If there is anything I don’t like about March here in eastern Iowa, it’s the fact that we have so many gray days without any sun. Today was another one of those. The photo of the crocuses is from yesterday, when a little more light was available and no extra efforts were necessary to make the colors pop. For this picture I employed the Nikkor 16-35, f/4 and closed down to f/10 for more depth of field than in the photo of the Hepatica from yesterday’s blog post. As I always stress, I’m not a flower photographer, but with all the gray and brown from last winter on the ground a few colors don’t hurt and keep the spirit up on a day like this.
SERIOUS SIGN OF SPRING
Hepatica americana
No, the photo wasn’t taken in our woods this time but during a little hike that Joan, dog Cooper, and I took in the Mines of Spain State Recreation Area this evening. Hepatica Americana is the first wild flower that usually shows up and we found it below some rock bluffs in a more remote part in this park south of Dubuque, Iowa.
I wanted this kind of shot with a low depth of field. At 200 mm and f/5 only a couple blossoms are in focus, but it keeps the eye away from the dried clutter around the plant and that’s the way I like it.
STILL LIFE - OMA’S KITCHEN ITEMS
Oma’s Kitchen Items, 2020
My grandma was a really good cook and after she died 30 years ago I kept a few of her kitchen items in my possession and still use them. They bring up fond memories any time I look at them. I always liked the thick glass and how it feels in my hands. I know this sounds silly, but the aesthetics of these glass and metal items appeal to me. Since a very long time I was thinking about to make a photo of these kitchen items. This idea got propelled when I finally saw the photo Still Life, San Francisco, California, c. 1932, in Ansel Adam’s book Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs some time ago. It shows a couple glass bottles, two eggs, and also the same kind of egg slicer that I have from my grandma. No, I didn’t want to copy his arrangements but his photo gave me pleasure about how the light falls on and around his items. Adams writes, …very rewarding effects are possible with available light in the studio, whether from natural skylight or window light, or from existing artificial sources.
I don’t even have a studio but I knew it was doable in our living room, with its large windows and high ceiling. Today was finally the day when this plan was put into practice. A gray overcast sky produced a very soft light, even more diffused by the tall windows on the left. I used black foam board as my backdrop and a couple white pieces to direct the light, either shading it off (left side) or using the board as a reflector (right side). For this photo I handhold an additional 22” white reflector for some extra light from above right.
The boiled egg and the half lemon add some texture and life to the image. Oma’s kitchen items are older than me and using black and white for the final photo was part of the plan from the very beginning.
By the way, if you wonder what the kidney-shaped glass container on the left is, here is the story. My grandparents were operating a little restaurant and country side pub before I was born. A popular item on the menu in this part of Germany, the Upper Lusatia, was head cheese (Sülze), mostly served with fried potatoes or fresh baked bread, raw onion rings, plus oil and vinegar. I guess drinking beer with this food was mandatory…😉 This glass bowl was used as a mold for making the head cheese. After the jelly was cold and hard, the mold was flipped upside down on a plate and the other food items were added. My grandpa loved head cheese and I remember that this glass container was still used in their home when I was a child.
Nikon D750, Carl Zeiss Distagon 35mm f/2 ZF T*, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, RRS BH-55 ball head, VELLO wired remote switch, @ f/16, 1 s, ISO100
NATURE CLICKS #440 - SONG SPARROW
Going out into nature for a photo shoot or bird watching by car is one of the activities that can be done without putting anybody at risk. All images created today were shot from the safety of my car. This seems to be an easy task because a foam roll on top of the rolled down side window provides usually good lens and camera support. Today a typical seasonal problem made getting a sharp picture quite difficult. I’m talking about heat shimmer. When the cold air above the ground mixes with air already warmed up by the sun the effect is the same as viewing through exhaust gases from a jet engine. It is maybe not as strong but looking at a bird or critter through a long lens compresses this effect. With other words, I came back today with a lot more unsharp pictures than usually.
The birds get ready to mate and this Song Sparrow was singing his heart out. They look at their best at this time of the year. So, why taking a picture in the cluttered environment of a ranking plant? This is the habitat where this sparrow will spend the summer and where it will raise up to three broods per season. The Song Sparrow can be found in most parts of North America. We see them mostly at the edge of water bodies, like the Mississippi River, with open grassy feeding areas.
MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2020 #1 - A FAVORITE VIEW
Bridge across the Mississippi, Lansing, Iowa
It feels good to do some normal things in these days of uncertainty. Means wrapping my thoughts around photography and writing a new blog post.
