Nature clicks #75 - Northern Cardinal

Nikon D300s, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM

I have written here before about "having a plan" or "setting goals" for your photography. I still believe it is important to do that if someone wants to see improvements from a technical as well from the artistic point of view. My friend Dave Updegraff, who is like me an amateur photographer here in the Dubuque area, was looking some time ago for new goals and decided to focus on photographing old barns out in the countryside. I follow his blog and can tell that his approach to the subject became better and better any time he publishes new barn photos.

I try to do the same with my wildlife photography. I have this gallery about wildlife in Iowa at pbase.com. (Click HERE for a glimpse). One of my goals is to replace images from the early days of my digital photography with photos that are taken from a closer distance, and of course, that are technically and artistically better than my first shot of a particular animal.

I was very proud about my first photo of a Northern Cardinal, taken 2007 from quite a bit away, and finally cropped to death in post. Even if I don't want to look at the old picture anymore for many reasons, mainly image quality, but making the photo was as much fun as last week during the snow storm. For the first time I got a picture of a male cardinal that fills the frame. Little steps, and some take time, but the better image makes me feeling good again…

Nature clicks #74 - Dark-eyed Junco, late arrival

Nikon D300s, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM @ 420 mm (630 mm FX), 1/60s, f/6.3, -1.5 EV, ISO 100

I went to Indianapolis, Indiana today and had actually planned to try the Bald Eagles at Mississippi dam #14 down in Le Claire, Iowa. I was hoping to show some eagle pictures in today's post but winter weather conditions, fog, and gray sky didn't allow any photo that would have made sense. Nevertheless, I stopped briefly at the dam and at least saw a Bald Eagle high up in the trees beside the parking lot.

Instead, here is another image from shooting two days ago in the snow storm. The Dark-eyed Junco is not easy to photograph in low light. It's one of the birds hard to focus on, because there is hardly any contrast between the eye and it's head. They are always moving and quite often gone before focus is obtained. This one isn't even exactly sharp but I like the bird's pose on this branch. The Juncos are usually here during the winter in big numbers. This season was a little different. They just came down south together with the arrival of the first snow, probably due to the warm temperatures we had here in December and early January. No eagle, but still a nice looking bird. I hope you enjoy.

Nature clicks #73 - Mourning Dove withstands the winter

Nikon D300s, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM @ 420 mm (630 mm FX), 1/45s, f/6.3, -1.5 EV, ISO 100

We are back to "normal" here in Iowa. Yesterday it has snowed all day long and we have plenty of the white stuff in the woods here. As much as I hate driving in these weather conditions, I love the doors it opens for photography. The snow on the ground is one of the best light sources for wildlife photography. Despite a complete overcast of the sky the reflection of the light from the snow makes for great light conditions. There are no shadows to deal with and in this matter the dove got wonderful light from underneath.

It is tempting to crank the ISO settings of the camera up but the price is paid in post, where you have to deal with noise. I tried to push my limits (I think, there is nothing really to loose when you are at home and can shoot around the house). I set the camera to ISO 100 and just tried to get the best out of it. My Sigma 50-500 is one of the older models that doesn't have vibration reduction but shooting from a tripod probably doesn't make that much of a difference anyway.

The Mourning Dove here belongs to a flock that is hanging around our house all winter long so far. I believe they are beautiful birds and for me it is just mind-boggling that the law in Iowa does allow to shoot them (for the first time in my blog I really mean shooting with a gun and not with a camera!!). We always have one or two couples here that raise their young but I have never had such great light to make a picture of one of them. The snow pouring down tells the story about survival in winter for all birds. More to come…

Nature clicks #72 - American Goldfinch

Nikon D300s, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM

Nothing in particular today, just an easy click from Sunday's afternoon shooting in my yard. Nice and soft natural light gives the colors of this American Goldfinch in its winter plumage the right push. As I said, an easy click...

Nature clicks #71 - Red-bellied Woodpecker

Nikon D300s, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM

The Red-bellied Woodpecker is one out of six species of the woodpecker family we have seen here so far around our house. Tall old trees and quite a bit of dead wood around here provide an ideal habitat for the woodpeckers. Especially in the winter they come close to the house and to the feeders but they are very shy. They fly away as soon someone opens a door or a window. With other words, it is hard to make a good picture of them from a close distance.

This picture of this female Red-bellied Woodpecker was made through the glass of our balcony door today. I knew I would have missed this opportunity if I had tried to open the door just even slightly. It may soften the image a little but I don't think the result is too bad. I'm glad I made the click...

Happy New Year 2012!

 

Wishing all of you a wonderful and creative New Year 2012!

Thank you for all your words of encouragement and critique in 2011. Thank you also for taking the time to view my images and read the little stories about my trials to capture the wonders of nature.

Ich wünsche Euch allen ein wundervolles und kreatives neues Jahr 2012!

