FOLLOWING THE CLOUDS TODAY

The whole week we had these wonderful puffy clouds here in the Mississippi Valley. Unfortunately they dissolve before the day ends. I thought it is worth a try to drive down already early afternoon today to the Green Island Wetlands, one of my favorite wildlife spots as the avid reader of my blog already knows.

I wanted to come back with some black and white images that tell the story about the landscape of the Green Island Wildlife Management area and maybe an idea what the clouds can do to enhance it. To get already a good preview into my mind how the final picture would look, I set the camera to monochrome mode and with a red filter setting applied, simulating the same way I would have photographed this scene back in the days of film. As I shoot always in RAW mode all the color information is still embedded in the file and it still allows me to tweak a certain color in post process for the final outcome.

How much impact clouds can have to emphasize a certain landscape can be comprehended by studying the work of Ansel Adams or Clyde Butcher. I admire the photography of Ansel Adams since a long time but discovered Clyde Butcher only a couple years ago through the book ”Seeing the Light” by Tom Shroder and John Barry. What an amazing life story and mesmerizing photography! I follow the Instagram posts of this renowned black and white photographer, humanitarian, and environmentalist, but if you like to just have a look, go to his website clydebutcher.com . Highly recommended!

STORY TELLING OVER PERFECTION

I’m a big advocate that story telling in a picture takes priority over the ”perfect shot”. This photo is probably a good example for this claim. If the American Goldfinch would be totally separated from the flower right behind it, this would be a bit better. However, a different angle of view was not an option at this location. Let’s look at the story in this photo. We are close to the end of summer and it’s time for the seed eaters, like the goldfinches, to feed their offspring or just to put some weight on for the upcoming cold seasons. The Purple Cone Flowers in the front yard, and anywhere else, are on their way out and provide plenty of food for the finches. The picture tells pretty much this story and of course, a male goldfinch is one of the prettiest birds around here…

Nikon Z6 III, Nikon NIKKOR Z 600 f/6.3 VR S, Nikon Z Teleconverter TC-1.4x, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, Induro GHB2 gimbal head, Westscott FJ80 II speed light,  @ 840mm, 1/1000 s, f/9, ISO 1250, slightly cropped,

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2025 #5 - SUMMER AT ITS BEST

Nikon Z6 III, Nikon NIKKOR Z 600 f/6.3 VR S,   @ 1/2000 s, f/8, ISO 500

I haven’t posted another ”Mississippi River Story” since May but I like to do so at the height of the summer. The heat and very high humidity during the last weeks has been replaced by cooler temperatures, a bit of wind, nice puffy clouds at times, but we still had plenty of sunshine. All good reasons to get the kayak out for a couple paddle trips in the backwaters of the big river. The vegetation is lush and green and some flowers can still be found between the arrow heads and water lilies that grow everywhere in the Mud Lake area. The breeding season for most birds is almost over, it is a lot quieter on the water, and I had a lot less photo opportunities for wildlife. But there is always room for a surprise and a couple Great Blue Herons posed nicely within the range of the lens. I caught the first heron standing motionless in the water, like in the picture below. But the bird moved on and I missed the shot. At the second opportunity the wind pushed me almost too close to the bird but by reading its body language I knew a second ahead of time when the decisive moment would happen. This time luck was on my side.

Nikon Z6 III, Nikon NIKKOR Z 600 f/6.3 VR S,   @ 1/2000 s, f/8, ISO 500

Mississippi River, Mud Lake, Iowa,

Nikon Z6III, Nikkor Z 24-70, f/4 S,   @ 55mm, 1/320 s, f/11, ISO 100

I came back to the entrance of the marina at Mud Lake Park in the evening, hoping to get nice warm light on the puffy clouds we had all day long. Unfortunately the clouds dissolved very quickly due to the air getting drier. The blue boat came at the right time to rescue this photo. A couple minutes later the cloud show was over…

HUNTING BELOW THE DAM

Double-crested Cormorants hunt for fish often together with American White Pelicans, but they may not compete because they catch fish at a different depth in the water. However, I saw cormorants steeling fish a pelican had dropped. The pelican tried to get it back… Laughing cormorant at the end…!