This photo was taken last Sunday. Joan and I made a trip along the river to the wetlands up in New Albin, Iowa’s most northeastern town at the border to Minnesota. Before you get there you have this beautiful view of the bridge that crosses the Mississippi in Lansing. It is one of my favorite views here in the Mississippi Valley. This time I used the upper balcony of the Driftless Area Nature and Education Center in Lansing. The slightly higher elevation allows to keep the road in the foreground out of the frame without zooming to much into the scene. I hope you enjoy.
WOODPECKER AND WHITE BALANCE
Hairy Woodpecker
Every morning several woodpeckers still try to get a snack from our feeders near the house. With four different species you never know who will be the first one. It was the warm light this morning that caught my attention while getting ready for the day. The Hairy Woodpeckers are usually the most skittish ones and I’m always happy if I get a sharp image of one of them.
This was all not very difficult today, the woodpecker moved around while I opened the window carefully, but didn’t fly away and gave me some time to make a few clicks in the first sunlight that hit our woods. However, a mistake was made that needed some correction in post process at the computer. I simply forgot to reset the white balance in the D750 from my last shooting. I had it still at 7400 Kelvin, a setting I use quite often during sunsets when there is some red or orange in the sky. The light was definitely warm but by far not that warm. I hardly ever correct white balance or colors in my wildlife photography but what I saw on the screen was not what I saw this morning. After correcting to “cloudy WB” (6500 K) in Adobe Lightroom, the photo reflects much better how the light had unfold early on this Friday.
Mistakes are good for one thing, they can teach us a lesson for the next time we try to make a new photo. A little nuance in light temperature can make a difference how we tell the story about our wildlife encounters. Sure, we can always “fiddle” at the computer but I still believe in the craft of photography, means get it right in camera.
PASSING BY
Greater White-fronted Geese
Not a full moon but pretty close. I made this picture yesterday at 600 mm focal length. Most of the Greater White-fronted Geese managed to fly around but finally I found a few that would pass in front of the moon. The trick is to predict the path the geese would take and track them by panning with the lens. If you pre-focus on the moon and just wait until a bird flies by, the geese would be most likely just blurry. The warm light on the birds creates a nice color contrast to the cool background and leaves no doubt about when this shot was taken.
NATURE CLICKS #439 - SANDHILL CRANES
Sandhill Cranes, Mississippi Valley, Green Island Wetlands, Iowa
If you read my blog long enough you knew that I would go back to the Green Island Wetlands along the Mississippi River if great weather would unfold today again. That’s what exactly happened. The ice on the river has melted very quickly this week and only very shallow parts of the backwaters show still some ice cover. I was pretty sure that the geese and ducks would prefer to spend more time here, because the tundra up north in the arctic regions is probably still white and the warm sun at the moment feels good for the birds and of course for us as well.
So, here is a little report about the species I have seen during the last couple evenings in the Green Island Wetlands:
Mallards (many, very many…)
American Wigeon (6+),
Northern Pintail (4+),
Bufflehead (4),
Northern Shoveler (just one, but more will come soon),
Sandhill Crane (6+),
Great Blue Heron (2)
Snow Goose, ( ~10)
Greater White-fronted Goose (thousands),
Killdeer, (after hearing and seeing the first ones last weekend, many have arrived today)
Red-winged Blackbirds (now appearing in large numbers as every year)
plus the locals, like Trumpeter Swans, Ring-billed Gulls, Bald Eagles, etc….)
I saw a few Sandhill Cranes foraging in the wet fields and marsh land already yesterday. The direction of light and even more annoying the presence of heat shimmer prevented a good click. Heat shimmer is pretty common at this time of the season. The warm air above the cold ground has an distorting effect and makes a sharp image nearly impossible, in particular if viewed through a long lens. It was a pretty crisp day and when these two Sandhill Cranes flew by while loud calling, heat shimmer didn’t play any role because they flew high enough above the ground. We don’t see them by the hundreds or thousands, like further west, but quiet a few breed in the Mississippi Valley and no other bird announces spring better with their call like the Sandhill Cranes. More to come, please stay tuned…
GEESE MIGRATION
I was afraid I would miss the migration of the Greater White-fronted Geese while I was out of town this week. Luckily they were present in the wetlands this evening and during the last hour before sunset thousands flew through the Mississippi Valley and finally away from the river. Unfortunately they didn’t land in the fields that border the Green Island Wetlands like last year, when the fields were mostly flooded.
