I closed my last post about Sunday's driving-around-photo-shoot with the remark "More to come...". I continued my trip and went to Green Island, my favorite wetlands along the Mississippi for wildlife shooting. Well, after reviewing my images I decided not to post any because none of them meets my minimum quality standards. It does not mean I didn't have a good time there. It is still duck hunting season but I saw hundreds off geese and ten Sandhill Cranes in the sanctuary that is not accessible for hunters. It always makes me smile if I hear the sound of a crane. It is music in my ears...:-)
I got some shots of a hawk but it wasn't made in good light. After fiddling with one of the photos in Lightroom for some time and not getting a result, that was at least equal to my previously posted pictures of a Red-tailed Hawk, I decided to send it to the trash can.
Instead I show an image from the Little Maquoketa River down in the valley below our house. I made it mid morning while walking our dog on the Heritage trail. There isn't much real beauty in the landscape at this time, between fall colors and the snow cover of the winter, but I tried to work the triangle shape of this bend in the river and the light of the low sun that gave the grass some shape. The reflections on the water are a bonus... ;-)
The last time that I showed a picture of this river in my blog was during the flood last year. You can click the archive tab "July 2011" on the left hand side to see those photos. It was the day with by far the most clicks in the short history of my blog... I guess I need to shoot more catastrophes...!?