The question I tried to answer last Sunday was, where is a good place to shoot some photos of birds that tell a story about the season, about being in mid August when most birds have almost finished the breeding season? It is hot, it is humid, and some areas are just not pleasant to be there. The answer I came up with was, go to the the most humid place you can find. Ok, I’m a little bit kidding here, but I ended up down at the Mississippi River at dam #11 and believe me, the humidity was awful. But why going there? The next generation of birds in the big river has to learn how to feed and hunt for fish and watching this, there is no better place than the turbulent waters below the Dubuque dam.

Juvenile American White Pelican, Mississippi River, dam #11, O’Leary Lake, Wisconsin. I love how the translucency of the bill pouch stood out. Only two juveniles hunted for fish side by side but the rest of the squadron took a break over on the Iowa side of the river.

Well, the tip for other local photography friends is, go over to the Wisconsin side of the Mississippi River to O’Leary Lake and recreation area next to the dam. Dubuque on the Iowa side has the lock that elevates the boats and barges up and down, which is very interesting to watch, but you are too far away from the foaming waters of the dam and way above water level at this location for any shooting position. At the Wisconsin side of the river you can sit on a rock and watch American White Pelicans and Double-crested Cormorants of all ages fish and hunt at high speed. The action there is fast and furious and both of the photos I show you today tell a story of successful fishing.

If you may not like the final outcome, at least you had a great day of practice that may lead you in the future to your next great picture. As I mention often, it is important for us photographers to create awareness with our photos about the nature that surrounds us and needs our outmost attention for protection.

BLURRY WINGS

Adult male Ruby-throated Hummingbird

It is a good problem to have not knowing what to post first, because many things wrap around my mind and most important, plenty of clicks have been made recently.

I’m still learning the ins and outs of my new designed ”Small Bird Rig”. If you haven’t followed the blog lately, click on the link to see what I try to accomplish when photographing small birds https://exnerimages.net/blog/2025/7/8/gear-talk-testing-a-new-small-bird-rig.

Talking about small birds, the Ruby-throated Hummingbird is the smallest we have here in our neck of the woods and across Iowa. I shot plenty of images without applying a speed light in the past, but it is the subtle hint of extra light that reveals the colors of this beautiful hummingbird (German: Kolibri) much better and can make the difference between a mediocre photo and the ones I like.

Juvenile male

Ruby-throated Hummingbirds beat their wings between 50 and 80 times per second according to some sources, reaching speeds up to 200 times per second. The aspect of story telling in my photography leads intentionally to pictures that have some blur in the wings. It’s just the way we see the bird and I don’t really care about an image that shows frozen wings. It is the humming sound we all love about these birds and I think our photos should reflect this aspect.

Technically I think it’s not difficult to walk away with an image where the bird has frozen wings. Employ a higher shutter speed, mostly accomplished with much higher ISO settings and by using the speed light as your main light source, and you will get there… Well, the story about this tiny little bird may not be told that way, so feel free to bare with the blurry wings in my photos…. 😊

Nikon Z6 III, Nikon NIKKOR Z 600 f/6.3 VR S, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, Induro GHB2 gimbal head, Westscott FJ80 II speed light,

BUTTERFLIES AT PEAK OF THE SUMMER

Sulphur, Green Island Wetlands, Mississippi Valley, Iowa

I made a trip to the Green Island Wetlands today, the first one since a few weeks. As expected not a lot of birds came close to the camera but the area had a good water level and vegetation everywhere was lush and green. I was happy to see many pollinator insects, like bumble bees and butterflies. The number of Monarch butterflies was much higher than during the last couple years, which is really a good thing since this species is in significant decline. In the very humid and hot weather we had today nobody wants to run around with a macro lens and try to get a shot of erratically moving butterflies. I thought I can tell a little bit of the story about summer at its peak by using the long lens from the shelter of an air conditioned car. I hope you enjoy!

Nikon Z6 III, Nikon NIKKOR Z 600 f/6.3 VR S, Nikon Z Teleconverter TC-1.4x

Monarch, Green Island Wetlands, Mississippi Valley, Iowa

HAZY SUNSET AT LAKE SUPERIOR

Lake Superior, Porcupine Mountains Wilderness, Presque Isle, Upper Peninsula Michigan, 07/28/2025

While the grandkids enjoyed looking for interesting rocks on the beach and had fun playing with some other people’s dog, I had the camera on the tripod and watched how the light of the setting sun would effect the landscape along the lake.

