Here is another photo from last weekend's action on the ice of the Mississippi in Guttenberg, Iowa. Sometimes nothing happened for several minutes and suddenly quick decision had to be made where to focus on and how to compose. I like having the dam in the background in some of my images. No matter how cold it is the water below is always open and it is the place where the eagles feed when the rest of the river is frozen over.
The landing of the Cassville Ferry near Millville, Iowa was another spot along the Mississippi where we went to watch Bald Eagles this weekend. While observing the action on the river I noticed a pair of American Tree Sparrows landing in a bush not far from where my tripod legs were put into the sand. They were not afraid about my presence and landed finally on a piece of driftwood right beside me. That was an easy click. Enough time to compose and focus, no crop, and very little time to finalize the image in the computer. It doesn't get much easier than this.
It was by far the best day for shooting Bald Eagles at the Mississippi River during this winter so far. The river is only partly ice covered and this allows the eagles to hunt for fish at many different places. We learned already yesterday that many eagles were present at lock and dam #10 in Guttenberg, which is about thirty miles north of Dubuque, Iowa. I decided to go back there again and spent a few hours in the icy wind. Warm boots and a down coat are very useful while hanging out at the river for an extended time. But I can tell you, it was worth every minute because there was a lot of action today. It is difficult to count the eagles because they move around all the time but it is safe to say that more than 50 birds were within sight.
There was a lot of push and shove going on and catching a fish wasn't always called final success. The eagles tried to steal the fish from each other and some were very competitive. Yesterday I tried mainly to shoot eagles in flight because the sky was blue and made for a good contrast and background. Today it was a little more hazy and therefore I focussed on action shots on the ice.
Distance was a little bit of a problem because the Bald Eagles stay at the edge of the ice or circle over the open water and that was quite a bit away from my shooting location. There is not much I could do about it, except for cropping my photos a little bit. Walking onto the ice is no option! ;-)
I believe today was the first day in almost a week that we saw the sun coming out. The days are already a little longer and the time after 4PM bears potential for some good light. You might be tired seeing woodpeckers and nuthatches here in the blog but I experiment with a new "Woodpecker tree" at the moment and like to share my first results. This Red-bellied Woodpecker is a real beauty and making the click is a "must" if the light is right. They are very shy and a fast move will drive them away immediately.
The Downy Woodpecker is much easier to get. I wrote a couple weeks ago that we have about six here in our neighborhood and they usually tolerate my presence much better. They are a great subject to hone your shooting skills, except when they hang on a suet feeder and try to knock something loose and eat. With other words, motion blur is the main reason for putting an image into the trash can. Light was lovely and this female seemed almost to pose for me.
I drove half way across Iowa today to meet with a customer and was surprised how little snow was on the ground in the central part of the state. Here in the woods along the Mississippi we still have plenty of snow to make life difficult for many animals that live here during the winter. The White-tailed Deer have a hard time to find enough food and they come right up to the homes here in our neighborhood.
Unfortunately this happens mostly in the dusk, after 4PM, when the light is not very flattering, but I try it anyway to make a click or two. I do not have "the shot" yet. I'm happy if an image is sharp, despite long exposure times. Nevertheless, it does not satisfy me if the background has flaws, like in these pictures where a tree grows out of the head of the deer. The doe seems to tell me with her tongue, Na-na-na-na-na-na....(like the gesture with the middle finger sticking up in the air...), but hey, one of these days I hope to get sharpness and background right!
No, I didn't buy a new lens but I had a chance to test the Sigma 50-500 F4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM OS with optical stabilization (OS). My photography friend Dave Updegraff owns this lens and yesterday we tried to replicate a problem that he had experienced several times before with this lens. The lens sometimes stopped working in very low temperatures, which is very annoying if you are out and like to shoot Bald Eagles or other birds in the winter. Well, we were not able to make this happen at our house even after leaving the lens outside in the cold for about twenty-five minutes. It worked flawless on my Nikon D300s and as well on his D3. Finding out that the lens was often stored in his car near the heat inlet made me believing that we see a problem (ok, we didn't see it yesterday :-) ) created by heat, moisture and a following temperature shock that makes the lens freeze up. Time will tell, if by putting it to a different place in the car while driving the problem can be solved. I would be very happy to hear that from Dave. If not, well, I'm out of other ideas at the moment.
