago. The backwaters were already partly frozen last weekend but this bay had open water. With the warmer temperatures right now you may still have a chance to watch them this week. If the river freezes over, the birds have to move on…

My pictures today are not really for “gourmets”, but since my blog is about nature and photography I like to share my observations with other nature friends and photographers in the area.