The color of the sky and the haze in the air were the result of wildfires that burned up north in Canada and the smoke got even worse the following days. A big cloud on the horizon made for an early disappearance of the sun, but for a brief moment the rugged shoreline of Lake Superior got a warm touch as I was hoping for.

PADDLING IN THE NORTHWOODS

This juvenile Common Loon was still fed by its parents, but not every dive for food was successful. First time that I was able to make some clicks of loons with their offspring. Fay Lake, Florence County, Wisconsin

I’m back from two different trips to the Northwoods. The second one led to well known territory in northern Wisconsin. Most of the time I have been there for little ice fishing adventures with friends each year in January, but this time the kayak was on top of the car roof while traveling.

I like to share some photos from last weekend that were shot during three paddling trips. The wildfires up in Canada made for unpleasant air conditions and I didn’t really like how most of my landscape pictures turned out. However, there were some good encounters of wildlife, mostly birds, and I saw even a bear crossing the road. I hope you enjoy!

A pair of Trumpeter Swans navigated their five cygnets through the weeds into shallow water near the shore of Fay Lake.

Juvenile Spotted Sandpiper, Wabikon Lake, Forest County, Wisconsin

For almost four hours I enjoyed a paddling trip on the Popple River, deep in the woods of Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. No humans, no men-made noise, just the tranquillity of pure nature. It doesn’t get much better… 😊

FEEDING A HUNGRY BUNCH

Second brood of House Wrens in the bird box

It’s not just the bluebirds that raise a second brood in our backyard. As other years before the House Wrens feed young birds again. About a week ago I checked the bird box and counted six eggs in the nest. I checked again yesterday and it looks like all have hatched, although it was impossible to count the nestlings in this little bowl of feathers.

In this humid and warm weather here in eastern Iowa at the moment there are plenty of insects and larvae. Both parents feed with high intensity. Here the female went into the box with food in its bill. A few seconds later the male often shows up and passes his catch to the female. In this instance the female didn’t take it but the male House Wren went to the nest after the female had left.

It amazes me always how big of a prey these baby birds can swallow. Look at the size of the bug in the male’s bill!!

T-6’s ONLY

I promised you a few more images of the Texan T-6’s that practiced at the Dubuque Regional Airport for the airshows at the Oshkosh AirVenture last weekend. The North American Aviation T-6 Texan is a single-engined trainer aircraft that was used to train pilots during World War II and into the 1970’s. A total of 15,495 of different variants have been built and it remains a popular airplane used for airshows and static display (source: Wikipedia).

The engines are running and the pilots wait for their take-off

It took me awhile to go through all the photos and select some that I thought stood out and tell the story about their training runs and my efforts to get some sharp images with slow shutter speeds. I’m not unhappy with the keeper rate but there is room for improvement with my panning technique. As mentioned some time before, I use this kind of practice with the long lens for hopefully improving my photography of birds in flight. However, it’s also a pleasure to see how well most of these historical airplanes are preserved and kept airworthy.

All photos: Nikon Z6 III, Nikon NIKKOR Z 600 f/6.3 VR S, Nikon Z Teleconverter TC-1.4x,   @840mm, 1/80s - 1/125s, some photos slightly cropped

A formation of four coming in to the airport and ready to land

AT THE MARTIN TOWERS

Purple Martin tower at Mud Lake Park

I had an opportunity this morning to watch the counting of eggs and nestlings of the Purple Martins down at Mud Lake by the Mississippi River. Together with some staff from the County Conservation and their kids we were invited to see how the nest gourds are maintained and kept clean during and after the time of incubation.

Ry, on the right, had lowered the gourd rack to the ground and then opened each one briefly. The kids helped counting and put the results in a tracking list for later evaluation. I was allowed to point the camera into the opening of one of the gourds so I can show you now how it looks inside with most of the martins already hatched.

Some of the chambers required a little more maintenance. When the nesting material was infested with bugs and possibly parasites, Ry carefully placed the young Purple Martins in a bucket for a short time, emptied the gourd, and replaced the old infested nesting material with new wood chips, or sometimes uses pine needles. This all happens calmly and relatively quick, so the gourd rack can be cranked up and the parents are able to feed the hungry bunch in the nests again.

