SHOOT IT NOW

Clouds and sunset over the ridge, Saint Donatus, Iowa

If there is one thing I would list above everything else I learned from studying the work of some well known or famous photographers over the years, it’s the advice, shoot it now.

Driving home the fifty-minutes-drive from the Green Island Wetlands to our home north of Dubuque, Iowa around or shortly after sunset can lead to interesting views, including clouds and of course the sun itself. The photo was made last Saturday and I pulled the car off the highway to make the click. I loved the patterns of snow below the wooded ridge, all framed by the clouds and the remaining light of the sun. It’s a private residence and the house on the slope is even in the picture, but underexposing the photo just for the highlights keeps the picture out of unwanted distractions.

A day later I drove home from the wetlands about the same time. There was again light from the setting sun, fewer clouds, but the sky was still worth a consideration for a photo. So what was the difference? Well the white stuff was almost gone and none of the snow bands on the road or in the fields were intact. It was in my books not worth to stop, the picture was gone. I’m quoting acclaimed photographer Jay Maisel: Never go back. Shoot it now. When you go back, it will always be different.

CATCHING AND DROPPING

Bald Eagle, Mississippi River, at the bridge between Sabula, IA and Savannah, IL

Nice weather again today made many people go out this weekend and look for Bald Eagles along the big river. The break-up of the ice on the Mississippi opens new opportunities for the eagles. They like to catch fish and more open water means more opportunities. There are some places along the river that the birds obviously prefer and visitors can watch a great show of performance sometimes. This adult eagle had picked up a fish from the ice that was dropped by another bird before.

This 2-3 years old juvenile had dropped a fish several times before finally claiming it. Dropping the catch often leads to a total loss because countless Ring-billed Gulls wait for their opportunity to steal a fish from the eagles.

Nikon Z6II, Nikon FTZ adapter, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S

ICE AND REFLECTIONS

Green Island Preserve, Mississippi Valley, Iowa

Today I was out for the fourth time this year in the Green Island Wetlands. Although it has been still cold during the nights, the warmer temperatures during the days have set the ice on the Mississippi in motion. There was a lot more open water than just a week ago and with it come the birds that move north to their breeding grounds. I saw several hundred Greater White-fronted Geese, Canada Geese, Trumpeter Swans, and lots of ducks coming through the Mississippi Valley after 4PM today.

The sun was hiding behind a thin layer of clouds and made for some interesting light. The puddles of water on the marshy fields started freezing again and reflected the light nicely. I had some shots of the birds already on the memory card and during a quiet moment changed the lens quickly and captured the landscape with ice and reflections. To keep the highlights intact the picture was underexposed by -2/3EV

Nikon Z6II, Nikon FTZ adapter, Nikon Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm, f/4,  @ 82mm, 1/320s, f/11, ISO 100

NATURE CLICKS #543 - RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER

It is the best time of the year to photograph woodpeckers. The lens is aimed at a male Red-bellied Woodpecker quite often, but it takes a certain quality of light to make their red head really stand out from the rest of the image. Feathers reflect light for different purposes, like for camouflage, or of course, for attracting a mate. If the ambient light is not perfect, a hint of flash, and I mean really just a hint, throws the red color of the woodpecker’s head back right between your eyes…

NATURE CLICKS #542 - DOWNY WOODPECKER

Male Downy Woodpecker

It was not very busy around our bird feeders during the last three days. Spring is not here yet but warmer temperatures made the snow from last week melting quickly and the energy demand of the birds has obviously slowed down. This may change tonight and tomorrow. Another winter storm warning has been issued. The bird we can always count on to show up is the Downy Woodpecker. Up to nine ‘Downys’ have been here at the same time while we had the last cold snap. It is a great bird to practice bird photography, even for beginners. The contrast around their eyes makes it easy to focus and get a sharp picture in comparison to many other species. While males and females stay separate in fall and early winter, they form pairs during late winter. Both sexes take turns drumming loudly on dead limbs in the trees and that sound has started already around here.

FEBRUARY SUN, LONG SHADOWS

Mississippi River, Green Island Preserve. Eastern Iowa

February sun with already long shadows from the trees at mid afternoon, over a well known and still iced over part of the Green Island Wetlands. The photo was taken from a small boat ramp we have used many times before to launch our kayaks. This is about forty miles south from our home and that short of a distance can make quite a difference how the weather impacts the landscape. Here they didn’t get by far as much snow as we did this week and a couple degrees difference in temperature can make the snow disappear much faster.

Before the Green Island preserve was separated from the Mississippi River by dikes, this was obviously all backwaters of the big river. I have photographed from this spot before and it is one of my favorite locations in the wetlands. Always liked how the lines of this channel move the eye to the horizon and how the trees follow this line.

While approaching the place I saw the cloud in the background moving fast towards the east. I was hoping it would have been a little more to the left, in the gap between the trees, but unfortunately I was too late. I’m still happy with the photo, telling the story about gorgeous winter days here in the Driftless Region of the Upper Mississippi Valley.

