ON THE GOAT PRAIRIE

At Pohlman’s Prairie, Little Maquoketa River Valley, Iowa

Only about a mile away from our home is a 23 acre site of ‘goat prairie’, a remnant and variant of tall grass prairie, mostly found in the Upper Mississippi Valley on south-southwest slopes. It is a preserve here on top of the limestone bluffs in our valley of the Little Maquoketa River, just north of Dubuque, Iowa. Only a few more miles down, the Little Maquoketa meets the mighty Mississippi.

Last week Joan celebrated her birthday and due to the circumstances we all know about, we didn’t go out for a fancy dinner but made a short hike up the slope to ‘Pohlman’s Prairie’. Too early for wildflowers on the goat prairie but the view across the valley compensates for the efforts to make this little hike. The small patch of dry grass prairie is surrounded by Eastern Red Cedars. Actually an invasive tree, but nevertheless very pretty and its berries are a great source of food during fall and winter for several species of birds.

I always loved this spot on top of the bluffs and have photographed it many times before. With nothing but overcast, I thought a black and white photo would tell the story about this day at the end of winter the best. The dark cedars in the foreground frame the river and bridge. It doesn’t matter that there are no leaves out yet, the trees on the other side of the valley are out of focus but give a sense of place. Not a photo for the next local touristic brochure but I have enjoyed making it and it pleases my sense for landscape photography.

THE FLICKER'S STORY

Male Northern Flicker

The last couple mornings brought us some sunlight and combined with woodpeckers getting closer to their mating season, the colors of their feathers are at their best. The ground is soft and the Northern Flickers are in the grass and probe with their bills in the soil for insects. It is believed that they eat ants more than any other North American bird, but right now it is a little bit to early for their preferred food.

At this time of the year it is a good habit to have the camera with the long lens mounted on a tripod and always ready to shoot. You never know what shows up in the morning and if there is an interesting sighting, you might miss the opportunity to make a good click if the gear is not ready.

I talk a lot about the storytelling in our images, especially during my presentations, and it is always valid to ask yourself, “what is the story in the photo?”. It might be possible to get a shot of the flicker with his bill in the ground, mostly with the eyes closed, but is it desirable and will be a pleasing photo? I’m not so sure. The flicker in the grass, holding still for a few seconds, while watching out for predators, is a great moment to make the click. The little bit of dirt on its bill tells the story about its feeding habits. The colors of the flicker’s feathers, the old dried up leaves and faded grass, together with the first green of the season leave no doubt what time of the year the picture was taken. And there is your story…

ANOTHER SIGN OF SPRING

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 ….