Nature clicks # 53 - From the archive

Eared Grebe

A busy week is behind me and I'm happy to be home and to enjoy the weekend. My job requires to travel quite a bit. It sounds like lots of photo opportunities but this is not always the case. I still like to post here every week and this is when pictures from my archive have a chance to see the light of the day.

Snowy Egret

Early in May this year I spent a few hours in the Bolsa Chica Wetlands at the Pacific coast in California again. I love this place because of its great opportunities for bird photography. There were not as many birds as in November last year, but still enough to fill all my memory cards within a few hours. I studied the images from last year carefully before I went to Bolsa Chica. This and all the practice in the Green Island Wetlands here in Eastern Iowa helped to bring home a much higher rate of keepers this time. I hope you enjoy.

Nature clicks #52 - Green Clearwing Dragonfly

Here is another one from last weekend's "dragonfly shooting". This Green Clearwing was sitting on a branch at the edge of the woods not far from the water. It didn't let me come as close as I liked to, but at least it was cooperative and came always back to the same perch.  I had enough time to try different exposure settings and to experiment with the depth of field. What you see here is one of the pictures taken at f/4. I like it better than other ones at f/5.6 or f/8 even if the abdomen is already outside of the DOF area. As you can see the background is still a little distracting but I like how it tells the story about the habitat of this beautiful dragonfly. The macro purists will probably say, this is not a real macro shot. I agree, but my goal as a wildlife photographer is to show the animal embedded in its natural habitat. This may not always be possible and sometimes not even desirable, but it is the direction I like to head for.

Nature clicks #51 - Giant Swallowtail

Nikon D200, SIGMA 150mm/2.8, 1/800s, f/5.6, -0.5 EV, ISO 100

I can hear your question already. Why did you cut the wings off? We have more Giant Swallowtails around the house this year than any other year before since we live here. I have many images showing the whole butterfly and I like most of them. Why this one? It is the light. It is all natural light and I really like how the background colors complement this image. This time I tried to make close-up shots of the Giant Swallowtails although the butterflies are moving very fast. They only stay about 2-5 seconds at each Purple Cone Flower and their wings beat all the time with high frequency. I have shots that are more dynamic than this one, but it is the light and the subtle background that make this image my favorite one.

Nature clicks #50 - Brown-spotted Yellow-wing Dragonfly

Nikon D200, SIGMA 150mm/2.8, 1/750s, f/4, -0.5 EV, ISO 100, tripod

I just realized that this one is already the 50th post filed under "Nature clicks". It is a coincidence that today's image is larger than usual. I just thought that my subject deserves a little more than the 620 pixel I use normally for the long side of the pictures I post here.

Despite the heat I couldn't resist to visit the Green Island Wetlands again today. The water is very low and except for a family of Pied-billed Grebes and a couple Killdeer I did not see any birds. One of my favorite ponds was even drained and I wonder what happened to the Moorhens, Yellow-headed Blackbirds, and other species I had found there during the last few months.

I put the long lens away and mounted the SIGMA 150 mm, f/2.8 Macro DG HSM to my camera. This lens has never disappointed me. It is ideal for shooting insects. The 150 mm gives me the extra distance that is sometimes necessary in order not to scare away an animal. The lens produces tack sharp images and if a picture is not sharp I have only to blame myself for.

When I shoot butterflies or other fast moving insects in our yard I handhold the camera with the 150/2.8. There is no way that you can follow one of the swallowtails with their fast movement from flower to flower if the camera sits on a tripod. It is a different story when it comes to Dragon- or Damselflies. They perch quite often on a twig or leaf. Even if they fly around for a little while, Dragonflies return often to the same or a place nearby. All what it needs is a slow and careful approach and of course some patience. Having the camera on a tripod helps definitely in this matter. Manual focus works sometimes better, especially if the insect is almost translucent.

The Brown-spotted Yellow-wing here was my first encounter of this beautiful dragonfly. What you don't see is the sweat dropping from my forehead and running down my back while kneeling in the dust beside the gravel road… But I enjoy it!

Nature clicks #49 - Hummingbird Moth

Nikon D200, Sigma 150 mm f/2.8

As the summer proceeds and the birds are not as much present as during the months before my attention gets drawn a little more to all kinds of insects. One that I have seen before, but never was able to obtain a good image from, is the Hummingbird Moth. This moth hovers over flowers and its wings produce a soft buzz similar to that of a humming bird. Their wingspan reaches up to 2 inch (50 mm). They are not quite as fast as a hummingbird and it was easier to get the autofocus sensor where I wanted it. Thanks to Joan's flower bed in front of the house I can find them right here at home.

Every new species I find in Iowa will make it into my gallery WILDLIFE IN IOWA. For a larger version of this picture feel free to click HERE.