I chose a position on the west side of the bird sanctuary, with the sun in my back, but wasn’t close enough for the majority of the geese. The waxing moon had good visibility and my hope was to make some pictures with geese flying in front of it. Well the photo above was the closest I got for this goal. With the moon as an anchor point and a thin wave of Greater White-fronted Geese flying away from it, negative space fills most of the frame. Not a bad thing in my books…
Greater White-fronted Geese, Mississippi Valley, Green Island Wetlands
Still a long way to go. Their breeding ground is in Alaska and far-northern Canada.
KEEPING AN EYE ON IT
Trumpeter Swan, Mississippi Valley, Green Island Wetlands, Iowa
You were supposed to see this photo earlier this week but business travel during the last three days left no time for even thinking much about photography fun. The picture is from last Sunday where I found the same pair of Trumpeter Swans at the same spot as the day before (Click HERE for the earlier post). About 50 more swans were way in the back, almost at the other side of the lake, but too far away for a closer look.
It happens quite often, we watch an animal for quite some time, we get some static shots, but not much happens. It is patience and knowing about the animal’s behavior, knowing a little bit about their biology, that can make the difference and let us make the photo at the decisive moment. For the Trumpeter Swans we are talking about the 2-3 seconds when they may flap their wings in order to dry them. For this kind of shot the last couple hours before sunset work well at this time of the year. You really never know when that will happen, but after they get out of the water, it is important to have your eye on the bird and the lens pre-focused. I missed this kind of gesture on Saturday, but Sunday I had my second chance and fired through the two seconds of action. The Nikon D750 is not really the ideal camera for fast action. With 6.5 frames per second and a relative small buffer the limit is quickly reached. It was enough for this time of action and the story about winter fading away in the wetlands can be told.
NATURE CLICKS #438 - RED-TAILED HAWK
Mississippi Valley, Green Island Wetlands, Iowa
We had another gorgeous day here in eastern Iowa, with sun and temperatures way above the freezing point. Good reason to go out again and try to make some clicks. We decided to visit the Green Island Wetlands again this afternoon, after it was a good place to be already yesterday. Shortly after we entered the wetland area Joan spotted this Red-tailed Hawk. It is the most common hawk here but it is not always easy to get close. The bird took off before we even had a chance to get close. Luckily the raptor returned quickly and landed in a dead tree not far from the gravel road. We approached slowly and stopped within a good shooting range, trying not to scare the bird. The hawk was probably on a hunt for mice that were attracted by the warm sun as much as we were. The melting ice below threw some extra light from underneath. More light allows for a fast shutter speed and it wasn’t difficult to make the photo by handholding the heavy SIGMA 150-600.
Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, @ 600 mm, 1/1600 s, f/6.3, ISO200
COULDN’T ASK FOR MORE…
Trumpeter Swans, Mississippi Valley, Green Island Wetlands, Iowa
The biggest difference between my last visit in the Green Island Wetlands a week ago and today was the number of Canada Geese. Many more have arrived and spread wherever there was already open water. Most of the lakes and canals have still an ice cover but with warmer temperatures ahead of us this will change quickly. The bird migration has started and during the hour before sunset I saw hundreds, if not thousands, of geese flying upstream in the Mississippi Valley. The best sign that spring is probably just around the corner was the presence of seven Red-winged Blackbirds… YEEAAH!!!
Beside Canada Geese I watched and worked this pair of Trumpeter Swans with the camera. The light was lovely and while using the car again as my “mobile blind”, the swans acted like I wasn’t even there. It all came together in this photo. Both birds were very close together for a brief moment and their heads formed the shape of a heart. Couldn’t ask for more…
Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, @ 600 mm, 1/640 s, f/8, ISO100
BRIDAL FALLS
Bridal Falls, Pikes Peak State Park , Iowa
I’m picking up where I left almost a week ago. Being on the road for another business trip prevented any contribution to this blog from a photographic standpoint. Not that I wouldn’t take the camera with me, but light and schedule haven’t been in my favor.
Last Sunday, Joan, dog Cooper, and I took a hike in Pikes Peak State Park, Iowa, which led to Bridal Falls (Deutsch: Brautfall). With the sun behind the ridge and waterfall, not much could be gained from the light on this side of the slope (facing east).
I have seen this waterfall before and at that time it was nothing but a trickle. With things in place, I guess the photo that tells a powerful story about winter in Iowa was within the range ….
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.