WINTER WONDERLAND RESTORED

The view into the valley wasn’t pretty during the last days, with the old snow from earlier this year almost gone. But a new thick layer of the white stuff poured on us again all morning. It was very wet snow and it did cling to the trees. “Winter Wonderland” restored, even if it was only for a few hours…

The deciduous forest here, without its leaves, bares a lot of distractions that often do not work for a photo very well. The chaos of branches is reduced by their snow cover, they stand out and it almost becomes a texture. Using black and white for the final image emphasizes the beauty that we saw today while looking at the trees above the valley below.

RACCOON MOON

Mississippi Valley, Green Island Wetlands, Iowa

I left the Green Island Wetlands in the Mississippi Valley late last Sunday evening. My hope was to spot maybe a Short-eared Owl, which I had seen in this area before some years ago. This didn’t happen but instead the call from a Great Horned Owl echoed from the rocky bluffs that line the edge of the valley after sunset. I enjoyed it for a few minutes while sitting in the car with the windows down. Just as I was ready to leave I looked to the east and realized that I had missed the moonrise over the Mississippi River. It was still gorgeous and since the Sigma 150-600 S was still on camera, I used the long end of the lens for a compressed view across the wetlands.

I finished the book “Saga of the Sioux” just recently and learned that many civilizations, including native Americans, used a calendar based on the cycles of the moon. Some would call the one we see here “Moon of the Dark Red Calves”, others call it “Racoon Moon”. It makes sense, raccoons mate in February and amorous raccoons become especially raucous. Yep, let’s call this photo ‘Raccoon Moon’!

Nikon Z6II, Nikon FTZ adapter, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S,….@ 600 mm

SEEKING ITS CHANCE

Sharp-shinned Hawk

Here are two more photos from last weekends’s shooting in the “front yard studio”. Our Sharp-shinned Hawk didn’t care about me standing on the porch at all and gave me 36 minutes to make new pictures while he was waiting for a chance to catch some prey. As already mentioned, the light was perfect that day. The biggest challenge was finding a spot with an unobstructed view. The bird moved several times between different trees at the edge of the woods. It finally tried to hunt down a woodpecker but had to leave hungry this time.

WINTER STORY

Red-winged Blackbirds, Green Island Wetlands, Mississippi Valley, Iowa

One of the stories I heard and read quite often after I moved from Europe to North America is that the return of the Red-winged Blackbird at the end of winter here in the Midwest, is a sure sign that spring is not far away. This was true for many years since I photograph wildlife in the Upper Mississippi Valley. Not so much anymore since about the last three years. I have seen Red-winged Blackbirds during all of my frequent visits in the Green Island Wetlands, even at really cold times. It seems the blackbirds stay much further north during the winter now.

Today I had quite a large flock in front of the lens. Hard to guess how many, but at least several hundred. The birds either rested in trees or went down to the ground all together, foraging between the reeds of the marshland or patches of corn fields that were left intentionally by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

I asked myself, how can this story be told with the camera? I wanted as many red wings in the frame as possible. It was also important to have some snow in the picture. The compressed view through the 600 mm lens hides the snow on the ground between the reeds, but the rocky slope of the Mississippi Valley, far in the back, delivers some white between all the birds and an open spot on the left hand side adds as well. There was enough light to shoot with exposure times between 1/1000s and 1/4000s and the best results came with the sun right from behind.

Rough-legged Hawk

The blackbirds were closely watched by a Rough-legged Hawk. During summer time on their breeding grounds in the arctic tundra they eat mostly small rodents, like lemmings and voles. The Red-winged Blackbirds didn’t hesitate to land in trees right next to the hawk. I wonder if the raptor just waited to get a hold of a slow straggler or if he hoped to catch mice that may come out of the snow covered ground for seeds or corn the birds had dropped…

NATURE CLICKS #541 - WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH

It was ideal weather today for spending some time in the “front yard studio”, with temperatures slightly above freezing. The sun was out and a very thin and hazy layer of clouds acted as a great light diffuser and in addition the snow on the ground worked as an additional light bouncer. I put the 1.4 Teleconverter on the lens and shot almost the whole time at 850 mm focal length. This allowed me to stay under the cover of our porch roof and the birds had less to worry about my presence.

One of the species I wanted to focus on was the White-breasted Nuthatch. The first image was made in the very early afternoon while the nuthatch posed briefly on this cedar stump. This adds some nice color contrast to the white, gray, and black of the bird and the crisp winter light.

Three hours later the setting sun added some warm light to the edge of our woods. It was a perfect setting for the typical “head down” of a White-breasted Nuthatch while moving down a tree trunk.