Dave had also asked me about my opinion regarding the sharpness of his Sigma 50-500. I took quite a few test shots using the same set up that I used during the last few weeks for my own bird photography. This gave me the chance to compare the performance of his lens directly with my previous results. Here are my impressions.
The Sigma 50-500 with the OS feature delivered the same good results if it was mounted on the tripod, using the gimbal head, and the optical stabilization turned off. I had the feeling (not sure) that the lens responded a tad faster to the autofocus than my older lens. Not every image was sharp because birds chew on seeds or move around fast and sometimes there is just not enough time for the autofocus to detect contrasty edges. This is not unusual and I call it pilot error (the pilot being me :-) ). The photo of the House Finch here may serve as a proof for my first statement.
We stepped outside and I made some more clicks, this time handhold, without the aid of a tripod, and the optical stabilization turned on. What a difference to my old lens! Without any preparation or "warm up" I was able to create some sharp images of the Eastern Gray Squirrel, who in great numbers occupy the bird feeders in our yard. Squirrels are not always easy to shoot because of the lack of contrast on their fur (unlike a woodpecker) and I was positively surprised how much the optical stabilization helped here to get the image sharp. To be honest, I wished I had waited a few months longer with my purchase until Sigma introduced the OS feature on the 50-500. I still think it is a great lens for those of us that have a limited budget.
Beside all the lens and camera talk Joan and I have enjoyed the conversation beyond photography with Dave. It was time well spent and now I just hope that we found the cause for the freeze up of the lens.
It was really cold here during the last couple days but we got this giant reflector out again, called snow. This is ideal for bird photography or any critter. The sun light bounces off the snow and gives that extra little bit of light from underneath that makes a huge difference most of the time for your image.
The winter came back with full force to Eastern Iowa. We had about ten inches of snow and as a result I have never seen so many birds around our feeders as today. Between work duties and snow shoveling I made a few clicks through the glass door of the balcony. This doesn't take a lot of efforts because the camera is always mounted on a tripod and ready for action.
This little Downy Woodpecker was waiting in line to get to one of the suet feeders where obviously one of its siblings took its time feeding. There is an order at these feeders that is clearly dictated by size and strength. First come the Red-bellied Woodpeckers. Nobody would mess with their long and sharp beak. Next in line are the Hairy Woodpeckers. They look very similar to the Downys but they are bigger and have a longer beak as well. Finally the members of the big family of Downy Woodpeckers compete against each other. We have at least six of them here (2012 was a good year for their reproduction) and they all need to eat a lot in this kind of weather.
It is rare that the woodpeckers share a feeder but we have very cold temperatures coming in the next few hours and their metabolism is probably much higher than usual. I know, feeder images are not the gems of wildlife photography. But hey, I don't try to win a contest here, I just tell today's story about the Iowa winter here in the woods... ;-)
I'm still not done with sorting through my 2012 archive. The Rocky Mountain Elks were one of the reasons that we really wanted to visit Rocky Mountain National Park last year. We had plenty of encounters of these wonderful animals and have enjoyed watching them very much. The best time to see them is quite often during the evenings, which at the other hand can be quite a challenge with exposure. Using a tripod is highly recommended for managing the low light situations.
I looked at my oldest pictures of a White-breasted Nuthatch that I made in 2007 today. I was happy about them at that time, even if the bird was not more than a gray dot hanging on a bird feeder. It was still my first year of serious digital photography and I believed that wildlife photography was the result of just being there and good luck. More than five years later I know that it is all about biological knowledge, good preparation for a shot, sometimes endless patience, and yes, still a little bit of luck.
The cold temperatures we got here in Iowa at the moment draw a lot of birds to the house because we provide food and water for them. A heated bird bath is necessary and many birds we have here during the winter use it frequently for drinking. I also built some perches for the birds to rest on before they approach the water and feeders. This is not just a benefit to the birds but also part of my preparation for bird photography in any weather.
At the moment it is too cold to leave the doors or windows open for an extended period of time but who says we can't make the click through a clean window? All images I show you today were made through the glass of a door and with just natural light. A nice side effect is that you don't have to deal with fogging of the lens or camera and you also have no problems with heat shimmer from warm air that escapes the house. Am I getting lazy and want to stay home all the time? No, I don't think so, but this set up and preparation allows me to do some bird photography even if my time budget is very limited because I need to get some other things done in my home office and can't go anywhere. If you like to have success you still need to move very carefully and slowly behind the window. A wrong or fast move may spook our feathered friends away for some time and you have to start all over again.
