A lot of work limits my radius of action at the moment and thats why I take advantage of the wide variety of wildlife in and around our yard. This shot was taken just from the front porch of our house. The light had unfold its magic when the rain came down and this American Goldfinch was backlit by the low sun.
Joan and I keep track about the wildlife, especially the birds, that we see in our yard or in the woods surrounding it. She saw it already last spring. I discovered the Scarlet Tanager a few days ago for the first time. Yes, it became only a "feeder image", and the photo is not really tack sharp, and his bill is covered with suet from the feeder, and, and, and…. But I'm OK with that for now. I'm glad I was able to document its appearance here in our neck of the woods.
I started the same way with the Baltimore Oriole. First I had only pictures that showed the Orioles at our hummingbird feeders. Now, six years later, I try to get shots that show the Oriole at different locations, with no feeder in sight. It may become a little more difficult with the Scarlet Tanager. But I'm hoping for more since we saw him again today high up in the trees. It just doesn't hurt to set new goals for our photography…
Today we got the rain that nature needs so much here at the moment. As a result and also because of a busy working schedule I have not made a single click today. A big advantage of working from a home office in the middle of the woods is the fact that I can have my camera always nearby and ready for shooting. Usually it is mounted on a tripod near the door. Quite often I just run outside if anything interesting shows up in the yard or the surrounding woods. Yesterday morning, while filling the hummingbird feeders, I saw the first swallowtail butterfly of this season. It was a male Eastern Black Swallowtail, just sitting near the ground and still very sluggish. This gave me all time in the world to go down on my knees and make two dozen clicks.
Today, when I looked in my image catalog, I found out that I haven't made a good picture of a Black Swallowtail since 2007. I manage my photos with Adobe Lightroom and I apply keywords to each single image. It is sometimes time consuming, but this is when it pays back to use keywords. It is so much easier to find photos about a particular subject and allows a review and learning from older images. Yesterday's photos of the Black Swallowtail will replace the old picture in my IOWA WILDLIFE GALLERY (which needs an update anyway ;-) ).
Sometimes it is tempting to keep the wide angle lens on the camera all the time, especially when dramatic clouds frame the landscape. During our stay in the San Rafael Swell I wanted to try things a little different than the first time I have been there. I have never done much with my Sigma 150, f/2.8 when it came to landscape photography, but I like the results I have seen from other photographers with their 70-200 mm lenses at 200 mm focal length.
The first image of Temple Mountain was made from our second campsite. A strong, very cold wind was blowing and the appearance of the clouds changed constantly. The wide angle lens catches the scene very good, although the branches are a little blurry because of the wind.
The second image was made from about the same location, just ten minutes earlier. I really like how the light brings out the structure of the foreground and how each level of rocks up to the snowy mountains in the background has a different color. Both pictures reflect the mood of this stormy evening in a slightly different manner, but my favorite is the shot with the 150, f/2.8. I guess it will not be the last landscape image I will make with this lens.
Before I continue to write about my recent trip to Utah and California I like to give you an update about what happens her in Eastern Iowa right now. It is the best time of the year for bird photography. All the birds that migrate south for the winter are back. Despite I still have to go through lots of images from my trip, I follow the good advice of the masters of wildlife photography, like Moose Peterson, and shoot every day in my own yard. Last Sunday I had my lens pointed to the numerous birds in the front yard. Baltimore Orioles, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Hummingbirds, Goldfinches, and many others make it easy to find a target.
The light was great in the morning. While I focused on a Grosbeak, suddenly a Red Fox came down our drive way and run directly towards the birds in front of me. I quickly changed my focus and started firing. This image shows the moment when the canine discovered me. It is the only picture that is tack sharp on its eyes. The other ones were ok, but the sharpness is not as good as on this one. It took the fox only a second to figure out that he or she will have no hunting luck and it went sideways into the forest. The birds were already gone in panic.
I have seen this fox a couple times during the winter crossing our backyard and I was wondering if I ever would have a chance to make a click. I guess this was my chance, and I tried to make the best out of it…
All images Nikon D200, SIGMA 50-500 @ 500 mm (750 mm FX)
A week ago my wife Joan joined me on my business trip in Utah and we spent the weekend in the San Rafael Swell, about three hours southeast of Salt Lake City. I have been there before and was happy to go back again. This area has everything you may expect in Utah, mountains, desert, canyons, and rocks and it is geologically very interesting. It is off the beaten path and you may not meet very many people. My daughter Anke, who studies geology in Germany, would really get a kick out of it and we hope she can visit the San Rafael Swell together with us soon.
We camped at the bottom of the Buckhorn Wash, a canyon that ends near the San Rafael River hanging bridge.
