AT THE CONFLUENCE

The Wisconsin River meets the mighty Mississippi. Pikes Peak State Park, Iowa

One of the best places here in eastern Iowa to have a great view over the driftless area, the landscape that wasn’t shaped by the glaciers, is Pike Peaks State Park. Here, just above the confluence of the Mississippi River and the Wisconsin River you get the idea what a gem the area is we live in. When we have visitors from Germany, we always try to make Pikes Peak State Park part of the program (Hallo Claudia, Susanne & Andre St. 😊). I have shot here several times before over the years but never managed to tell the story of this great vista with just one photo.

This Sunday was a gorgeous warm winter day. Joan and I took our little dog Cooper for a ride and a short hike in the woods of the state park. The blue sky didn’t make for a lot of drama, but with the low sun behind us it was ideal for a panorama photo. I turned to a six-shot pano, trying to bring this great view all together in just one image. No tripod, just hand-hold upright clicks, with about 20-30% overlap and then simply assembly in Adobe Lightroom, using its panorama function. The result is a photo with almost 17,000 pixel on the long side, which would allow to print it 1.5 - 2 m wide without loss of detail. The small version of the picture here in the blog doesn’t do it much justice, but if you click on the photo and use the full real estate of your computer screen, you may get why I’m happy about the outcome of this probably 150 degree view.

INTERESTING GULL

Great Black-backed Gull, Mississippi River, lock & dam #14, LeClaire, Iowa

On my way back from a business trip I stopped briefly at lock & dam #14 after crossing the Mississippi River. The pool below #14 near LeClaire, Iowa has been often a good place for watching and photographing Bald Eagles. Unfortunately the relativ mild winters during the last couple years led to a drastic decline in the numbers of eagles that spend the cold season at this location. In addition some trees, used as a perch by the eagles, have died and had to be removed. They have been replaced by some man-made wooden structures but I have not seen any eagle using them.

I saw a couple Bald Eagles, circling high up in the sky, but none of them was within the range for a photo. As always, some Ring-billed Gulls were catching fish and among them I saw two Great Black-backed Gulls. They breed in northeastern North America at the Atlantic coast but may wander inland during the winter. To make it clear, I’m never one hundred percent sure about identification of gulls but I think this one is a Great Black-backed Gull in its first winter. However, there are similarities to a young Herring Gull and if someone can give me a second opinion I will appreciate it.

So how about the photography? I only had a few minutes to make a picture and since I haven’t aimed the lens at birds in flight for a while, I was a little “rusty” and missed a number of shots.

TONTO NATURAL BRIDGE

Tonto Natural Bridge, Arizona

There is one photo I still like to show you from my trip to Arizona three weeks ago. Not because it is overly pretty, but it took a few extra thoughts and efforts in the making. On my way back from Petrified Forest National Park to the airport in Phoenix I took a little side trip and visited Tonto Natural Bridge State Park. The bridge is located a few miles north of Payson in the mountains of Central Arizona. It is believed to be the largest natural travertine bridge in the world.

With very limited time on hand (never a good thing) and being there around 2PM, with the sun high in the sky, made me wonder if there was even a decent photo opportunity as I was driving down into the deep valley to the state park area. Another bummer, the access to the observation deck below the bridge was closed due to some high water damage. I had to make the best out of the circumstances at this visit for getting a photo but at least I wanted to see it.

The only way to manage the very high contrast scene was to bracket each image with five handheld shots (-2,-1,0,1,2EV). I’m really not a big fan of HDR but it is amazing how the technology inside of Adobe’s software has improved during the last years. Within a minute the five shots were lined up and merged into a DNG file in Lightroom. It still took some dodging and burning to balance the exposure locally.

I wanted a picture that made it clear that this was a natural bridge, with a little light from the other side, and showing some of the travertine structures. The cactus in the foreground and the pines, or their shadows in the canyon, give a better idea about this place. First I was tempted to remove the safety reeling on top of the bridge but than I realized that it gives this geologic wonder a sense of scale.

PAINTED DESERT (7)

Painted Desert, Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona

Thank you to everybody who came out last night, despite the freezing cold, to see my presentation in the EB Lyon Center. It was a nice audience who had great questions at the end and I had good conversations with some people afterwards.

Here is another photo from my recent trip to Arizona. Desert landscapes have always fascinated me and arranging the elements with the play of the light can be a challenge but is also simple fun. Have a great weekend!

JOIN THE PRESENTATION

Whimbrel, Bolsa Chica Ecological Preserve

Tomorrow I give another photo presentation about STORYTELLING IN WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY. The Dubuque Audubon Society has invited me to be the presenter at their monthly meeting. The event is free and open to the public.

Here are some questions I like to answer:

  • How to start with wildlife photography, even with a small camera and lens?

  • Where are good locations that are easy to access in and around the Mississippi Valley ?

  • How can we become better storytellers with our photos?

  • How about safety and ethics?

  • What other locations outside of Iowa would you recommend?

I have a number of new photos that made it into the presentation. If you live in or around Dubuque and the Tri-State area, please join me tomorrow night

Thursday, February 13, 2020, 6PM @ the EB Lyons Interpretive Center at the Mines of Spain, 8991 Bellevue Heights Rd, Dubuque, IA.

I hope to see you there!

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.