Nikon Z6II, Nikon FTZ adapter, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, Sigma APO Teleconverter 1.4x EX DG, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, Induro GHB2 gimbal head, Nikon SB 800 speed light, MAGMOD MagBeam flash extender,

1. photo   @ 850 mm, 1/1250 s, f/9, ISO 640

2. photo   @ 850 mm, 1/640 s, f/9, ISO 1600

SHARPIE’S STRIKE

Sharp-shinned Hawk after making a kill

A short glimpse outside the window this late afternoon told me that a raptor was around because all the birds were gone. Well, wait a minute, except for one! It was our Sharp-shinned Hawk who got a hold of a woodpecker. There wasn’t much left of the bird and I’m still not 100% sure if the hawk caught a Downy or one of the larger Hairy Woodpeckers. The size of some feathers make me believe it was the latter.

I grabbed the camera quickly and opened the window silently. The picture is cropped to about DX size because I had to shoot through the legs of a bird bath installation in the front yard. The Sharp-shinned Hawk ate pretty fast but lifted its head from time to time.

The key for a sharp shot was predicting when the head is up and at a total standstill, called “peak of action”. The ability to shoot up to 14 frames per second with the Nikon Z6II helps to nail this moment even with just a short shutter burst.

Of course, we like all birds we are fortuned to see here above the Little Maquoketa Valley. It’s sad to see a woodpecker go, but we also know birds of prey, as the Sharp-shinned Hawk, play an important ecological role in maintaining the environmental health of their natural habitat. As apex predators they remove sick, old, and weak animals from prey population and keep prey species and mesopredator populations under control.

ROUGH DAYS (BUT NOT FOR THE PHOTOGRAPHER)

Yellow-shafted Northern Flicker

The last few days have been pretty rough for most of the birds here in our woods. Snow and cold temperatures require a higher energy level and finding food is more difficult. As often reported before, we have quite a few bird feeders that attract the birds and help them to go through the winter. For us wildlife photographers the goal is not to make the photo while the bird is at a feeder, but we want to make the click when they use a perch and approach the feeder or a bird bath.

Alright, today I make an exception from the rule, because I like to show you how things are done for the woodpeckers. This male yellow-shafted Northern Flicker uses the horizontal branch of this dead cedar to perch on while feeding at a suet feeder. I figured out they do not like to hang on the cage or hold on to the tree trunk as much as other species do. The small Downy Woodpecker for instance holds on to the cage quite often. The larger Hairy or Red-bellied Woodpeckers seem to prefer the tree trunk and often feed from below, while supporting their body with the tail. Each bird species have their own way to approach the food source.

American Robin

Since a few years every winter we have a number of American Robins here. They are not coming for our bird feeders but the juniper berries of the red cedars around here are their food source. However, they like to visit a bird bath for drinking and sometimes even take a bath. Before they fly in the robins perch in a tree nearby. While maybe four or five at a time gather around the water, others sit in the trees and watch for predators until it is their turn for a drink.

Blue Jay

Blue Jays are more aggressive towards other birds. They make their presence known with noisy calls and they often scare other birds away from a feeder when they think it’s time to eat. The Blue Jays go for everything, sunflower seeds, crushed corn on the ground, or pick even at a suet feeder. Snow on the ground is the best time to photograph this intelligent bird with its blue, black, and white plumage.

Male Northern Cardinal

We are lucky to have a large number of Northern Cardinals flocked together here during the winter. During their breeding time in the summer they move around in pairs. The male cardinals defend their breeding territory fiercely against other males. Cardinals almost always perch on a low branch or in a shrub before they approach a bird feeder. Placing a perch near the feeder can be key to make the click with the camera.

FROM THE ARCHIVE: BOWMAN LAKE, GLACIER NP, MONTANA

Bowman Lake, Glacier National Park, Montana, 2008

As I reorganize my photo library during the winter I come across some pictures that trigger great memories from the time they were created. This one is from September 2008. We had pitched our tent at Bowman Lake in Glacier National Park in Montana. A walk along the lake, with the camera on tripod over my shoulder in the morning, was the first attempt to capture some of the endless beauty Glacier National Park has to offer. Clouds and fog over the lake were lifting and the diffused sun showed up above the mountain ridge.

Only three pictures from that walk in the morning were kept in the archive but due to the lack of knowledge I probably missed a lot of opportunities. My post-processing skills were also still at a beginner’s level at that time and obviously one of the reasons I didn’t touch the file for almost fifteen years. Luckily from day one, since a DSLR camera was in the photo bag (in April 2007), I shot every single image as a RAW file, means all the data are lossless “conserved”. In addition post processing software has evolved tremendously during the last fifteen years. Taking an old photo like this, tweaking and processing it with the latest tools is fun and allows us to share photos, we maybe would not have considered at the time right after they were captured in camera.

So, what was done here? The gray in the sky overpowered all the colors and took a lot away from the scene as I saw it. It was important that the highlights in the sun and reflections of the sun were not blown out and would render in a white “blob” in a print on paper, or just on the screen of the computer. Although the photo was shot at ISO 100, I still used Topaz DeNoise AI for further noise reduction. This fantastic software also does a great job for the basic sharpness every RAW file needs to undergo for a final sharp image. Subtle fining tuning of vibrance, contrast, highlights, and shadows, most of it locally in Adobe Camera RAW with its relatively new mask features, has led to the final image.