All the snow we had since early December is rapidly melting away. I wonder how long the Bald Eagles will still be present at the Mississippi River in great numbers. I will hopefully find out this weekend. For now another shot from last weekend. The color of the water was amazing. No color enhancement done at this photo either.
Mississippi dam #14, near Le Claire, Iowa, is my favorite spot to watch and photograph Bald Eagles in the winter. I have been there several times this season and always got skunked. It seemed, that the clouds were always just waiting for my arrival, and as soon I had my tripod in place they moved in front of the best light source we have. Taking pictures of birds against grey sky just sucks.
Finally last Sunday I got awarded for driving down south the usual hour and a half. The blue sky gave the water a very vibrant color and of course, was perfect for shooting eagles in flight.
It is so much fun to watch especially the juveniles hunting for fish. Some of them have still a lot to learn because they drop them quite often. If it was a dead fish, that someone had thrown in the water, the photographers got a second chance to capture the moment when the young eagles tried to grab it. I'm like these young Bald Eagles. I'm happy to have this second chance since some of my pictures are still out of focus.
However, in comparison to last year I have many more keepers on the memory card. There are reasons for. First, I'm using a gimbal head on the tripod instead shooting with a ball head. Huge difference! It is much easier to track the birds in flight. Second, I have watched the eagles many times and learned so much more about their behavior. Yep, even the days with overcast were time well spent at the river. The movements of the Bald Eagles seem to become more predictable for me and that helps to be prepared for what 's coming next. This little extra second gives time enough to correct the EV or change the focal length slightly.
This picture was taken in the very late afternoon sun. You can tell by the color of the water. Did this guy get the fish? You bet!
I like to shoot wildlife pictures in my backyard or even on the balcony. We live in the woods and we see birds or other animals all year long. Especially in the winter, enhancing the color by using subtle fill flash makes sense. Famous wildlife photographer Moose Peterson uses a softbox for the same purpose on his balcony, and I actually learned about it on his blog. So, why not just do the same?
I began making plans to build my own softbox when I saw Larry Becker's very detailed tutorial on his blog "Larry Becker's Cheap Shots". This was exactly what I was looking for. He made his for the Nikon SB600 speedlight, the same that I use. I like to create things on my own but I'm all against inventing the wheel twice.
And here it is! I didn't change much. Found a nice guy in a sign shop here in town, who gave me a strip of black Coroplast for a few bucks that I used for the body of the softbox. At the moment I'm using a white report cover as a diffuser but I believe it swallows too much light. I will replace it as soon I find the frosted material that is a little more transparent. I didn't have gaffers tape, as recommended by Larry, but I used black vinyl electrical tape instead to cover all edges.
How does it work? First I did some indoor tests . The shadows turned out very soft, much better than with the bare flash. Last weekend I did some more testing on the balcony. It was bitter cold but that didn't reduce the fun I had waiting for birds and grey squirrels. The morning sun came very bright from the left hand side. The speedlight with the softbox mounted stood three feet to the right, 30 degrees tilted down, and pointing toward the bird bath. I had several good shots of the Tufted Titmouse and other birds. I liked this one in particular, because of how the flash made the trails of the water drops and the rising steam from the bird bath visible.
Exposing for the shadows on the right side of the Grey Squirrel would have blown out the highlights. The soft fill flash took care of that and without the flash being too obvious.
The softbox is very lightweight, folds flat, and fits easily in the computer pocket of my photo back pack. Taking it in the field will not be a big deal. Because it is my first softbox, more testing needs to be done but I already like what it does for my photography on the balcony. Check it out at "Larry Becker's Cheap Shots". He has more really good tips on inexpensive photography solutions. Thank you for this one, Larry!
