Back again

Nikon D300s, Nikkor 24-120 f/4

I can tell you, I felt like a drug addict without my camera during the last two weeks. I missed the Worlwide Photowalk and the chance to meet with other photographers from the area last weekend. My friend Dave Updegraff lead the walk here in Dubuque again and his blog tells the story about excellent weather conditions and a lot of fun shooting together with other photographers.

Nikon 300s, Nikkor 24-120 f/4

My camera came back from Nikon Service Center on Monday. The simple message was that it had received the kiss of death. A crack inside the housing put it out of work forever and it was beyond repair. A quick decision had to be made Monday night because of our upcoming vacation with my family. I couldn't even imagine going without a camera into the Great Smoky Mountains during the fall. So I ordered a Nikon D300s and got it delivered yesterday evening. Many things are similar to the D200 but I know there will be a learning curve for the new features and the way this camera performs. The first test shots are made and many more will follow during the next few weeks. I'm already impressed with the focus system and noise handling, which show a big improvement over the D200.

We may not have much internet access during our vacation but I hope to find the chance to post here a few times. Until then, enjoy the colors of autumn in your area!(Special note to my sister Claudia in Sydney, Australia: Enjoy the colors of spring!! ;-)  )

Rediscoveries

As I mentioned yesterday I try to make the best out of the fact that my camera is currently out of order. I'm going through my digital archive and sort out images that shouldn't be there in the first place. I can tell that my quality standards have improved over the last five years. Some pictures just make me shake my head, others put a smile in my face, and there are some, I believe, that deserve it to see finally the light of the day.

July 24, 2007, Port of Dubuque, Iowa

One of the rediscoveries is this photo from July 24, 2007. Two Mississippi River boats had anchored in the port of Dubuque, the "Twilight" and the "Celebration Belle", and the setting sun painted them with wonderful warm light.

Murphy's law

 

It's quiet here again. The reason for not blogging is simple and sad. I dropped my camera this week. No mechanical damage on the outside because it hit a grassy ground, but it quit working completely. What really makes me sick is the fact that our vacation trip is less than two weeks away. Murphy's law!!!

 I had it checked in with FedEx two hours later and I just hope now that the people at the Nikon Service Center can fix it and that I have it back before our departure. My Sigma 50-500 was attached when it happened and I don't even know yet if the lens has been damaged too. At least it looks OK.

I try to see the positive side (even if I'm not really sure there is any… ). Since no new images are made right now I find the time to clean up my archive. Oh no, I still can't laugh about the adversity… :-(

Nature clicks # 58 - After 83 days

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

A brief update on the Trumpeter Swans. I stopped at the Mill Creek Ponds on my way to the Green Island Wetlands (see my post from yesterday). The young swan has grown quite a bit in its 83 days of life. All three seemed to be healthy. It is so nice to see that the parents successfully raise their young one this year. If you click on the "Trumpeter Swan" tag below, you can see my older posts about this swan couple and their cygnet.

The sky was covered with gray clouds. That made the light relatively soft but the colors look a little washed out. I couldn't get any closer than this. The Sigma 50-500 was fully extended. The image is not cropped.

Back-light situations

A long stretch of work lies behind me (11 days) and all what I wanted to do this weekend is go out into nature and create some images. I went to one of my favorite places in the area, the Green Island Wetlands along the Mississippi. I have never been disappointed there.

The duck hunting season is in full swing, which means parts of the wetlands are not really usable for bird photography at the moment. Other parts are not open for hunting and that's where I kept my eyes open in particular. You can't really miss the Great Egrets. They haven't migrated to the south yet and were stalking in the shallow water and hunting for fish.

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

I faced two different back-light situations. In the first image the sun light was reflected from the surface of the water and created a kind of moiré pattern. The reflections are not really good if you try to focus on a white bird but I like the gesture of the egret ruffling its feathers. I tried to keep the balance between overexposure of the water and making the bird to dark. Flash wasn't an option because of the distance.

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

In the second image I still had a back-light situation and had to make sure that the feathers of the egret didn't get blown out completely. The refections are more subtle and I like how the reeds and another egret outside of the frame are reflected on the dark surface of the water. As I already said, I have never been disappointed at this place...

Habitat recovery and kudos for a dog

After a long day behind my desk I went for a walk to a little wetland area north of Dubuque along the Mississippi. I haven't been there this year because of the brutal impact that some construction work had last year in this area. It made me just sad and mad to see how a wildlife habitat can be legally treated so bad. Today I just wanted to find out what the situation is there. The good news is that some of the vegetation had recovered and at least some of the wildlife had returned. I saw quite a few birds, frogs, toads, and two young snapping turtles.

