10 YEARS

Petrified Forest National Park is only a small part of the Painted Desert. From here goes the view over the seemingly endless badlands of the desert. (If you view this photo on a computer, click on the image for a wider view.)

This week marks the 10th anniversary of my blog. February 5th, 2010 I posted a photo from Cerro Gordo, an old miners ghost town in the Inyo Mountains, California. Much has happened since but the blog was always about “Nature and Photography”. I wanted to tell the stories behind some of the photos and by writing about it, also improve my English language skills. As I evolved as a nature photographer over the years my focus shifted more and more towards the goal of creating awareness about the nature, animals, and landscapes that surround us. I still believe a storytelling photo or blog post can help to create attention for conservation and protection needs of our natural heritage. And yes, it is still fun to use a camera and try to make a good image, even if the attention span for a photo in social media seems to drop a little more every year.

Well, today I tried something new. This is a photo from my recent trip to Arizona. The panorama is stitched together from 6 handheld photos in portrait orientation. A few years ago this would have been a tedious task in Photoshop and without using a tripod, good results were not necessarily guaranteed. Using Adobe Lightroom Classic these days makes the process of merging the photos a breeze. It took less than a minute until the panorama was on the screen, ready to be finished to my taste. Almost 15,500 pixels on the long side will allow to print this image 60” (~1.5 m) wide without any loss of detail.

I like to thank all friends and readers of my blog for the time they spend here. Your encouragement and support keeps me going.

PAINTED DESERT (6) - COMMON RAVEN

Common Raven, Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona

How about the wildlife in the desert? Well, it’s winter and some species, like snakes and lizards are in hibernation. I saw a group of Mule Deer, but no signs of pronghorns or coyotes. Most birds are still further south, with other words, I wasn’t expecting much and didn’t pack the SIGMA 150-600 for this trip. The second day the sound of Horned Larks filled the cold morning air. They sat on rocks and enjoyed the warm sun probably as much as I did. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get close enough with just 200 mm focal length at hand.

My best photo opportunity came with several Common Ravens, a bird we don’t see in Iowa. This raven seems to greet me like an old friend, but he was actually just working on its feathers with his toes.

I tried to balance the exposure in this high contrast scene to get a little detail in some of its black feathers. Most pictures show the raven just sitting and watching but it is the great gesture with the foot in the air that makes this one my favorite.

Nikon D750, Nikkor 70-200mm / f4, @200 mm, 1/500s, f/5, ISO200, +0.33EV

PAINTED DESERT (5)

On the Blue Mesa, Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona

When you visit a landscape and your time is limited, you have to make the best out of it if you like to come home with some decent photos. In Petrified Forest National Park I had clouds only for a short period of time and tried to incorporate them in my images. In addition they helped a little bit to mute the sun and lower the contrast, although in January the sun is still not really high. Without a polarizing filter the glare on the rocks and sand would overpower everything. Shooting at 16 mm focal length the use of a polarizer is a little tricky. It is easy to produce a totally uneven blue in the sky that is difficult to fix in post process, but without a polarizer… well, the glare just takes over. 😉

PAINTED DESERT (4) - ROUTE 66

Petrified Forest National Park is crossed by three other traffic pathways beside the park road. The major ones are Interstate 40 and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway. Not so visible anymore is the historic Route 66. A line of telephone poles parallels the alignment of the former road through the park. This part of Route 66 was open from 1926 until 1958. The remains of this 1932 Studebaker sits where the famous highway once cut through the National Park and is probably one of the most photographed sites.

Probably many of those old Studebakers have used Route 66 in the heydays of this road. Today a photo helps us to imagine it…

When I took the picture of the telephone poles in the afternoon, the nice clouds from the morning were gone and with them all dynamic in the sky.

NATURE CLICKS #437 - BALD EAGLE

Bald Eagle, Mississippi River, Sabula, Iowa

This is pretty much straight out of camera, just the usual treatment of the RAW file including the sharpening process. The SIGMA lens was zoomed all the way out to 600 mm and by setting the camera to DX mode (using only a part of the sensor in camera) the angle of view for the lens is equivalent to a 900 mm focal length. There was no way to get closer to the Bald Eagle. I shot this from the “mobile blind”, my trusted Subaru, in Sabula, the only town in Iowa that is located on an island in the Mississippi.

It was about time to check out again my favorite wildlife watching areas, the Green Island Wetlands and the area around Sabula. I had to go that far south to have finally an animal in front of the lens. The only thing to mention from Green Island was the presence of a Sharp-shinned Hawk, who suddenly came out of the trees and crossed the road in front of the car. No Trumpeter Swans or any four-legged critter.