Danke für eure Worte des Zuspruchs und Kritik im alten Jahr. Danke auch einfach nur dafür, dass ihr euch die Zeit nehmt meine Fotos anzusehen und die kleinen Geschichten über meine Versuche die Wunder der Natur im Bild festzuhalten zu lesen.

Nature clicks #70 - Ring-billed Gulls

Nikon D300s, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM

As promised I will tell you a little more about my photo shoot last Monday. A little further south from the Green Island Wetlands, on an island in the Mississippi River, lies the town of Sabula, Iowa. There is always a good chance to see some eagles, gulls, geese, or ducks in this area. The water that is not directly effected by the current of the big river was frozen over, despite the still unusual mild weather we have. The ice in the Sabula marina was thin but gave some Ring-billed Gulls a chance to rest and enjoy the warmth of the late afternoon sun. The first photo is my favorite of the three in this post. I was  happy to get this shot of the gull during take off. The gulls allowed me to practice my panning technique and they are a great subject because there is always one that is on the move.

Dark clouds moved in and were reflected by the ice, as you can see in the two other images. The low sun, coming already from underneath the clouds, made for absolute killer light. These are the moments I'm looking for, even if I have to wait a whole day. Time well spent in the Great Outdoors….!

Nikon D300s, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM

Nature clicks #69 - Common Muskrat with gorgeous fur

Nikon D300s, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM

I had Monday still off from work and used the beautiful weather to check out what's going on in the Green Island Wetlands along the Mississippi at this time of the year. As I wrote often before, this area is my favorite place to study wildlife and make pictures of the animals that live in this habitat or just stop there during migration. We have the mildest winter so far since we live in this area and I was wondering how that may play a role about what animals are present. The first thing I saw, after going through the little village of Green Island and entering the wetland area, was this beautiful Common Muskrat. It was sitting on the thin ice at one of the few open water spots. It was chewing on some greens and used its front legs to get something to eat out of the water. This picture was of course taken before the muskrat went into the water diving for more food and you can really see how beautiful its winter fur looks. And this leads me right to the things I didn't enjoy to see yesterday. It is trapping season and I saw quite a few people checking their traps. Can you blame me if I grinned any time I saw someone returning empty handed to their cars? :-))

I shot from my "mobile blind", which is of course my car. It's not that I'm too lazy to get out of my car but many of the animals don't seem to bother if a car stops nearby. As soon you open the door they take off and your chance for making the image is gone. I usually shut off the engine. This is not only better for the environment, and of course my wallet (I sat in this spot for almost twenty minutes), but it also prevents vibrations coming from the engine being conveyed to the camera. The muskrat was pretty cooperative and stopped chewing once in a while. The pictures became blurry any time I missed the peak of action.

What other animals did I see? Not very many, a couple Bald Eagles, not within shooting range, and a few gulls. After two hours I moved on to Sabula, the little town on an island in the Mississippi. But this is another story for later this week...

Got the softbox out again

Nikon D300s, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM, SB600 with softbox

One advantage of working from a home office is that the camera is always on-hand.  My D300s is mounted quite often to the tripod with the Sigma 50-500 attached, so I don't waste much time if I see anything interesting outside. We live in a wooded area and there are always at least a few birds around. During my lunch break today  I recognized that the birds came more frequently to the bird feeders than during the last few days with their relative mild temperatures. This is usually an indicator that we might get some snow and colder weather. Light was only good for 1/45s at 500mm and the maximum aperture of f/6.3. The birds, mostly chickadee, nuthatch, or tufted titmouse, were moving too fast for a sharp image. And this is when the speedlight-mounted softbox becomes really useful for some fill flash. I wrote about this little DIY-project some time ago HERE. I built this little softbox mainly for my bird photography in the winter. It allows me to shoot 1/250s, even on a day with gray overcast. The other benefit is that the colors turn out more vivid. 1/250s is still too slow to catch all the action, although it is fast enough to capture the birds during the moment when they rests briefly on a branch before take off to the feeders. Usually the chickadees and titmice stop only for about a second. They never become really motionless because the little branches vibrate under the impact of the bird. The light thrown at the bird from the softbox is subtle if you find the right setting at your speedlight. It may take a few shots before you like the results. Another good point for using the speedlight is that it can produce a nice catch light in the bird's eye that is away from the sun.

Nature clicks #68 B - Goldfinch, repeated

Another day with good and relative warm weather and even better light than on Saturday. I wasn't really happy with my Goldfinch pictures yesterday and today was my chance to give it another trial. I made a lot of clicks and experimented with different settings, including flash and softbox. It was just so nice to be outside in the sun and the birds were cooperative as well. :-) For this post I chose an image of a male Goldfinch, sitting on a branch of a dead cedar tree in the warm afternoon sun. No flash was used for this photo.