Nikon D200, Nikkor 24-120 mm f/4G ED VR

I had packed light and carried just the camera with the 24-120 mounted. Not ideal for this picture of the tiny Snapping Turtle. I wished I had the Sigma 150/f2.8 and a flashlight with me. The background of this picture really sucks but I will not move an animal in order to get a better image. It is what it is in my wildlife photography. I shot a picture of a young snapping turtle almost at the same place several years ago. That was even worse and that's why the new one will replace the first shot in my Iowa Wildlife Gallery. It's ok for now, I will be back sometime.

Nikon D200, Nikkor 24-120 mm f/4G ED VR

On the way back to the car I saw that the low sun created some wonderful light on these sunflowers. I couldn't resist to make the click.

Nikon D200, Nikkor 24-120 mm f/4G ED VR

No, I will not become a "pet shooter"! But I want to give some kudos to Cooper, our little dog that made himself home on our porch last year, and who lives with us since. He was patiently sitting and waiting while I was taking pictures today. He likes the sun and the wonderful warm light was as good for him as it was for the flowers… Good boy Cooper!

Time of transition

Nikon D200, Nikkor 24-120 mm f/4G ED VR

I did not really have a plan for my photography last weekend in Dodge State Park. I just thought I look for the light that the transition between summer and fall provides. The leaves haven't changed color yet, only slightly. Green and the yellow of the wildflowers were dominating and I tried to capture this late summer mood in my pictures.

Nikon D200, Nikkor 24-120 mm f/4G ED VR

I treated each of these three images a little different to make the important elements stand out. The Woodland Sunflowers (at least that's what we believe they are) have just some darkening around the edges applied. I used a very subtle 'Glamour Glow', one of my favorite filters in NIK's Color Efex Pro, for the back-light maple leaves. This gives it an almost ethereal touch.

Nikon D200, Nikkor 24-120 mm f/4G ED VR

This meadow of Golden Rod was very beautiful and in order to get some depth of field I dialed in f/9.5. This left at the other hand too many distracting details in the background. The application of a neutral graduated filter in post suppressed most of them and separates the flowers from the background nicely.

These are all little things that don't take much time but they helped me to create the images as I want them to be seen.

Nature clicks # 57 - Heron in low light

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

As I mentioned yesterday we did some bird watching last weekend in Governor Dodge State Park. The park has two lakes and we saw several species around the lakes and in the forest. One that made for good exercise of long lens technique was this Great Blue Heron. It was slowly moving in the shallow water, which was almost completely covered with Duckweed. The low light that we had on Saturday required long shutter speeds. Actually way too long for my abilities to keep the lens steady even on the tripod. I wrote here many times that I don't increase the ISO beyond 200 because of the limited noise reduction capabilities of my Nikon D200. I do some noise reduction in post but too much of it lets you loose detail. And this is something I don't like in my wildlife pictures.

I shot lots of pictures of this heron. Sometimes it stood up and didn't move at all. This is a good chance for a sharp shot but I wanted a picture showing the bird in hunting position, with its head down and the neck not cut by the waterline in the background. Even if this particular image was made with single-area autofocus on, it seemed that I had a better keeper rate with manual focus.

If you like to see this image in larger size please feel free to click HERE.

Rain, light, and colors

Nikon D200, Nikkor 24-120 mm f/4G ED VR

It has been quiet here in my blog during this Labor Day weekend. Joan and I went camping into Governor Dodge State Park in Wisconsin. It is a very nice park that offers a lot of recreation opportunities and is only an hour away from home. We went swimming, hiking, bird watching, and enjoyed some great vistas with beautiful clouds in the sky. Despite the rain on Saturday I was hoping for some good photo opportunities and I can tell you, I was not disappointed.

The rain was still drizzling on us when I made the picture above. The light reflected by these boats and canoes and the colors of the kayaks caught my attention. The green of the duck weed in the water and the gray asphalt on the right framed the whole scene nicely. A minute later the light had changed again and I was happy that I didn't miss this chance.

In post I just gave the color contrast a very slight boost with one of the filters in NIK Color Efex Pro 3.0. More to come…

Nature clicks # 56 - Cicada, but what species?

Nikon D200, Nikkor 24-120 mm f/4G ED VR, SB 600

A week ago, while sitting on the balcony at night with family, we discovered this cicada resting on a post. I like cicadas and immediately rushed into the house to get my speedlight and camera. This is only the third time that I saw one. There wasn't much time for preparation because the cicada moved upwards and I was afraid it would take off before I had made a single click. The D200 was set to commander mode and the SB600 (placed left from the camera) was triggered by the built in flash of the camera. This quick setup with the flash off camera allowed me to minimize reflections, especially on the wings of the cicada. I just corrected flash distance and angle slightly a couple times before I had this shot.

I don't think it is a periodical cicada. None of the two broods that occur in 17 year emerges in our area is due for an appearance this year. The Northern Illinois Brood emerged in 2007 and will hopefully be seen again in 2024. We don't have to wait so long for the Iowan Brood. They are expected in 2014 the next time (source: Wikipedia). I still don't know what particular species this cicada is, but please drop me a note if you have an idea. I would really appreciate it.