The sun had just started to come out from behind a thick layer of clouds, was still a little muted, and gave the scene a nice and soft touch. Sure, I would have liked to be a tad closer and a Bald Eagle on the ice without a great gesture is not the most exciting story. But there was open water and that means business for the eagle. Waiting for the moment to hunt for a fish is the biggest part of an eagle’s day and part of the story.

HOLBROOK IN “KILLER LIGHT”

Holbrook is the closest town to Petrified Forest National Park, only 26 miles west of the park. The old and famous Highway 66 ran through Holbrook and the rotten charm from the old times seems to be still present at some places. The first night, after just a short visit in the park, I was refueling my rental car at a gas station, when the setting sun suddenly produced the “killer light” I wished I would have had while still out in the desert. I let the gas run into the tank and quickly grabbed the camera. It only lasted for a minute…

PAINTED DESERT (3)

A shaft of light hits a big piece of petrified wood, while the shadow of the mountain behind me hides the surrounding area and makes the subject stand out.

So, how about the petrified wood in the National Park? In a nutshell, the process of per-mineralization of the wood was accomplished by silicification, meaning that the wood was replaced by silica long time ago. That’s interesting, but beside the scientific facts there are other reasons to point the lens at these gems in the desert.

Erosion produces the look how we can see the fossilized trunks in the park. Many are still buried under layers of soil and rock.

Different minerals have produced the colors we can find in the petrified wood today.

PAINTED DESERT (2)

Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona

The two photographers from the Netherlands in the picture below and I entered the National Park right after it opened its gates for the public at 8AM. This is of course too late for sunrise all year long. The park closes at 5PM, too early for the “killer light” we all like to use for our photos. It is understandable that the resources of the park, like the petrified wood, need to be protected but it is a little bit of a bummer for any landscape photographer.

Here is a quote from one of the signs at one of the overlooks: As you look over the Painted Desert, you see only a small portion of it. The Painted Desert extends over 7500 square miles (19425 km^2) across northeastern Arizona. Because Petrified Forest National Park lies at its heart, the entire park contains the colorful rocks of the Painted Desert. These particular mudstone and sandstone rocks are called the Chinle Formation and were deposited from 227 to 205 million years ago during the late Triassic Period. During that time the supercontinent Pangaea broke apart, eventually forming our present continents. Over the next 180 million years, the rocks of the Chinle formation were deeply buried, uplifted, and eroded into the badland topography you see today. Approximately 20 million years of late Triassic rock and fossil history are recorded in this geologic kaleidoscope.

With almost two days on hand I wanted to explore and capture the essence of this landscape. Petrified wood is scattered at many places and revealing its beauty was part of my plan. More to come…

Out there as early as possible .

All images: Nikon D750, Nikkor 70-200mm / f4

PAINTED DESERT (1)

Colorful geology at the Blue Mesa, Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona

After a busy week in and around Phoenix I spend this weekend in the Painted Desert, and in particular in Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona. It is a wonderful place to see the fossil record from the Late Triassic Period, 225 million years ago. Trunks of petrified wood are the most obvious remnants of this former tropical landscape. The National Park covers about 230 square miles (~600 km2).

Unfortunately for every camera owner, who likes to take advantage of the light around dawn and dusk, the park doesn’t open before 8AM and closes already at 5PM. I tried to make the best out of it and like to share a few photos over the next weeks with you. So, please stay tuned…

NATURE CLICKS #437 - FOX SPARROW

We haven’t seen many other bird species beside our “regulars” during this winter so far. This is mainly due to the mild weather we had in December and partly even in January. There is obviously still enough food available further north , means no reason to come here for Purple Finch, Pine Siskin, or Red-breasted Nuthatch. After the last snow storm this weekend I finally spotted a couple sparrows that are not on the list of our regular visitors. A beautiful White-throated Sparrow was here briefly last Sunday but I wasn’t able to make a photo. At the same time a Fox Sparrow showed up and hasn’t left us since. This large and chubby looking sparrow is bigger than its relatives the House Sparrow or the Dark-eyed Junco that we see at the moment. This sparrow feeds on the ground and even if this photo doesn’t have the best perspective, it gives you an idea how they try to find seeds between dried up garden flowers or around bird feeders.

