Today's Mississippi River story

 

I had some other things in mind for today’s blog post but this one is fresh out of the camera. I went to the Mississippi this evening again and wanted to check if the Sandhill Cranes use the same spot as last year to spend the night. It was a nice tour with the kayak but I didn’t see or hear any cranes. Instead this Great Blue Heron was standing in the reeds where the cranes used to rest for the night.

The sun was diffused by a cloud and the light was nice and soft. I used a little fill flash in order to manage 1/250s of exposure time and to boost the colors. Remember, in the boat I have to handhold the heavy lens and shooting with a slower speed didn’t deliver a sharp image today.

Nature clicks #239 - Map Turtle

 

I haven’t made a single click last week and I couldn’t wait to go out again on the Mississippi today in the kayak and with the camera in my lap. This photo is as fresh as it gets. It is the first time that I had a chance to make a photo of a Map Turtle. They are usually the first ones to dive into the water as soon an intruder appears. It took three carefully executed approaches before I was able to come close enough without that the turtle jumped off the log.

Last weekend in the Green Island Wetlands I came across this female Painted Turtle. It was obviously moving between two ponds but took a rest in the middle of the gravel road. After making a couple clicks I took the turtle and carried it off the road. The Painted Turtle can be found all over in Iowa while the Map Turtle is only supported in the larger rivers of Eastern Iowa.

Flooding at the Mighty Mississippi

 

I will not talk much about photography today. This post is a little more on the editorial side. The heavy rainfall during the last couple weeks made the Mighty Mississippi even mightier than usual and many places along the river are flooded.

Yesterday evening I arrived at the little campsite at Finley's Landing right after another rain shower and the first photo gives you an idea what I was talking about above. I guess some people that had planned to camp there during the upcoming holiday weekend may have to change their plans…

Later, a little further north at Mud Lake Park, I saw the same scenario while another shower just poured down on us. Parts of the park and campsite were under water and the boat ramps disappeared completely in the river.

However, fast moving clouds and the occasional sun ray made for some good light in the evening. This is where the Mud Lake Marina and the actual Mud Lake, which is a backwater area in the river, connect to each other. The water flows down to a slightly lower level but the current is usually very moderate and it is no problem to paddle even upstream with the kayak. Not so yesterday. The passage between the main land and the island on the other side was at least twice as wide The little turbulence in the water marks a spot where a sign post is located that usually sticks 3 - 4 feet out of the water…

Clean up or not to clean up?

 

It looks like the only thing I have done lately was nature photography but I shoot other things too, just don’t show much of it in my blog here. Today I show you a couple car shots I made earlier this month. The Hot Rod Power Tour came through Dubuque almost two weeks ago and there was another event a day later in Dubuque with vintage cars on display. I don’t really care how old they are and what the whole technical background for each car is if they are just esthetically pleasing. For my wildlife photography I hardly clone out things of an image in Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop. This is reduced to very small cosmetic corrections in the background at the most. This is just my way to work with wildlife.

When shooting cars that are on display at a show there is always some “junk” in the background that distracts from the subject. In this matter some flags, fence posts, wires, and even a motorcycle had to go. It’s a different game if someone uses the photos to tell a story about the event itself. What I call junk can become part of the story telling. I just went for the beauty of the cars. Anything else is just distracting and that’s why I have no problems to clean up a picture for this kind of photography.

Iowa Landscape: Storm chasing

 

Yesterday was a very muggy day. In the evening some thunderstorms moved though our area. We only got a few brief showers and some thunder was rolling but it was a great chance to chase some clouds and thunderheads.

I gave myself an assignment for this storm chasing trip. First, I wanted to use only one lens, the Carl Zeiss Distagon T*, 35 mm, f/2 ZF. This lens has manual focus only. And second, the main subject had to be a cloud, cloud formation, or thunderhead. Any other element in the picture had to be there only to complement the main subject. Except for some slight straightening of the horizon line in some images no crop has been applied. The goal was to get it right in camera.

I didn’t shoot with a tripod because of time. The clouds moved very fast and the scenery changed constantly. Sometimes it wasn’t easy to find a place to park the car safely, so it was key to be fast in and out in order to make the click.

As always, I made many mistakes and some shots where I thought I had nailed it turned out just to be, hmm, not so good ;-). It is the mistakes that can make us better photographers as long as we try to learn from them. I had great fun on this little storm chasing tour above the Mississippi Valley and down at the river. Can’t wait for another one… :-)