August 2013: More images made with the softbox: Click HERE and HERE
December 2011: New post "Softbox out again", see HERE
Sometimes we are tempted too look only for the big animals, the most iconic, the most well known. This is easy, because they are always impressive. We sometimes forget about the small ones, the maybe not so gorgeous animals. But there is also a chance that we repeat things over and over again, that we take the same pictures all the time. I believe there is a good chance that we can end up with a unique and interesting shot by looking for the lesser known animals, because they are not so over-photographed as those always seen in ads of magazines or other publications.
When I watched this little Willet in the Bolsa Chica Wetlands I enjoyed it as much as the Brown Pelicans and Snowy Egrets. The perspective for this photo is not ideal. It was taken from slightly above. The access to the water is restricted for visitors and I'm all for that the protection of the bird habitat has absolute priority. I like how the reflection of waves makes for a nice background pattern. It was my first time in the Bolsa Chica Ecological Preserve but I'm sure I will go back there again. It may take some time, but one of these days I will have a really great shot of the little Willet.
For the first time I watched Brown Pelicans. I was totally thrilled to see these majestic birds feeding on fish in big numbers. They are a good subject to practice with the long lens when they just swim and wait for the fish. Both images were taken in the morning when the light had still a warm tone.
Since a long time I had the wish to do some wetland bird photography in a coastal area. I was dreaming about really good light and birds in abundance. Last weekend this dream became true. I spent a full day between sunrise and sunset at the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve near Huntington Beach in California.
Of course, the morning light and the warm sun light just before sunset is the best, but the relative low sun at this time of the year allowed for some good pictures at any time of the day. Let's start with an image of a Cormorant, who seemed to enjoy the morning sun the same way I did. More to come….
We had gorgeous weather last weekend here in Iowa and I thought it was time to have a look how the Trumpeter Swans that I discovered in April were doing (see my earlier posts). Knowing the location much better now, I knew the late afternoon sun would illuminate their usual spot. Too make a long story short, the light was perfect and they were much closer to the shore than I had ever seen them before.
During the first half hour their heads were mostly in the water in search for food. You can see the mud on their necks and heads and the water gave their dark bills a nice glare. I used the short moment in between and shot in 'continuous high speed mode' with five frames per second.
As the sun sunk deeper both swans moved toward a little island in the reeds, where I had seen them before resting at other times. They started an intensive cleaning procedure. And then it happened again. One was beating its wings in order to dry them. The wing span of the Trumpeter Swan is incredibly big, and it is so much fun to watch these majestic birds in the wild.
I used spot metering for almost all shots and I'm much more pleased with the results. This time I also had many more pictures in focus. I believe this is due to the fact that I used a gimbal head mounted on the tripod. What kind of gimbal head did I choose? I will talk about this in one of my next posts, so please stay tuned….
I didn't have to go very far for today's 'nature click'. The larvas of the Black Swallowtail butterfly were feeding on the parsley in the herb garden behind the house. The sky was overcast and I used the Nikon SB600 flash light off camera, with a diffuser head attached.
Today was a day full of excitement. The young House Wrens left the nest box for the first time in their life. The nest box is right in front of our house and it is fun to watch them during the whole breeding season.
11:59 AM: The parents had called them from a nearby tree several times already and bring finally the last food to the young wrens.
12:03 PM: The second juvenile squeezes its wings out of the hole and flies over to the parents (I missed the first one).
12:12 PM: This is number four. His first flight ends on the lower part of a tree trunk.
12:13 PM: Number five, the last one, just dropped into the flower bed below the nest box. After several attempts he finally joined his family in the tree.
We hope they all will grow up and we may see them again.
Yesterday I went across the Mississippi river to a boat landing near Potosi WI. I have been there before and always came back with some macro shots or pictures of the river. As already last year at the same time, there were thousands of black mayflies in the air or hanging at plants. I was really glad to see these wonderful insects since their adult life stage is only 24 hours or less.
It was windy and not very easy to obtain good focus. I got the best results with the camera mounted on a tripod and by waiting for the short moments when the wind calmed down. After checking different sources I believe these are Hexagenia bilineata. I would appreciate if any expert can confirm or correct my analysis.