EDUCATIONAL VALUE

On the exhibition floor during DUBUQUE BALD EAGLE WATCH 2020

I have another photo of the Dubuque Bald Eagle Watch event from last Saturday for you. This picture tells a good story about the educational value the attendees were able to experience. The Jackson County Conservation had a turtle and this Milk Snake on display and visitors were able to touch or even handle them. Beside the birds of prey during the presentation of the University of Minnesota Raptor Center, this snake was the real star of the event. Many people came to see it and get a hands on experience with the harmless reptile. Not everybody was as brave as this little girl, who had no fear to pick up the snake and let it move around arms and fingers. I guess at the end of the day the snake was a little bit stressed but hopefully a lot more people had a new appreciation about some wildlife that surrounds us.

32ND ANNUAL BALD EAGLE WATCH IN DUBUQUE

Bald Eagle

Dubuque, Iowa had its 32nd annual BALD EAGLE WATCH in the Grand River Center yesterday. I was again a member of the team at the information table of the Dubuque Camera Club. All the local nature resource agencies and organizations were present with educational displays and information. I always enjoy networking with park rangers, other nature enthusiasts, and photographers and it was again a day well spent.

I told you in my last blog post about the snow storm that hit our area and big parts of the Midwest the day and night before. To my surprise the event on Saturday had a very good attendance, despite not so ideal road conditions. Many people of all ages came for the educational programs with live birds of prey.

American Kestrel

The young lady of the University of Minnesota Raptor Center (I’m sorry, I didn’t catch her name) did an awesome job educating the public about four different species of birds she brought with her to Dubuque. I think she answered every possible question that came up during her presentation and you could tell she had a lot of passion about these birds and how to care for them. Very enjoyable! All birds on display had an injury in the past and were unable to live in the wild on their own.

Red-tailed Hawk

The photography was again a bit of a challenge. Very little light in the conference room required very high ISO settings in camera. Flash is not an option with these birds of prey. The presenter moved around most of the time, so everybody in the audience was able to see them pretty good. On the down side it made it difficult to obtain focus and produce a sharp image. As during the last two years at this event I used it as an opportunity to practice handholding of the D750 with the Nikkor 70-200, f/4 attached. The number of misses was of course much higher than usual with this camera / lens combination out in the open country.

Great Horned Owl

BRAVING A WINTER STORM

As I’m writing this a big snow storms still goes over the country and of course doesn’t spare our neck of the woods. I tried to make some storytelling photos as the storm developed during the late afternoon. All the birds that spent the winter here try to get some calories from our bird feeders and woodpeckers, cardinals, nuthatches, chickadees, dark-eyed juncos, and tufted titmice are always good candidates for a photo. 

Since about a couple years we have a gang of House Sparrows using the mountain pines around the house for protection and also benefit from food and water we provide in our heated bird baths. Today’s best storytelling photo in my books was this shot of a female House Sparrow, braving the storm. Oh yeah, the books and smart websites say, don’t use a flash if you have any kind of precipitation. I don’t disagree and there might be some  misses, but if the trails of snowflakes support a sharp image, without being “nuked” by the flash, well, the story of a tiny bird in a winter storm can be told….

INTENTIONAL?

Sometimes things take a weird twist. Quite often a click is made with a good intent but the results are just not even close what the photographer had in mind. I guess everybody who puts some thoughts in their photography can relate to that statement. But here is a story how it can become just the opposite.

Last Friday night, while sitting in a chair and some good music coming out of the loudspeakers, I made some test shots with high ISO settings. I saw the light from the lamp beside me reflected and distorted in a window across the room. The blossom of a house plant in front of the window was my subject to test focus and handholding the camera and lens in low light. There wasn’t really an intent for a good picture. While evaluating my shots on the computer screen I realized the shadow of the flower on the glass of the window and I liked this effect. The lamp is just normal incandescent light, with other words very boring, and so I tweaked the white balance of the image into the extremes you can see here. Hey, now we have an artsy-fartsy-like-shot, or not…?? 😊

NATURE CLICKS #436 - NORTHERN FLICKER

I finally was able to spend some time behind the camera this morning. With some snow on the ground bird photography is a lot of fun. The birds come more frequently to our feeders and using the extra light reflected by the snow is a great benefit. The sun wasn’t out and throwing a hint of flash at the bird brings out the colors and beats the overcast.

I’m still not sure about this Northern Flicker. I think it is a young male who’s malar stripe or “mustache” is not fully developed yet. Currently we see four flickers that visit us every day.

They usually feed on the ground, digging for insects, especially ants. This is not an option at the moment and during the winter their diet consists of seeds and berries. I’m sure our suet feeders help them to survive the winter and we are very happy to see this beautiful bird.