One of the best vistas in the San Rafael Swell is from the Wedge Overlook. From there you have a great view over the Grand Canyon of Utah. It is not as big as the Grand Canyon in Arizona but still quite impressive. Unfortunately we chose the "wrong" time to be there. Boring blue sky didn't deliver much dramatic for my landscape photography. But it was very clear and so I tried to work with the structure of the canyon, carved out by the San Rafael River since thousands of years. I can't be get really sad about weather issues. I have enjoyed being there despite the clean sky.
What difference clouds can make shows the next image. It was taken the same day from our campsite, just minutes before sunset. It has all the dramatic I was hoping for earlier in the day. Wonderful final of a great day...
Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake is home for a herd of Bisons. They were too far away for a picture on both days. I normally don't hesitate to make a long hike if I have a chance to see a particular landscape or animal. But I only had about three hours in the evening each day and wanted to make the best out of it.
Another beautiful animal are the Pronghorns (Antilocapra americana) on the island, and so I concentrated on a little herd. Although it is often called "Pronghorn Antelope", the Pronghorn is not an antelope. They are endemic to North America, and are the only living members of the family Antilocapridae.
The little herd was slowly moving and my memory card filled quickly. I chose the image of the buck, walking up the mountain slope in best evening light, for this post.
The maximum aperture of the Sigma 50-500 is f/6.3 at 500 mm focal length. Shooting wildlife in the last rays of sun is quite challenging with this lens. Pumping up the ISO much higher than 280 is not really an option for the Nikon D200. Despite mine is "only" four years old, it is considered already older generation and does not handle noise as good as today's latest models. Of course, I have software to reduce the noise, but this is still not the same because some sharpness is always lost in the process.
Nevertheless, I couldn't resist to snap some pictures of the Yellow-headed Blackbirds that were making a lot of "real" noise in the reeds along the lake shore. It was windy, the reed grass was swaying, and the birds were constantly moving around. But it was killer light, and so I tried, and tried, and tried….
Yesterday I talked about some goals I set for myself for the next visit to Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake in Utah. The storm moving through the area was definitely helpful to get better landscape images. But how about wildlife photography? Antelope Island State Park bears great opportunities to shoot birds, bisons, or pronghorns. Not all my dreams came true. I was hoping to put my glass on some Chukars. I saw this colorful bird last year for the first time and felt in love with it immediately. Please have a look in my post from last year HERE if you want. I saw two of them but direction of light and circumstances were not in my favor.
Another goal I had was to get a better image of the Western Meadowlark. They are not difficult to find on the island at this time of the year because of their distinctive song performance. I used my little rental car as a blind for this image.
A day later the weather was not quite as interesting as the evening before. While looking out for some Chukars I discovered this Horned Lark, sitting on a rock, instead. Direction of light wasn't as good as for the Meadowlark, but nevertheless, I got some images of this wonderful bird.
Thank you for stopping by! Please stay tuned for more…
It has been quiet in my blog for a while. I had to travel for business during the last ten days. Yes, I made time for photography but I was unable to post anything due to a very tight schedule and very limited internet access over the weekend.
My first stop was Salt Lake City in Utah. Two evenings in a row I was able to head north onto Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake. I have been there last year already and this time I had set some goals for myself. One of it was to come back with much better landscape images than last year.
I couldn't ask for better weather on Tuesday night last week. A winter storm moved through the area and created some very dramatic clouds and fresh snow in the mountains. The changes took place very quickly and I worked with the SIGMA 10-20 mm, f/4.0-5.6 for most of the pictures. In the past I did not always like how pale my colors turned out and quite often the highlights in the clouds were blown out. This time I dialed in at least -1 EV and this made all the difference. More to come…
I really had a good time again last Saturday in the Green Island Wetlands. The location became familiar during the last couple months and I believe this is key to better images. Not that I think that my photography is top level, it just isn't, but I know that I made some progress.
I found two pairs of Wood Ducks again. I know where to find them now, but they are extremely cautious and fly away as soon I stop my very slow moving car. Someone may wonder why I use the car. The area is wide open and the birds can see you long before you may see them. The car works as a blind and many birds seem to tolerate it. Not so the Wood Ducks! They were hiding in a corn field across the wide water filled trench beside the gravel road. I have a picture of the female duck too but didn't like the quality. Well, another reason to go back and try it again.
I wrote a few days ago how difficult it was to approach Painted Turtles that were basking in the sun on a log in the water. It is a piece of cake when you meet them on land. I just laid down in the dirt and was even able to use the 150/f2.8 ;-)
There is another animal I have tried to put my glass on for a long time and at different locations. I never liked the results, until last Saturday. This Muskrat didn't seem to mind my presence. It was chewing on fresh sprouts of (probably) reed. Later I saw it with a whole bunch in its mouth swimming towards its lodge. Unfortunately my position was a little higher than the water level and there was old grass between the muskrat and me. But I'm still glad I got a set of usable images.