It was an exciting experience, including some good conversation with everybody who was there. Thank you to Ry for a good explanation of the process and to Mike for inviting me!

Purple Martins at Finley’s Landing, 07/15/2025

THE FAST ONES

Vought F4U Corsair

There was enough talk about the technical aspects of aviation photography from the ground by me before and today I just like to show a few images, made during the last couple of days at the Dubuque Regional Airport. The majority of historical aircraft doing practice for the Oshkosh AirVenture are the great Texan T6’s. I saved them for another blog post and just hope you get a kick out of the esthetics of the beautiful four P51’s Mustangs and the Corsair that I like to share with you. It’s just a great sound when they scream down the runway or take their turns before returning to the airfield. I hope you enjoy.

P-51 Mustang “Gunfighter”

P-51D-Mustang “Charlotte’s Chariot II”

JUST A REMINDER

We heard the noise of prop-driven airplanes quite often during the last few days and it was a reminder for me that the AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin is coming up soon. A short visit to the Dubuque Regional Airport this evening confirmed it. There were about 27 historical aircraft, most of the Texan T6’s, parked in front of the hangars on the other side of the airfield. As apparently they come to Dubuque every year a week before to practice for the air shows in Oshkosh. This is always a great opportunity to see them and to practice handholding and panning with a long lens and maybe come back home with some decent aviation photos.

As mentioned, the airplanes of interest were all parked and the day was obviously over for the pilots, but a minute after my arrival at the observation deck of the airport I heard a jet approaching the runway. Denver Air Connection is the only airline that serves Dubuque with commercial flights at the moment and the flight from Chicago was just about to arrive.

Any jet airplane, like this ERJ145, we can photograph with whatever shutter speed will tell the story. Of course, it’s still important to do some good panning, even with a fast shutter speed for the best sharpness of the photo. Here I used 1/3200s to freeze the jet and keep some details in the clouds on this mostly overcast day.

The prop-driven airplanes need a different approach to tell the story of movement and a slow shutter speed is desired. Most of the time I have shot these aircraft between 1/40s and 1/250s, depending how fast the prop is spinning. While the EMBRAER ERJ145 still taxied to the terminal, a much smaller private aircraft was about to take off and moved slowly to the runway. I quickly set the shutter speed to 1/100s and got this nice blur of the propeller with the low sun hitting it and making it stand out.

SOCIAL LIFE AT THE MARTIN TOWER

Male Purple Martin returning to the nest

This is the photo I was hoping to get during my last two visits at the Purple Martin tower at Finleys Landing down by the Mississippi River. The Purple Martins are beautiful looking birds, elegant flyers, and it is very interesting to watch their social behavior. The young martins have hatched and it is such a great joy just to watch the interactions at a breeding tower.

For most of my wildlife photography I try to keep any men-made elements out of the frame, but here I make an exception, supported by a note I found on the Cornell website (https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Purple_Martin/) :

Native Americans hung up empty gourds for the Purple Martin before Europeans arrived in North America. Purple Martins in eastern North America now nest almost exclusively in birdhouses.

With other words, we enjoy wildlife that has adapted to men-made nesting places since a long time. The towers hold 18 chambers for a Purple Martin nest and at Finleys Landing it looked like almost all were taken. These towers with their plastic gourds may look not very pretty, but the practicality for maintenance (cleaning after the breeding saison) and doing research studies (counting eggs, etc.) is proven. Well, most importantly the Purple Martins must like them and it is so exciting to see how quick the birds accepted the relative new tower at this location.

The nestlings peak out of the box but after the female on the left departed for catching more food, the male on the right pushed them back into the box with his head, I guess using his parent authority…

It seemed like some of the juveniles had already left the nest but this is a matter of interpretation. The juvenile Purple Martins look almost identical to the females that tend them. I’m not sure if this is a jealous female or a young one begging for food. Its clumsy behavior made me believe the latter.

Purple Martins are supposed to be monogamous but that doesn’t mean they can’t be jealous. The male in the center had a happy life until another male didn’t like it, flew in and used its bill vigorously to end the affair. It took less than two seconds and I shot this scene in high-speed shutter release mode with about 14 frames per second. Everybody left the scene uninjured… (June 28th, 2025)