Nature clicks #48 - Four weeks old

Nikon D200, Sigma 50-500 mm f/4.0-6.3, 420 mm (630 mm FX), 1/180s, f/6.3, -1 EV, ISO 100

I checked on the Trumpeter Swans again today. The cygnet is now four weeks old. Time seems to fly. The first step is always to locate them by driving very slowly along the Mill Creek ponds. After I did that four times I still could not find them at all and started to worry about them. I decided to hike to the backside of the ponds to see if I had better luck. It had rained last night and so it was like entering a jungle. With other words it was hot, very humid, and mosquito infested. It paid back that I carry bug spray in my photo backpack during the summer. And there I found them. The reeds are now so tall that it was impossible to see the swans from the gravel road. The cygnet had grown again and all three seemed to be in good condition.

It was the closest I have been so far to the young swan and this time I didn't have to crop any of my pictures. Getting closer leads also to more sharper images because it is easier to place the AF sensor.

Nature clicks #47 - Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrel

Nikon D200, Sigma 50-500 mm f/4.0-6.3, 420 mm (630 mm FX), 1/640s, f/6.3, -1 EV, ISO 200

There is probably no chance that we will ever see the Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrel around our house. We live on top of a rocky ridge along the Little Maquoketa River near the Mississippi River Valley. These little ground squirrels live in burrows that are 4.5 - 6 m (15 - 20 feet) long and about 30 - 60 cm (1 -2 feet) deep. No way they can dig deep and long enough in the rocks here.

Nikon D200, Sigma 50-500 mm f/4.0-6.3, 420 mm (630 mm FX), 1/320s, f/6.3, -1 EV, ISO 100

I found them out in the open land and spent quite some time last weekend to watch these little critters and try to shoot some images. Their diet ranges from grass and weed seeds to caterpillars and grasshoppers, and even mice and bird flesh are on their menu (source: Field Guide to Mammals, National Audubon Society). This one here was chewing on dandelion blooms.

Nikon D200, Sigma 50-500 mm f/4.0-6.3, 420 mm (630 mm FX), 1/640s, f/6.3, -1 EV, ISO 200

The Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrels remind me a little bit of prairie dogs, because they often stand upright and survey the surrounding area for any sign of danger. Ones I came a little too close and the squirrel dived down into its burrow and warned the rest of the family with its bird-like trill.

These little critters are ideal to practice shooting with a long lens, like the SIGMA 50-500, f/4-6.3 DG HSM. I like the last image the best, not only because of the pose of the animal but mainly because how the ground squirrel  is separated from the background

Nature clicks #46 - One week old

 

Did you look at the Trumpeter Swan cygnet last weekend? Yes, I did! It is amazing how much it was grown already within the last week. The swans were in the middle of the pond. Not really in a great position for photography, but the important thing is that all three looked very good and hopefully we will see a new generation of Trumpeter Swans growing up here in Eastern Iowa.

Nature clicks #45 - Killdeer protect their nest

Nikon D200, Sigma 50-500 mm f/4.0-6.3, 500 mm (750 mm FX), 1/750s, f/8, -1.5 EV, ISO 100

Last week I promised to show some pictures of a couple Killdeer that I was watching in the wetlands. They showed their typical behavior by trying to lure me away from their nest site. I don't disturb birds on intend and didn't even try to find it, even if I had an idea where the nest was. The female sat down away from the nest several times and tried to make me believing it was sitting on eggs.

Nikon D200, Sigma 50-500 mm f/4.0-6.3, 420 mm (630 mm FX), 1/640s, f/6.3, -1 EV, ISO 100

The male made sure I was paying attention to him by running around in circles but at the same time moving away from their real nest. They are fun birds to watch and because the Killdeer is not as shy as some other birds they are a good subject for practicing long lens shooting technique.

White-tailed Deer with background problem

Nikon D200, Sigma 50-500 mm f/4.0-6.3

This picture is already three weeks old but I still like to share it with you. It was taken in the Mill Creek Valley on my way home from a visit at the Trumpeter Swans. We have many White-tailed Deer here in Eastern Iowa and it is not a big deal to see one. This one made me hit my car brakes hard. It stood like frozen for a few seconds and gave me so the chance to grab the camera from the passenger seat and shoot a few pictures through the open car window.

The bokeh of the background does not always please me with the Sigma 50-500. At 500 mm an aperture of  f/6.3 is your best choice and In this matter the texture of the field made it even worse. The deer didn't really stand out from the background, despite the image was sharp. I used a basic technique in Photoshop to minimize the problem. Here is how I did it:

1. Make a copy of the background layer.

2. Apply a blur filter to the top layer (I used Gaussian Blur, 10 pixels).

3. Create a layer mask for this layer.

4. Paint with black on the layer mask over the contour of the deer and the foreground. Use a lower opacity for the area of transition in the background.